Gaming Just got the GBA SP

[MadHouse38]

Hey guys i just got the GBA SP 001 black one.
And i have few questions:

1. If im gonna buy used GBA Games,does it matter how old they are?
I heard theres some kind of battery in them,so whats the point and what happens when they die?
2. how to tell when my gba battery is gonna die? I wanna see how long it can stay on.

Thanks in Advance

 

[FluffyLunamoth]

The green power light will turn red once the battery starts getting close to dying, means you need to plug it in ASAP. Unless you mean the battery inside the games themselves, in which case I don't think there's a way to tell when they'll die. They're there mostly for realtime save games, or games with a clock. And for memory storage. They usually last a long time, but they're why old gba games aren't 100% worth it.

 

[MadHouse38]

Thanks for the quick answer!
Yeah i wanna see how my gba can last long and also,saw some gba games with dead battery so i wanted to check what does that mean.

 

[FluffyLunamoth]

Means they can't do anytime time-related. I think some games lose the ability to save, though I don't know if that was GBA or GB/C...

 

[DanTheManMS]

Many games use EEPROM for saving, and many use FLASH, but some use SRAM which requires a battery for holding the save. Later SRAM games actually use a form of flash-based SRAM that doesn't use a battery though they're still listed as SRAM in most release lists.

I wouldn't worry too much about official game batteries dying. My NES Zelda cartridge still holds its save, and that was the very first SRAM-enabled game Nintendo ever produced. It's the batteries within flash carts and pirated GBA carts that you need to worry about.