Cartridge battery database
Game Boy games with save batteries
1989–1998 · Typical cell: CR1616 (CR2025 on some boards) · 15 of 16 listed cartridges carry a battery
Game Boy cartridges are small, and so are their batteries. Depending on the board revision you'll find either a CR1616 or, on some boards, a CR2025 soldered flat against the PCB, keeping a little SRAM chip alive between play sessions.
Pokémon Red, Blue and Yellow are the games people ask about most, and with good reason — they're among the most-played cartridges ever made, and every one of them is running on a cell fitted in the nineties.
Battery purpose
Showing 16 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.
Game Boy battery questions
What battery is in a Pokémon Red or Blue cartridge?
A 3V coin cell soldered to the board — a CR1616 on most boards, a CR2025 on others. Because it varies, the cart is opened and read rather than guessed at.
Can my Pokémon save be kept during the swap?
If the old cell still has charge, often yes — the board can be held at voltage through the change. Once the file has already vanished it's gone for good, so the time to send a cart in is while it still saves.
Do all Game Boy games have batteries?
No. Games that use passwords, or that don't save at all, have no cell. Tetris and most action and puzzle titles fall into that group.
Looking at another system?
The full database covers NES, SNES, N64, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Genesis and 32X in one searchable table.