Game preserved in Nintendo Super Famicom for 20 years

Nintendo Signage — Nintendo signage is displayed at the company's booth at the 2014 Electronic Entertainment Expo, known as E3, in Los Angeles, California June 11, 2014. Reuters/Kevork Djansezian

Modern gamers may not realise the pain of saving game progress back in the older days of consoles due to recent technical advancements. But those who have played games on old devices may feel the pain of a gamer who has left his old Nintendo console turned on for more than 20 years just to keep the game progress saved.

This may sound crazy to many people as there are modern consoles available in the market that makes saving game progress really easy. These consoles and PCs even provide auto save feature to preserve the game progress. But the Nintendo console did not offer the facility to save game progress, hence the amazing feat of hardcore gamer Wanikun.

He had confessed to wanting to keep on playing his favourite game “Umihara Kawase” on his Super Nintendo. Wanikun took to Twitter to share the pictures of his Super Famicom (Japanese name for Nintendo Super console). Apparently, the gamer only unplugged the console once when he shifted to a new house, but luckily the battery was active during the move, allowing him to preserve the game progress.

The game “Umihara Kawase” was released in 1994 for the Super Famicom. According to IGN, a small amount of RAM was allocated to the game cartridge and it was powered by a lithium ion battery. The game progress could be saved on console even after disconnecting the cartridge. However, Wanikun’s cartridge batteries failed, leaving him with two choices: lose the game progress or keep the console on power forever.

Another interesting thing about Wanikun is that he also owns a PlayStation Vita with “Sayonara Umihara Kawase Chirari” an original “Umihara Kawase” on it. But since the player wanted to preserve his game progress on his console, he is keeping it plugged.

Since the early days of video gaming, Nintendo was the market leader and now it is again ready to challenge PlayStation and Xbox with a new console Nintendo NX. Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima also confirmed the development of a console with brand new concept. Nintendo NX is expected to arrive this year.