What's the longest lived backup battery you've ever had?

[Lost Monkey]

Anyone have a Dreamcast with a working original battery?  I have three (2 were bought new) and all three are dead.

[SignOfZeta]

Mine is years dead. I don't really use it for anything though so I just set the time.

[xelement5x]

My DC clock battery is dead as well but I keep meaning to just open it up and replace it with a supercap. 

Personally owned though, the save battery for my original SegaCD lasted well into about 2010 until I got it back from being someplace else for awhile and the battery had finally gone out.  Thankfully most stuff there was just backed up on the RAM cart.  Oh, and I also agree on making sure you use a good 2032 in your Saturn, it'll last much much longer than a knockoff.

[esteban]

The oldest are my Tennokoe Bank hueys.  I got 'em 10 or 15 years ago when they were already at least a decade old.

Ah, yes. That's a good one. I have one as well and it was still a working a year or two ago when I used it last, and it may be older than my Neo Geo memory card.

I just used mine (Tennokoe Bank) last week, so, damn, I guess that counts.

I think most of my NES games still work (I haven't tested them all in the last year, though...only a few).

I know that my SNES/SFC and Gameboy crap has been very mixed (a lot of dead batteries)....

...of course, I always wondered if it was due to the fact that I bought a lot of used games that might have been stored under horrible conditions.

You see, games that I purchased new have held up well.

I was curious if anyone had figured out the "math" behind the energy drain on a battery in a cart and, guess what?

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/193374-battery-life-of-old-game-cartridges/

I have no idea if this is reliable info, but I found it incredible that a battery could, theoretically, have a lifespan of 70 years.

Corrosion and other physical failures could occur, I reckon, even if the storage conditions are appropriate.

Still... 70 years for an NES cart?

Damn.

[TheClash603]

My non-scientific research is I have seen some dead Gameboy batteries and have not seen dead NES batteries.

Based on this, the 70 year Atari Age myth is NOT busted.

[in99flames]

My original Zelda that I got in 1986 ish still has its original and is STILL working.  My Neo Geo memory cards are also working.

[BigusSchmuck]

Here I thought people were talking about battery backups as in UPSes lol. I still have a functioning F-Zero battery back when I purchased it on launch day.

[wildfruit]

I've got some game boy games that still hold a save. Had most since early 90s.

[ClodBuster]

Now that I think about it, it's no wonder that Pokemon Gold lost it's save. The battery also powered a real time clock built into the cartridge.

[seieienbu]

I think Dragon Warrior is the oldest game I have that still saves?  My Zelda 1 copy stopped being able to save at some point.

I've been told that if you don't leave VMUs in the controllers when the DC isn't on the batteries last longer.

[johnnykonami]

I just hooked up my Saturn after a long time to play the Policenauts translation, and all the saves on my action replay cart were still there.  My friend also just gave me some of his old GB games - one of which was Link's Awakening (gray cart) that had saves still from when he was a kid.  My newer Link's Awakening I've had since the 90's (black cart) had my save still, and my friend had a Final Fantasy Legend that we just checked and still had his childhood save.  Most GB carts seem to do pretty well.  The onboard Saturn memory was wiped though, and my TurboDuo as well.