Like for example, how would a gameboy cartridge save game data? What is the internal process that saves the game?
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They wouldn’t. Often you would get a code that would take you to the level you had gotten to.
There might have been some cartridges on GB which could save, I didn’t have any though. If that is the case, they would be like NES, a small battery for a bit of memory, so “always on”
First off, what you’re referring to is “internal storage,” not “memory.” Memory is temporary data storage that holds temporary values the game needs to run and disappears when the system turns off, while storage is long-term.
To answer your question though, some game consoles used memory sticks which were basically just like proprietary SD cards, other consoles stored the data on a small bit of storage contained on the game-cartridge itself.
Cartridge video games had an internal battery and memory to allow saving on the cartridge itself. Otherwise for less complex games whenever you started a level you’d get a code for that level that you’d input whenever you started it up to take you to that level. This worked fine for simple linear games but for more complex games that had many different variables like inventory, choices made, quests completed or uncompleted etc they would save on the cartridge itself, which is why you could give your cartridge to someone else and they could play your save on their system.
This was before cheap flash storage, so the cartridge has a little bit of RAM and a small battery to power it. The first cartridge game to do this was Zelda for the NES.
Since this increased the cost of the cartridge, cheaper games used password systems.
Also the battery on those games has begun to die out, so I’ve got bad news for any Pokemon you may have.
you appear to be confusing memory and storage. Memory refers to RAM (Random Access Memory). The original gameboy had 8 KB of ram (and maybe 8 KB additional vRAM). Ram is what is used to run a game
storage is where your saves are kept, that was just on the cartridge. Nothing special about it, there is just an instruction in the gameboy that tells the cartridge what to save and where, just like an ssd, usb, sd card, or any other type of storage.
The question has already been answered many times, but as a fun fact; The Legend of Zelda for NES was the first game to feature saving!
Basically a chip and a battery powering that chip.
GameBoy games were obviously quite primitive compared to today’s video games so “saving” a game may only require a few bits of data, i.e. current level and number of lives. So to persist those bits would require extremely little power.
Obviously an internal battery (and game state) like this would have a limited lifespan, but it’d be years, and far longer than what the original developers would have expected from its players.
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