Coury, you're doing pretty well for a beginner, flux and 99% alcohol is indeed good to had to your soldering habits. (that sillicon mat is godsent too(heat resistant, holds stuff into place, at least a bit)) a few pointers : - add fresh solder before desoldering anything (so both old and new solder mix together) - one hand holds the iron on the pad and part to solder, the other hand holds the tin to the tip of the iron. (you shouldn't put the tin beforehand) - stop using a desoldering "squirter" get a desoldering station (you can get chinese ones for 90$ like the zd915, sure it's no Hakko but it works) and a desoldering braid (couple $) and yeah, have fun ! I see you have great tools, you should use'em for cart mods and repairs :)
Honestly, whether or not to tin the iron before use or to use it bare is one of those things that people will argue endlessly over.. some will say it protects the tip of the iron from heat damage, others say it actually makes it worse. Though on re-reading, you're probably discouraging putting the whole application of the solder on the iron beforehand, rather than discussing the light coating vs bare use argument. And that's definitely true, much better to apply the solder to the heated leg of the component than to try and rub it off of the iron. Similarly, I've seen a lot of arguing over whether adding fresh solder to old is necessary all the time, only if it's stubborn, or if just adding flux beforehand does just as much as adding fresh solder. I suppose all these things are difficult to compare scientifically, with so many other factors present (temp and humidity of the room, quality of solder and iron, how much thermal mass the ground plane has, etc), so what works better for one person may in reality work worse for someone else, while both parties claim theirs is the truly best method. But I was definitely pleasantly surprised to see the flux and cleanup, especially for a novice, when even in formal education my instructor didn't believe in separate flux (not that flux didn't work, just that flux-core solder was more than enough in his opinion). For me, regarding removal, solder braid/wick is more than enough and I don't really want the bulk and cost of a desoldering station, but past a point you're certainly saving money on wick and on time by using a vacuum desoldering gun. I don't solder enough to justify that for myself. Never liked solder suckers though, all those little spikes of leftover solder pulled into a tip.. ugh.
@@kaitlyn__L yup, that's true :) yeah, that's what I meant, putting soder on the heated pad/component leg tends to work the best I think. I've been desoldering a lot of ICs lately ( snes carts, scart ports etc) In my experience,melting clean solder with old solder helps a LOT in my experience in vacuming the WHOLE solder, otherwise, even with flux, some solder can sometime stay on the pad/leg (making it harder/impossible to remove the multi-legged /IC/Component/part) (looking like a mix of dirt, corroded lead and a bit of tin, flux and 99% alcohol only goes so far against those I guess) been using a desoldering station for 6 month, takes me 5mins to do something that would take me a tedious 1-2h+ to do with a desoldering wick ^^ Same hear, my instructor didn't believe in using anything in addition to flux core solder, but I've been using isopropyl alcohol to clean joints before and after soldering and external flux for like 4 or 5 years, and I've never looked back, stronger, cleaner joints overall, and am able to cleanly solder stuff that I never could have before. Tbh, those solder suckers should just stop being sold, plain and simple :\
@@louginko4432 Nodnod, yeah, for recapping an entire board or something, the time saved for a station is worth it. The most I do nowadays is replacing switches on a mechanical keyboard now and then, which does indeed take 30-60 minutes.. but keyswitches have only two legs, and I don't do it often enough to store the desoldering station the rest of the time. If I lived somewhere with more storage I probably would get one, and maybe a more elaborate soldering station too (I have a basic, but not cut-quality, iron right now), but I even have had to curb my retro games and computers, so.. yeah.
When I was a kid in the 90s, I used the Gameboy "Mega Memory Card" to backup and reload my game saves, especially for Pokemon. It was pretty useful, i'm surprised you didn't mention it.
When Coury said "you got this" I felt really inspired, and that a bozo like me could actually do it! Thanks so much for these amazingly informative videos guys!
Way to put yourself out there Coury demonstrating soldering. That's a really vulnerable thing to do for a beginner even after mentioning Voultar. Helpful video thanks.
Interesting and useful episode. Nice job! Back in the early 90's I used to use GEN, SNES, & N64 copiers, Super Magic Drive, Super Magicom, Doctor V64, respectively to backup not only the cartridge rom, but also the SRAM. These were incredibly useful and really fun to use when combined with IRC, FTP, and BBS's (kids ask your techie parents about this!). So for example, I completed Donkey Kong Country with a 101% completed save. I then took that .SAV file, compressed and uploaded it to a global BBS which stored files like this where people could dial in and download and try with their own games. So they could instantly access any level in the game. With the mentioned devices you could also transfer the battery save file to an original game cartridge. A better example could be considered a very early form of online play.. So as many people know you can play Super Mario Kart, and then save your ghost race to the cart's memory. I did this with several tracks, zipped them up, and transferred it to a friend across the country, he loaded up my ghost saves and then raced against me (virtually). It may not seem all that special now, but back in 1992 it was pretty dang cool. :) Also, with the ability to save multiple SRAM saves for any game. I saved them to 1.44" floppy disks using the internal diskette drive, you were no longer bound by the game cartridge's number of save slots. So instead of only being able to save a single animation for Mario Paint, you could now save dozens! And I did... I still have them all saved to my PC. Anyway, sorry for the wall-o-text, but I wanted to share my experiences with battery backed SRAM saves when it comes to copiers, and early internet and dial up BBS usage.
@@KopperNeoman X-Band was very different than what I was talking about. I was already playing PC Doom so the SNES version did not keep my attention very long. (And yes, the ability to download games from all around the world, including imports that we didn't see in the USA, and E3 SNES demos, and even DKC, months before they were released...COOL! :P
You guys are the only ones I know of that have 3 y old videos that I will frequently go back to and reference for different projects. If something ever happens to the content on yalls channel it will be a devastating blow for video game knowledge and preservation.
One thing I have found interesting is. You can transfer saves from 3DS VC games to the real carts or Everdrive as well. It does require CFW on your 3DS and a little hex editing with a few games but it works!
The first 10 minutes gave me the greatest joy. To now know that I can replace the batteries safely and how to do it the right way means the world to me. Thank you so much, to the both of you. Keep up the great work you been doing over the years.
Your series of videos got me going hard into retro gaming. Bought all of my old consoles back. Loaded them all with everdrive flash carts. Got a Sony PVM. My wallet hurts but I am loving every minute of it.
