NakiTek Game Saver Plus for the SNES

[BAD PIXEL]

I saw the NaviTek Game Saver Plus online and wanted to know if anyone had experience with using it, opinions about it, etc. Apparently it lets you save any SNES game at any point and allows you to use a slow-mo feature as well. Sounds too good to be true for $11, which means it probably sucks... Any suggestions?

[Yukima]

I don't have the Plus version - just the NakiTek Game Saver. I haven't tried any of the memory-saving features, and use it only as a pass-through cart for playing US SNES games on my Super Famicom. I don't really like it that much, since it's hard to put the games into the cartridge slot on the back of the Game Saver, and at one point it wiped out the save files on my Chrono Trigger cartridge! It works as a pass-through with most of the special chip games, except (of course) StarFox.

There's one selling for $11, you say? That's a MUCH better deal than the $30 I got mine for!!

[Ziggy]

I had it, and got rid of it. I can't remember exactly why, but I know I got rid of it because it sucks. You have to power it which is a pain in the ass, and I think it messed up the picture quality a little.

[BAD PIXEL]

Ah, thanks for the info. I figured it sounded too good to be true. Interesting that it doubles as a Super Famicom/SNES converter. Since I have a Super Famicom, it might be worth picking up. The fact that you have to power it sucks hard, though. And if it messes with picture quality, double suck.

[HellHammer]

I've got the Plus model, I've owned it for a few years now. For $11, I'd pick it up, I easily paid three times that.
You do need to have it powered, by plugging in the SNES's power cord into the GameSaver and then plug the GameSaver into the back of the SNES. However, you are also able to throw some AA batteries into it and take it out and around with you...which usually results in a corrupted save.

I pretty much only use it for playing Super Famicom games, and it's especially useful those random games (Like PLOK or Claymates) that are completely without saves AND passwords.

[Ichinisan]

...and someone should point out that there's zero impact on image quality. It's not even possible for it to affect this.

Almost any pass-thru device doubles as an Super Famicom / SNES adapter because they have no reason to put plastic blocks to physically block the carts.

I have the Plus version. