How To Save Your Pokemon Cart
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.พ. 2025
- Game Boy and Game Boy Color games use a CR2025 or CR1616 horizontal mount "Surface Mount" battery (CR2025 batteries will normally fit fine in games made for a CR1616 battery and will last longer)
Game Boy Advance games use a CR1616 horizontal mount "Surface Mount" battery and will need a "triwing" screwdriver to open them.
Most non-portable console games use a CR2032 horizontal mount "through hole" battery but it is worth having a look before you order anything.
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The appearance of the portable SNES was a welcome surprise.
Finally, a way to play game boy games on the go!
@@sammoore2242kek
@@sammoore2242 yes finally there couldn't possibly be any other way
@@widelytv really big missed opportunity on Nintendo's end
@@Schnort I know right
The way I did it was far more risky, leave the game turned on in a GBA while swapping the battery, if your game freezes then game over
Ahaha that’s pretty good
ah yes fire hazard simulator
It should be fine even if the game crashes, so long as the system, and by extension, the cartridge, is still turned on. Even if the cartridge disconnects for a split second, the RAM does take a bit of time to fade before it's unrecoverable.
IIRC that's exactly what I ended up doing for a school project about a decade ago. The weird thing is I don't remember having done any soldering, so either I'm magneto or I'm very forgetful.
I've recently done a similar thing when soldering the headphone wires to the jack while the jack is plugged into my phone. It made perfect sense at the start since I could hear whether I soldered the wires in correctly. But as I went on I realised what a dumb thing I was doing. The phone is fine though.
Imagine this being someone's first James Channel video, looking to how to change batteries in Game Boy cartridges, and then he breaks out the portable SNES lmao
Lmao
this IS my first video and i completely lost it when he brought out a giant wad of tape with a SGB on the back 😭
This was my first...
THIS WAS EXACTLY MY EXPERIENCE. I yelled out “What a degenerate! Subscribe!”
It’s my 4th😂
This is genuinely a really good quick and dirty "how to solder" tutorial.
My pokemon yellow and original team survived for 23 years
FRAM is pretty amazing for small amount of non-volatile memory, I hope they get it working. The F stands for Ferroelectric, which basically means that it has virtually infinite write endurance at room temperature. Usually the datasheets will list some finite write endurance but only at like constant 100 celcius operation, it's insane. Also they can read/write fairly fast, can max out most SPI bus, so the only downsides are their price and the limited size options.
The tech for FRAM works fine. The issue is its never been popular enough to get the sort of funding needed to get densities competitive with flash. Lots of flash alternatives have had that issue, actually. And yes, it's ferroelectric. What's cool about it is that certain atoms in it's crystal lattice move around to store a 1 or a 0 One of the pioneering companies was a company called Ramtron. Their HQ was in the city I live in, Colorado Springs, and one of their founders was a professor I had at UCCS (University of Colorado, Colorado Springs).
@@ccoder4953 What I really like about FRAM is that usually the datasheets have no ideas what the true limits of their product are. They put some big numbers in there but in reality it has never been tested to destruction so there's always a bunch of text and asterisks to explain where those numbers come from. If FRAM can become more common and cheaper, long term storage will become really amazing.
It was used in the Sonic 3 cartridges, at least in the US
Even if we can only get these into the megabytes of capacity per module, they will still be great for long-term robust storage
I've seen them used in ripoff GBC games. Or something to that effect at least. Got Pokemon Crystal for 1€ off eBay, everything works fine except the real time clock doesn't work when the console is off and the item duplication glitch also doesn't work.
Using that SNES portable from the earlier video to test the games was gold. I was expecting a backlit modded GBC/taco GBA or an SP to test them, or maybe even a Game Boy Light since James is a collector. I think Gold and Silver work fine in the GBL, while Crystal requires a GBC (could be wrong, I lost the Crystal game I had years ago and have never tested one in my GBL).
