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Do Gameboy Advance Cartridges Have Batteries?

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Have you ever wondered about Gameboy Advance cartridges? Maybe you heard that they contained a battery and you wondered if this was true. Well, in this article we will go over everything you need to know about Gameboy Advance cartridges. 

So do Gameboy Advance cartridges have batteries?

Although most people do not realize it, Gameboy Advance cartridges do actually have batteries. A Gameboy Advance game usually comes with EEPROM, SRAM, or FLASH RAM.  The SRAM variant of Gameboy Advance cartridges requires a battery backup. Besides this one type of game though, having a battery isn’t actually necessary. 

If you want to know more about Gameboy Advance games, then you will want to keep reading. You can also watch this video to learn how to replace a battery on your Gameboy Advance cartridge. 

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Why don’t my Gameboy Advance games save my game anymore?

Most of the games that allow you to save the cartridge’s data require batteries. Sometimes though after a while of being used, the battery in the cartridge will need to be replaced. Although this may sound hard to do, do not worry. We will walk you through step by step of how to replace the battery next. 

Battery Replacement

The first step is to get the CR2025 battery with a pre-soldered tab because this is the direct replacement of your battery in the Gameboy Advance cartridges.

Opening the battery or doing something silly with it can cause an explosion, so be sure and be careful with it. 

  • Open the Gameboy Advance Cartridge

Nintendo always worked hard to provide you with the best possible hardware so that you don’t have to deal with opening anything. But, unfortunately, you have to change the battery if you want to save your game on it.

To open the cartridges, all you have to do is to use a 3.8mm screwdriver. If you don’t have one, you can purchase one in many kits. Now, once you have the right size screwdriver, remove the screws from the back of the cartridge and make sure that you remove the circuit from its plastic housing as well.

  • Remove the old battery

The battery that is installed in the cartridge is soldered to the circuit board in two ways. If you want to remove the solder, then you need to heat up the tab and remove it from the board.

If you have a soldering iron, this is a very easy step.

If you don’t have a soldering iron and you don’t want to spend the money on one, then you can try and use a different tool to break the solder. This can be quite difficult though if you don’t know what you are doing. 

Once you remove the battery, you will need to dispose of it properly. 

  • Install the New Battery

The battery which the Gameboy Advance was using was from 2003. You can check the date on the surface of the Circuit Board if you are curious how old it is. 

Now, it is time to install the new battery. All you have to do is to place the new battery at the right place, and resolder the connection.

Once you do that all you need to do is simply put the plastic cover on and put the screw back in as well. 

Now that the battery is replaced you are all set to save your game again. This battery, although it is small, should work to save the game for at least a few years before it needs replaced again. 

Which games use batteries? 

The following titles are the games that use battery power to hold the save data

  • Baseball Advance
  • Boktai 1, 2 and 3 (Japan)
  • Bomberman Tournament
  • Breath of Fire
  • Breath of Fire II
  • Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
  • Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance
  • Dragon Ball Z Collectible Card Game
  • Hamtaro: Ham-Ham Heartbreak
  • Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land
  • Krazy Racers
  • Lego Bionicle
  • Lego Island 2: The Brickster’s Revenge
  • MegaMan Battle Network
  • MegaMan Zero
  • Metroid Fusion
  • Metroid Zero Mission
  • Monster Rancher Advance
  • Monster Rancher Advance 2
  • Pokemon Emerald 
  • Pokemon Ruby
  • Pokemon Sapphire
  • Super Dodgeball Advance
  • Wario Land 4

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Gameboy Advance still being made?

The production of the Gameboy Advance was stopped in 2003 because the demand for the product had declined so much with gaming devices being more in homes than on the go. 

Also, the latest games were playing a great role in switching the attention of the people from Nintendo to other platforms. This is why it was a great decision for Nintendo to stop the production and move on to generate something better. 

How much did the original Gameboy Advance cost?

At the time of the launch, the price of the device was $90, but the system now is going to cost you over $50- $100 for a used model. 

All of Nintendo’s consoles hold their value quite well so if you are interested in getting one it is normally better to buy it when you decide that you want it as the retro style consoles continue to increase in popularity. 

Was the Gameboy Advance discontinued?

At the time of the release, the Gameboy Advance was doing great business. It was doing so good because there was no competitor giving them a tough time. Unfortunately that did not last long as Microsoft and Sony’s newest games began to release. It was only a short time until everyone was buying the newest consoles and that forced Nintendo to discontinue the Gameboy Advance. 

Many companies moved toward the production of the compact disc as they were cheaper to make despite not  lasting longer than the cartridge. The newer technology also looked better when they were advertising. The compact disc looked futuristic compared to the block of the cartridge. 

Conclusion

Now that you know about the Gameboy Advance cartridges and the fact that they have batteries, you know why it might have stopped saving your game. If this happens you now know how to replace the battery as well as fix the cartridge so it can save your games again. 

Although not every game cartridge had a built in battery, there were quite a few that did. 

Many people did not like this as sometimes the battery would die, and if you didn’t know how to, or didn’t want to deal with it, you would have to take it somewhere to be able to save games again. This is why when the newer systems started coming out that accepted memory save cards, it was much more popular than saving games on individual cartridges. 

People do not like to be inconvenienced, especially if they are in the middle of a game. The worst thing about the Gameboy Advance game cartridge games was that if you had saved a game that you were about to finish and the battery died, you had to start all over again. 

This made many Nintendo fans upset even though the games that were created for Nintendo were the best games available in the market. 

Today there are many people that collect Gameboy Advance games, as well as all things Nintendo. Even though Nintendo still produces items, a lot of their original items such as the Gameboy Advance and the games are worth money to people today. The games that are not worth money, are still fun to play, and many people will still sit down and enjoy playing a game on the Gameboy Advance every now and then.