Nakitek Game Saver+

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Ichinisan
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Nakitek Game Saver+

Post by Ichinisan »

I bought this Nakitek Game Saver+ from Wal-mart Sept 29, 1998 for $10 after it had been in a clearance section for months and they were down to only a few units. I remember taking it apart once and seeing a chip made by Bung (former manufacturer of console backup devices). Is anyone curious how this device works?

It allows you perform real-time save-and-restore states on an actual SNES console. The SNES power adapter passes through it, so it retains your save state even when you power-off the SNES. Even better, you can load up some AA batteries and take it to a friend's house...then pick up where you left off. It also supports true slow-motion so the game runs at 50% speed. The features are activated using button combinations on the controller.

Select+R(shoulder) - Record State
Select+L(shoulder) - Load State
Start+L(shoulder) - Slow Motion
Start+R(shoulder) - Alternate Slow Motion (resolves flickering in some games)

Of course, you can cheat with save states, but it's also useful for games that have no save system or a ridiculous password system (Megaman X2, I'm looking at you!).

It's really cool how this device demonstrates that the SNES has an independent sound processor. Even with slow-mo enabled, the music and sound effects are normal. If you load a state, whichever music was already playing continues, uninterrupted (even if it's the wrong music for the scene). If you're cheating by saving and restoring during a boss battle, the battle music is never interrupted as you save and load repeatedly. I'd have to say, this is more slick than the way an emulator handles it!

It came with a list of games and codes and I assume the codes improve compatibility, but I've tried some of those games without entering any code and they do seem to work fine. I'll have to do some testing to know if it helps to eliminate the flickering that happens when slow-motion mode is activated.

I'm interested to find out what the codes do. Does it have something to do the game's memory map? (HIROM, LOROM, SRAM, ...) If one of you devs can see a correlation, maybe it will be possible to know the codes for newer games that aren't on the list.

I remember a kid in the neighborhood was impressed that I had collected all of the Banana Birds in Donkey Kong Country 3. He wanted my save file on his cartridge for some reason. It took several tries because it would lock up most times, but I was eventually able to get my save file on his cart. My technique was to create a state just before the game was about to write SRAM, then power off, switch carts, start a new game file and load the saved state.

I checked eBay just now and saw a non-Plus version. I didn't know that this one existed. Apparently doesn't have the power pass-thru and doesn't accept batteries. I guess that one is only good if you leave the SNES powered on.

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grinvader
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Re: Nakitek Game Saver+

Post by grinvader »

Ichinisan wrote:I'd have to say, this is more slick than the way an emulator handles it!
Try using it while playing some lost vikings for kicks.

Also, Naki are those who did the TRIBAL TAP 6. You know, the shit that doesn't do what you think it would.
I'm interested to find out what the codes do. Does it have something to do the game's memory map? (HIROM, LOROM, SRAM, ...) If one of you devs can see a correlation, maybe it will be possible to know the codes for newer games that aren't on the list.
Can't really say from a quick glance. 5 hex digits so it's not a single address per code, starts with 2s but also 3 and 7... no idea. Doesn't seem SRAM related (several sramless games show up, and games with sram don't have wildly different codes). Maybe they're encrypted.
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Ichinisan
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Re: Nakitek Game Saver+

Post by Ichinisan »

grinvader wrote:
I'm interested to find out what the codes do. Does it have something to do the game's memory map? (HIROM, LOROM, SRAM, ...) If one of you devs can see a correlation, maybe it will be possible to know the codes for newer games that aren't on the list.
Can't really say from a quick glance. 5 hex digits so it's not a single address per code, starts with 2s but also 3 and 7... no idea. Doesn't seem SRAM related (several SRAM-less games show up, and games with SRAM don't have wildly different codes). Maybe they're encrypted.
I noticed that the list is quite sloppy. For instance, there are two entries for Jurassic Park 2 (one with Arabic numerals and one with Roman numerals), and they have different codes. I also saw that "SD Gundum" is misspelled and has NO code. I have to wonder if every single list item after that is skewed and incorrect, and the mismatched codes would make it hard to see any correlation. Also, Samurai Spirits has an extra digit.

Donkey Kong Country uses code 20000, so I listed all the games with 20000:

Apple Seed
Beauty and the Beast
Donkey Kong Country
J-League Super Soccer
Judge Dredd
Jurassic Park II - This game exists twice and show different codes...so 20000 might be the wrong code for this one. **
Kawasaki Challenge
Page Master [sic] - Two different entries for this game, both use the same code.
Stargate
T2: The Arcade Game
The Incredible Hulk
The Pagemaster - Two different entries for this game, both use the same code.
Virtual Soccer

The strange ones that I noticed
Jurassic Park 2 - "201EE" (other entry says the code is 20000) **
Samurai Spirits - "200276" Extra Digits
SD Gundum [sic] - NO CODE
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Bent
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Re: Nakitek Game Saver+

Post by Bent »

I used to have one of these, but my memory of it is not as good. As I recall it usually took several trys for me to get it to work, if it ever did. I didn't usually use the battery feature either, proably becuase my mom already had to constantly give me 4 AA's for my gameboy all the time. Interesting concept though. I believe I don't have mine anymore.
~Bent
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