Noob question : How the hell did battery use to work?

[Noctosphere]

I mean, I know that back in 80's and 90's, games were stored in a ROM, and a rom means Read-Only Memory
So, save files couldnt be written inside it
However, cartridge had a battery where save files were stored
Plus, even if it never happened to me, I learned at school that these battery could run out of all their power, and then, the cartridge were unable to conserve save file anymore
My question is, how the hell could a battery hold a save file? I mean, is it like a regular battery? with metal cover and acid inside it?

 

[mikey420]

The saves were stored in well bassically RAM... the sRAM memory used for saves was volitale meaning it required constant power to retain the state of said memory. A loss of power would result in the memory resetting and you loosing progress. The battery was to supply the needed power to keep the state of the memory. Over time these batteries fail causing the game to stop saving at all and requiring a replacment to make them work correctly again.

 

[Ryccardo]

They don't -- "battery save" is a popular but far from technical term for "a SRAM chip powered by a battery" (with said storage being fully used for saves, or partially for saves and partially as general purpose memory)

 

[Tigran]

The battery kept energy flowing into the Ram, so that it wouldn't dump all the information. *May not be exact... but basic idea*

 

[Noctosphere]

The saces were stored in well bassically RAM... the memory used for saves was volitale meaning it required constant power to retain the state of said memory. A loss of power would result in the memory resetting and you loosing progress. The battery was to supply the needed power to keep the state of the memory. Over time these natteries fail causing the game to stop saving at all and requiring a replacment to make them work correctly again.

They don't -- "battery save" is a popular but far from technical term for "a SRAM chip powered by a battery" (with said storage being fully used for saves, or partially for saves and partially as general purpose memory)

Now I see better
that was before there was flash memory, right?

 

[mikey420]

Im not sure when flash memory became first available but i do know that if it was available at the time its price would have been far too high to be viable for use in game consoles Or carts. Simply put yes it was before flash memory was widely and cheaply available no doubt.

 

[Noctosphere]

Im not sure when flash memory became first available but i do know that if it was available at the time its price would have been far too high to be viable for use in game consoles Or carts. Simply put yes it was before flash memory was widely and cheaply available no doubt.

alright, thanks

 

[Ryccardo]

that was before there was flash memory, right?

Technically not, but it was very expensive and of limited reliability back then, plus unlike SRAM it can't be freely read or written as if it was the console's RAM (needing to bloat the software with extra code - different for every chip model that could have been used in manufacturing)

And it's a lot slower (compare pokemon gen 1/2 with 3 save speed!! Or simply, your brand new M2 SSD with a ramdisk on the same computer...)