While it might be something of a dying concept with disc based games and profile locked saves stored with online servers then for many years games had their saves stick with them, and even without that you might have bought a memory card or console with existing things on it. Others might have rented games and experienced something similar, indeed many have stories of playing the same games as someone else local to them that they might have never met, as well as adopting a certain etiquette when playing such things.

By way of example. End of the 16 bit era. I had purchased a copy of a Lotus III driving game for the megadrive. Today it is not so well remembered other than being an earlier example of procedural generation, and a few select fans of game music (skip to track 3/6:29 for what many consider the best). In my case the high score table told me in a few letters each time how to access the hidden shmup minigame, something in the pre internet era I might never have discovered. Presented something of a dilemma when I eventually got good enough to start troubling the high scores as well.

More recently. A "too good to be true" deal on an xbox 360 slim saw me have to clean out smoker house dust from everything including the power supply, however that did mean a nice working xbox 360 as a result. It included a profile with a bunch of saves on it, one that I am actually still using (who needs online games). Exploring someone else's game of Skate 3 was an interesting affair, though if someone else has played with someone else's pokemon I am sure we are all interested in that one.

On a somewhat related note then back on the N64 then in Goldeneye you had to earn cheats by beating levels within a timeframe, some of them were fairly notable feats so a friend traded his cartridge with said cheats unlocked with another person in the school.

Maybe you encountered a copy of 3ds Resident Evil Mercenaries and all that went on there.

To that end you are invited to share some notable or otherwise interesting stories of your interactions with second hand games and the saves contained upon them.

 

[DinohScene]

I usually nuke the contents off off savecards/harddrives of used consoles that I get.

The things I do get a chuckle out of is funny and or out of context savegame names.

 

[Marc_LFD]

Don't remember much about used game saves, but I was surprised by finding a GTA V disc inside a PS3 80GB that I bought. It wasn't stated on the ad so maybe the seller forgot about it.

Great game though I wouldn't play it again.

 

[1B51004]

Already told this before, but I got a copy of Pokemon Sapphire and looked at the save file before I backed it up. I'm pretty sure the one who played this was spanish, since most of the boxes were in Spanish and the players name was "Diablo". I'm also like 99% certain that they used a game shark (or were just really good) because they completed the E4 a couple dozen times with mostly legendary pokemon.

Sadly I accidently deleted the save file when I thought I backed it up. RIP Diablo, 2002(?) - 2021.

More recently, I got AC:NL and someone already had a barely used town on there. I made sure to back that one up lol

 

[Plazorn]

This is very fascinating, but what is it? Is it a book?

 

[Tallion]

The only memories I have regarding this are renting SNES games from Blockbuster. I frequently rented Kirby Super Star and sometimes my own save file would still be on it. Otherwise I would bomb the rest of the saves and start over.

 

[Plazorn]

In fact I remember getting a used copy of Pokémon White with someone’s save on it, it even had a few event Pokémon stashed away in the boxes. The one thing I think about most was a shiny Zekrom that’s name was all glitch text. After I looked at its summary the game crashed, and no matter how many times I tried the game would not boot again….

 

[KleinesSinchen]

Got Pokemon Gold which had a very high level Raichu saved. The battery was dying (below 1.5V) when I got the cart. While the clock was more or less standing still, the SRAM was fine. I don't like the Pokemon mascot Pikachu, but the bigger electric rat is nice. Nothing special, no idea why, but I moved the Raichu to another cart before replacing the battery.

On one of my Wii consoles were a lot of Mii characters. The previous owner must have thought they were creative when making unnatural, stupid faces and give obscene names. → Format System Memory

My Zelda II NES game has a perfect save on it. Somebody must have played the game from start to finish with zero game over (or they cheated).


The by far BEST save on a used gaming item was indirectly on the first Wii I bought. The price was €60 (which was good at that time) it came with warranty, some games, some controllers. The save I'm talking about was inside the Wii Shop Account on the Nintendo servers. The previous owner had bought and used a 3000 Wii Points (€30) card and consequently downloaded NOTHING from the shop. On my first day of owning a Wii I could start buying stuff on the shop channel. That was effectively a very cheap Wii.

 

[FAST6191]

This is very fascinating, but what is it? Is it a book?

If you are talking about the banner it is supposed to be a send up of the Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince cover. Spoilers I guess but in it a ratty copy of a textbook has a bunch of notes scribbled in it that make him one of the more proficient students because the textbook is not so good.

Got Pokemon Gold which had a very high level Raichu saved. The battery was dying (below 1.5V) when I got the cart. While the clock was more or less standing still, the SRAM was fine. I don't like the Pokemon mascot Pikachu, but the bigger electric rat is nice. Nothing special, no idea why, but I moved the Raichu to another cart before replacing the battery.

On one of my Wii consoles were a lot of Mii characters. The previous owner must have thought they were creative when making unnatural, stupid faces and give obscene names. → Format System Memory

My Zelda II NES game has a perfect save on it. Somebody must have played the game from start to finish with zero game over (or they cheated).