You got a like for the soldering iron instead of that awful "cut the tabs with a knife and then tape a new battery in super tight" garbage people do. (I mean, you were going to get a like anyway because you always do great videos, but I hit it early instead of watching the entire video this time)
Thank you for making this video and explaining how to replace batteries THE RIGHT WAY. There are too many instructions out there that are bad, dangerous, or flat out wrong. I have a series on how to change batteries on my RUclips channel, but the more CORRECT information that gets out there the better. I'm tired of all the bad information that people are presented with. Your info is good. Thank you.
I've used my Retron 5 a ton, and use it regularly for creating save file backups and transferring saves to different carts. Anecdotally, I've never had any issues with it, and hopefully I don't in the future! Thanks for the video guys!
1 minute in and I can already tell this is exactly what I need. Just lost my Chrono Trigger save from my SNES acrtridge, will be use this information to good extent. Thanks for the quality content.
An option for backing up and restoring GB / GBC / GBA saves to cartridge is the r4ds flash cart, I've used it myself successfully many times. :) awesome work guys I've been binge watching you ALL week. Let me work for you!!
This was the most entertaining and practical thing on youtube ever. Also amazing production quality. You guys are awesome speakers too. I absolutely love this.
I was banging my head against the wall when certain ROMs dumped off the Retrode 2 weren't working, had no idea about the different voltages. Sure enough it's in the manual and now they work! Thank you!
Never in my life did I try a Gameboy or Gbc game in the gameboy player on the gamecube. I feel like an idiot now. And I just bought a n64 gameboy pack for pokemon on ebay. Atleast I got the fast forward option. Lol
You are so right to recommend that people try replacing their cartridge batteries. It's very much something beginners can do. I'm totally a novice solderer and I've done a good handful of batteries so far and it really is doable. I've also been purchasing my replacement batteries from Console5. I've discovered that if you have a corrupted saved file on your cart; one that can't be selected or even deleted. Replacing the battery could fix it. This has happened for me. I've actually completed Phantasy Star on the Master System from beginning to end with a new battery that I installed and it's been working perfectly. You guys do good work!
Been putting off watching this as it’s obviously gonna lead to me spending a bunch of money! Keep up the good work guys, some of the best content on RUclips.
I love your content guys!!! Thank you for all the hard work you put into these episodes! I dont think there is anybody out there that goes in depth on video quality, console mods, and game info as you guys do!
I backup all of my saves with the Retro Freak and I have never had issues. I've also edited save files on the PC and dumped them into the cartridge without any problems. You should consider getting a Retro Freak.
Great video! I was just recently able to fix the save file of my very first run of Final Fantasy 7 that got somehow corrupted just before the last boss, 15 years ago... I shed some tears that day.
I did have my save file on an SNES game mysteriously become deleted by the Retron 5, but luckily i had a save file on an SD card. Due to this i probably won't transfer save files of games I've nearly beaten especially games that take a while to get through. You guys show sone great ways to back up and transfer game saves. Love the effort yall put into your videos thank you.
This episode is what ive been waiting for for a while. I knew about emulator dumps but the ability to move them to my actual cartridges was huge news to me. Very informative video and hope to see the continuation to this that was hinted.
this channel has introduced me a lot with retro gaming in modern day, and battery swapping was one i was really intimidated by, but you guys went through the process so thoroughly i think ill finally try my hand at soldering soon. thanks so much guys
Just want to add to this video about dumping and restoring gba carts If you have a r4 card and an original ds or ds lite you can dump the carts save to the SD card with a utility called GBA Backup Tool it also allows you to make a rom of the gba cart to play on emulators and flash carts
Never thought I'd see a day where the MLIG guys had tips on soldering in one of their videos! Very proud of you Courtney! I was more into save file preservation when I was younger, but I never actually loaded one up to play. Typically if it's been long enough, I would rather play through a new Zelda file or RPG play through than load up a finished one to fool around in. The exception to this is games that unlock stuff with a finished file detected, like SOTN or Resident Evil 2. I back all my modern gen games via the cloud because it's simple to do.
You can even do it with an Action Replay DSi as long as you have the micro-sd card version. Useless info for like 99% of the population but for the 1% maybe its useful lol.
That Retrode would be a valuable addition to my collection for backing up every cartridge from the SNES to GBA. And using the GameCube to backup GB, GBC, and GBA games with GBP Hi-Fi is cool as well, and Submode cartridge reader is cool.
Wow, this was really fascinating! The mere fact that you can take an emulator save and transfer it over to an original cart, and vice versa, was something I never thought I would be possible. My childhood Genesis died over 10 years ago, and I have some odd memories about a specific save on Sonic 3 and Knuckles. I'd love to get my saves off of those carts and see if that save is still there. This video let me know that there's hope for doing just that.
Great video, but I’ll never understand how childhood saves can be sentimental. It’s the experience of playing the game that holds nostalgic value for me
I can't count the number of cartridges you swapped batteries for at Try4ce's house while we visited last month. So much fun to see the work of a passion project that happens behind the scenes. Great video as always guys.
Yeah, putting in battery holders in cartridges seem a little redundant. But putting them in game consoles really make maintaining them much easier. Like sega cd, dreamcast, etc
Great video. I'm just wondering if you could recommend any great books, or online resources for getting more in depth and more comfortable with things of this nature? (Fixing old consoles, beginner electronics etc)
On the soldering side of things, something I was suggested a while back was buying a cheap electronics kit from Ebay. They have stuff like "build your own digital clock kit" for a few eurobucks, and building that would give you plenty of practice with soldering on stuff to a PCB, without needing to risk a console or something valuable as your first attempt.
Wow, the idea of putting a save from Virtual Console / Emulator onto a real cartridge is mind-blowing. I went through a period 7-10 years ago where I didn't have any of my childhood consoles and played the old games exclusively through emulators. Now that I've been collecting the actual retro games & consoles for several years (which I do greatly prefer), I'd love to be able to play those emulator save files on my real consoles. Some of them I put more time into than I ever did on original hardware!
Awesome video very detailed, I got my retrode 2 last week and your video helped me to do what I wanted to do (backup save file, change SNES battery, restore save file back to the cartridge) That way I can change the batteries of all my SNES/N64 collection without losing files that I put dozens of hours into like both Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger, and in particular my childhood Ocarina of Time file name YOMAN. I’ve been practicing my soldering skill on cheap sports cartridges for around 5-6 hours total now, I’m confident I can move to my actual collection soon enough (roughly 30 batteries to change), thanks for your insight!
thanks for pointing out the retron 5 thing, I was hesitant due to your warnings but thanks to you i managed to backup my pokemon pinball save from when i was 6 years old :D
Back in 2011 I played through Pokémon Leaf Green on a jailbroken iPod Touch my senior year of high school. With my DS flash cart and a homebrew application I was able to put the save on a real cart once I finally bought a copy in 2012. I’ve been wanting a Retrode for such a long time but it always seemed like they where always sold out. Glad to see new people picked up the project.
