Guide
Games with save batteries: the cartridge battery database
208 cartridges documented · 178 with a battery on the board · last updated 2026-09-13
Before memory cards, a cartridge that remembered your progress did it with a coin cell soldered inside the shell. Those cells were never meant to outlive the console generation, let alone three of them. This database answers the questions people actually ask about them: does this game have a battery, which cell does it take, does it hold the save or run a clock, and what changes when it dies.
One thing worth knowing before you search: saving and batteries are not the same thing. Plenty of cartridges save to EEPROM, flash or FRAM and have no cell inside them at all. Those games are listed here too, marked No battery, because knowing a cart doesn't have one saves you opening it.
System
Battery purpose
Showing 208 games
Dead save battery?
If your retro game no longer saves — or you're worried about losing a decades-old file — I can replace the cartridge battery properly, with a tabbed cell soldered to the board and save-tested afterwards.
Browse by system
Nintendo Entertainment System
1985–1994 · CR2032
The first console where your progress lived on the cartridge itself.
26 battery cartridges listed
Super Nintendo
1991–1998 · CR2032
The largest single group of battery-backed carts — every big RPG is here.
56 battery cartridges listed
Nintendo 64
1996–2002 · CR2032
A split library: some carts use batteries, many use EEPROM or Flash and never had one.
15 battery cartridges listed
Game Boy
1989–1998 · CR1616 (CR2025 on some boards)
Handheld RPGs and the original Pokémon games — small cells, big save files.
15 battery cartridges listed
Game Boy Color
1998–2002 · CR1616 (CR2025 on some boards)
Where real-time clocks arrive — Gold, Silver and Crystal run a clock off the same cell.
18 battery cartridges listed
Game Boy Advance
2001–2006 · CR1616
Very few batteries — and on Pokémon GBA carts the cell runs the clock, not your save.
9 battery cartridges listed
Sega Genesis / Mega Drive
1989–1997 · CR2032
RPGs, strategy and season-mode sports — the thick boxes on the shelf.
34 battery cartridges listed
Sega 32X
1994–1996 · Varies / Verify Cartridge
A tiny library with a short list of battery-backed carts — everything else uses passwords.
5 battery cartridges listed
What is a save battery?
A cartridge that remembers your progress needs somewhere to put it. The simplest way to do that in the eighties and nineties was a small static RAM chip — fast, cheap and easy to wire up, but it forgets everything the instant it loses power. The fix was a lithium coin cell soldered across the chip, trickling just enough current to keep those memory cells holding their state while the console sat switched off on a shelf.
That arrangement is what people mean by battery-backed SRAM. It worked beautifully and it was never meant to last forever. The cell was specified for the commercial life of the game, not for a collection that would still be played three decades later.
How long do game cartridge batteries last?
Longer than you'd expect, and less predictably than most lists claim. The drain depends on the board design, the cell fitted at the factory, and how the cartridge has been stored — heat and humidity shorten a cell's life, a cool dry closet extends it. Two identical copies of the same game can be years apart.
So rather than working from a number, work from behaviour. A cart that still holds a save is fine today but worth planning for. A cart that forgets the moment you power off has already failed, and the file it was holding is gone.
What happens when a save battery dies?
On a battery-backed SRAM cart the symptom is unmistakable. You can create a file and play normally, but the moment the console is switched off the file evaporates. Sometimes the game shows a corrupted-data message instead of an empty slot. Either way the memory has lost the voltage that was keeping it alive.
The game itself is fine — the program lives in ROM, which needs no power. Fitting a fresh cell restores saving completely. What it cannot do is bring back a file that has already been lost.
Does every game that saves have a battery?
No. This is worth repeating because a lot of cartridge lists online get it wrong. EEPROM, flash memory and FRAM all store data without power, and all three appear in retro cartridges. Most Nintendo 64 saves use EEPROM or Flash RAM. The Game Boy Advance moved almost the whole library to flash and EEPROM. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 on the Genesis uses a ferroelectric RAM chip and has no cell inside it at all, despite the number of people who have opened one looking for one.
The practical consequence: if a cartridge without a battery is losing saves, a battery replacement will not fix it. The fault is in the contacts, the storage chip, or in a counterfeit board — all of which need a different approach.
Save battery vs RTC battery
Some cartridges carry a cell for a real-time clock rather than for the save. The clock chip keeps counting hours and days while the cartridge sits in a drawer, which is what makes berries grow, tides change and daily events come round.
Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald are the example everybody meets. Their saves are in flash memory and are perfectly safe, but the clock runs off a CR1616 that is now well past its design life. When it dies, time-based content stops and nothing else changes. Pokémon Gold, Silver and Crystal are the other case — a single cell doing both jobs, which is why the clock warning usually appears before the saves start failing.
Will replacing the battery delete my save?
On a battery-backed SRAM cart, removing power is exactly what erases the memory, so any swap carries risk. Done carefully, the board can be kept at voltage while the old cell comes off and the new one goes on, and a file that still loads has a good chance of surviving. Nobody can promise that on every board — some layouts make it awkward and some cells are too far gone to hold up during the work.
The safe advice is simple: send a cartridge in while the save still loads, not after it's gone. On RTC-only cartridges there's nothing to lose, because the save isn't held in SRAM in the first place.
Can I replace a cartridge battery myself?
Plenty of people do. You need a security bit to open the shell, a soldering iron you trust, and a tabbed cell of the right size. The tabs are the part people skip and shouldn't: soldering directly onto a bare coin cell puts heat straight into the cell body, which is both dangerous and a poor joint that fails later.
If you'd rather not risk a cartridge you care about, that's the job I do — but this guide is here to help either way.
Common questions
Does every cartridge that saves have a battery?
No, and this is the most common misconception about retro saves. Cartridges also store saves in EEPROM, flash memory and FRAM, all of which keep their contents with no power at all. Battery-backed SRAM is only one of several methods, and it's the only one with a cell that can go flat.
What is the difference between a save battery and an RTC battery?
A save battery keeps SRAM alive so your file survives with the power off. An RTC battery powers a real-time clock chip while the save lives elsewhere. Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald are the clearest example: the cell only runs the clock, so a dead battery stops berry growth and daily events but leaves your save untouched.
How long do cartridge save batteries last?
There is no single number. Lifespan depends on the cell fitted, how much current the board draws when idle, storage temperature and humidity, and how the cartridge was built. Plenty of thirty-year-old carts still hold a save while others failed a decade ago. Age alone is a reason to check, not proof of failure.
Will replacing the battery delete my save?
It can. Battery-backed SRAM loses its contents the moment it loses power, so any replacement carries risk unless the board is kept at voltage through the swap or the save is backed up first. On RTC-only carts like the GBA Pokémon games there is no risk to the save at all, because it isn't stored in SRAM.
Can I replace a cartridge battery myself?
It's a realistic job if you can solder. It means opening the shell, usually with a security bit, and fitting a tabbed cell to the board. The important rule is never to solder directly to a plain coin cell — heat on the cell body is dangerous and the joint is unreliable. Use a tabbed cell or a holder made for it.
What battery does my cartridge use?
NES, SNES, N64 and Genesis carts are overwhelmingly CR2032. Game Boy and Game Boy Color carts are usually CR1616, with CR2025 on some boards including Pokémon Gold, Silver and Crystal. GBA clock cells are CR1616. Where the database says 'Varies / Verify Cartridge' the board revision decides, so it gets read rather than guessed.
How we built this database
Every record here was compiled and cross-referenced against cartridge databases, PCB documentation, preservation projects and repair references, with board-level evidence preferred wherever sources disagreed. A game is only marked as having a battery when there's documented evidence of a cell on the board — save support on its own was never treated as proof. Where a board varies by revision or the evidence is thin, the record says so rather than guessing at a cell.
- NESCartDB — Board-level scans and PCB data for NES and Famicom cartridges.
- SNES Central — Cartridge board types, chip maps and PCB photography for the SNES library.
- Micro-64 N64 database — Per-title save-hardware breakdown for the Nintendo 64 library.
- Game Boy Hardware Database — Photographed Game Boy and Game Boy Color cartridge boards, including cells.
- Sega Retro — Mega Drive and 32X cartridge documentation and board scans.
- ConsoleMods Wiki — Repair-oriented documentation, including battery types and replacement notes.
- GBATEK hardware reference — Technical documentation of Game Boy Advance save hardware, including SRAM, FRAM, EEPROM and flash.
- Cells read directly off boards on my own bench, which is where the verify-the-cartridge notes come from.
We've worked to make this one of the most comprehensive cartridge battery references available. Retro game cartridges can have regional and manufacturing revisions, so if you spot something we're missing, let us know.
Related
Battery replacement service
Tabbed cells soldered in properly, then save-tested.
Pokémon save battery replacement
The most common battery job of all, generation by generation.
Why your cartridge won't boot
When it isn't the battery, it's almost always the contacts.
Cartridge cleaning
Contacts and shells, inside and out.
Console repair
Slots, power, video and the rest of the hardware.
How mail-in works
Two labels, one trip out and one trip home.