XD
You’re right about crystal! It didn’t work in the super game boy either
Grey carts are Gameboy carts, black carts are GBC enhanced carts, (you get full color if you play on a GBC) and transparent carts are GBC only. (Yes of course they work on a GBA)
@@schmoople-Eh60m yep, there are a few gbc enhanced games with other coloured plastic too like pokemon gold and silver and I think yellow too
Videos like this are a great reminder of how good we have it these days
We can now just store saves so easily without needing to worry about a battery or a device that loses power or becomes bricked, especially with cloud saves.
Well, it's not that sunshine and rainbows. I once lost 5 hours of playtime because i played offline and then cloud saves wiped all i did. Sure, i could use some local backup, i just didn't expect that thing to happen
The "cloud" is not a backup.
Flash memory works by trapping electrons. Due to some annoying quantum physics, the electrons tend to escape, so the bit registers as a 0 instead of a 1.
In practice, this means that stored data on flash memory can only reliably last about 10 years without being powered on and refreshed. Even our "magical" modern tech isn't actually all that magical.
@@masterkamen371 modern flash got error correction built in and operated on controller level. But eventually, error becomes so big that it's no longer correctable.
@@vadnegru Indeed. I mean, the average user probably won't forget about their laptop with valuable data for 15 years.
However, as flash memory gets older, it might start to happen. For example, someone might have a PS2 from their childhood and when they plug it in after 10+ years in storage, the memory card might be corrupted.
My head cannon is that the little drum lick in the background of these videos is actually Wade playing in the corner live while James is making these.
I wouldn't be surprised if Wade made a little track specifically for James to put on his videos :D
I'd be surprised if he didn't.
Yeah, the drums are def Wade. It sounds like his playing, and sounds like his kit.
One life hack if you don't have the right screwdriver bit: take the front of a ballpoint pen, remove the actual pen bit so you only have the plastic shell. Heat the tip with a lighter or similar until it gets soft, then press it firmly onto the screw on the cartridge and wait until the heated part gets cold. The soft, heated plastic will form a mold, and if it's strong enough after it cools down you can actually re-use it on other cartridges.
I've heard of that, but how long would it last? I can't imagine that not stripping after a few uses.
@@TechnicalJimActual for me it's lasting for probably 10 years and counting. Usually the plastic of a ballpoint pen is pretty hard, and the screws on game boy cartridges are not that tight
Thanks for sharing, doing this was my gateway into learning soldering and more advanced repair projects! The videos on doing this are a very mixed bag, I'm glad you made it look simple and approachable for more people.
Glad to help!
I backed up all my saves using the Memories feature on the Analogue Pocket-it saves a savestate and the save data to the SD card. A bit more expensive way of doing it but you get a whole fpga and multicart system!
I dont have a Gameboy, soldering iron, or pokemon games, but I for some reason watched this video in its entirety.
A good tool to have when replacing the battery without worrying about the save being deleted is to get a GB Operator from Epilogue or G01 Game Cart Reader from Submodule, you can rip your saves with them to your PC/Mac/Linux device, replace the battery, and then upload the save right back to the cartridge, plus you can also rip the games (And Gameboy Camera photos) and play them on emulators.
Or good ol’ Aussie mate BennVenn’s GB Joey Jr, or InsideGadgets’ GBxCart RW. There’s a ton of GB cart readers/writers out there.
He says that at 1:40
He said that at the beginning
@@chrissss696 Yeah I'm aware, but these devices are really cheap to get and can save you time and back up your games in case one of them dies since these are over 20 years old at this point, GB Operator/G01 is 40 USD (around 62 AUD)
Ill need to look into those. I got a old hame boy camera i would like to get operatinal again and would be nice if i could save the photos
I was genuinely shocked by that portable SNES thing showing up. That absloute monstrosity of jank is beautiful
i cant believe you finally found a way to play game boy games on the go, what a legend
Another awesome vid! I hope the homemade gameboy continues to make appearances because it fills me with joy when I see it!
