The first generation Pokemon games all used significantly less power to maintain their RAM battery saves than Pokemon Gold, Silver, and Crystal by virtue of not having a real time clock constantly ticking the power away. RBY saves only needed to maintain the power for the save itself and did no additional work on top of that.
Original GSC cartridges would last about 10-15 years, whereas RBY could last 20-30 years. We’re currently in the span of time where many RBY cartridge batteries will be failing but it’s still possible to find ones with functional original saves on batteries just barely holding on.
Many people like to try using physically larger batteries when doing replacements, but most of them don’t realize the batteries aren’t losing charge at the end of those many years because they’re drained and out of power. RBY saves use so little power from the battery in the cartridge that they won’t fully drain it after 30 ish years. Instead the battery saves fail because the batteries themselves fail after 20-30 years. Picking the larger button cell batteries won’t help since they’ll still have the same total lifespan and will still lose charge at almost the same rate as the spare batteries that weren’t installed in your cartridge of choice.
I have a complete collection of all the Gameboy Pokemon titles, but sadly all of them have had their batteries go at this point. Very interesting to hear the differences on battery drain between gen 1 and 2. I had no idea RBY had such a small drain on the battery. Good to know about not using larger batteries on them if I ever get around to replacing them.
I like to attempt repairs on damaged cartridges and I’ve fixed more than a few first generation Pokemon cartridges that still have their original saves. Some of their batteries are completely dead but many of them still have just enough power that they can still have their original saves backed up.
The intended battery for most cartridges is a tabbed CR2025. The 20 refers to its diameter and the 25 refers to its height. You’ll sometimes see people use 2032’s but for the aforementioned reasons it’s basically not necessary.
In fact it’s so not necessary that Pokemon Yellow uses an even smaller battery: the tabbed CR1616 with a smaller diameter and height. I haven’t worked on enough Yellow cartridges that I can remember any particular trend with them mostly keeping saves or not but I’m sure they still keep their battery life for plenty long enough.
The real fun solution is actually not bothering with the batteries at all and instead replacing the SRAM chip with an FRAM chip. Your save would then be stored on a flash chip which doesn’t require power to maintain the save. By doing this you will never lose your save from having the battery die. Tbh it’s a bit overkill but I love it just for the flex and because I think it’s a lovely idea, no longer having to worry about the battery in order to keep my saves.
The first generation Pokemon games all used significantly less power to maintain their RAM battery saves than Pokemon Gold, Silver, and Crystal by virtue of not having a real time clock constantly ticking the power away. RBY saves only needed to maintain the power for the save itself and did no additional work on top of that.
Original GSC cartridges would last about 10-15 years, whereas RBY could last 20-30 years. We’re currently in the span of time where many RBY cartridge batteries will be failing but it’s still possible to find ones with functional original saves on batteries just barely holding on.
Many people like to try using physically larger batteries when doing replacements, but most of them don’t realize the batteries aren’t losing charge at the end of those many years because they’re drained and out of power. RBY saves use so little power from the battery in the cartridge that they won’t fully drain it after 30 ish years. Instead the battery saves fail because the batteries themselves fail after 20-30 years. Picking the larger button cell batteries won’t help since they’ll still have the same total lifespan and will still lose charge at almost the same rate as the spare batteries that weren’t installed in your cartridge of choice.
I have a complete collection of all the Gameboy Pokemon titles, but sadly all of them have had their batteries go at this point. Very interesting to hear the differences on battery drain between gen 1 and 2. I had no idea RBY had such a small drain on the battery. Good to know about not using larger batteries on them if I ever get around to replacing them.
I like to attempt repairs on damaged cartridges and I’ve fixed more than a few first generation Pokemon cartridges that still have their original saves. Some of their batteries are completely dead but many of them still have just enough power that they can still have their original saves backed up.
The intended battery for most cartridges is a tabbed CR2025. The 20 refers to its diameter and the 25 refers to its height. You’ll sometimes see people use 2032’s but for the aforementioned reasons it’s basically not necessary.
In fact it’s so not necessary that Pokemon Yellow uses an even smaller battery: the tabbed CR1616 with a smaller diameter and height. I haven’t worked on enough Yellow cartridges that I can remember any particular trend with them mostly keeping saves or not but I’m sure they still keep their battery life for plenty long enough.
The real fun solution is actually not bothering with the batteries at all and instead replacing the SRAM chip with an FRAM chip. Your save would then be stored on a flash chip which doesn’t require power to maintain the save. By doing this you will never lose your save from having the battery die. Tbh it’s a bit overkill but I love it just for the flex and because I think it’s a lovely idea, no longer having to worry about the battery in order to keep my saves.