Ever Left A Console On Overnight For Time Release/Other Game Data?

[SPAZ-12]

Yeah, I did this in SSB to unlock MewTwo. You need a certain amount of brawl time, I think 24 hours, to unlock him. So I set a 4 player match, all computers, and left it on whenever I wasn't playing. And yet it still somehow took three days to unlock him (stupid brothers)!

[jperryss]

So how come computers can be left on for months and years and consoles can't?

I have an inkling of why, but hey. I'll ask anyway.

As far as the older cartridge-based systems, I don't think it's an issue leaving them on for days at a time (or weeks?). The system will get warm, yes, but it won't just keep getting hotter until it bursts into flames, heh.

Don't think I'd do it with a disc-based system though.

[Nirvana]

I left FF3/6 on all night with a turbo controller on the Lete River, when I woke up, everyone's levels were in their 70's.

This is exactly what I thought when I came into this topic. I didn't use this method, though, because when I learned about it I was really little and my brother didn't like the idea of keeping the game on.

[Cobra Commander]

Simcity for SNES I used to play over a summer. I'd start the city when school went out, did a bunch of stuff while I had money, then let it sit for a day or two. I'd come back, there would have been some fires or whatever, but the city was usually OK - tweak it a bit for a few hours, leave it on for a weekend...

That is EXACTLY what used to do also!
Once, I came back and almost had a megalopolis. Another time I returned to find my metropolis had been turned into a New Mexico nuclear test site. the only thing left were the occasional tree and some scattered bits of railways.
It was tragic indeed.

[makaar]

Two games come to mind:

Dragon Ball GT Final Bout (PS1): We would tape down the controller in Build Up mode and have a character fight in a loop over night against a much higher level opponent. The next day the match would be over and our character would be ridiculously high..the highest I ever had was a lvl. 141 Majin Boo that had extremely powerful kicks and special moves, but my brother topped me with a lvl. 180 Vegetto that could one-hit kill even my 141 Boo with a single kick. The health bars would drain even after the match was over...

Deer Hunter II (PC): Everyone had heard about the Bigfoot mystery in the game (mysterious sounds and footprints appearing randomly). Once again my brother was on the case, and I told him never to turn off the computer until we found him...we took shifts and after two days of random checking (not 48 hours constant) we discovered that the footprints are created by something invisible and the tracks just appear along a path consistently every so often. What a disappointment that was!

[Mnemonic]

I'll post off-topic just like everyone else...

I once left Jurassic Park (SNES) on for a few days. Not like I had a choice though... who the heck makes a double-digit-hours-long game without including either a save feature or a password option, I ask you?

Still... I had to use that mouse for something other than mario paint!

[The 1 2 P]

I'll post off-topic just like everyone else...

You aren't off topic. I think my wording has confused some people. While I originally meant time-release data, leaving your console on over night because the games have no save or password feature is just as relevant. I would have done that too back in the day(Nes era) but I don't think my parents would have liked that. I'm going to go alter the title.

[TurboGenesis]

I have and I still leave stuff like my NES, SNES, Genesis, SMS, even Turbo Duo on for days at a time. I have been doing this for well over 15 years and with the exact same consoles. Only my Turbo Duo has recently given my issue with sound problems…

With more current console, I seldom leave them on for extended periods. I have left the PS2 on over night a few times but my new consoles are only on when in use while my old console are almost always on!

[Haoie]

Guess the higher the technology, the easier it is for it to break, huh?

[Zereox]

I played 6 Hours of Grandia II and was going to buy a VMU the next morning.

[kupomogli]

I used to leave my systems on. But not to accomplish anything. I'd end up turning the system on to play it, but then stay on the internet for a few hours, and then end up turning it off because I haven't been using it.

The most recent was the PS3 and you know some bullshit? The PS3 didn't go out and neither did the tv, but I think since the tv was on the entire time and it was just a single picture for atleast an hour, the tv ended up getting all its colors washed out.

Now everything is much lighter even with brightness turned to the least setting. It's still usable, but it's like a layer of grey covered the entire screen and every color that is viewable is very light and looks faded.

I guess my tv pretty much going out atleast gives me an excuse to buy an HDTV. I was looking up various retailer prices at work and once I got home today.

[Richter Belmount]

Terranigma (pal format) for the snes , the reason why was cause I had a action replay 2 that wouldn't allow me to save my progress. However I managed to get a adaptor that would allow me to.

[Blitzwing256]

I remeber doing it for dungeon exploer2 for sega cd (awesome game btw, much better then 1) I found a nice safe spot to stand while murdering badguys, the game lets you level up very veyr slowly towards the end of the game, so I just left it there overnight...


woke up in the morning to no music and the cd automaticly ejected, my segacd never worked again.

last time I ever did it with a cd based system.

[otaku]

of course or because I had no memory card or way of saving.

[Berserker]

I've never left anything on overnight for exploiting/unlocking anything, but I do remember the first time I intentionally left a game on overnight because I didn't want to lose my place.

It was the first time I'd made it to World 7 in SMB3. I was in something like first grade. I don't think I knew about the warp whistles yet, as I don't think I would've left it on otherwise because even being so young I distinctly remember thinking that it probably wasn't good for the machine.

[kainemaxwell]

I once left Jurassic Park (SNES) on for a few days. Not like I had a choice though... who the heck makes a double-digit-hours-long game without including either a save feature or a password option, I ask you?

I did the same thing. Same with Orge Battle for the SNES when I needed a break during campaigns.

[PapaStu]

I've left systems running for time based stuff for WarTech and for Beautiful Katamari. I used to leave NES games on overnight with friends when we'd rented them from Blockbuster and we were trying to beat them (Rygar i'm thinking of you).

After legitimately earning 50 hours of actual playtime and having done everything (save for finding a few items) I knew there wasn't another 50 hours of play in me for Katamari. So I set it on eternal, plugged in a controller and let it play overnight for a few hours a night until the achievement popped.

[Rickstilwell1]

I did this on Sonic Mega Collection Plus for PS2 because you can unlock all the other games and cheat descriptions by leaving a game running for 2 hours each. I just did that when I was sleeping and if I woke up in the middle of the night I swicthed which game it was on.

I was in high school back then. I even left it running when I was at school once. I wanted those extras unlocked!

[Game Freak]

Yup. I did it for numerous games, actually >_>

8 bit era:
Ghosts n Goblins, to continue my game...at level 2 >_> then there was a power outage...

16 bit era:
SimCity - often left on while out for cash, although also left on because the save battery is unreliable.
Kirby Super Star - battery unreliability

128 bit era:
Harvest Moon - to pass Spring and Summer or whatever more quickly so that I can reap the rewards of having a humongous tree crop i can then put inside the seed maker and make TONS of cash (~700,000G/yr)
Super Smash Bros. Melee - to get Mewtwo, after my initial save data had been erased i just lost the patience

PC:
SimCity 4 - fast cash
SimTower - fast cash

[WelcomeToTheNextLevel]

I left my brand-new PS2 on for 6 days in straight in June 2002 so I wouldn't lose my Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec data. We got the PS2 and GT3 on the same day but didn't get a memory card. Once we got a memory card I saved my game and gave my PS2 a rest. I had heard somewhere back then that you could leave a PS2 on for a week or so before it damaged it. I think the Gamecube and Xbox couldn't be left on as long. I have no idea where I heard that, it's probably BS. I don't miss memory cards. I like on-console storage (like a hard drive) better. On-cartridge memory is pretty awesome as well.