Another to add to the list for GBA backup/restore is Flash2Advance or similar older generation GBA flash carts. Some like the F2A have a link cable (parallel port or USB) to connect directly to a GBA for ROM/save dumping and save restore beyond their use with the F2A itself. Others rely upon a separate gba connector to go along with link cable. This, of course, won't help most people as nearly all current generation GBA flash carts actually use some sort of RAM + microSD, not unlike DS carts. That leads to the other major option: using a DS/DS lite. This also applies to dumping/restoring DS saves. Overall, it's very interesting how far we've come as far as older games and saves. I'm definitely glad to have backed up a lot of my GBA saves. I've resigned myself, however, to losing my SNES saves. To be truthful, I think I'd get more out of replaying the games again on an emulator where I can safely backup my saves than to go back to the nostalgia of an old save. To me, it's an excuse to play those older games and rediscover them.
Hey, thanks for this video, I started a game of Final Fantasy on my AVS yesterday, and while the battery surprisingly still holds up, I was nervous to invest myself into it by fear of losing my save at any time. I didn't even know the AVS could dump NES saves from carts, so this was all very informative! :D
Great video but two small corrections, flux doesn't attract solder to metal, it eats oxidation/corrosion off of the surfaces of the metal so that the solder can flow properly, creating a mechanically strong, low electrical resistance joint. And there is technically no such thing as flash ram. Flash is a block addressable memory type (so you cant read/write just a single byte at any location) while ram stands for random access memory which is byte addressable (hence random access). Hopefully I'm not being too pedantic but I'm a stickler for being factually correct.
Nintendo themselves called it “FlashRAM” in N64 game paks because it was mapped to memory like SRAM and not an independent storage bus or bank. This is why LaC was able to easily patch Majora’s Mask to save to SRAM instead of FlashRAM. The reason Nintendo 64 bootlegs only recently arrived is because they required extra addressing logic normally embedded in the custom maskROM, so you couldn’t just substitute the maskROM with flash, EPROM, or EEPROM without also replicating that logic. That same addressing logic controlled access to the SRAM through the same bus as ROM. Due to required compression the ROM in N64 carts couldn’t be accessed in run time like expanded RAM which is why N64 games had short load times for many in-game transitions. Still, the SRAM and flash was on the same bus as ROM which was mapped to system memory (RAM) in older consoles, hence the name “FlashRAM.” The name also refers to the broader implementation and not just the underlying storage technology in the component. Semantics, I know, but that it why we and Nintendo call it “FlashRAM save.”
...also, flux definitely does more than deoxidize and clean corrosion from the connection surfaces. It affects the surface tension of the molten solder too. Often times you only need to add flux in order to clear a stubborn solder bridge and as you know it helps with nice shiny/rounded connections without wispy/spiky tails of solder. Flux is truly wonderful. :)
Hell yeah @8:12 the NHL 94 music! I love that you guys are real nerds but also recognize the value and contribution SOME sports games have made to gaming as a whole. "Sports games are shite" is such a stale response.
Just one comment regarding the GBA Metroid games: both Metroid Fusion and Metroid Zero Mission can have either battery based saves or Flash saves that doesn’t require batteries, so you should look for the flash based ones to avoid having to replace batteries
I know you can't cover everything, but I'd like to mention that it's possible to backup GBA game saves, and extract the rom itself, with an original DS (or Lite) and a flash cart with some homebrew software called the GBA Backup Tool!
For GBA savefiles, you can use a DS with a GBA slot (so original DS or Lite), and a DS flashcart to run an application to dump the save file, you can also write to the cartridge and even dump the ROM. I've done this to most of my GBA games now and use their save files on RetroArch with no issues.
Great info and well explained! Anyone replacing their batteries clean the board after regardless what it looks like. Most flux is corrosive and corrosion will form on the solder joints and PCB if not removed.
Hey MLiG. I love your informative and in-depth videos on various video game topics. If I might suggest some improvements, I would like to see less gameplay from latter parts in games (specially RPGs) since they can be slightly spoiler-ish as someone getting into retro games now. A timestamp guide would be also great for quickly going back to a certain point of a video when re-watching. Lastly, I think more face-to-face talk makes the video feel more personalized. Thank you for your time and effort on videos, and keep doing what you do best! Also, 39:51 what on earth.
EEPROM chips have a smaller life than RAM battery backups unfortunately, around 2000 writes and depending on how the game was handled before your purchase (a.k.a. if it was traded or a rental game for example), they do die from the excess of saving, so saying that EEPROM is not a concern is wrong. I have some EEPROM games that dont save anymore, fortunately are games that I dont care about saving content such as Street Fighter II New Challengers. The issue is EEPROM chips are harder to replace than battery backups. RAM storage is already meant to survive a lot of writes, so the battery is the only concern. As said, a great video.
[Try4ce] Limited writes is probably something we should have mentioned, but our thinking was more along the lines of, if the save currently exists, you probably don't have to worry about it from just sitting on the shelf. I don't expect to replay a finished game enough times to worry about the EEPROM dying.
Yes, replacing EEPROM from another compatible game or the same game works (you cant use any EEPROM), I just dont like the idea of breaking another game to fix.
A sanni cart reader I built does support Genesis, SNES, SFC GB, GBA and can backup saves. The Game Boy Mega Memory Card, Brain Boy and Monster Boy and GB Everdrive can also backup and swap saves from the carts. The N64 Gameshark can also backup saves from the cart and memory pak.
Also, for those with a GameCube, GC BBA (BroadBandAdapter), and Phantasy Star Online, there is an exploit which not only allows you to play GC isos from a server, but also allows you to transfer memory card saves to and from your original GC memory card when plugged into the console. I know there are likely other easier ways to do I it now, but this is just another way to go about it.
I back up my SNES and Genesis game saves on an SD card with the Retron 5. I have also started buying flash carts for retro systems and backing up my game saves to SD cards with those as well. If a battery in my original games dies i will just play the game without saving. Maybe sone day ill buy a soldering iron to replace the batteries. Great video.
