How long will n64 games last

Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Why do N64 cartridges use 2 different technologies for saving to the cart? Ask Question. Asked 1 year, 8 months ago. Active 10 months ago. Viewed 5k times. Improve this question. Unknown Unknown 1 1 gold badge 4 4 silver badges 9 9 bronze badges. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. Peter Duniho Peter Duniho 1 1 silver badge 7 7 bronze badges.

Hmm, what would "The New Tetris" need more than 2k of save data for? Michael Graf Michael Graf 6, 2 2 gold badges 23 23 silver badges 38 38 bronze badges. The system was never implemented for several reasons. Nintendo feared players would damage their cartridges, or the system itself, trying to quickly pull out the game and put in a new one. It was also unreliable and required an original model Nintendo 64 to work at all.

One advantage cartridges had over CDs was that they were harder for pirates to crack. Anyone could theoretically copy a CD and produce a bunch to pass around. But cartridges required special equipment to read, copy, and reproduce. While this stopped pirates back then, these days, Nintendo 64 piracy has become a major problem for retro collectors. Fake Nintendo 64 Game Paks are flooding the market.

But sometimes a fake is so good it can fool even the most die-hard collector. Tired of blowing into the cartridge slot of your console? Save the money and get another controller instead.

While counterfeit carts are rampant, it does mean that flash cartridges are freely available. These legally dubious products contain dozens or even hundreds of games on a single Game Pak. Many collectors see this as a great middle-ground between emulation and original hardware. A recent gamer broke this down in a recent post on the gaming forum ResetEra. ResetEra user Lady Bow posted a public service announcement about the impending doom of certain Nintendo 64 games. The list of endangered save files include 12 games that were unique at the time for only using the SRAM battery for saves.

Other N64 titles used the Memory Pak for save data. The 12 games that only used the SRAM battery are at risk now because the battery only has a lifespan of around 15 or so years, according to Lady Bow.

As such, gamers who still own the 12 affected cartridges should worry for the potential of their decades-old save files.