In Hardware

I put Zelda II: The Adventure of Link into my NES yesterday and was pleased to see the battery was still going strong, even though I got the game in 1989. General opinion seems to be that NES batteries last about 10 years, so I tested out some of my other games. I tested Zelda I, Kirby's Adventure and Shadowgate and they're all fine too. Maybe I don't play my games enough! Has anyone found that their batteries have died?

No. All of my games' batteries still work.
Even that one of Dragon Quest 1 from 1986.

Ah... I have found a dead battery...

I found it about three days ago...

I went to boot-up Zelda I and have a NES ROMp at it... my old character data was gone! So I started a new game, beat the first palace, made sure I saved properly and what-not, then turned it off.

When I turned it back on... nada!

I have heard that you can send your games in and they will replace the battery for you, but maybe I can just do it myself... I've heard the cell's are quite expensive, though.

...

That's a pretty good description.
I think I will try to change batteries should they ever stop working.

My Metroid II battery for Game Boy is dead, which is horrible considering the length of the game.

The battery inside NES Games is just a standard 3v battery. The same ones are used on most PC motherboards. Almost any computer shop or camera shop stock them. It's really nothing to change them.

Some of the batteries are soldered in, some are just clipped in. Even if they are soldered in, its still really easy to change.

There is little to no risk of ruining your game by changing the battery. If you pop open the cart you will see how easily it can be changed.

The reason they seem to last so long is the battery is charged each time the game is ran, PC motherboards do the same thing but unforunately a battery cell will only last so long. DONT TRY TO PUT THEM INTO A BATTERY CHARGER! They arent the same kind of battery as the standard rechargable batteries.

If you decide to change the battery but think you might destroy the game, just keep one thing in mind....Dont hold the soldering iron on the pins for too long..... Its the heat that does damage, most components / chips can be heated up to the point where you could burn yourself on them easily and they will still work perfectly.

When de-soldering a component remember to keep the iron on the pins for just a few seconds at a time. Take a bit of time doing the project and all will go well

Yeah, my Zelda I battery died to about 3 years ago! I traded it to get Kirby's Adventure and then a year ago or so picked up a copy of Zelda with a working battery

My brother and I picked up a copy of the Ad&D "Valley of the sun" (too lazy to look up the real name) and it wouldn't save.

Since the game was only $2 and we were bored, we broke it apart to find the battery. It was a small watch type battery that had a 3v output. Since we did not happen to have any small watch batteries laying about we "fixed it with a couple of AA batteries duct taped to the cart. It works great, but I wouldn't take it on the plane back home because of the duct tape, wires and batteries hanging out of it.

anyone know if it is possible to change a battery before it dies, so as not to lose your save?

will 4.5v kill the game? and will 1.5v keep the save? i was thinking wire in a AA battery along with the current one, swap the current one, then take out the AA battery. but i dont feel like trying it on one of my own carts.

I heard there is a method to change the battery without losing data and it should be about the way you explained.
Perhaps you should get a very common (cheap) cart and try it with that. Even if you ruin it, it's ok when it was cheap.

i just realized that you can put two 3v batteries in parallel and itll still be 3v.
batteries in series add voltage, batteries in parallel add current, and because the game only draws the current it needs anyway, there wont be a problem. if you work with two new 3v batteries, attach some wires to one, solder it to lines where the battery connects, find somewhere that you wont desolder while removing the old one, maybe follow the traces and connect the wires to other points along them. then with the second battery wired in place, go about replacing the original as shown in that guide. once youre done, remove the battery with the wires and you should be all good.

How fortunate. None of my batteries are dead yet, if they did, I won't bother to change them. Not exactly the most crafty person myself. I would keep them as it is in fear of ruining my games. I'm liable to be owning a GC with that special disk by that time my save files in Zelda get erased anyway.

<--- For those willing to try.

welcome back!

and yes my friends batttery died on his Chrono TRigger. he didn't know tha game was rare .he thought it was broken so he sold it .