Because the memory card uses battery backed sram instead of something
t sensible lmao. So only morons like iguana/acclaim used it to save a buck. Hey if you have any saves from the 90s on yours they're gone now lol.
The SRAM used in game cartridges typically use incredibly little power. I can't find any specific numbers relating to something like an N64 cartridge, it's probably something you'd measure in microwatts at least or something. They're gonna run out eventually, but it's still not uncommon to find NES and Genesis games with working save batteries. OoT is only like 23 years old so the battery probably still has a good chunk of life left in them.
The only reason games like Gen 2 pokemon have their batteries die way faster is because they also used them to power their RTC clock, which sucks way more juice.
Very little. Many of the batteries are still going strong but they will die at some point. It's purely luck on when. I have an Ocarina of Time battery that is still at nearly max capacity while I had to replace the battery in my F-Zero X recently.
It does not need any "power" to maintain it but voltage, the power loss (a few nano(!)amperes of current) comes from inevitable leakage current which lets the galvanic cell aka battery still over time perform its reaction and makes the voltage decrease more and more.
Actually, only a handful of N64 games had batteries in them. EEPROM chips, on the other hand, were plentiful.
http://micro-64.com/database/gamesave.shtml
More info:
https://retrocomputing.stackexchange.com/questions/14072/why-do-n64-cartridges-use-2-different-technologies-for-saving-to-the-cart
Most 3rd party games used this to save, it's just that barely anyone played 3rd party games on the N64 other than All Star Baseball, Harvest Moon, and the wrestling games.
Many of the games I had supported it. Beetle Adventure Racing, the wrestling games, and even Wonder Project J2 specifically came with a controller pak+sticker label because its save file was so large. I'm trying to save up for those Forever Pak 64 because of it.
For a while it was rumored the controller pak can cause No Mercy (non -1 editions) to erase the save data. I have avoided using them, but it still resets the data eventually.
Many of the games I had supported it. Beetle Adventure Racing, the wrestling games, and even Wonder Project J2 specifically came with a controller pak+sticker label because its save file was so large. I'm trying to save up for those Forever Pak 64 because of it.
For a while it was rumored the controller pak can cause No Mercy (non -1 editions) to erase the save data. I have avoided using them, but it still resets the data eventually.
No Mercy is actually what wiped my controller pak multiple times.
some games use that as the ONLY fricking place to save and it always got fricking corrupted lol
When it came to N64, there was very little need to have both the cartridge and the controller pak to act as the save function for a single game. If you wanted to carry over your saves from a cartridge, it's easy to take the game cart with you since it's only 2.5 times the size of a controller pak. The only times you'd want one for a first-party game is if you recorded your ghost data on it, and Mario Kart 64 fricking hogged all of the pages for no good reason just for a single ghost.
All games that use the controller pak either had a menu in-game or could be booted into controller pak mode by holding start or B while powering on the N64, that let you manage them.
As an aside, I really wish that the Everdrive x7 would automatically save or load the controller pak data when you choose the per-game backup function. You have to do it manually every time, so it's a pain in the ass unless you own like five controller paks to cover the entire N64 library.
When it came to N64, there was very little need to have both the cartridge and the controller pak to act as the save function for a single game. If you wanted to carry over your saves from a cartridge, it's easy to take the game cart with you since it's only 2.5 times the size of a controller pak. The only times you'd want one for a first-party game is if you recorded your ghost data on it, and Mario Kart 64 fricking hogged all of the pages for no good reason just for a single ghost.
All games that use the controller pak either had a menu in-game or could be booted into controller pak mode by holding start or B while powering on the N64, that let you manage them.
As an aside, I really wish that the Everdrive x7 would automatically save or load the controller pak data when you choose the per-game backup function. You have to do it manually every time, so it's a pain in the ass unless you own like five controller paks to cover the entire N64 library.
The controller pack has 32 kilobytes of battery back up SRAM. In the mid 90s that was not exactly cheap but not exactly totally inexpensive it was just multiple components on a cheap board.
