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PSA: Some of your Nintendo 64 Save Game Files May Be At Risk
- Thread starter Lady Bow
- Start date
OP
OP
Thanks for the bump! Looked over my guide again and saw I forgot to add a backup method I missed. Just added the Ultra Save method to #2. It's a lot pricier but also the easiest method out of the bunch. (Sanni Cart Reader is still the best bang for your buck with features/price)
Well at least that'll remove all the saves that weren't mine on that RE2 cart.
I'm waiting until most of my collection's batteries die...then I'll make a mass replacement for all the SNES/GEN/N64 games that will need it.
Those batteries can survive surprisingly longer than 15 years too. I'm currently playing my copy of SMRPG and it still holds up well.
I'm waiting until most of my collection's batteries die...then I'll make a mass replacement for all the SNES/GEN/N64 games that will need it.
Those batteries can survive surprisingly longer than 15 years too. I'm currently playing my copy of SMRPG and it still holds up well.
Those can be moved with the Retrode. It's really easy. I backed up my old SNES RPG saves. Thankfully everything I've tested from NES on up has still saved, but there's not much there, if anything, that I'd consider important. That's just me, personally.
Nope, it's easily replaceable with basic soldering skills.
If you ever cross someone selling an old, rare game for cheap because it can't hold saves, buy it right away.
I don't think Analogue made this for the Super NT and Mega SG, as someone who owns both units in their jailbroken glory.
That would be a cool feature though. It could make me rip the games that my Retrode couldn't.
Project 64 is pretty solid in my experience. I'd say the hardest part of N64 emulation these days is dumping the ROMs.
I have NES and SNES carts that still save, yet my Metroid Fusion GBA cart lost its saving ability ages ago.
OP
OP
Battery life is a fickle thing! I remember my Super Smash Bros 64 cart dying like 10 years ago. 😅
Back in the early days of the Nintendo 64 a lot of games used SRAM batteries for game saves while others used the memory pack (which also utilized a SRAM battery). The drawback to the SRAM battery is that it has a life span of about 15 years give or take. Here are the 12 N64 games that used SRAM batteries:
1080 Snowboarding
F-Zero X
Harvest Moon 64
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Major League Baseball featuring Ken Griffey Jr.
Mario Golf
The New Tetris
Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber
Resident Evil 2
Super Smash Bros.
WCW/NWO Revenge
WWF: Wrestlemania 2000
N64 Games that used the Memory Pak for Save Data (189):
(Note that some of these games only used the memory pack to save high-scores, time-trials, create-a-character, or make portable save back-ups)
A Bug's Life
Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage
All-Star Baseball '99
All-Star Baseball 2000
All-Star Baseball 2001
Animal Forest
Armorines: Project S.W.A.R.M.
Army Men: Air Combat
Army Men: Sarge's Heroes
Army Men: Sarge's Heroes 2
Asteroids Hyper
Automobili Lamborghini
Bassmasters 2000
Battle Tanx
Battle Tanx Global Assault
Battlezone: Rise of the Black Dogs
Beetle Adventure Racing
BioFREAKS
Blues Brothers 2000
Brunswick Circuit Pro Bowling
Buck Bumble
Bust-A-Move 2 Arcade Edition
Bust-A-Move '99
California Speed
Carmageddon
Castlevania
Castlevania Legacy of Darkness
Chameleon Twist 2
Chopper Attack
CyberTiger 2000
Daikatana
Deadly Arts
Destruction Derby 64
Disney's Tarzan
Donald Duck Going Quackers
Doom 64
Dual Heroes
Duke Nukem 64
Duke Nukem: Zero Hour
ECW Hardcore Revolution
Extreme G
Extreme G 2
F-1 Pole Position
FIFA: Road to the World Cup
FIFA Soccer 64
FIFA '99
Fighter's Destiny
Fighter's Destiny 2
Fighting Force
Flying Dragon
Forsaken
Fox Sports College Hoops
