Is it *most* or *ALL* GBA games that use flash for saves?

[WesternNYCollector]

I got a tri-wing screwdriver today as part of my effort to get tools to open all of my game systems and cartridges, and of course immediately took apart all of my loose GBA games just out of curiosity.

One thing I noticed, is that two of the games I have - Breath of Fire and Breath of Fire II, both have some sort of button cell battery in them, while all of my others (I only own RPGs) seem to have flash memory for saves, because all that's on the boards are surface mount chips. All the other telltale signs that I've read about when it comes to counterfeit games aren't there: the cartridge shell looks authentic, the name "Nintendo" is printed on the board, and the pins on the edge connector are the same as any other game.

The labels, especially on the first Breath of Fire game do look like they were almost slapped on by hand, and are fairly off-center, but otherwise they look to be the same quality and material as all the other games I own.

I've found conflicting information online about GBA games, and I can't find an authoritative statement as to whether the presence of a battery backup is a true indication of a fake or not.

Can any of the gurus here give me a better answer?

[burn_654]

Well, coming from having dealt with GBA flash cartridges, gba games can have a variety of saves: sram battery, eeprom chip, or flash memory to name a few. All are completely valid (Mario Bros. 3 for gba definitely uses flash) it was just up to the developers/producers what was the best option at the time.

edit: That said, a gba rom release list (does not have to be a download site.) could be useful for you, they'll list what the savetype should be. You could check for a mismatch if you really think one's counterfeit.

Such as this search: http://pocketheaven.com/ph/releases/?section=advsearch (Nothing illegal there. Just a database.)

[Zing]

If you can see the Nintendo logo and copyright on the PCB in the cart slot, then it is legit.

There were GBA games that used battery backup. It's unfortunate.

[Callin]

From what I recall, there are 4 official types of GBA save systems.
- EEPROM (used for games that only store a little data)
- Flash (used for save data-heavy games like RPGs)
- SRAM
- FeRAM

This page has more information:
http://www.pocketheaven.com/ph/wiki/...itle=GBA_Saves

And this one has pictures (of bootlegs too)
http://s21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...0Save%20Types/

[BlastProcessing402]

I've never seen an authentic cart on any system with an off center label. Do you have any way to get a picture of these?