Wow, you got the very first "event Pokemon" and still have the save file? That's impressive.
I did a battery swap in Pokemon Ruby GBA. In that one, the battery only powers the clock. The save file can survive a dead/disconnected battery.
James is the guy that makes me think "I should get a soldering kit... Maybe I'll be productive, but most likely I'll just muck around every now and then". I've never even touched a solder in my life but the doors that it would open are endless (stares at the Xbox controller with the torn vibrator motor)
glad to see you’re getting into the groove with content. i like watching your videos in the morning before work a lot
Glad you enjoy it!
always love it when a new James video comes out
I had a copy of Gold that had it’s battery die and me and a buddy had no clue how to replace the battery so we got a Watch battery in which we put in the cart via electrical tape and it worked… though the cart looked a bit… bloated lol.
Would love to see James do a video like this for replacing control sticks.
Yeah, not ideal haha
@@Games_for_James made getting the cart out of the system a pain but it worked, eventually did get the watch battery replaced with an actual GB battery
I know remarkably little about circuit boards and would never figure out how to get this to work without losing the save, but when you were on maybe the second step of using the temporary battery, I was like, "Ohhh! It's so obvious!" You gave such a good explanation that even a simpleton like me could follow the logic!
Im not gonna tell James how to solder cos he's clearly got more experience than me, but for anyone trying this at home, please cover the contacts at the bottom of the cartridge with kapton tape while you solder! If you get solder on the contacts, (which is easier than you might think if something slips or moves) the whole cartidge is basically useless.
if that does happen can you remove it with desoldering braid and have the cartridge still function?
not really, its really easy to clean them off. I cleaned off my contacts on the bottom of the board by adding solder, then removing it. Worked far better when i was done
the cartridge connector uses little spring contact fingers that are perfectly capable of making a connection on solder, it works fine what are you on about
You can clean the solder off the contacts, but you'll never really be able to get it all off again and get back to the gold plate. If you clean the contacts carefully, with solder braid, you can still use the cartridge, but solder does tend to corrode more than gold does, so you may have to clean the contacts more frequently. But yes, not a bad idea to use kapton to cover the contacts - we do that at work all the time to protect gold plated contacts during board assembly.
@@ccoder4953 thanks for the info bro
just before the pandemic I got back into retro games, nothing much, but scored amazing deals on Yellow, Silver (my first pokemon) and Ruby. It's been on my mind lately about losing my saves. I've going to have to look into this!
Thanks James!
Buy a cartridge dumper/flasher, then you'll never need to worry! Those allow you to do backups of your save file and if you do that regularly, you can just restore your save whenever the battery runs dry. No need to preemptively replace batteries and risk losing the save file in the process!
I recommend the Joey Jr. from BennVenn, as it requires no software on your PC to function, so software support into the future is no worry, unlike with most other dumpers/flashers
Soldering a temporary battery is actually genius and not something I ever thought to do. Hopefully I can just back up my save somewhere before I have to replace my Crystal battery again though
Even smarter is to back it up to a PC beforehand using a cartridge dumper/flasher and then not having to worry about the wires of the temporary battery at all.
A much easier way to source batteries is to install a CR2025 holder. Preferably a shorter one.
Untabbed batteries are easier to find at regular stores. Plus it removes a soldering step for batteries.
Still need to do the bypass though.
you can also cut up some sheet metal and make the plates yourself
@@TorutheRedFoxwhat? The tabs are welded on with a special machine, you can't just solder them on. Same as those 18650 cells that are fused into packs.
it obviously won't hold as good as a weld but it'll still work
@@TorutheRedFox it really won't, soldering takes time, meaning a lot of heat which causes the battery to blow up in your face. Speaking from experience.
I tried cheapening out when replacing a ThinkPad BIOS battery and nearly lost my eyesight. It is not worth the risk.
i managed to do it just fine with my gamecube
Another approach would be to install a low-profile battery holder into the cartridge. My friend had me install them into a couple dozen of his cartridges and it worked quite well. I was a bit concerned that there might be some clearance issues, particularly on his GameBoy carts, but to my surprise everything went back together without a hitch.
