turbo-duo on board memory/ nes battery backup

[Soviet Conscript]

i have a 2 part question the first one is. does the turbo-duo have internal memory for saveing games or is there a special accessory. for instance i can't sem to find a menu to access any internal memory if there is any like i can with a sega cd or like system. i'm planning on playing some rpg's on the system like Ys and i assume its going to take longer then one sitting. it did hold a save for dracula x for me but after playing again today (first time in a few months) the save was gone so i'm thinking it only saved while the system was on? like rom memory

second part of the question is anyone know the average time a save will last for a nes cart or for that matter any cart? will it be worth buying a nes RPG in a few years if the save feature does not work or will we just be better off playing on a pc with a rom? does the battery memory last as long as the game lasts? can it be replaced?

[mario2butts]

Hey

I'm pretty sure the Duo has built in memory. I have a Duo but haven't played any time- intensive games on it yet so I haven't worried about it. I'm pretty sure that you can access the save system through the games themselves. Don't quote me on that, though.

Cart batteries can last quite a while, but the time varies. They can be replaced fairly easily. Check out the knowledge base, first topic under Questions in General (Non-Consoles Specific Questions, etc).

[InsaneDavid]

i have a 2 part question the first one is. does the turbo-duo have internal memory for saveing games or is there a special accessory. for instance i can't sem to find a menu to access any internal memory if there is any like i can with a sega cd or like system.

Yes, press select at the Super CD-ROM BIOS screen. (where it says "Push Run Button!") As for the memory, if you leave your 'Duo plugged in it should retain data fine, I've read somewhere to flip it on for a moment weekly. I leave a lot of my consoles unplugged so I do get data loss over a couple months. However when I'm actively playing a game it retains the data fine.


second part of the question is anyone know the average time a save will last for a nes cart or for that matter any cart? will it be worth buying a nes RPG in a few years if the save feature does not work or will we just be better off playing on a pc with a rom? does the battery memory last as long as the game lasts? can it be replaced?

Supposedly it's 5 years but we all know they've lasted much longer than that. The battery can always be replaced, most of the SNES RPG's I sell I've replaced the save battery inside. There's a thread moving around right now with a couple pictures of one board member's method of battery replacement - mine is similar.

[wavracer]

second part of the question is anyone know the average time a save will last for a nes cart or for that matter any cart? will it be worth buying a nes RPG in a few years if the save feature does not work or will we just be better off playing on a pc with a rom? does the battery memory last as long as the game lasts? can it be replaced?

Supposedly it's 5 years but we all know they've lasted much longer than that. The battery can always be replaced, most of the SNES RPG's I sell I've replaced the save battery inside. There's a thread moving around right now with a couple pictures of one board member's method of battery replacement - mine is similar.

The CR2032 lithium batteries in games are rated to last at least 5-6 years, but most seem to last between 10-15 years. As a general rule, I replace the battery before I am about to begin playing a game with the intent of finishing it. That way I never lose my saves.

The battery replacement thread with pictures got moved here:

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=82757

[rbudrick]

Is there any way to back up Duo saves? Or load them, for that matter?

-Rob

[Blur2040]

Tenokoe Bank (Sp?)

There's two iterations of Tenokoe bank. The first one hooked on the expansion port of the PC Engine. It allows you to save in some of those card games that allow saving...(Like Neutopia, I think?)

The second one, the more relevant one, plugs into the HuCard slot...and looks just like a Hucard. Game saves can be moved to it from built in memory.

That's the gist of it...give or take.

[rbudrick]

Tenokoe Bank (Sp?)

There's two iterations of Tenokoe bank. The first one hooked on the expansion port of the PC Engine. It allows you to save in some of those card games that allow saving...(Like Neutopia, I think?)

The second one, the more relevant one, plugs into the HuCard slot...and looks just like a Hucard. Game saves can be moved to it from built in memory.

That's the gist of it...give or take.

Wow, that's pretty cool. Can they be easily dumped to PC from this device? How much did it hold?

-Rob

[Blur2040]

I don't have one myself, so I Googled it. The Tennokoe bank card apparently has 4 "banks" each of which can store the entire contents of a Duo or CDROM or the Bank that attaches to the back of a PC Engine. It doesn't handle save files individually...it just copies the entire contents of the save RAM.

Seems kinda neat...maybe I'll buy one...

[rbudrick]

I don't have one myself, so I Googled it. The Tennokoe bank card apparently has 4 "banks" each of which can store the entire contents of a Duo or CDROM or the Bank that attaches to the back of a PC Engine. It doesn't handle save files individually...it just copies the entire contents of the save RAM.

Seems kinda neat...maybe I'll buy one...

Wow, that is really neat. Too bad more third party/pirate stuff like this never came out for the TG16/PCE (well, of course, the other argument is "good thing they didn't come out," heh heh). There were one or two backup deviced (MGD2 comes to mind), but that's about it. It would be really cool to hack a duo or make something like a CopyNES to dump game saves and such. I'd like to take a look at these Tennokoe saves just to see how each file in the bank is divied up.

-Rob