The by far BEST save on a used gaming item was indirectly on the first Wii I bought. The price was €60 (which was good at that time) it came with warranty, some games, some controllers. The save I'm talking about was inside the Wii Shop Account on the Nintendo servers. The previous owner had bought and used a 3000 Wii Points (€30) card and consequently downloaded NOTHING from the shop. On my first day of owning a Wii I could start buying stuff on the shop channel. That was effectively a very cheap Wii.

Nothing so fun as the second wii (granted I don't play online games outside PC or DS really) but I do have a Wii I picked up when a charity shop was going out of business (£30 with a bunch of interesting games became £15 because half price I think it was). Was kind of eerie looking at some family (most of the games were kids games) that had made themselves.

 

[Deleted member 545975]

Hello, and good day! I recall finishing Dragon View for Super Nintendo platforms as a kid, from a save game that came with! As a kid I thought that it required a lot of farming before continuing from the beginning: I feel very charmed by this game, and spiritually stimulated by what I got to experience in, back then. Few years ago I asked for help on Internet to I recall the name of the Dragon View video game, and recently, completed it, and became one of my both, most loved, and favorite video games of all time!

 

[ChaoticPumpkin]

I remember buying a gameboy camera off ebay a year or two ago, and there were a lot of random pictures the original owner had taken, one of them was just a picture of their eye really close up lol.

 

[Graxer]

In about 2010 I got a used copy of Pokemon Platinum that had a shiny Ponyta. I wiped the save, but that Ponyta still lives on in Pokemon Home.

 

[x65943]

I bought a 3ds from a pawn shop and the camera app had a bunch of photos of the kid who used to own it and their pets

It was actually pretty sad and reminded me of how my mom always tried to sell my stuff as a kid ;A;

Sorry for buying your 3ds kid, hope you're grown up now and your parents can't sell your stuff anymore

 

[SS4]

I was disappointed when i got my limited edition MH4U used (but mint condition) N3DS XL for cheap and found out that the game was tied to the nintendo account not the handheld itself . . .
So either i played on someone else's account to keep the free game or lose everything and use my own . . .
That RE merc exemple reminded me of this lol

 

[JuanMena]

I remember buying the Zelda Oracle of Seasons cartridge way back in 2005/6 and it had two files. One with the Secrets Items and the other with Mosh unlocked.

The third file was free so I used it and got Ricky. Also, never found the Secrets Items and was wondering how the fuck those were there.

Years later had to sell my GBA with my games because my family needed money, not sure what happened with my other games.

Fun fact: I still have my Link's Awakening DX cartridge from that era because I forgot I inserted it to my SUPER GAMEBOY which has been stored for 15+ years. Actually no, I got the Super GAMEBOY cartridge probably in 2000, but last played it on my SNES when I was in 7th grade, around 2005.

Ended up loosing a Pink Clear Shell GBA with:
Zelda Oracle of Seasons
Zelda A Link to the Past/4 Swords
Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros 3
SSX3
Medal of Honor Infiltrator
Mario Pinball Land
The King of Fighters EX2
Kirby Nightmare in Dreamland
Mario Kart Super Circuit
Bomberman MAX Red Challenger
Megaman Battle Chip Challenge
Megaman 3
and a cartridge with 20-in-1 GB games


So the story is totally backwards too

 

[scoobydude51]

I have a copy of Super Mario Kart that I bought on ebay from Japan that when i got it, the previous person who played/owned it unlocked everything (including the hidden bonus GPs). Something i’d take ages to do at the rate that i play games on my Super Famicom.

 

[raxadian]

I remember trading for used games and getting Gameboy games that had saves on them then nuking the save. Besides that the time I gamed that most was the PS2 era and back them games used memory cards. Of course nowadays you can get saves from the Internet, that's how I fully unlocked everything in Sonic and the secret rings for the Wii. Nintendo 64 games that didn't requite memory cards had the save files in the cardridge and when I got them used yes I deleted the save. Usually I prefer to start a game from the beginning unless the game is terrible to play.

 

[HelpTheWretched]

I haven't bothered checking the existing saves for used/rental games in a long time. But when I got my (used) New 3DS, they had factory-reset the system but didn't wipe the SD card, so it had several full games saved on it, plus the previous owner's entire photo album. Judging by the one (1) selfie, it was a middle-aged or older woman, who took lots of 3D photos of her fish and her two large, fluffy orange cats. The games were stuff like Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon.

 

[Willgheminass]

When my brother and I got a pre-owned Xbox One, it came with a DVD of Logan already inside the console. It also had game licensees already on it, however that works on Xbox, so someone else's games they got with gold or whatever were able to be played on it, it was basically a bunch of free games until they stopped working. Nowadays I've completely abandoned the console and my brother uses it as a media machine, since I find that most of the games I play on there also play on my computer and I got mostly attached to PC gaming (and my Switch, and PS4 exclusives) at that point. I also have an Animal Crossing Wild World cart that I haven't bothered to play on because it has four whole villagers on it.

 

[ChibiMofo]

I got a Wii two years ago with a Wii Fit Plus profile that had all the advanced yoga poses unlocked.
Sweet!

The Wii Fit Trainer was not amused that "I" had seemingly put on over 40 pounds of fat in the intervening three years since she had last seen "me."