Japanese Gamer Left SNES Powered On For 20 Years to Preserve Saved Game

Nearly five years ago, I dug out the old SNES to satisfy my hankering for some classic Mario. After a few hours of playing Super Mario World, I saved my game, intending to return to it later that evening. I turned the console back on to find that, 22 years after it was first purchase, the battery within the Super Mario All-Stars cartridge had depleted, leaving my game unsaved. I played anyway, resorting to leaving the Super Nintendo on overnight so that I could continue – and complete – the game without losing my progress.

One Japanese gamer, though, has taken that idea to the extreme, leaving his Super Famicom (the Japanese moniker for the SNES) on for over 20 years. Twitter user Wanikun posted a photo of his Super Famicom, powered on, revealing in a caption that the system had been that way for more than two decades to ensure he did not lose his progress on platformer Umihara Kawase after the internal battery that powered the SRAM died.

ちなみに、20年以上SFCの電源を入れっぱなしにしてある初代 #海腹川背 は、稼働時間は 18万時間を突破しているものと思われます。
電源落とすとリプレイデータは消失します。たぶん pic.twitter.com/6ZJfLi997x

— Wanikun (@UMIHARAKawase) September 30, 2015

Wanikun’s Super Famicom has been on for somewhere around 180,000 hours. It was unplugged only once, to move house, but Wanikun was able to rush the console to his new place and plug it in again before the internal power entirely dissipated, according to RocketNews24.

That’s one way to do it. I just bought a set of Torx screwdrivers and a new battery in the end.