Gauntlet Legends
GEX: Enter The Gecko
GEX 3: Deep Cover Gecko
Goemon's Great Adventure
Golden Nugget
GT 64: Championship Edition
Iggy's Reckin Balls
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys
Hexen
Hot Wheels Turbo Racing
Hybrid Heaven
Hydrothunder
International Superstar Soccer 64
International Superstar Soccer '98
International Superstar Soccer 2000
Jeremy McGrath's Supercross 2000
Knockout Kings 2000
LEGO Racers
Madden Football 64
Madden '99
Madden 2000
Madden 2001
Madden 2002
Morita Shogi 64
Mia Hamm Soccer
Micro Machines Turbo
Midway's Greatest Arcade Hits
Mike Piazza's Strike Zone
Milo's Astro Lanes
MLBPA Bottom of the 9th
Monoco Grand Prix
Mortal Kombat 4
Ms. Pac Man Maze Madness
Multi Championship Racing
Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon
Nagano Winter Olympics '98
Namco Museum
NASCAR '99
NASCAR 2000
NBA Hangtime
NBA In The Zone '98
NBA In The Zone '99
NBA In The Zone 2000
NBA Jam '99
NBA Jam 2000
NBA Live '99
NBA Live 2000
NBA Showtime
NFL Blitz
NFL Blitz 2000
NFL Blitz 2001
NFL Blitz Special Edition
NFL Quarterback Club '98
NFL Quarterback Club '99
NFL Quarterback Club 2000
NFL Quarterback Club 2001
NHL '99
NHL Blades of Steel '99
NHL Breakaway '98
NHL Breakaway '99
Nightmare Creatures
Nuclear Strike
Offroad Challenge
Olympic Hockey '99
Paperboy
Penny Racers
Polaris Snocross
Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue
Quake
Quake II
Quest 64
Rainbow Six
Rally Challenge 2000
Rampage: Universal Tour
Rampage: World Tour
Rat Attack!
Rayman 2: The Great Escape
Razor Freestyle Scooter
Ready 2 Rumble Boxing
Ready 2 Rumble Boxing: Round 2
Re-Volt
Road Rash
Roadsters
Robotron 64
Rugrats in Paris: The Movie
Rush 2: Extreme Racing USA
San Francisco Rush Extreme Racing
San Francisco Rush 2049
S.C.A.R.S.
Scooby Doo! Classic Creep Capers
Shadowgate: Trials of the Four Towers
Shadow Man
Sim City 2000
Snowboard Kids
South Park
South Park Rally
Space Invaders
Spider-Man
Stunt Racer
Super Bowling
Supercross 2000
Superman
The World Is Not Enough
Tonic Trouble
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
Top Gear Hyper-Bike
Top Gear Rally
Top Gear Rally 2
Toy Story 2: Space Invaders
Track and Field 2000
Triple Play 2000
Turok: Dinosaur Hunter
Turok 2: Seeds of Evil
Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion
Turok: Rage Wars
Twisted Edge Snowboarding
Vigilante 8
Vigilante 8: Second Offense
Virtual Chess 64
Virtual Pool 64
Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey
Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey '98
WCW Backstage Assault
WCW Mayhem
WCW Nitro
WCW vs. NWO World Tour
Wetrix
WinBack: Covert Operations
Wipeout
Wonder Project J2
World Cup '98
World Driver Championship
WWF Attitude
WWF War Zone.
Xena Warrior Princess: The Tailsman of Fate
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If your save file is still intact and your battery is still hanging on, please heed:
DO NOT CHANGE THE BATTERY BEFORE YOU BACK-UP YOUR SAVE!!!
The instant you plop the battery out of the cartridge, all memory held in the SRAM will be erased.
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Now, here's ways you can back up your save.
METHOD 1: SANNI CART READER (PCB BUILD) (RECOMMENDED) (BACKS UP GAME PAK/MEMORY PAK)
Link: https://github.com/sanni/cartreader/wiki
Requirements:
-PCB Build Experience
-Every part listed here: https://github.com/sanni/cartreader/wiki/Needed-Parts
-Any Modern OS Computer
-SD Card
Description: This is the swiss army knife of everything related to backing up saves for the Nintendo 64, SNES, Gameboy, GBA, and more. This little device that you have to build on your own can read and back up the save files of your N64 Game Paks and Memory Pak. I recommend you go with this build if you want to back-up your saves. I have one myself and it's very intuitive and fast.
