When N64 Games Won't Save: How to Change Your Nintendo 64 Cartridge Battery
It's Friday night. You just invited a friend over so that you could destroy him in Super Mash Bros. You give him the N64 controller with the loose joystick (of course), turn on the game, and your favorite character, Ness, is nowhere to be found.
This is probably because your N64 cartridge battery died long ago and your unlockable characters have gone away.
Why won't my N64 game save?
Most N64 cartridges store save data in SRAM, or Static RAM, kept alive by a small battery. This was a much cheaper alternative to the flash memory that was much more expensive back when the N64 was being sold.
In this guide, I'll show you how to replace the battery in your cartridge in about 10 minutes so that you can start saving once again.
List of N64 games that use a battery
- 1080º Snowboarding
- F-Zero X
- Harvest Moon 64
- Major League Baseball featuring Ken Griffey Jr.
- Mario Golf
- New Tetris, The
- Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber
- Resident Evil 2
- Super Smash Bros.
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
- WCW/NWO Revenge
- WWF: Wrestlemania 2000
- and Others
Watch the video, or continue below
I made a video tutorial that will walk you through the process. Or, if you prefer, you can continue reading the text and photo-based version of this guide below!
Watch the video:
Soldering iron | × | 1 | ||
Solder sucker | × | 1 | ||
Security screwdriver, 3.8mm | × | 1 | ||
Screwdriver, Phillips | × | 1 | ||
Solder | × | 1 tube | ||
N64 game replacement battery | × | 1 |
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