Gamer Keeps Console On For 20 Years To Preserve Game Data
Save data means a lot to some gamers, some more than others. In some ways, save data is how we show people how far we’ve progressed in the game. In others, it shows that we’ve beaten a game, or went all out to beat a game. Yet for one gamer, it was literally a matter of survival, for the game that is.
For Twitter user Wanikun, he was so deteremined to protect the save data for a game of his that he left his Super Famicom (the Japanese name for the Super Nintendo) on for over two decades to preserve his save data for Japanese game Umihara Kawase.
Not familiar with that game? No problem: Umihara Kawase came out for the Super Famicom (the Japanese version of the SNES) in December 1994, and was a popular title that unfortunately, as RocketNews24 put it, “featured SRAM (Static RAM) coupled with lithium-ion batteries. As long as your battery stayed charged, the SRAM would hold your save data. Unfortunately, as soon as your battery ran out, your data would disappear as well.”
So, he kept it on, for two decades, with a small gap when he had to move out of his house and into a new one. Thankfully, the batteries stayed alive. He estimates he had that Super Famicon on for 180,000 hours. How’s that for dedication?