GBA battery 'has run dry'?

Conza

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Nov 7, 2010
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I bought Pokemon FireRed for GBA, and I played it for 45 minutes, saving several times, but at one point it tried to save and came up with the message 'using the backup battery' or something, and then said, game saved, so I continued. I saved one more time then turned it off, but wasn't 100% satisfied that it worked, turned it back on and the game starts again (no option for new game or continue, it just starts a new game). Saved that game, restarted and apparently now 'the previous save file will be loaded'.

Ages ago I bought an GBA facsimile catridge that takes Mini-SD cards and can play Roms. Ideally, I'd like to extract my GBA rom, and put it on this SD cartridge, but I think I'd need a GBA cartidge reader, and it becomes quite complicated, so instead, I'm thinking of just getting a FireRed rom and playing that.

But, if I play that, and trade Pokemon all the way up to the latest Pokemon X, will they come up as hacked? They might even if I use my legitimate rom (if I extracted that from the real GBA catridge), I'm unsure though.

You know, when I first came here, 2 or 3 years ago, I started a thread about what I should do being away from my DVD collections and wanting to watch the content on my computer, but a downloaded version.

I feel this is a similar scenario, I've tried to do the right thing by buying the GBA game instead of just getting the Rom, but now that I have, its backfired, and I can't make a backup of my version, so can I use a backup of someone elses?

EDIT: The person I bought it from is sending me a replacement, but if that battery fails I'll be back where I am right now :/
 

synobal

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Jun 8, 2011
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FireRed? weird, of thought they would have been using some sort of nand flash for save files rather than a cmos type setup. Then again nintendo has never really been at the forefront of media technology, that was always more of sony's thing.
 

Conza

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Yeah, funny isn't it, it would've been the last Pokemon game to use that system, by the time Diamond and Pearl came out on DS, all DS games were flash memory, but Pokemon games Gen I-III (ignoring Heart Gold and Soul Silver), use the same setup as in the original GameBoy games, such as Red Blue and Green.
 

LordOmnit

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Just in case you bought it recently and didn't buy it new I suggest you look at these [http://caggames.weebly.com/how-to-spot-a-fake-pokemon-gba-game.html] two [http://bnclark.wordpress.com/2013/07/11/psa-spotting-the-new-breed-of-fake-pokemon-leafgreen-and-firered-cartridges/] articles. That "the previous save file will be loaded" message was one of the warning signs of a fake GBA Pokemon game. And you actually don't have to worry too much about it coming up as hacked when you trade it up to X & Y because supposedly Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum wouldn't transfer from fake cartridges.

EDIT: Also FireRed and LeafGreen didn't have quite the same battery system that previous Pokemon games did if my research is correct so saving shouldn't even be a problem at least not for another decade or so.
 

Conza

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Oh wow thanks, no wonder the guy sent one out so fast, I'll see how long that one lasts (maybe only the first one was fake?).
 

Hero of Lime

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Is it just me, or do the GBA Pokemon games have lots of problems? Not only the pirating problem you find online, but even real copies seem to have issues.

I believe I have a fake Ruby and Emerald I unknowingly got off of Ebay, but I am able to transfer those Pokemon by trading them to my legit FireRed copy. There must be some kind of override built in to make them legit to the DS games.

At this point, no one is sure about how hacked Pokemon will be treated by the Pokemon bank transfer. Gamefreak said hacked Pokemon will not be allowed to be transferred to X and Y, but hackers can make fake Pokemon appear to be legit.
 

Owyn_Merrilin

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May 22, 2010
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Conza said:
Yeah, funny isn't it, it would've been the last Pokemon game to use that system, by the time Diamond and Pearl came out on DS, all DS games were flash memory, but Pokemon games Gen I-III (ignoring Heart Gold and Soul Silver), use the same setup as in the original GameBoy games, such as Red Blue and Green.
Come to think of it, I could have sworn the battery in the GBA games was only used to keep the clock running in real time while the game was off, not to save the game. OP, are you sure you bought a legit copy? Ebay (I'm guessing from the way you described the transaction) GBA game + instantly bad battery usually = bootleg. This was a /huge/ problem back when the GBA was still a current system. If I were you I'd look up how to verify that you have a legit copy (I think the main thing is some text printed on the exposed part of the circuit board on all legit Gameboy carts), and if it's not try to get a full refund from the seller, instead of just a new battery.
 

Fijiman

I am THE PANTS!
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Dec 1, 2011
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Can you give us an image of the GBA and battery in question? Any extra bit of info we can get will help.