Preserving Pokémon
Information and solutions on how to preserve your Pokémon game data
I’m a huge supporter of video game preservation, especially when it comes to something as special as Pokémon, whether that be featuring photographs and personal stories of a fan at a rare distribution event or spreading the word about the efforts to remember a now defunct Pokémon store. But something that will impact many video game enthusiasts, especially Pokémon fans such as myself, is the risk of losing precious memories from their physical games.
Over time, internal batteries within copies of older Pokémon games will die. Replacing a battery and soldering in a new one isn’t too difficult if you know what you’re doing, but you run the risk of losing your save data in the process if you are not careful, which may include information you want to retain, such as a shiny, or even a unique distribution event Pokémon.
Batteries have some variance depending on the specific type and the amount of usage those games have had over the years. At the time of publication, I am confident to say that almost every single copy of Pokémon Gold, Silver and Crystal that haven’t had their batteries replaced have already died. Their save data will have been wiped due to the game’s built-in clock function draining the batteries faster than usual. I was unable to find a source that agreed on battery life, but five years was the general length of time that I saw when it comes to Generation 2 games.
Copies of Pokémon Red, Blue and Yellow should have lasted far longer as there are no time-based events in those games, and they are likely to still retain their original data. But even those games are nearing their end. I saw estimates of batteries failing twenty-five to thirty years after release. This could potentially mean that copies of Red and Blue released in North America could see their data dying off in the years 2023 to 2028.
There is a little more hope for Game Boy Advance games such as Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald, or FireRed and LeafGreen, as save data is stored in the cartridge's flash memory (Flash-RAM). It's advised that you save the game at least once every ten years to avoid flash bit rot. I won’t go into the details of flash bit rot here, but there are many great resources online I would urge you to check out. But even those games will eventually lose their data entirely.
This brings me to the topic of solutions. I am personally uncomfortable replacing batteries inside my games for fear of breaking them, and I am sure I’m not the only one. While it may be too late for copies of the generation two Pokémon games, there are now a few solutions out there that will allow you to transfer data from the cartridge to a PC, where you can store it and hold on to your data indefinitely. One of these is a product called GBxCart RW, one I have personal experience with.
Disclaimer: Before I go further, I must stress that I have not been paid by the company to make this post, nor do I have a connection to the company in any way, and I am not receiving a commission. I am speaking from personal experience as a customer and simply wish to recommend their product.
GBxCart RW is a device that allows you to back up game ROMs and save data from Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance cartridges to your computer using FlashGBX (compatible with Windows, Mac & Linux), which can then be copied back to the original cartridge when the battery has been replaced. It can even transfer photos taken on a Game Boy Camera! It’s powered using a USB-C cable, and this isn’t typically included with the product when you buy it.
I have personally used a GBxCart to back up all of my Pokémon titles, as well as dozens of other games from my collection. I paid just under £40 from a company called ZedLabz in the UK in 2022 for this product (I will leave some information at the bottom of this page for anyone who is interested in finding one in other parts of the world). These products are now becoming more widely available, and I urge anyone who cares about their game data to take the time to research what is available out there.
When it comes to Nintendo DS and 3DS, custom hardware can preserve your save data. However, if you are someone like me who is worried about breaking your consoles, it might not be an option for you, and I would recommend researching exactly what is involved in that process. If you are interested in learning more, there are a number of great resources out there that can help, and many helpful communities willing to educate.
I will leave you with a thought in regard to digital games. Nintendo have previously made several of their games available on the Wii U and 3DS eShop, but on March 27th 2023 their online store closed down, taking all of those games with it. At the time of writing, it is not confirmed that mainline Pokémon titles will appear on the Nintendo Switch Online service, but even if they do, they are only accessible if you continue to pay an online subscription, and could be pulled from the service entirely at a time of Nintendo’s choosing. I hope that Pokémon fans will reflect on this and realise that their Pokémon data may not be around in twenty years, unless they take measures to secure it.
For more information on the GBxCart, as well as links to where to buy it, download FlashGBX, and access their Discord server for questions and support, check out the official website here.