Question about battery in SFC/SNES games

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sanjuro
Snes9x White Belt
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Feb 12, 2008 1:24 am

Question about battery in SFC/SNES games

Post by sanjuro »

Hello,

I have a number of questions about the battery powering the SRAM inside some Super Famicom games:

1. In a brand new game that has never been played, was the battery in use during those 20~30 years? Was it providing power even though the game had no data and had never been "activated"?

2. Supposing it wasn't, now, if I play this brand new game but without saving data if possible, will it start using the battery anyway? What if I do save but delete the data (say, a RPG save file) before turning off the console ?

3. Complementing the previous question: in an old, used game this time, if all save files had been deleted, has it still been using power from the battery all this time? The same amount as if it was full?

4. Does the amount of data affect battery consumption? What does? For instance, does a sport simulation with all its players' stats is likely to run out of battery before a simple adventure game, which data could be stored in a password?
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odditude
Snes9x Green Belt
Posts: 445
Joined: Tue May 03, 2011 2:35 pm

Re: Question about battery in SFC/SNES games

Post by odditude »

  1. yes.
  2. n/a
  3. yes.
  4. complexity doesn't matter. the only thing that might matter is if the power usage differs in the type of SRAM used in that particular production run.
sanjuro
Snes9x White Belt
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Feb 12, 2008 1:24 am

Re: Question about battery in SFC/SNES games

Post by sanjuro »

You're absolutely sure? So that means in terms of battery a brand new SFC game and a game that has been played a few times are basically equal? And people in the future who may be lucky enough to get brand new games might end up with dead batteries from the get-go? That's a horror story. :x
http://www.1up-games.com <-- how do I turn the BBCode back on?
odditude
Snes9x Green Belt
Posts: 445
Joined: Tue May 03, 2011 2:35 pm

Re: Question about battery in SFC/SNES games

Post by odditude »

hence the argument for emulation as digital preservation.
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