A lot of my old games are still relying on 30 year old batteries, and while I know how to and plan to replace the batteries, using a technique I came up with to keep their files, I currently can’t take most of them apart to switch the batteries as most of them belonged to my parents. They brought them back in the 1990’s, and played them back then, and then they were thrown into the loft until I found and recovered them. While they are all intact still, they are ticking time bombs both in terms of my parent’s old save files, most of which I want to keep, and also in terms of my own saves. Strangely, my parents refuse to let me dismantle and modify any of these old games. I don’t know why, as neither of them care about their 30-year old games, but they still won’t let me dismantle them because they think I’ll break them, despite the fact that out of the 20-30 things I’ve dismantled, I’ve broken a grand total of... 1. And even then, (when I took apart my laptop) the only internal component that broke was already on its last legs and I took it apart to replace it. Part of me just wants to fix them, and tell my parents that they shouldn’t have given me their old stuff if they didn’t want me to open them up, but I don’t want to be rude to them as they are my parents still.
Holy shit, you just explained and showed visually why my Crystalis save file didn't disappear when I replaced the battery last week. I was ready to call it goddamn magic because I had no idea what was going on. What a coincidence that this video happened to come up so soon after.
[Try4ce] What's funny about that is that I thought my saves were lost for years. Turned out, I just forgot how the save/load system works (every time I hit Continue, it dropped me at the start of the game because I guess that's what I did last, but I forgot you have to hit select then start... or was it start then select... to access save/load). Well, so I told Coury that one was dead and he should replace it. He did, and then I kept trying to figure out why it wasn't keeping a new save. I looked up how to actually save, and then I found my saves were still there, even after the battery was replaced! Quite a nice surprise, especially since one is my file and one is a childhood friend's file.
@@mylifeingamingI'll admit it took me a bit to figure that out last week too. I started a new game assuming it was blank since I just replaced the battery, then a few hours later I was trying to figure out how to save, ended up googling it, and lo and behold my save file was still there from probably 12 years ago at level 16 and at the endgame. Crazy.
So memory card backups is a topic for the next episode? I think for PlayStation, the option is pretty obvious - get a PS3 memory card reader and copy the saves to a PS3. I've also become experienced in backups for Vita and PSP saves. But if there's a way to backup N64, Saturn and Dreamcast saves, I wasn't aware.
If there's an alternative for Playstation saves, I'd love to hear it. I'd have to get my hands on a PS3 to transfer my save carts which I've been holding onto.
@@tyjay6752 if you have a modded PS2 you can just download the uLaunchElf iso, burn it to a CD, plug any pen drive to the console and back up/restore not only PS1 but also PS2 memory card info.
Can’t forget about the Dexdrives! I bought them used for the PlayStation and N64 for dirt cheap and still use the PlayStation version today. They work well to backup memory cards on the PlayStation. I use the everdrive nowadays for the N64. Great video!
@@mylifeingaming Nice! I use my Windows xp machine with a serial port for the Dex Drive in case you have trouble with it on a modern machine and an adapter. I love your videos and love your Sunday streams! Keep the great content coming!
You guys used the Golden Sun soundtrack so heavily toward the end; I was disappointed to see just a few seconds of the save menu from the game. It's one of my favorite games/series, so I'm always happy to see it get a little recognition. Great stuff as always, though.
One way to change batteries while keeping your saved games is powering the game pak with 5 volts in basically the same way the control deck will power it when you play it instead of soldering in a battery in parallel with the old battery. I cut a USB cable and soldered the 5 volt + and - wires to the correct joints on the game pak board and used a USB adapter for my 5 VDC power supply. Then I do the work of changing the battery while the game pak is energized in order to retain the SRAM data contents, being very careful not to short anything in the process. I did that for my brother, especially with his copy of "The Secret of Mana" which had a game save he wanted preserved. Worked a treat. I also got a complete in-the-box copy of GoldenEye for the N64 for a couple of bucks, but its EEPROM was faulty so it wouldn't save the game's progress. I also had gotten a loose copy of V-Rally for the N64 for really cheap and it used the same EEPROM chip, so I swapped chips to fix my copy of GoldenEye.
This entire video was extremely helpful! So thankful to know a device exists for these specific needs! You’re all the best 🙏 - Zion
What were you backing up?
hey my name is zion
instablaster.
3:00 Time to prepare to replace batteries by turning the soldering station!
How did they completely miss that ahahahah
LOL! Of course, I paused it 3:00 in to see if someone already said this. ;)
Maybe they are in Europe lol
@@danerd8978 not how its work here, dude.
Andrew Brandt Binary is binary. 1 or 0.
You guys really do your homework. The internet is a better place because of folks like you.
3:00 switches iron from on to off, proceeds to heat up anyway. Sounds like a house fire waiting to happen.
I noticed that too! It's such a silly error yet so funny!
I'm so glad someone else saw this
"Be confident in yourself and take your time"
Jeez. I love the positivity of this channel
Okay, whoever’s idea it was for the x-ray battery camera shots deserves a gold medal.🤯
The amount of work you guys put in every video is truly amazing
Coury, you're doing pretty well for a beginner, flux and 99% alcohol is indeed good to had to your soldering habits. (that sillicon mat is godsent too(heat resistant, holds stuff into place, at least a bit))
a few pointers :
- add fresh solder before desoldering anything (so both old and new solder mix together)
- one hand holds the iron on the pad and part to solder, the other hand holds the tin to the tip of the iron. (you shouldn't put the tin beforehand)
- stop using a desoldering "squirter" get a desoldering station (you can get chinese ones for 90$ like the zd915, sure it's no Hakko but it works) and a desoldering braid (couple $)
and yeah, have fun ! I see you have great tools, you should use'em for cart mods and repairs :)
Honestly, whether or not to tin the iron before use or to use it bare is one of those things that people will argue endlessly over.. some will say it protects the tip of the iron from heat damage, others say it actually makes it worse. Though on re-reading, you're probably discouraging putting the whole application of the solder on the iron beforehand, rather than discussing the light coating vs bare use argument. And that's definitely true, much better to apply the solder to the heated leg of the component than to try and rub it off of the iron.
Similarly, I've seen a lot of arguing over whether adding fresh solder to old is necessary all the time, only if it's stubborn, or if just adding flux beforehand does just as much as adding fresh solder.
I suppose all these things are difficult to compare scientifically, with so many other factors present (temp and humidity of the room, quality of solder and iron, how much thermal mass the ground plane has, etc), so what works better for one person may in reality work worse for someone else, while both parties claim theirs is the truly best method.
But I was definitely pleasantly surprised to see the flux and cleanup, especially for a novice, when even in formal education my instructor didn't believe in separate flux (not that flux didn't work, just that flux-core solder was more than enough in his opinion).