Most games needed less than a couple kilobyte so as the price of EEPROM and FlashRAM dropped like a rock it made sense to just stick these chips directly onto the cart and avoid having to deal with kids wrecking their controllers, controller packs, causing problems for parents to complain about the hidden costs of buying little Timmy a game for Xmas.
I can remember reading a translated staff interview where Nintendo had plans to run tournaments against the MK64 staff ghosts. If you wanted to enter you had to send them the controller pack with your ghost but it was never followed though. The ghost data doesn't just include your path around the course but all of your button inputs and timings so you couldn't cheat.
or until the cycles wear out :^)
FlashRAM from the 90s should have an erasure count in the tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of times and should in theory fail into a still readable state, its usually only one or two flash cells so quality control can ensure exactly how many times these things will function as intended.
Flash in your cheap SD card will die all the time because its mass produced and phones, cameras, mp3 players were usually not very smart about how many times they overwrite a small number of flash cells on a storage device. What makes Flash so useful is that you can string multiple flash cells onto the same control lines and that why a cell failure can be very bad, a failure on one of those cells can take out a whole line killing other flash cells in the process. Even that halfwit Musk put out Tesla cars that wore out several cars flash memory recording virtually everything because they didn't use automotive grade (high quality control) flash storage.
So few games? There were many 3rd party games that used the controller pak.
http://n64.icequake.net/mirror/www.elitendo.com/n64/usa_boot_save_list.html
The point of it was that publishers could save money by not having to include SRAM inside the cartridge. But most of the major releases did include SRAM in the cartridge.
Nintendo's thinking was that memory paks were for transferring and storing personal data when you were at friend's houses. It's why the slot is in the controller and you can have 4 paks at once. Given that the majority of games didn't have content rich multiplayer with persistent data, hardly anything used them like Nintendo envisioned and so most companies just used plain old cartridge saves and cheap ass publishers used the paks in lieu of cart saves.
Because the memory card uses battery backed sram instead of something
t sensible lmao. So only morons like iguana/acclaim used it to save a buck. Hey if you have any saves from the 90s on yours they're gone now lol.
Many N64 cartridges, including Ocarina of Time, save to battery backed SRAM themselves.
Many also save to flash, keeping your saves safe until heat death of the earth
or until the cycles wear out :^)
My Ocarina cart still has its original battery. How much power does it actually need to maintain the save?
The SRAM used in game cartridges typically use incredibly little power. I can't find any specific numbers relating to something like an N64 cartridge, it's probably something you'd measure in microwatts at least or something. They're gonna run out eventually, but it's still not uncommon to find NES and Genesis games with working save batteries. OoT is only like 23 years old so the battery probably still has a good chunk of life left in them.
The only reason games like Gen 2 pokemon have their batteries die way faster is because they also used them to power their RTC clock, which sucks way more juice.
Very little. Many of the batteries are still going strong but they will die at some point. It's purely luck on when. I have an Ocarina of Time battery that is still at nearly max capacity while I had to replace the battery in my F-Zero X recently.
It would honestly be more accurate to say that SRAM "needs" power but doesn't necessarily actually use it
It does not need any "power" to maintain it but voltage, the power loss (a few nano(!)amperes of current) comes from inevitable leakage current which lets the galvanic cell aka battery still over time perform its reaction and makes the voltage decrease more and more.
Actually, only a handful of N64 games had batteries in them. EEPROM chips, on the other hand, were plentiful.
http://micro-64.com/database/gamesave.shtml
More info:
https://retrocomputing.stackexchange.com/questions/14072/why-do-n64-cartridges-use-2-different-technologies-for-saving-to-the-cart
thanks this images like this ones it was should /vr/ about
Is that just a clip holding the battery in there? No soldering to replace it? If so that's cool
'fraid not. If you look closely you can see the two spot welds of "frick you."
Mystical Ninja uses it. Sucked because I ended up losing my file 2 or 3 times as a kid.