METHOD 2: ULTRA SAVE (REQUIRES 64DRIVE FLASHCART) (RECOMMENDED) (GAME PAK BACKUP ONLY)
Requirements:
-64Drive Flash Cartridge: http://64drive.retroactive.be/ $199 USD
-Ultra Save peripheral for 64Drive: http://64drive.retroactive.be/features.php#ultrasave $25 USD
-Any Modern OS Computer
Description: The Ultra Save is without a doubt the easiest backup method to operate out of the box. You basically plug in the 64drive and the cartridge you want to backup into the Ultra Save PCB, boot up the Ultra Save program on your PC, hit the backup/restore button, and wallah! This is definitely the priciest option out of the bunch but you do have the benefit of now owning an Everdrive-type device with being able to play N64 prototypes, homebrew, etc.
METHOD 3: RETRODE (GAME PAK BACKUP ONLY)
Requirements:
-Retrode 2: https://www.dragonbox.de/en/71-retr...416650091.html?search_query=retrode&results=7
-Retrode 2 N64 Plugin: https://www.dragonbox.de/en/134-retrode2-n64-plugin-cart-reader.html?search_query=retrode&results=7
-Firmware v0.23 http://forum.retrode.org/index.php/topic,382.0.html
Video Guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzg862ZMx-8
METHOD 4: GAMESHARK/EVERDRIVE 64 (GAME PAK BACKUP ONLY)
Link with guide: https://assemblergames.com/threads/tutorial-backup-those-precious-n64-save-games.54845/ (READ ALL THE POSTS, NOT JUST THE OP)
Requirements:
-Gameshark or Passport Cartidge
-Everdrive 64
-Memory Pak
-PC Hex Editor
METHOD 5: DEXDRIVE (MEMORY PAK BACKUP ONLY)
Requirements:
-Computer with Serial Connection
-Computer with Windows 2000 or before recommended (Virtual Machines might work)
Description: I only recommend this method if you don't really have the skills/time/work needed for the build above. I should warn that I almost didn't post this method since it didn't work for me when I bought one, but others have had success with it. It can be really buggy at times. You can find these on Ebay still for pretty cheap.
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And lastly, here's a great video on how to change the battery AFTER you've made a backup:
If you're concerned about any of your saves listed above being gone I'd go check if you got the time. Hope this helps!
Looking toward the future is there anything in the switch game cards that will make them unusable in 20 - 30 years like cartridges and CDs?
Bought Ogre Battle 64 after months of trying to find it at the right price. Got it, played it for 3 hours and saved. Two days later, this morning - I turn the game on and my save file is gone. I'm guessing this means the battery is dead? Does this game support memory paks or are there any memory paks out there that don't use SRAM batteries? Or perhaps newer developed memory paks that might take longer to die?
Desoldering the old battery and soldering a new one on seems pretty tough...
Desoldering the old battery and soldering a new one on seems pretty tough...
What about the launch games? Super Mario 64 & Wave Race 64? What method of saving did these carts use?
I can't remember them using the memory pack, or did they?
I can't remember them using the memory pack, or did they?
OP
OP
Switch save files are stored on the console's system memory so they'll most likely be fine for 30 years and longer.
Yup the battery is dead if it's not holding a save. I do believe Ogre Battle 64 has memory pak support. IIRC you hold the start button at one of the menus or splash screens. There are ways to mod N64 Memory Paks where you can replace the SRAM battery with FRAM: http://www.dbwbp.com/index.php/10-e...o-64-memory-card-fram-non-volatile-memory-mod (so it lasts for a very very long time)
Super Mario 64 and Wave Race 64 both use 4Kbit EEPROM for their save files and thankfully no batteries. They didn't cheap out with the launch games.
Oh cool did not know that. Always assumed they were batteries
Try a local retro game shop if you have one
OP
OP
By modding do you mean replacing the dead battery? If so then yea it's a really simple soldering job. Though now that I think about it, you do need a special security gamebit to open N64 carts and I'm not sure if a regular repair shop would have one. If you do have a local retro game shop like Holly suggested it'll probably be cheaper.
I ended up making a thread about my Ogre Battle 64 copy. In the end, I got the stuff together to solder a new battery on. I have no experience but I'll do my beeest.