For me, regarding removal, solder braid/wick is more than enough and I don't really want the bulk and cost of a desoldering station, but past a point you're certainly saving money on wick and on time by using a vacuum desoldering gun. I don't solder enough to justify that for myself. Never liked solder suckers though, all those little spikes of leftover solder pulled into a tip.. ugh.
@@kaitlyn__L yup, that's true :)
yeah, that's what I meant, putting soder on the heated pad/component leg tends to work the best I think.
I've been desoldering a lot of ICs lately ( snes carts, scart ports etc)
In my experience,melting clean solder with old solder helps a LOT in my experience in vacuming the WHOLE solder, otherwise, even with flux, some solder can sometime stay on the pad/leg (making it harder/impossible to remove the multi-legged /IC/Component/part) (looking like a mix of dirt, corroded lead and a bit of tin, flux and 99% alcohol only goes so far against those I guess)
been using a desoldering station for 6 month, takes me 5mins to do something that would take me a tedious 1-2h+ to do with a desoldering wick ^^
Same hear, my instructor didn't believe in using anything in addition to flux core solder, but I've been using isopropyl alcohol to clean joints before and after soldering and external flux for like 4 or 5 years, and I've never looked back, stronger, cleaner joints overall, and am able to cleanly solder stuff that I never could have before.
Tbh, those solder suckers should just stop being sold, plain and simple :\
@@louginko4432 Nodnod, yeah, for recapping an entire board or something, the time saved for a station is worth it. The most I do nowadays is replacing switches on a mechanical keyboard now and then, which does indeed take 30-60 minutes.. but keyswitches have only two legs, and I don't do it often enough to store the desoldering station the rest of the time. If I lived somewhere with more storage I probably would get one, and maybe a more elaborate soldering station too (I have a basic, but not cut-quality, iron right now), but I even have had to curb my retro games and computers, so.. yeah.
@@kaitlyn__L yeah, makes sense, I for one have to pack my tinkering gear back in their boxes when I don't use them ^^
Just want to say that I'm glad you two were civil in your discussion. That's so rare now days
This might be one of my favorite RUclips channels period. Such quality content.
When I was a kid in the 90s, I used the Gameboy "Mega Memory Card" to backup and reload my game saves, especially for Pokemon. It was pretty useful, i'm surprised you didn't mention it.
I was also surprised
MLiG really reminds me of a tv show. the way its written, paced, formatted, and the level of detail you choose to go into (or not)
Wait. What in God’s name was the last few seconds of this video?!?!
The sounds of solder, of course!
I blame GameSack.
@SirPrize there's only one nut left in the sack ;-)
Thanks! I hate it.
Who knows
When Coury said "you got this" I felt really inspired, and that a bozo like me could actually do it! Thanks so much for these amazingly informative videos guys!
Way to put yourself out there Coury demonstrating soldering. That's a really vulnerable thing to do for a beginner even after mentioning Voultar. Helpful video thanks.
Already thumbed up the video before the intro finished. I know your production quality is always top notch
Interesting and useful episode. Nice job!
Back in the early 90's I used to use GEN, SNES, & N64 copiers, Super Magic Drive, Super Magicom, Doctor V64, respectively to backup not only the cartridge rom, but also the SRAM. These were incredibly useful and really fun to use when combined with IRC, FTP, and BBS's (kids ask your techie parents about this!).
So for example, I completed Donkey Kong Country with a 101% completed save. I then took that .SAV file, compressed and uploaded it to a global BBS which stored files like this where people could dial in and download and try with their own games. So they could instantly access any level in the game. With the mentioned devices you could also transfer the battery save file to an original game cartridge.
A better example could be considered a very early form of online play.. So as many people know you can play Super Mario Kart, and then save your ghost race to the cart's memory. I did this with several tracks, zipped them up, and transferred it to a friend across the country, he loaded up my ghost saves and then raced against me (virtually). It may not seem all that special now, but back in 1992 it was pretty dang cool. :)
Also, with the ability to save multiple SRAM saves for any game. I saved them to 1.44" floppy disks using the internal diskette drive, you were no longer bound by the game cartridge's number of save slots. So instead of only being able to save a single animation for Mario Paint, you could now save dozens! And I did... I still have them all saved to my PC. Anyway, sorry for the wall-o-text, but I wanted to share my experiences with battery backed SRAM saves when it comes to copiers, and early internet and dial up BBS usage.
Same here!
Game Doctor 7/Professor SF 7
Doctor V64
DX256 / DS1
GB Xchanger
V64jr
Yeah, I was a Bung fanboy. ;)
Not as cool as the XBAND. Actual online games on SNES and Mega Drive. Doom SNES even had an online-exclusive deathmatch mode.
@@KopperNeoman X-Band was very different than what I was talking about. I was already playing PC Doom so the SNES version did not keep my attention very long.
(And yes, the ability to download games from all around the world, including imports that we didn't see in the USA, and E3 SNES demos, and even DKC, months before they were released...COOL! :P
This video is a gold mine. Holy cow.
You guys are the only ones I know of that have 3 y old videos that I will frequently go back to and reference for different projects.
If something ever happens to the content on yalls channel it will be a devastating blow for video game knowledge and preservation.
One thing I have found interesting is. You can transfer saves from 3DS VC games to the real carts or Everdrive as well. It does require CFW on your 3DS and a little hex editing with a few games but it works!
Is there a tutorial for this?
Thank you guys for continuing to bring us accurate, reliable, and enjoyable content. Keep up the good work!
The first 10 minutes gave me the greatest joy. To now know that I can replace the batteries safely and how to do it the right way means the world to me. Thank you so much, to the both of you. Keep up the great work you been doing over the years.
Great job guys! This is super helpful
Watched this video, now I want dump all of my game saves, the best 40 minutes of the day
Your series of videos got me going hard into retro gaming. Bought all of my old consoles back. Loaded them all with everdrive flash carts. Got a Sony PVM. My wallet hurts but I am loving every minute of it.
I can honestly say that I mainly watch your videos because of the music. The videos are great but the music is awesome.
What a great Fathers Day gift!!
yeah i gotten and do 1 few.
Ur mom
You got a like for the soldering iron instead of that awful "cut the tabs with a knife and then tape a new battery in super tight" garbage people do.
(I mean, you were going to get a like anyway because you always do great videos, but I hit it early instead of watching the entire video this time)
Thanks fellas! Awesome Father's Day gift! I recommend everyone I know into retro gaming to you guys!
Thanks for the Fathers Day video! Happy Fathers Day to all the dads.
18:11 - That's a lot of respects
The thoroughness and quality of content on this channel is off the charts.
