Umihara Kawase’s worth it, apparently
Back during the days of the Game Boy and SNES, games would save progress using a small on-board battery. It was great at the time, however, unfortunately, those things only have a limited lifespan, and in the last few years they’ve been beginning to die.
I was weirdly heartbroken when I found out my copy ofPokemon Redhad died, and with it all the Pokemon I’d held onto for the better part of 15 years. Rest in peace, Bumfluff the Charizard…
Anyway, Japanese gamerWanikunhas refused to accept this cruel fate. They decided to keep their Super Famicom (SNES in the West) plugged in and running almost non-stop 20 whole years, just to keep their save file of platformerUmihara Kawasegoing.
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)June 23, 2025
According to Wanikun, the only time the game has been turned off in the past 20 years has been when they were moving house (and, presumably, power cuts). All in all, the game’s been running for over 180,000 hours.
It reminds me of when I was little and didn’t have a PlayStation memory card, and so I left my copy ofHarry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stonerunning the entire week we had rented to ensure I didn’t have to start all over again. Except, y’know, I didn’t keep it on for20 years…
Gamer leaves SNES powered on for 20 years to keep his gamesave alive[Polygon]
