Official Sega Backup Cart issues
Jan 6, 2017 18:25:49 GMT
Post by mattfrie1 on Jan 6, 2017 18:25:49 GMT
I bought an official Sega Backup Cartridge on eBay a few months back, and I have a few questions about some issues it has been giving me.
I am currently using the Backup cartridge for three different games. The reason why I bought the cartridge was to be able to save my progress in Hexen, which takes up a whopping 3801 blocks of save data. The other two games that I am using are season modes on both NHL 98 (which takes up about 512 blocks for the season, plus another 50 for settings) and Madden NFL 98 (which takes up about 520 or so for the season and another 128 for settings).
The cartridge has been very issue prone since the beginning. At first, it simply didn't want to be read at all. I thought that it might have been an issue with the cartridge slot on both my Saturn systems, but both read an Action Replay 4-in-1 cart just fine on the first time I put it in. I thought the pins of the Sega cart might have been dirty, so I did the usual cleaning method on the pins that I've always used (Q-tips with cleaning alcohol) and managed to clean away some of the gunk that was on there. I figured this was the problem, but again the cart still refused to be read.
I then opened up the cart with my gamebit screwdriver to see if there was a watch battery inside that needed to be replaced. Surprisingly, the Sega Backup Cartridge does NOT use a watch battery of any kind to make it's saves which came as a relief. I did notice however that the actual board itself seemed to have some brownish gunk caked to the backside of it, plus it was also on the back of the metal shielding on the back as well. I attempted to clean this off and still no dice.
The only way I was able to get the Cartridge to actually work was to remove the two metal shields inside the cartridge and position it just right in the slot until the system picks up on it. I was able to keep it working on and off for about a month, but firing it up this morning caused it to lose connection with the system. I got it to work once again, but it was unable to read the saves for Hexen and the Madden 98 season game plus it couldn't save anything to the cartridge. Curiously though it was able to read both saves for NHL 98. I removed and reseated the cart again, and it was finally able to have data saved to it, plus it was able to read all the saves for both NHL 98 and Madden NFL 98, yet the Hexen gamefile still appears to be corrupted. It also had one block of bogus data that was saved to it upon this second time which I was able to delete with no issues.
Ultimately I have two questions. First, is there anything I can do to retrieve the Hexen save file without losing all my hard work? Will reseating the cart again perhaps allow it to be read correctly again, or is it lost to the ages? I should mention that I haven't played the game for a few weeks now so it's not like it was saving any bad data to the cartridge. I'm also figuring that since Hexen takes up more space on the cartridge, this gives it a better chance to get corrupted as well.
Secondly, are there any other more reliable alternatives to the Sega Backup cart? I have an Action Replay 4-in-1 that has served me well for many years, but as we all know it is unable to be read by the system as cartridge memory when the Saturn is powered up. Will buying an official backup cartridge in better condition be more reliable perhaps?
I am currently using the Backup cartridge for three different games. The reason why I bought the cartridge was to be able to save my progress in Hexen, which takes up a whopping 3801 blocks of save data. The other two games that I am using are season modes on both NHL 98 (which takes up about 512 blocks for the season, plus another 50 for settings) and Madden NFL 98 (which takes up about 520 or so for the season and another 128 for settings).
The cartridge has been very issue prone since the beginning. At first, it simply didn't want to be read at all. I thought that it might have been an issue with the cartridge slot on both my Saturn systems, but both read an Action Replay 4-in-1 cart just fine on the first time I put it in. I thought the pins of the Sega cart might have been dirty, so I did the usual cleaning method on the pins that I've always used (Q-tips with cleaning alcohol) and managed to clean away some of the gunk that was on there. I figured this was the problem, but again the cart still refused to be read.
I then opened up the cart with my gamebit screwdriver to see if there was a watch battery inside that needed to be replaced. Surprisingly, the Sega Backup Cartridge does NOT use a watch battery of any kind to make it's saves which came as a relief. I did notice however that the actual board itself seemed to have some brownish gunk caked to the backside of it, plus it was also on the back of the metal shielding on the back as well. I attempted to clean this off and still no dice.
The only way I was able to get the Cartridge to actually work was to remove the two metal shields inside the cartridge and position it just right in the slot until the system picks up on it. I was able to keep it working on and off for about a month, but firing it up this morning caused it to lose connection with the system. I got it to work once again, but it was unable to read the saves for Hexen and the Madden 98 season game plus it couldn't save anything to the cartridge. Curiously though it was able to read both saves for NHL 98. I removed and reseated the cart again, and it was finally able to have data saved to it, plus it was able to read all the saves for both NHL 98 and Madden NFL 98, yet the Hexen gamefile still appears to be corrupted. It also had one block of bogus data that was saved to it upon this second time which I was able to delete with no issues.
Ultimately I have two questions. First, is there anything I can do to retrieve the Hexen save file without losing all my hard work? Will reseating the cart again perhaps allow it to be read correctly again, or is it lost to the ages? I should mention that I haven't played the game for a few weeks now so it's not like it was saving any bad data to the cartridge. I'm also figuring that since Hexen takes up more space on the cartridge, this gives it a better chance to get corrupted as well.
Secondly, are there any other more reliable alternatives to the Sega Backup cart? I have an Action Replay 4-in-1 that has served me well for many years, but as we all know it is unable to be read by the system as cartridge memory when the Saturn is powered up. Will buying an official backup cartridge in better condition be more reliable perhaps?
