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"Saving… please don't turn off the power."

12,284
Posts
11
Years
  • Seen Oct 22, 2023
Have you ever been saving a video game in one of your handheld systems, and suddenly, for whatever reason, your power went out? If yes, then what game was it? How did it happen? What was your reaction?

When I was a little kid, I was playing Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX one day on my Gameboy Color. I had just finished level six, which was known as Eagle's Tower. It's taken me an extremely long time to beat this level, because you were required to use a lot of strategy to finally get your hands on the boss key. When you were able to get the key, you had the chance to open up the boss' room and fight him. The boss, who called himself Evil Eagle, was quite hard to defeat. He flew all around the place, which made it difficult to successfully land attacks on him. If he ever got damaged, he would try to blow you off with strong gusts of wind. If you couldn't withstand it and fell down the platform, it'd take you some time to climb back up. When you climbed back up, you'd see that he restored himself back to full health. That, to me, was a little annoying. It's taken me approximately forty-five minutes to defeat this boss.

After I finally defeated Evil Eagle, I was quite excited and immediately started to save. While I was saving the game, my mom called me—she wanted to say something. I was holding my GB Color very loosely, so when I was about to turn around to face her, I accidentally dropped it from my hand. When it fell, all its of batteries got out, and the save was quickly cancelled. I was really disappointed (well, dissapointed probably wouldn't be the best way to explain it—I was rather upset), and stopped playing the game for three straight weeks afterwards. xD"

Same thing happened to me while I was playing Megaman Battle Network 2 on my Gameboy Advance, but this time, I dropped the console because I was eating with one hand and playing with the other. I wasn't very upset this time around, because the game had successfully completed saving before it fell off my hand.
 

Starry Windy

Everything will be Daijoubu.
9,307
Posts
11
Years
I was saving my game in Pokemon Heart Gold, and for some reason I dropped my DS Lite by accident, and that caused my saving session to be interrupted that my DS went off... Thankfully my previous save file is recovered that I can resume my gameplay before that.
 

Synerjee

[font=Itim]Atra du evarinya ono varda.[/font]
2,901
Posts
11
Years
While saving my Gold (iirc?) game after hours of not saving (I was young, I didn't think of saving periodically...), my GameBoy suddenly shut down because of low battery. All those hours of gameplay all gone down the drain. I was extremely upset and didn't touch that thing for weeks. My save file wasn't damaged though, so thank goodness.
 

Dreg

Done after the GT.
1,496
Posts
12
Years
  • Seen Jul 11, 2016
It's never happened to me before. I've always saved whenever the GBA/DS battery light went onto red. So, it's never been an issue.
 

«Chuckles»

Sharky
1,549
Posts
10
Years
  • Age 24
  • Seen Apr 29, 2023
Oh boy the stories that one can tell. I was just about to finish off killing Diablo in Diablo 2 when bam a power out I was destroyed I turned Diablo 2 back on and defeated Diablo as fast as I could when the power came on. Spyro, in one of the spyro games on the game boy advance the save function didn't work so I had to play it all day and over night to finish it so since I took it off charge to play with my dad it ran out we were both destroyed but we finished it and we were very happy.
 
13,600
Posts
15
Years
  • Age 31
  • Seen Dec 11, 2023
This has happened to me more times than I can count. Either the power went off, the gameboy died, I dropped the gameboy or it was knocked out of my hands somehow, the game freezes, etc. It's gotten to the point where when I lose progress on a game I don't really care all too much anymore haha.
 

Satoshi Ookami

Memento Mori
14,254
Posts
15
Years
I must say this...
If this haven't happened to you, you are not the true gamer.

While I do not have the same Nintendo experience as the others, it happened to me when I was playing Shining Ark on PSP... I wasn't saving for some time and then... boom, battery died so I put it on charger but I couldn't return o.O so in my futile attempt to go out of sleep mode, PSP turned off and on and my game was obviously out with the lost save... I did not touch it for a month or so.
 

Dragon

lover of milotics
11,151
Posts
10
Years
Hm, well, I'm not sure if you can call this "power failures" per-se, but, I've had my share of battery problems when I was playing on my Gameboy. Back then, I used to be really careless and lose the back color of my Gameboy a lot, which exposed the batteries. As you ca probably tell, the power of my Gameboy constantly dies out, because of a battery accidentally being knocked lose, so.. I had to save often when I was playing games like Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages, and Pokemon Gold. Let me tell you - it was a tedious task.

In fact, I can remember a time when I was playing Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages, where I was fighting the Shadow Hag, who was the 3rd boss in the game. Of course, I lost the batter cover on my game, and, well, let's just say I forgot to save before walking into the dungeon at the first place. I finally figured out how to beat her (where you'd have to bounce the scent seeds through the wall back at her) but then, my step sister came and accidentally knocked into me, which knocked my batteries loose. Ugh, I was sooooo frustrated because it took 30 mins + to figure out what to do and do it all over again.