Thank you for making this video and explaining how to replace batteries THE RIGHT WAY. There are too many instructions out there that are bad, dangerous, or flat out wrong. I have a series on how to change batteries on my RUclips channel, but the more CORRECT information that gets out there the better. I'm tired of all the bad information that people are presented with. Your info is good. Thank you.
I've used my Retron 5 a ton, and use it regularly for creating save file backups and transferring saves to different carts. Anecdotally, I've never had any issues with it, and hopefully I don't in the future! Thanks for the video guys!
1 minute in and I can already tell this is exactly what I need. Just lost my Chrono Trigger save from my SNES acrtridge, will be use this information to good extent. Thanks for the quality content.
The sound fx are a thing of beauty.
An option for backing up and restoring GB / GBC / GBA saves to cartridge is the r4ds flash cart, I've used it myself successfully many times. :) awesome work guys I've been binge watching you ALL week. Let me work for you!!
This was the most entertaining and practical thing on youtube ever. Also amazing production quality. You guys are awesome speakers too.
I absolutely love this.
I was banging my head against the wall when certain ROMs dumped off the Retrode 2 weren't working, had no idea about the different voltages. Sure enough it's in the manual and now they work! Thank you!
Never in my life did I try a Gameboy or Gbc game in the gameboy player on the gamecube.
I feel like an idiot now. And I just bought a n64 gameboy pack for pokemon on ebay.
Atleast I got the fast forward option. Lol
You are so right to recommend that people try replacing their cartridge batteries. It's very much something beginners can do. I'm totally a novice solderer and I've done a good handful of batteries so far and it really is doable. I've also been purchasing my replacement batteries from Console5.
I've discovered that if you have a corrupted saved file on your cart; one that can't be selected or even deleted. Replacing the battery could fix it. This has happened for me.
I've actually completed Phantasy Star on the Master System from beginning to end with a new battery that I installed and it's been working perfectly.
You guys do good work!
Been putting off watching this as it’s obviously gonna lead to me spending a bunch of money! Keep up the good work guys, some of the best content on RUclips.
I feel like you guys should open your studio as a museum. It would take us back to the good ole days of gaming. I’d pay to see that 💰
I love your content guys!!! Thank you for all the hard work you put into these episodes! I dont think there is anybody out there that goes in depth on video quality, console mods, and game info as you guys do!
Beautiful use of the NHL 94 soundtrack. You just made this Canucks day!
OMG a new video from MLIG! I love you guys! :)
I backup all of my saves with the Retro Freak and I have never had issues. I've also edited save files on the PC and dumped them into the cartridge without any problems.
You should consider getting a Retro Freak.
Great video! I was just recently able to fix the save file of my very first run of Final Fantasy 7 that got somehow corrupted just before the last boss, 15 years ago... I shed some tears that day.
I did have my save file on an SNES game mysteriously become deleted by the Retron 5, but luckily i had a save file on an SD card. Due to this i probably won't transfer save files of games I've nearly beaten especially games that take a while to get through. You guys show sone great ways to back up and transfer game saves. Love the effort yall put into your videos thank you.
I have never used a game with battery powered saves, but the video is so well filmed and the techniques you use are so cool, so i had to watch it.
This episode is what ive been waiting for for a while. I knew about emulator dumps but the ability to move them to my actual cartridges was huge news to me. Very informative video and hope to see the continuation to this that was hinted.
It is also possible to read/write savedata from/to a GBA cart using Nintendo DS homebrew.
this channel has introduced me a lot with retro gaming in modern day, and battery swapping was one i was really intimidated by, but you guys went through the process so thoroughly i think ill finally try my hand at soldering soon. thanks so much guys
Just want to add to this video about dumping and restoring gba carts
If you have a r4 card and an original ds or ds lite you can dump the carts save to the SD card with a utility called GBA Backup Tool it also allows you to make a rom of the gba cart to play on emulators and flash carts
can you do that with an Acekard 2i ?
@@FabioGnecco you should be able to do it with most r4 cards I believe you are able to do it with that card.
Never thought I'd see a day where the MLIG guys had tips on soldering in one of their videos! Very proud of you Courtney! I was more into save file preservation when I was younger, but I never actually loaded one up to play. Typically if it's been long enough, I would rather play through a new Zelda file or RPG play through than load up a finished one to fool around in. The exception to this is games that unlock stuff with a finished file detected, like SOTN or Resident Evil 2. I back all my modern gen games via the cloud because it's simple to do.
you can actually back up gba saves with a ds/ds lite and a flashcart with a homebrew app
and even inject other saves
You can even do it with an Action Replay DSi as long as you have the micro-sd card version. Useless info for like 99% of the population but for the 1% maybe its useful lol.
I love the production style that MLIG provides for this.
That Retrode would be a valuable addition to my collection for backing up every cartridge from the SNES to GBA. And using the GameCube to backup GB, GBC, and GBA games with GBP Hi-Fi is cool as well, and Submode cartridge reader is cool.
I have the Mega Memory Card for my GB and GBC games.
I somehow knew that Phantasy Star would be the first game that was talked about in this episode :)
Wow, this was really fascinating! The mere fact that you can take an emulator save and transfer it over to an original cart, and vice versa, was something I never thought I would be possible.
My childhood Genesis died over 10 years ago, and I have some odd memories about a specific save on Sonic 3 and Knuckles. I'd love to get my saves off of those carts and see if that save is still there. This video let me know that there's hope for doing just that.
I'm just curious, did you ever get around to those saves?
Great video, but I’ll never understand how childhood saves can be sentimental. It’s the experience of playing the game that holds nostalgic value for me
This was a great video! I've been binging this series for the past few days and this is a welcome upload.
Awesome timing, I had just got the equipment to swap batteries for some gameboy cartridges. Feeling inspired!
I've had great success with the INLretro. I even released a shell and working on a front end for it.
I can't count the number of cartridges you swapped batteries for at Try4ce's house while we visited last month. So much fun to see the work of a passion project that happens behind the scenes. Great video as always guys.
3:00 WHY are you turning it OFF?
Finally got around to watching this one, excellent as always. I was completely unaware of the Retrode prior to this episode.
Yeah, putting in battery holders in cartridges seem a little redundant. But putting them in game consoles really make maintaining them much easier. Like sega cd, dreamcast, etc
Great video. I'm just wondering if you could recommend any great books, or online resources for getting more in depth and more comfortable with things of this nature? (Fixing old consoles, beginner electronics etc)
Check out voultar’s channel
@@sunnohh Wow. Just what I've been looking for. Thank you.