Playing the games on the protable Super Nintendo from your first video was really the cherry on top
James and his cat makes me so happy
Seeing only 4 top tier patreons is so funny when you're used to seeing all of Wade's patreons scrolling through. But you're probably way more grateful to each of them individually than wade (Not saying that wade isn't grateful, just that Wade won't think "I'm so happy CanadianSombrero123 became a top tier patreon")
Congrats for 100k subs btw
Hahaha yeah I thought the same
This reminds me of George Costanza and frogger cabinet.
i remember having a hand-me-down copy of Gold that had a dead battery in like 2007, i didnt understand the problem because I was 9 and I replayed the intro up to the point of naming the rival probably 15 times before giving up, i cannot believe i was so patient as a kid.
I'm so happy to see the portable SNES getting use
Good news James, in Gen 1 and 2, “ruining” a pokemon doesn’t actually happen. As the game recalculates stat experience when you box them, without the need for a level up, it’s fine. Unlike Gen 3 and 4, level 100 pokemon are still able to gain additional EVs.
Is that what he meant? I thought it was ruined as he hacked the game ruining its validity.
@@Slash0mega while that might be what he meant, I find it unlikely, as the game itself has no way of knowing if leveling was done by candy or not, even on a competitive meta data level. Paired with that fact that it was a common playground myth that using any rare candies at all would make a pokemon weaker at level 100, I think my interpretation is more likely. Could be either way though.
Totalphantasm understood what I meant. I always thought a level up via rare candy did not improve a pokemon as much as a level up through battling. Was that not true in gen 1? It was definitely an accepted “fact” at my school
@@Games_for_James Yes and no.
Basically your Pokémon gains extra stats based on what wild Pokémon it defeats. So a pokemon leveled up to 100 by candies vs a Pokémon leveled by battling will be weaker.
However in every generation except for 3 and 4, you can continue to get these extra stats even once your Pokémon is level 100 if you keep battling wild Pokémon with it.
Very helpful tutorial and nice collection, would love to see a video on the gamecube demo kiosk
Its always a good day when james uploads
This is the most straightforward and comprehensive video on the subject, thank you so much! I actually looked into doing this for myself, but the it was cheaper to purchase a reproduction cartridge and has the added convenience of not having to deal with batteries. Unfortunately, those do not work with Stadium, which is very relevant for Gens 1 & 2.
Also, I really approve of your Eeveelution choice. Kid-you knew what was up :'D
I think it might be cool to see a soldering tutorial with this same laid back James vibe
don't have any Nintendo stuff but still enjoy watching old mate nerd out
I know how to do this. I have even done it before. I still watched it because I love your videos.
I must have missed that you had a Patreon! Gave you some support, seeing all of your hauls is super awesome lol
If Gamer Nexus is tech jesus then that makes you tech god. You are really knowledgeable about electronics.
What all do you do honestly this man a hero he do everything cars games saves a bird this is the true James!!!!!!!!
Aw yeah, James video on my birthday!
Happy birthday!
You should do a masterclass on soldering. I’m a sound engineer and I’ve soldered a few things in the past, but have never properly learned how to do it. I have tons of questions like, “what heat level should I use on my soldering iron” (mine has a dial) and how to diagnose a problem. I’ve just started watching your videos and love them and feel like I’m learning, but I don’t want to think I know what I’m doing when I don’t. Either way, love the content!
It brought such a smile to my face to see that abominable masterpiece of a SNES you made again 😂🖤👌🏽
It’s like red dank 😂… also franks a cat o.o that’s one heck of an orange dog.
Honestly though this was still such a great video James. I love that you started your own channel. It’s very much a great learning experience and quite entertaining 😊
Glad you enjoyed!