OP
OP
Great! Good luck with the soldering. We all gotta start somewhere right? :)
yeah my snes saves are still intact. kind of mindblowing playing a LttP file from the Bush 1 administration
guessing they're on their way out though. oh well
Same with my cartridge. Not sure if the save is my original, but its the original battery.
Good info. I have a Dexdrive for N64 and PS1 (I think), but I've so rarely used it, I'm not sure I'd know how without instruction.
I have NES games whose batteries are still going strong, and haven't lost a Genesis or SNES game save yet, so I'm not very worried about the N64 now.
I lost all my PS3 saves when the system went YLOD on me. I even had it professionally looked at and they couldn't help. It's a weird feeling to have 30 year old game saves intact and 10 year old ones gone forever.
I have NES games whose batteries are still going strong, and haven't lost a Genesis or SNES game save yet, so I'm not very worried about the N64 now.
I lost all my PS3 saves when the system went YLOD on me. I even had it professionally looked at and they couldn't help. It's a weird feeling to have 30 year old game saves intact and 10 year old ones gone forever.
battery saves vary a lot from experience. for some reason, some batteries last longer than others.
i checked my N64 and GBC games recently and almost all of them still have their saves from almost 20 years ago (only Mario Tennis GBC's saves died. rip my GBC characters)
this reminds me i recently got an old PC to do the long and complex way to make save backups of those N64 games that can't be backup normally (Pokemon Stadium 2, F-Zero X and Mario Golf)
i checked my N64 and GBC games recently and almost all of them still have their saves from almost 20 years ago (only Mario Tennis GBC's saves died. rip my GBC characters)
this reminds me i recently got an old PC to do the long and complex way to make save backups of those N64 games that can't be backup normally (Pokemon Stadium 2, F-Zero X and Mario Golf)
OP
OP
N64 developers basically had 5 options for save storage:
4kb EEPROM (512 bytes)
16kb EEPROM (2048 bytes)
256kb SRAM (32,768 bytes)
256kb SRAM Controller Pak (32,768 bytes) (some 3rd party Paks had even more memory)
1Mb FRAM (131,072 bytes)
EEPROM was the cheapest to produce but a lot of developers moved to SRAM because they needed more storage for their save files. Most developers went with SRAM over the battery-less and much greater capacity Flash memory because they were already forking over $30 or more on production costs alone for the N64 cartridge (deja vu with the Switch right now) and Flash memory was extremely more expensive back in the day. Only a small list of games actually used FRAM like Paper Mario and Pokemon Stadium 2 for example.
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Kevtris said that while it's technically possible, even if you had the man hours to recreate the N64 the FPGA you would need currently runs in the 5 figure range. So that's still quite a few years out.
OP
OP
You're absolutely right, a quick google search proved me wrong, my bad on this one.
That said, that's a super good news and a good back up solution if my Retrode ever fails me.
Yeah, I suppose this affects pretty much all the games that saved stuff on the cart, be NES, GB, SNES, N64, or whatever.
In the case of the N64, I remember there being versions of certain games that didn't use a SRAM battery, if I recall correctly one of the cases was the japanese version of Castlevania, the N64 game, had a SRAM battery on cart but the western releases required a Controller Pak(which can also fail).
does anyone here actually own an Ultra Save?
i have a 64Drive flash cart but i can't find the ultra save anywhere and the site that sells them isn't selling anything atm.
i really want to backup my N64 saves but none of the methods are good to me since the majority of the games i want to backup don't support any method that is easy.
also, i could never get the Gameshark method to work.
and to top it, my gameshark just died recently so now i can't even do backups of my normal games.
i'd be happy if someone has an Ultra Save and sells it to me. i'm willing to pay double of the regular cost.
i have a 64Drive flash cart but i can't find the ultra save anywhere and the site that sells them isn't selling anything atm.
i really want to backup my N64 saves but none of the methods are good to me since the majority of the games i want to backup don't support any method that is easy.
also, i could never get the Gameshark method to work.
and to top it, my gameshark just died recently so now i can't even do backups of my normal games.
i'd be happy if someone has an Ultra Save and sells it to me. i'm willing to pay double of the regular cost.
