Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

That's it! Nintendo has CROSSED THE LINE!

Have you fixed any GBA carts? Or have they all been carts from other systems?

I know that the NES and such used batteries keep saved infomation stored.. and I thought GBA carts did as well, so this is why I'm courious on this topic.

Though it still doesn't explain why they don't use Flash Memory (although I think DS 'cards' do...) instead of depending on a battery...
 
DS is the first cartridge-based console (it's still a cartridge) to use Flash memory, iirc. I haven't gotten around to snapping one open yet. And yes, every cart with save capability up until now has used a battery.
 
Got the Leaf Green cartridge open at the moment, just got to figure out where someone put my digital camera. No battery in sight in the cartridge. Everything before GBA used battery to store data. GBA and DS use flash memory (made by Matrix Semiconductors as Tagrineth pointed out above)

On the board is printed "512K/1MB FLASH" (this particular board layout can use either a 512K or 1MB Flash chip, I'm pretty sure they went with 1MB for this game). Both the game chip and the flash memory for the save file have MX printed on them (chip manufacturer). The actual part numbers from the Flash chip are as such (has three numbers in this order:)

E035257
MX29L01TC-15A1
1F3912

As I said once I figure out who ran off with my digital camera I'll put up pictures and end this nonsense, or maybe I'll throw it onto my scanner and do it that way.

EDIT: Okay while I'm at it I'll pull a couple other carts apart as well. got my japanese leaf green open, same part number on the Flash chip except the first one which is S030557
 
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Do you happen to have a copy of Fire Emblem to open up? :)

Also, I'd like to see a test, if you don't mind. (This isn't that I doubt you, just that I'm courious...)

Backup your Ruby or Sapphire save (if possible). Open the cartridge and remove the battery. Put the cart back together and pop it in your GBA. See if your save is still there. I'm assuming the clock would just stop while the game is powered down, but just in case, don't risk important play data if you cannot back up the save... :)
 
I'm gonna toss something out in the open here... do you know what those numbers mean? THis should be good for a larf.
 
UncleBob said:
Also, I'd like to see a test, if you don't mind. (This isn't that I doubt you, just that I'm courious...)

Backup your Ruby or Sapphire save (if possible). Open the cartridge and remove the battery. Put the cart back together and pop it in your GBA. See if your save is still there. I'm assuming the clock would just stop while the game is powered down, but just in case, don't risk important play data if you cannot back up the save... :)
Click to expand...

If I can figure out where my Ruby cartridge went I'll do it. Word of warning though:

http://www.anacondasoftware.com/stuff/cart.jpg

Thats a (low quality) image i took of the internals of the Ruby cartridge a few months back. You can see the battery (that exists in that one for the clock), as well as a red ring of plastic that's surrounding it. That ring seems to be holding it in place, don't know if it damages anything if I break it though. But if I can find the cartridge, I'll break it see what happens.

As for Kyfogre's snide comment, Since the first number changes, I assume that's the actual serial number for the flash chip. The other two stay the same, and they're part numbers that would only make sense to Matrix Semiconductors when processing chip orders. Internal numbers that mean nothing to anybody on the outside (we've got plenty for all our hardware we send to customers at our work, meaningless numbers that only mean something to the ones that actually distribute the hardware)
 
His comment wasn't snide! Everyone needs a larf now and then. ;)

Seriously this is all interesting to me. Find your Ruby cart soon... or borrow your little brother's... ;)
 
Yeah. That'd be the battery that keeps track of the TIME. When was it said that they both use the same battery? Quote me.
 
Kyfogre22 said:
Yeah. That'd be the battery that keeps track of the TIME. When was it said that they both use the same battery? Quote me.
Click to expand...

Do you see another battery in that shot I posted? There is only ONE battery there, the one for the time.

Can't find my digital camera, and my scanner went up in smoke (literally started smoking shortly after I plugged it in) so I'll have to borrow a camera from someone at work to show you the pictures of the cartridges WITHOUT batteries.
 
Kyfogre22 said:
Yeah, so did my entire collection of GBA games. All up in smoke. Just them though, everything else is fine...
Click to expand...

Thats not cool.. I think I plugged the wrong AC adapter into my scanner and overloaded it... Needless to say its out in my garbage can now.
 
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I don't see the point in continuing this, btw, the outcome of whether or not there's a battery in there matters to no one anymore, except maybe you. Personally, I don't care. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong.

And, in my post, I was being sarcastic. Me and my GBA games are fine and very happy, thank you very much.
 
I'd personally like to know... I'm courious...

Which brings us back to the original purpose of this topic... If it wasn't the battery, what would have caused the data loss on two different game paks for one individual?
 
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