[Help] Help with GameBoy cartridge

[CloysterOyster]

A nice Pokéforumer told me that I should discuss this here, so here it goes:

Back in 2002 I believe, my dad had bought me the Pokemon Crystal game for my GameBoy Color, which I've had since 1998. I played that game for many years after, and had almost gotten all 251 Pokémon at that time, but the unexpected happened. One day in early 2008 when I went to play it again after having not played it since the year before, I discovered that all the saved game data was gone, only "new game" and "options" showed up on the screen. I was upset. I had worked so hard for years on that game and had gotten so far. I went to start a new game and after saving that, it erased that too. I had left the cartridge in my GameBoy Color the whole time I wasn't using it and I wondered if my GameBoy Color, then 10 years old, somehow sucked the data out/corrupted it or if the cartridge corrupted or dried out. A few weeks ago, I went to see if either were still working after 5 years and they still do but I'm afraid to play it with it not saving anything anymore and with both the console and cartridge being old. Is there a way to fix this? I really want to play my Crystal version again, and more importantly, see if the data I had before can somehow be retrieved. If so, I'd be so happy. If not, I at least want to start over without it being erased over again. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

[Mac]

The battery in the game probably died... that's sad to hear, but it happens with the old GBC games like that.

[Gerri Shin]

It is possible to replace the battery inside the cartridge, I think it's a CR1010 watch battery.
Unfortunately, once the data has been lost or erased, there is no way to recover it.

[Cerberus87]

It's a dead battery. Look for tutorials on how to replace it, but be careful not to damage your cart.

For the old GBC games I suggest getting an emulator for DS or PSP and playing on that, if you have access to these consoles. Doesn't feel as special as a cart, but at least you won't lose your save in the future.

[twocows]

Just get a ROM dumping device, dump the ROM of the cartridge, and play it on higan (or VBAM if your computer is a piece of junk that can't handle real emulators). If you want portability, then do what the above guy said. I don't know about PSP, but lameboy is a very good GB/GBC emulator for DS.

[CloysterOyster]

Is there places somewhere where I can have someone fix it for me? I'm not savvy with game parts and such.

[Team Fail]

I'd look around for small electronic repair stores and ask them if they do such repairs. If you're not getting anywhere, try hitting up a used game shop and see if they know anyone that does these kinds of repairs.

[Archer]

Originally Posted by CloysterOyster

Is there places somewhere where I can have someone fix it for me? I'm not savvy with game parts and such.

I've found at least one seller on ebay advertising this service. I can't vouch for it personally, but they do have 100% positive feedback: http://www.ebay.com/itm/GAME-SAVE-BA.../111006901814?

As for recovering the save file, it is stored in volatile memory powered by the internal battery. If that battery dies, then the data is lost. If the data is still there, it's possible to replace the battery and keep the current save by keeping the old battery connected by wires in parallel until the new one is in place, maintaining power to the flash memory.

As twocows mentioned above, however, playing on an emulator is the safest bet in the future, as not only are you saving to a longer-lasting storage device (HDD/SSD*), but you can back up the data whenever you like by copying the save file. If you're super paranoid, you can set it up to sync with a cloud storage tool like Dropbox, so even if your PC explodes/is lost/whatever, your files are safe. VBA-M is a great emulator for Windows systems.

[Nusdogg]

Originally Posted by Mac

The battery in the game probably died... that's sad to hear, but it happens with the old GBC games like that.

Same thing happened on my Gold version cartridge game. I went onto Youtube and search for tutorials and there's alot of good ones on there. It's pretty simple to do if you have decent soldering skills.

PS: Still need to change the battery out on mine. xP