Need a little help on my quest to obtain a copy of shantae(GBC)

Okay so about 3 months ago I found this little game called shantae. Tried it on a emulator and I instantly fell in love. Next month I ended up playing riskys revenge and loved it. Unfortunately It's not enough I NEED more. I absolutely must own a physical copy of this game or my life is incomplete. I am willing to spend any amount of money to get it. There's one thing i've had on my mind though since this game is extremely pricey and rare. Does this game run on a battery? For example pokemon with time based events, where i'll eventually have to change the battery. I know how to change batterys but I'd rather not do such a delicate procedure on such an expensive game.

Also any tips on finding the game? I know you can obviously buy it online but is there a chance local retro gaming shops might carry it? Is it worth it to look around first? Any input is appreciated

Hello, sun, and welcome to the forums! ^^

To answer your question, yes, the game does use a battery for saving. (I don't think they started using dedicated EEPROM chips for saves until the GBA, and even then batteries were still used in the majority of games.) Although it isn't used for a real-time clock, just hanging on data for the three save slots.

It's not difficult to replace, though. As long as you're willing to spend a little extra for a security bit screwdriver to open the cartridge, (I'm sure you'll want to keep the original screw and not damage the cartridge's shell, so brute-force methods like surgical tweazers or melted paintbrush handles won't do here.) and since you're already comfortable with changing them in carts, soldering a new one in shouldn't be a problem. Just take care to avoid static shocking the ICs and don't worry too much about damaging it.

Although the batteries last close to forever in my experience. I've never had my battery die on me in Pokemon Gold and I replayed that game's entire story at least 24 or more times before I sold it years later. That's a considerable amount of wear, if you think about it, so I'm sure you won't be replacing the battery in a semi-fresh copy of Shantae anytime soon. Even the battery in my copy of the original Legend of Zelda for the NES, and A Link To the Past, are still fine, and both saw lots of play time from the whole family, so that's a lot of saving! You'd have to play it and save it 6+ hours a day to completely kill the SRAM batteries in a cartridge.

As for finding the game locally, that all depends on your local area. If you have huge fleamarkets nearby that carry retro stuff, or special shops that focus only on retro games, there's a slim chance you could find it. Although I'm sure you'll save yourself far more time, and maybe more money if the seller knows what they're sitting on, buying it online than hunting it down in your area. I hate sounding remotely discouraging, but the original Shantae is almost like a bar of gold right now. Hopefully when the game hits the 3DS's Virtual Console demand will die down and lower the average price, but that's a long time from now at any rate.

.Luke wrote:Hello, sun, and welcome to the forums! ^^

To answer your question, yes, the game does use a battery for saving. (I don't think they started using dedicated EEPROM chips for saves until the GBA, and even then batteries were still used in the majority of games.) Although it isn't used for a real-time clock, just hanging on data for the three save slots.

It's not difficult to replace, though. As long as you're willing to spend a little extra for a security bit screwdriver to open the cartridge, (I'm sure you'll want to keep the original screw and not damage the cartridge's shell, so brute-force methods like surgical tweazers or melted paintbrush handles won't do here.) and since you're already comfortable with changing them in carts, soldering a new one in shouldn't be a problem. Just take care to avoid static shocking the ICs and don't worry too much about damaging it.

Although the batteries last close to forever in my experience. I've never had my battery die on me in Pokemon Gold and I replayed that game's entire story at least 24 or more times before I sold it years later. That's a considerable amount of wear, if you think about it, so I'm sure you won't be replacing the battery in a semi-fresh copy of Shantae anytime soon. Even the battery in my copy of the original Legend of Zelda for the NES, and A Link To the Past, are still fine, and both saw lots of play time from the whole family, so that's a lot of saving! You'd have to play it and save it 6+ hours a day to completely kill the SRAM batteries in a cartridge.

As for finding the game locally, that all depends on your local area. If you have huge fleamarkets nearby that carry retro stuff, or special shops that focus only on retro games, there's a slim chance you could find it. Although I'm sure you'll save yourself far more time, and maybe more money if the seller knows what they're sitting on, buying it online than hunting it down in your area. I hate sounding remotely discouraging, but the original Shantae is almost like a bar of gold right now. Hopefully when the game hits the 3DS's Virtual Console demand will die down and lower the average price, but that's a long time from now at any rate.

Hey luke, thanks for the welcoming c:

The reason I was concerned about the battery is because I was given pokemon ruby, emerald and silver version from different friends and all 3 of those games needed a battery change. Silver doesn't save anything at all so I was worried shantae would eventually do the same, but since its a shorter game I suppose its not too big a deal. I did a perfect change on emerald but ruby is kinda bad(also ddidn't have all the right tools. would definitely buy anything needed for shantae battery change) So I was just wondering how often these batterys actually go out. Perhaps I just have bad luck?