He saved a bird and is a Pokemon fan. Perfection :P
Congratulations on 120K subscribers James! Dank would be proud! (probably)
🎉
I was not ready for that Super Game Boy... You'd think after watching that NES cartridge video I would have been ready, but I wasn't.
Long life to James the Genius, his adorable cat and all these pocket monsters trapped on colorful plastic squares
ok i had no idea about those battery in those catridges lol, and the way you changed them so easy it's just funny. it must be sad to try an old game and find out all your savings were lost.
I had an old copy of Silver that I had the replace the battery on. Brings me back
I need to find a shop here in Texas that can do this for my Sapphire and Fire Red games! I’d be so uncomfortable and nervous trying to do it myself. I’d hate to lose my original save files! New subscriber here, great content, much love from Texas!
oh wow a legitimate '99 mew. those are rare.
My James senses were tingling. I load up yt and I see his vedio straight away. Love ya videos! They are amazing 🌟
Thanks!!
OMG JAMES
I legit followed you only cuz of The Car Thing
BUT YOU FUCKIN' REVIVED MY FIRE RED COPY, i had no clue that's what the issue was
Thank you
I got my older brothers GB Pokémon games, I had no idea about this! Thanks for the help James!
I just love how you say "1986" its like pronouncing aluminum like alyoominium
The gameboy startup sound is stuck in my head ._. anyway great video (entertaining and educational)
I smiled as soon as I saw that Lv 243 Marowak, because I know exactly what you did to get it that high 😆
My Pokémon Blue cartridge still has the original save data. I have no way to back it up so I was concerned about losing my data when changing the battery. Thanks for this video mate
Alright. In college I had a friend who was tired of his crystal resetting but would keep leaving it on. We had the crazy idea that went like this-
1: frantically unscrew and stop half way to turn the game back on.
2: after getting the cover off we had access to the battery WHILE IT IS ON
3: Solder WHILE IT WAS LIVE
4: Save and pray
It actually worked, and we did all this for a 12 hour save.
Haha yeah that can work too! I didn’t think it would until someone else commented the same thing. I think the key is saving again when the battery has been changed.
@@Games_for_James I don't think you need to save again after changing the battery, I believe the MBC has a diode-OR so the SRAM runs off the 5v supply whenever the Game Boy is on.
a few years ago i got a Game Boy from my big brother and played a lot of Pokemon Red, a few months ago the save got corrupted and i lost motivation but once i saw this video i instantly tried it and it works! thank you a lot! (btw for me it was a bit easier, instead of the gamebit screw there was a normal phillips-head screw and the battery was a normal CR2032 in a holder or whatever theyre called heh)
Sounds like a fake cartridge? Or it has been modded by your brother already.
Many newer fakes don't let you save the game after the Hall of Fame, but the newer ones also don't need batteries, so... Guess you're fine?
@@LRM12o8 I’m not sure if it’s a fake, it’s from the very early 2000’s or even late 90’s. It might be different from the USA ones because it was bought in Finland :-)
I like this way of doing it. Ill be doing my first ever battery swap today. Though my copy of silver has no save file, i like the wire tap hack
Its gonna be a good day when James returns.
When i was like 13 i took apart my pokemon silver cart, made a little hole, and slotted in wires to a single AA battery slot. I was somehow able to create a stable connection by tucking the wires underneath the battery terminals. The time is off and it's the incorrect voltage, but it still saves after 5 years!
I always forget about the end cat and it's always a pleasant surprise
Just me watching an Australian man do something that I've known how to do for almost a decade, and somehow still enjoying it.
I wish I had a friend like James.
5:17 Ahhh.. James, that Mew is likley worth some real change.
crazy that you got an NA pokemon red as your childhood copy, thanks for sharing!
OMG and a legit NAL mew!