On the soldering side of things, something I was suggested a while back was buying a cheap electronics kit from Ebay. They have stuff like "build your own digital clock kit" for a few eurobucks, and building that would give you plenty of practice with soldering on stuff to a PCB, without needing to risk a console or something valuable as your first attempt.
Eevblog for tech stuff.
Wow, the idea of putting a save from Virtual Console / Emulator onto a real cartridge is mind-blowing. I went through a period 7-10 years ago where I didn't have any of my childhood consoles and played the old games exclusively through emulators. Now that I've been collecting the actual retro games & consoles for several years (which I do greatly prefer), I'd love to be able to play those emulator save files on my real consoles. Some of them I put more time into than I ever did on original hardware!
Awesome video very detailed, I got my retrode 2 last week and your video helped me to do what I wanted to do (backup save file, change SNES battery, restore save file back to the cartridge)
That way I can change the batteries of all my SNES/N64 collection without losing files that I put dozens of hours into like both Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger, and in particular my childhood Ocarina of Time file name YOMAN.
I’ve been practicing my soldering skill on cheap sports cartridges for around 5-6 hours total now, I’m confident I can move to my actual collection soon enough (roughly 30 batteries to change), thanks for your insight!
Sanni's open source cartridge reader is still the best device for dumping GB, GBC, GBA, SNES, Megadrive, N64 and PCE
thanks for pointing out the retron 5 thing, I was hesitant due to your warnings but thanks to you i managed to backup my pokemon pinball save from when i was 6 years old :D
Seeing that Illusion of Gaia in the intro hit close to home. I lost my save a while back and haven't felt like starting over.
Back in 2011 I played through Pokémon Leaf Green on a jailbroken iPod Touch my senior year of high school. With my DS flash cart and a homebrew application I was able to put the save on a real cart once I finally bought a copy in 2012. I’ve been wanting a Retrode for such a long time but it always seemed like they where always sold out. Glad to see new people picked up the project.
Another to add to the list for GBA backup/restore is Flash2Advance or similar older generation GBA flash carts. Some like the F2A have a link cable (parallel port or USB) to connect directly to a GBA for ROM/save dumping and save restore beyond their use with the F2A itself. Others rely upon a separate gba connector to go along with link cable. This, of course, won't help most people as nearly all current generation GBA flash carts actually use some sort of RAM + microSD, not unlike DS carts. That leads to the other major option: using a DS/DS lite. This also applies to dumping/restoring DS saves.
Overall, it's very interesting how far we've come as far as older games and saves. I'm definitely glad to have backed up a lot of my GBA saves. I've resigned myself, however, to losing my SNES saves. To be truthful, I think I'd get more out of replaying the games again on an emulator where I can safely backup my saves than to go back to the nostalgia of an old save. To me, it's an excuse to play those older games and rediscover them.
Hey, thanks for this video, I started a game of Final Fantasy on my AVS yesterday, and while the battery surprisingly still holds up, I was nervous to invest myself into it by fear of losing my save at any time. I didn't even know the AVS could dump NES saves from carts, so this was all very informative! :D
Great video but two small corrections, flux doesn't attract solder to metal, it eats oxidation/corrosion off of the surfaces of the metal so that the solder can flow properly, creating a mechanically strong, low electrical resistance joint. And there is technically no such thing as flash ram. Flash is a block addressable memory type (so you cant read/write just a single byte at any location) while ram stands for random access memory which is byte addressable (hence random access). Hopefully I'm not being too pedantic but I'm a stickler for being factually correct.
Nintendo themselves called it “FlashRAM” in N64 game paks because it was mapped to memory like SRAM and not an independent storage bus or bank. This is why LaC was able to easily patch Majora’s Mask to save to SRAM instead of FlashRAM.
The reason Nintendo 64 bootlegs only recently arrived is because they required extra addressing logic normally embedded in the custom maskROM, so you couldn’t just substitute the maskROM with flash, EPROM, or EEPROM without also replicating that logic. That same addressing logic controlled access to the SRAM through the same bus as ROM. Due to required compression the ROM in N64 carts couldn’t be accessed in run time like expanded RAM which is why N64 games had short load times for many in-game transitions. Still, the SRAM and flash was on the same bus as ROM which was mapped to system memory (RAM) in older consoles, hence the name “FlashRAM.”
The name also refers to the broader implementation and not just the underlying storage technology in the component. Semantics, I know, but that it why we and Nintendo call it “FlashRAM save.”
...also, flux definitely does more than deoxidize and clean corrosion from the connection surfaces. It affects the surface tension of the molten solder too. Often times you only need to add flux in order to clear a stubborn solder bridge and as you know it helps with nice shiny/rounded connections without wispy/spiky tails of solder. Flux is truly wonderful. :)
For those who don't feel confident soldering the battery onto the game board. Most game shops offer that service for a small fee.
Hell yeah @8:12 the NHL 94 music! I love that you guys are real nerds but also recognize the value and contribution SOME sports games have made to gaming as a whole. "Sports games are shite" is such a stale response.
40 minutes !!! Well I'll watch this on my lunch break
Just one comment regarding the GBA Metroid games: both Metroid Fusion and Metroid Zero Mission can have either battery based saves or Flash saves that doesn’t require batteries, so you should look for the flash based ones to avoid having to replace batteries
How the @#%^ does a 140k sub channel have better production values than most high production TV documentaries?!?! Keep up the good work guys!
I know you can't cover everything, but I'd like to mention that it's possible to backup GBA game saves, and extract the rom itself, with an original DS (or Lite) and a flash cart with some homebrew software called the GBA Backup Tool!
For GBA savefiles, you can use a DS with a GBA slot (so original DS or Lite), and a DS flashcart to run an application to dump the save file, you can also write to the cartridge and even dump the ROM. I've done this to most of my GBA games now and use their save files on RetroArch with no issues.
Try's cadence reminds me of local news channel's investigative reporters exposing negligent auto mechanics, but, I weirdly really like it. It's fun!
Great info and well explained! Anyone replacing their batteries clean the board after regardless what it looks like. Most flux is corrosive and corrosion will form on the solder joints and PCB if not removed.
Hey MLiG. I love your informative and in-depth videos on various video game topics. If I might suggest some improvements, I would like to see less gameplay from latter parts in games (specially RPGs) since they can be slightly spoiler-ish as someone getting into retro games now. A timestamp guide would be also great for quickly going back to a certain point of a video when re-watching. Lastly, I think more face-to-face talk makes the video feel more personalized. Thank you for your time and effort on videos, and keep doing what you do best!
