Sega CD RAM cart and you: a wild journey

17daysolderthannes · Post by **17daysolderthannes** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 8:52 pm

Please note: this post is about half technical questions and half "off topic" type stuff, so if in a hurry, just read the italicized stuff.

OK, so I got a CIB Sega CD RAM cart for free from my local used computer store (that sells used games) when the owner was cleaning out the stuff "he didn't want to sell." Well, low and behold its worth a decent amount of money. Knowing this, I managed to get a deal with a user on another forum (trustworthy, hes a mod) for Final Fantasy VII and Shenmue in exchange for the CIB Sega CD RAM cart and Baby Boomer for NES (a somewhat rare game) and $20. It's a great deal considering I originally only paid about $5-6 for baby boomer and the RAM cart was free, so its like getting FF VII and Shenmue for $26 shipped, a deal if I've ever seen one.

Here's the beef:
I don't own a Sega CD, and I'm not sure if I ever will (sonic CD and mega race seem to be the only games that appeal to me at this point, plus since emulators offer faster load times, its becoming less and less appealing), so I have no use for the RAM cart anytime soon, especially a CIB one (not to mention with Sega CDs going for $70+). However, I heard that Sega CD internal memory save batteries often go bad and are next to impossible to replace. Is this true? or is this just a myth from people that don't know WTF they're talking about? Also, are there any games that REQUIRE the RAM cart besides RPGs? I'm not a huge fan of RPGs, the only ones I've ever really played are the Square greats like FFIV, VI, VII, and VIII and Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross, so I don't care about 2 or 3 obscure Sega CD RPGs.

bottom line: Do sega CD save batteries often go bad? how hard are they to change? is it really necessary for most games? a list of games that really necessitate saving would be nice.

P.S. Anyone else have a comment on the deal? think I'm getting a pretty good deal or is this dude having his way with me? I verified the worth of baby boomer and the RAM cart to be about $20 and $40 respectively, so that plus $20 for FFVII (usually worth about $50-$60 for a black label for a patient ebayer) and Shenmue (worth about $15) with shipping seems like a fair trade.

Sorry for the long post!

andoba · Post by **andoba** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 6:42 am

Well, I have a Model 2 Mega CD which is ass old, and a Model 1 Mega CD which is even older, and they both save perfectly in the internal battery. But still, RAM carts are very useful, for example, with the Lunar save I've alredy filled all the Mega CD 1 memory.

17daysolderthannes · Post by **17daysolderthannes** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 2:27 pm

wow, this is an old post! Anyway, fast forward several months...

I got a Sega CD about 2-3 weeks ago and love it, but the internal battery is def. dead. I heard that the manual recommends having it plugged in or on at least once a month to keep the battery charged (though I thought it was a watch battery...). So, bottom line, I can't save everything. It really isn't so bad though since many of the games are short enough you can finish them in one sitting anyway and most don't even save the game. I'd actually be more interested in finding a way to maybe piggyback a new battery on the terminals so I don't have to desolder the old battery so I can save games like Mega Race and Sonic CD.

grossaffe · Post by **grossaffe** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 2:50 pm

17daysolderthannes wrote:wow, this is an old post! Anyway, fast forward several months...

I got a Sega CD about 2-3 weeks ago and love it, but the internal battery is def. dead. I heard that the manual recommends having it plugged in or on at least once a month to keep the battery charged (though I thought it was a watch battery...). So, bottom line, I can't save everything. It really isn't so bad though since many of the games are short enough you can finish them in one sitting anyway and most don't even save the game. I'd actually be more interested in finding a way to maybe piggyback a new battery on the terminals so I don't have to desolder the old battery so I can save games like Mega Race and Sonic CD.

why don't you post a picture of the machine where the battery goes so we can give you some ideas?

17daysolderthannes · Post by **17daysolderthannes** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 1:16 am

grossaffe wrote:
17daysolderthannes wrote:wow, this is an old post! Anyway, fast forward several months...

I got a Sega CD about 2-3 weeks ago and love it, but the internal battery is def. dead. I heard that the manual recommends having it plugged in or on at least once a month to keep the battery charged (though I thought it was a watch battery...). So, bottom line, I can't save everything. It really isn't so bad though since many of the games are short enough you can finish them in one sitting anyway and most don't even save the game. I'd actually be more interested in finding a way to maybe piggyback a new battery on the terminals so I don't have to desolder the old battery so I can save games like Mega Race and Sonic CD.
why don't you post a picture of the machine where the battery goes so we can give you some ideas?

to be honest, I don't know where it goes, lol, I've just heard that there's a battery somewhere in the CPU of the Sega CD, there are a few RF shields around everything that I've never taken off so I really don't know where it is exactly. I'm not even going to bother messing with it until I get a really good reason to.