What I've been experimenting with is putting in a battery mount so swaps can be done without needing to solder. I then have a 3d printed half front case that I can screw on but still allow access to the battery port. So every year or so I can swap on the half cover, plug the game into a gameboy, turn it on and live swap the battery. It being plugged into the gameboy keeps the save chip powered and the half shell giving access to the battery whilst it's secure in the system. It obviously sacrifices some battery capacity due to the size of the holder etc but it allows for high quality batteries to be used and easily swapped without losing your saves or heat cycling the board. Hence the yearly changes even though I know I could go longer.
Still sounds more cumbersome than spending 40 bucks on a cartridge dumper/flasher to make regular backups
Nice, I've been worried about this...
Your a good man James! I know these games have gotten very expensive wish I would have kept mine but I played these games so much I don’t wanna play them again lol
Hahaha this is like doing an operation. You have to keep the patient alive while you work. Interesting video.
I don't know why, but seeing just a bit of the Pokémon red guts from the plastic makes me happy, the game may have been a bit mauled but it doesn't make it any less loved
Love the rock and roll racing insert
This is a very useful tip. I've just been mourning the loss of my Elite 4 team, starting fresh with a new battery.
Also, weird story, I replaced my Pokemon Crystal save battery when it died (again). While I lost my save, I discovered that not EVERYTHING was gone completely: Box 2 had 2 glitched out Pokemon from the last save - my Lv 6 Geodude named "Steve" and my Lv 6 Geodude named "Steve" a second time.
Technology is magic.
James thanks you i got couple pokemon games and you are a great source of i formation and i love you and your mates content
You can get a cheap spot welder, then add tabs to real good quality coin cells.
I probably should do this
I subscribed to your patreon because I appreciate your videos
Thanks very much!
I love your Chanel because you’re very nice and knowledgeable
I appreciate that!
I'm starting to suspect that James and Wade might actually be giant nerds that have cleverly disguised themselves as cool guys on the TH-cams.
Shh don’t tell anyone!
@@Games_for_Jamesnah wade is decently sized
I did this the way you’re not really meant to, I would pry the tab off the batteries so they’d remained attached to the board, then I put a new batt in with electrical tape and it works like a charm. Good thing is you can very easily replace the battery if need be with this method, even if it is janky.
The biggest problem doing that is that the battery can shift if you drop it and you may lose your save or short out something you shouldnt
@@Games_for_James Yeah I found that out with my copy of Link’s Awakening. I found taking the rubber jacket from the older battery and slipping it on the new one while using another piece of tape to keep the batt stationary solved the issues, but in the end, doing it the correct way is always the safer way to go.
I used electrical tape to fix my copy of crystal back in 2015 by wrapping the replacement battery in it while attaching the positive and negative terminals to the connectors it still works perfectly now
Very nice to see you kept the portable SNES lmao
I assumed you'd take everything that's usable and throw out the rest
Your dog chewed your cartridge 🤣😂🤣 Way to go for keeping the games working 👍 your videos are interesting 👍
I watched this when it came out because I found it fascinating, rewatched it today because I found out my Blue cartridge did the thing...
I have a RetroFreak, I've been going through all my carts and 'backing up' all of them
0:37 YOOO, Rock’n’roll Racing! SMD version was my childhood favorite. “Let the carnage begin!”
Back then, Blizzard wasn’t a villain.
Nice work James!
Thanks!
I love how you pulled out the portable snes just to play a gameboy game. the portable nintendo sysren
Did Wade make that background beat? its lovely
I can’t believe that they sold non pal cartridges here in aus! Also I remember getting mew in primary school from some kid and I always wondered where he got it.
that portable SNES really comes in handy
I remember WWF No Mercy had a bug where your save would erase itself, and the cause *still* isn't conclusively known today from what I know. You would think it would be the cartridge's battery, but nope.
I like the moment where he casually pulls out this GameBoy, SNES Frankenstein Device. Not even commenting it at all 😂😂
It's a bit more expensive but a far more foolproof way is to have a cart reader.
My mod to make this work permanently: look online for your nearest nuclear material supplier, construct a portable reactor, attach it to the game cartridge. Congrats, you now never have to change the battery again!