Another instance was when I was playing pokemon Yellow - I finallllly beat the champion because I thought that Blue was hard as hell the first time I fought the pokemon league. Then of course, my battery died out. I never even reached Blue for like, 5 more tries until I finally won. Can I quickly just say? I hate the cylindrical batteries from that experience. xD Sooo glad they revise the battery pack for the Nintendo 3Ds.
 

Lilikoi Juice

I'm on Youtube!
30
Posts
10
Years
Oh gosh... The feels... I would have just cried and raged if that ever happened. Surprisingly enough that specific situation has never happened to me--good thing. But I've suddenly had my handheld turn off on me when the battery was low and I lost data, haha. Does that count.
 
17
Posts
10
Years
That was a very long time ago, with Zelda Minishcap I believe.
And how mad I was not only did I lose the progress but the whole save file became corrupted. I could have smashed my handheld onto the ground.
 

BakingBluePotatoe

The Red Death Alchemist
2,281
Posts
16
Years
if it DID happen to me, I can't remember... though, one time, I pressed the power button on my gamecube the wrong way, and ehrn my game came on, it asked me to format my card. I asked dad what this meant, panicked, turned of the system and didn't touch it for weeks...

Then somehow most of my files saved themselves-most importantly, my chao!
I think some of the files moved/copied themselves to the other card I had in at the time? o.o
 

T!M

Four Category MoTY (VG) Winner
1,422
Posts
15
Years
Not on any handheld. But I remember GH2 was autosaving and my toe accidentally hit the power button on the PlayStation 2 which subsequently corrupted the file and I had to start over.
 

IggyKoopa

#429: magical pokémon
384
Posts
10
Years
I can't remember it happening to me on a handheld, but I've had a console game freeze on me while saving. That was frustrating as hell. Also, on a DS game a long time ago, I had gone to press start and save... but I mixed up my hands and accidentally pressed the power button instead. ._.
 

AluminiumOxide

Aka Ansirent
867
Posts
10
Years
Ya no its one of the upset momet of my life. here is what happen with me-

I was playing GBA newly ordered from net (cause india doesn't sell GBA NDS or any other console instead of PSP 2,3) And i was too happy about it i started playing Dragonball z buu's Fury after 5 days i complete it (For 5 days i has saved the game) My last save was at when goku and vegeta fight with gohann absorbed buu and i was playin the gba with my both hands but i was holding loose and then my dog come and he tried to get some love from me (He was walking around me) And then suddenly when i finished the game and try to save it my dog jumped over it and it fell from my hand but i was able to catch it then my little brother come and say i need to play with him i say no so he quarreled with me that time he tried to kick in my hands(He is not bad he is a little noty) and then my GBA goes up and fell in the ground and the battery was lose somewhere in the sofa. So i said myself that i am not gonna ever use this GBA Console on my ife i sold the GBA to my neighbour friend in 1500 Ruppe. I done this cause i was tooo upset you know how it feel when your all hard work goes to water. After then i started playing GBA games on computer By VBA emulator i was too happy again when i download the VBA. And sometimes it happen again in the power cut but you know we can save the file in VBA By clicking shift + F1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 There is a option in VBA also so for then the only time i save the game by itself when i finish it or if it autometicly saves.
 

Ultra - Retro Reviver!

Ultra - Retro Reviver
149
Posts
11
Years
It never has happened to me before, but there is something weird, too.
Back in the day of the SNES, NES, and retro console in general, we did not need 'Saving ... please do not turn off the power or press reset" or anything along the lines of that. It would just save instantly unlike today where they do have to have a message (as well as wait.)
 
8,571
Posts
14
Years
Only once I can remember the power going out while I was playing a game and hadn't saved for a while, and I actually have quite a strong memory of the event. It happened when I was about 8, and what I remember is not so much about the game itself (I was playing a game called Monkey Hero for the PS1), but the fact that I remember exactly where I was sitting when it happened and what I had for dinner that night is a little odd.
 

darkpokeball

Beware the Chainsaw Meowth 0.o
762
Posts
14
Years
Not sure if this counts, but in Pokemon Ruby, I had entered the E4's door on accident. I tried to leave and couldn't so I decided to just turn off and on. I couldn't remember when I had last saved though...but then my brother stole my DSLite and tried to save my game. He pressed the save button, it began saving...he dropped my DS and the game froze while saving. I was so mad at him because I had a shiny on that file!

Anyways, after being incredibly upset and scared, after a day or so I decided to see if my save was still there...I turned the DSLite on and the save was corrupted. I pressed A, shaking, and it sent me back to where I had last saved: grinding in Victory Road. All my pokemon were weaker and had lost a few levels, but I didn't care! At least the save was functional!
 
61
Posts
10
Years
My first gameboy game was firered. I was 8 it was on christmas day and just past pewter city I dropped my GBA SP in the middle of a battle. The game froze, I was freaking out and showed it to my mom. Turned out it just knocked the cartridge loose, but my heart was beating like a jackhammer for the rest of the day. My friend told me that he dropped his GBA in the dishwater while he was playing some game. Fried everything.
 
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