Well the reason it popped up into my head to try to locally find it was 1# I liked the idea of hunting for shantae, like some type of life quest of mine could be fun haha. and 2# I live in the general Los Angeles area and I figured I have the advantage compared to someone who lived for example in North Carolina or something. I realize it's pretty much a bar of gold but it's just such a lovely game I can't stop thinking about it!!! If I get desperate enough I probably will shell out the $150-200 for a copy but i'd be nice to find it a bit cheaper. Oh the dilemmas of collecting video games.

If you ask me, it's better to wait for the e-Shop release (3DS) for it.
It'll be much cheaper for you.

All it requires, it some more patience.
I still wonder why Nintendo takes so long to release that? <_<

sunofnothing wrote:Hey luke, thanks for the welcoming c:

The reason I was concerned about the battery is because I was given pokemon ruby, emerald and silver version from different friends and all 3 of those games needed a battery change. Silver doesn't save anything at all so I was worried shantae would eventually do the same, but since its a shorter game I suppose its not too big a deal. I did a perfect change on emerald but ruby is kinda bad(also ddidn't have all the right tools. would definitely buy anything needed for shantae battery change) So I was just wondering how often these batterys actually go out. Perhaps I just have bad luck?

Sounds more like your friends saved their games way more frequently than they needed to, and probably played the piss out of their poor cartridges, than bad luck. In the case of Ruby and Emerald, though, they use Flash memory for actual saving, and the battery's just for real-time stuff like berry-growing, so it's not much of a loss besides the annoying "YOUR BATTERY'S DEAD OMG" message on every startup until you replace the battery. It takes years for the battery in Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald to die because of that. I've had Ruby since I was a 13, and the battery only just recently died! That's nearly a decade of it working just fine.

As for the rough replacement for Ruby, yeah, you should have had the right tools for the task. Always get the right tools, don't cheap out with whatever you have in your toolbox, that's the easiest way to break things or do more damage than good. Security-bit or Tri-wing screwdrivers or bits are pretty cheap now, so there's no excuse in not getting those for Nintendo hardware if you plan on opening your things for cleaning/replacing from time to time.

Forcing shells or cases open with whatever you have can be quite messy and frustrating, so yeah, I can imagine what you went through with your Ruby cart. Of course, you've already learned all that first hand, so I'm fairly confident you won't run into any problems if you have to replace the battery in a Shantae cartridge. The battery should be the least of your concerns anyway, having a working cartridge is what really matters in the end.

sunofnothing wrote:Well the reason it popped up into my head to try to locally find it was 1# I liked the idea of hunting for shantae, like some type of life quest of mine could be fun haha. and 2# I live in the general Los Angeles area and I figured I have the advantage compared to someone who lived for example in North Carolina or something. I realize it's pretty much a bar of gold but it's just such a lovely game I can't stop thinking about it!!! If I get desperate enough I probably will shell out the $150-200 for a copy but i'd be nice to find it a bit cheaper. Oh the dilemmas of collecting video games.

I know how you feel there, it's pretty exciting finding a game you've been searching for and stumble across it in a fleamarket or thrift shop. Nearly flipped out when I found a random cart of Tetris for the Gameboy as a kid and just had to have it. $5 felt like a steal, I walked away from that happy. I even found Metroid Prime once at a used book store, marked down for $3. (It had sat in the shop for years after the game's launch.) That felt amazing! Still does when I think about how little I put into that gem of a shooter. Just beat it again recently too. XD

It's a good feeling finding retro stuff you really like and want to own, but when your search is narrowed down to one game, the chances are too slim in my experience. I had to order the Gamecube version of Sonic Riders for $15 on Ebay once because I knew I'd waste too much gas hopping from one store to another looking just for that one game. (My sis already had the PS2 version, but splitscreen mode is muddy, slow, and gross. Had to have the superior Gamecube version. XD) Online auctions are a great thing, so don't feel too bad about having to wait for something to arrive at your doorstep. Doesn't feel the same as hunting it down in person, but the excitement of unwrapping your shiny new delivery is just the same, I guarantee it.

Paragon-Yoshi wrote:If you ask me, it's better to wait for the e-Shop release (3DS) for it.
It'll be much cheaper for you.

All it requires, it some more patience.
I still wonder why Nintendo takes so long to release that? <_<

It would be much cheaper, if Nintendo would ever get around to it. They probably have hundreds of other submissions to sift through before they can even get to Shantae. I doubt it's because their quality standards are so high for individual submissions they test these things to death with debug tools. She'll be on there eventually, it's just a matter of when that's making our skin crawl.