I feel like I've missed the boat in picking up a device for backing up my Nintendo 64 games. Nothing has been in stock for a while it seems. I could perhaps follow the soldering guide... But it sure is daunting. If I wait, I'm sure one of these devices will return to stock or another one will spring up at some point. That being said, I would love to retain the save data that lives on through battery, some that must surely be close to expiring (if they haven't already - farewell Pokémon Stadium data).
i managed to get the PC method with Gameshark working to extract the data and i could see some of it in an emulator but turns out i can't recreate my saves since, at least the game i tried which was F-Zero X, doesn't update the entire save file.
so yeah, i need a device like the ultra save to be able to make save backups. at this point i think i'll just give up and let these things die since it's just a big headache.
so yeah, i need a device like the ultra save to be able to make save backups. at this point i think i'll just give up and let these things die since it's just a big headache.
Is it a common sram chip like the Samsung 6264-10l?
If it is you can buy/build pin compatible nvram modules so you never have to worry about this again.
It's pretty big in the pinball/arcade community.
I did it myself to a mesa boogie triaxis (midi controlled guitar preamp) recently
If it is you can buy/build pin compatible nvram modules so you never have to worry about this again.
It's pretty big in the pinball/arcade community.
I did it myself to a mesa boogie triaxis (midi controlled guitar preamp) recently
My saves on Star Tropics and the Original Zelda are still alive and well. My records on Gold Medal Challenge and Nes Open Golf are also still there =)
I do check them from time to time.. but honestly, while it would suck it wouldnt bother me too much outside of my initial dissapointment - I wasnt really gonna play them anyway.
I do check them from time to time.. but honestly, while it would suck it wouldnt bother me too much outside of my initial dissapointment - I wasnt really gonna play them anyway.
I know this thread is old but I built myself a Sanni cart reader and backed up a bunch of save files I had on cartridges. The one I cared most about was my OG save in Ocarina of Time and I'd like to share some insight.
I was a PAL boi and thus my OG Nintendo 64 and games are all PAL. Having experienced the beauty of NTSC I never play PAL games anymore, so even though I have a lot of memories with these games I will play other regions if they are available.
This led me to wonder if I could dump my OG Ocarina of Time save from my PAL cartridge and play with it on NTSC hardware. Turns out the save file structure is identical apart from the font encoding for the save file names. Flashing my OG save to a Japanese or American Ocarina of Time cartridge makes the file names appear as a bunch of crazy characters but the progress is all the same and the CRC check doesn't mind. I'm not sure what version of Ocarina of Time my PAL cartridge is but I know for a fact it's got the green blood and no chanting and now I play on a NTSC-U V1.0 version and apart from the name there are no issues whatsoever.
I'd be interested in testing if there's a way to somehow use the save in Ocarina of Time 3D but I'm not holding my breath. But yeah, when that Ocarina of Time decompilation PC port drops with 4K resolution and 60 fps framerate I'm gonna be jumping right in and finding those last golden Skulltulas and the handful missing heart pieces. Dumping my Super Mario 64 save now to see if I can get it to work with the PC version.
I was a PAL boi and thus my OG Nintendo 64 and games are all PAL. Having experienced the beauty of NTSC I never play PAL games anymore, so even though I have a lot of memories with these games I will play other regions if they are available.
This led me to wonder if I could dump my OG Ocarina of Time save from my PAL cartridge and play with it on NTSC hardware. Turns out the save file structure is identical apart from the font encoding for the save file names. Flashing my OG save to a Japanese or American Ocarina of Time cartridge makes the file names appear as a bunch of crazy characters but the progress is all the same and the CRC check doesn't mind. I'm not sure what version of Ocarina of Time my PAL cartridge is but I know for a fact it's got the green blood and no chanting and now I play on a NTSC-U V1.0 version and apart from the name there are no issues whatsoever.
I'd be interested in testing if there's a way to somehow use the save in Ocarina of Time 3D but I'm not holding my breath. But yeah, when that Ocarina of Time decompilation PC port drops with 4K resolution and 60 fps framerate I'm gonna be jumping right in and finding those last golden Skulltulas and the handful missing heart pieces. Dumping my Super Mario 64 save now to see if I can get it to work with the PC version.