When I was a kid and saw the memory card icon on a game box I'd immediately know the game was bad. Was there a single good game that used these?
Legend of the Mystical Ninja is the only one I can think of
Most 3rd party games used this to save, it's just that barely anyone played 3rd party games on the N64 other than All Star Baseball, Harvest Moon, and the wrestling games.
>wrestling games.
WCW Revenge was absolute kino
Many of the games I had supported it. Beetle Adventure Racing, the wrestling games, and even Wonder Project J2 specifically came with a controller pak+sticker label because its save file was so large. I'm trying to save up for those Forever Pak 64 because of it.
For a while it was rumored the controller pak can cause No Mercy (non -1 editions) to erase the save data. I have avoided using them, but it still resets the data eventually.
No Mercy is actually what wiped my controller pak multiple times.
How do you even manage the saves on this thing? It's not like there's a menu for it.
Hold start when you boot a game up and the memory pack is inserted.
genuinely had no idea, impressive.
When it came to N64, there was very little need to have both the cartridge and the controller pak to act as the save function for a single game. If you wanted to carry over your saves from a cartridge, it's easy to take the game cart with you since it's only 2.5 times the size of a controller pak. The only times you'd want one for a first-party game is if you recorded your ghost data on it, and Mario Kart 64 fricking hogged all of the pages for no good reason just for a single ghost.
All games that use the controller pak either had a menu in-game or could be booted into controller pak mode by holding start or B while powering on the N64, that let you manage them.
As an aside, I really wish that the Everdrive x7 would automatically save or load the controller pak data when you choose the per-game backup function. You have to do it manually every time, so it's a pain in the ass unless you own like five controller paks to cover the entire N64 library.
The controller pack has 32 kilobytes of battery back up SRAM. In the mid 90s that was not exactly cheap but not exactly totally inexpensive it was just multiple components on a cheap board.
Most games needed less than a couple kilobyte so as the price of EEPROM and FlashRAM dropped like a rock it made sense to just stick these chips directly onto the cart and avoid having to deal with kids wrecking their controllers, controller packs, causing problems for parents to complain about the hidden costs of buying little Timmy a game for Xmas.
I can remember reading a translated staff interview where Nintendo had plans to run tournaments against the MK64 staff ghosts. If you wanted to enter you had to send them the controller pack with your ghost but it was never followed though. The ghost data doesn't just include your path around the course but all of your button inputs and timings so you couldn't cheat.
FlashRAM from the 90s should have an erasure count in the tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of times and should in theory fail into a still readable state, its usually only one or two flash cells so quality control can ensure exactly how many times these things will function as intended.
Flash in your cheap SD card will die all the time because its mass produced and phones, cameras, mp3 players were usually not very smart about how many times they overwrite a small number of flash cells on a storage device. What makes Flash so useful is that you can string multiple flash cells onto the same control lines and that why a cell failure can be very bad, a failure on one of those cells can take out a whole line killing other flash cells in the process. Even that halfwit Musk put out Tesla cars that wore out several cars flash memory recording virtually everything because they didn't use automotive grade (high quality control) flash storage.
So few games? There were many 3rd party games that used the controller pak.
http://n64.icequake.net/mirror/www.elitendo.com/n64/usa_boot_save_list.html
The point of it was that publishers could save money by not having to include SRAM inside the cartridge. But most of the major releases did include SRAM in the cartridge.
Nintendo's thinking was that memory paks were for transferring and storing personal data when you were at friend's houses. It's why the slot is in the controller and you can have 4 paks at once. Given that the majority of games didn't have content rich multiplayer with persistent data, hardly anything used them like Nintendo envisioned and so most companies just used plain old cartridge saves and cheap ass publishers used the paks in lieu of cart saves.
I got the memory card specifically for Gauntlet Legends and Doom 64. I don't think there was ever any other save files on it.
some games use that as the ONLY fricking place to save and it always got fricking corrupted lol