Also, 39:51 what on earth.
EEPROM chips have a smaller life than RAM battery backups unfortunately, around 2000 writes and depending on how the game was handled before your purchase (a.k.a. if it was traded or a rental game for example), they do die from the excess of saving, so saying that EEPROM is not a concern is wrong. I have some EEPROM games that dont save anymore, fortunately are games that I dont care about saving content such as Street Fighter II New Challengers. The issue is EEPROM chips are harder to replace than battery backups. RAM storage is already meant to survive a lot of writes, so the battery is the only concern.
As said, a great video.
[Try4ce] Limited writes is probably something we should have mentioned, but our thinking was more along the lines of, if the save currently exists, you probably don't have to worry about it from just sitting on the shelf. I don't expect to replay a finished game enough times to worry about the EEPROM dying.
I had a Conkers Bad Fur Day Cart in which the EEPROM died. Had to steal another chip from a cheap n64 game but it worked.
Yes, replacing EEPROM from another compatible game or the same game works (you cant use any EEPROM), I just dont like the idea of breaking another game to fix.
A sanni cart reader I built does support Genesis, SNES, SFC GB, GBA and can backup saves. The Game Boy Mega Memory Card, Brain Boy and Monster Boy and GB Everdrive can also backup and swap saves from the carts. The N64 Gameshark can also backup saves from the cart and memory pak.
Although I would replace SRAM with FRAM (FeRAM) chips to keep saves permanently and only use batteries for the RTC.
Also, for those with a GameCube, GC BBA (BroadBandAdapter), and Phantasy Star Online, there is an exploit which not only allows you to play GC isos from a server, but also allows you to transfer memory card saves to and from your original GC memory card when plugged into the console. I know there are likely other easier ways to do I it now, but this is just another way to go about it.
I back up my SNES and Genesis game saves on an SD card with the Retron 5. I have also started buying flash carts for retro systems and backing up my game saves to SD cards with those as well. If a battery in my original games dies i will just play the game without saving. Maybe sone day ill buy a soldering iron to replace the batteries. Great video.
A lot of my old games are still relying on 30 year old batteries, and while I know how to and plan to replace the batteries, using a technique I came up with to keep their files, I currently can’t take most of them apart to switch the batteries as most of them belonged to my parents. They brought them back in the 1990’s, and played them back then, and then they were thrown into the loft until I found and recovered them. While they are all intact still, they are ticking time bombs both in terms of my parent’s old save files, most of which I want to keep, and also in terms of my own saves. Strangely, my parents refuse to let me dismantle and modify any of these old games. I don’t know why, as neither of them care about their 30-year old games, but they still won’t let me dismantle them because they think I’ll break them, despite the fact that out of the 20-30 things I’ve dismantled, I’ve broken a grand total of... 1. And even then, (when I took apart my laptop) the only internal component that broke was already on its last legs and I took it apart to replace it. Part of me just wants to fix them, and tell my parents that they shouldn’t have given me their old stuff if they didn’t want me to open them up, but I don’t want to be rude to them as they are my parents still.
Life update
Holy shit, you just explained and showed visually why my Crystalis save file didn't disappear when I replaced the battery last week. I was ready to call it goddamn magic because I had no idea what was going on. What a coincidence that this video happened to come up so soon after.
[Try4ce] What's funny about that is that I thought my saves were lost for years. Turned out, I just forgot how the save/load system works (every time I hit Continue, it dropped me at the start of the game because I guess that's what I did last, but I forgot you have to hit select then start... or was it start then select... to access save/load). Well, so I told Coury that one was dead and he should replace it. He did, and then I kept trying to figure out why it wasn't keeping a new save. I looked up how to actually save, and then I found my saves were still there, even after the battery was replaced! Quite a nice surprise, especially since one is my file and one is a childhood friend's file.
@@mylifeingamingI'll admit it took me a bit to figure that out last week too. I started a new game assuming it was blank since I just replaced the battery, then a few hours later I was trying to figure out how to save, ended up googling it, and lo and behold my save file was still there from probably 12 years ago at level 16 and at the endgame. Crazy.
So memory card backups is a topic for the next episode? I think for PlayStation, the option is pretty obvious - get a PS3 memory card reader and copy the saves to a PS3. I've also become experienced in backups for Vita and PSP saves. But if there's a way to backup N64, Saturn and Dreamcast saves, I wasn't aware.
For Dreamcast you can just buy a cheap serial SD reader, boot Dreamshell and back up files from the VMU.
@@Gladson Good to know. Thanks!
If there's an alternative for Playstation saves, I'd love to hear it. I'd have to get my hands on a PS3 to transfer my save carts which I've been holding onto.
@@tyjay6752 You can probably get them cheap now, they're being phased out.
@@tyjay6752 if you have a modded PS2 you can just download the uLaunchElf iso, burn it to a CD, plug any pen drive to the console and back up/restore not only PS1 but also PS2 memory card info.
Can’t forget about the Dexdrives! I bought them used for the PlayStation and N64 for dirt cheap and still use the PlayStation version today. They work well to backup memory cards on the PlayStation. I use the everdrive nowadays for the N64. Great video!
[Try4ce] When we follow up this episode with a memory cards episode, we are covering those as well.
@@mylifeingaming Nice! I use my Windows xp machine with a serial port for the Dex Drive in case you have trouble with it on a modern machine and an adapter. I love your videos and love your Sunday streams! Keep the great content coming!
This was amazing. How have I not known of this channel.
Coury, love the Shining Force 2 in the background and Phantasy Star Series References!
You guys used the Golden Sun soundtrack so heavily toward the end; I was disappointed to see just a few seconds of the save menu from the game. It's one of my favorite games/series, so I'm always happy to see it get a little recognition. Great stuff as always, though.
One way to change batteries while keeping your saved games is powering the game pak with 5 volts in basically the same way the control deck will power it when you play it instead of soldering in a battery in parallel with the old battery.
I cut a USB cable and soldered the 5 volt + and - wires to the correct joints on the game pak board and used a USB adapter for my 5 VDC power supply. Then I do the work of changing the battery while the game pak is energized in order to retain the SRAM data contents, being very careful not to short anything in the process. I did that for my brother, especially with his copy of "The Secret of Mana" which had a game save he wanted preserved. Worked a treat.
I also got a complete in-the-box copy of GoldenEye for the N64 for a couple of bucks, but its EEPROM was faulty so it wouldn't save the game's progress. I also had gotten a loose copy of V-Rally for the N64 for really cheap and it used the same EEPROM chip, so I swapped chips to fix my copy of GoldenEye.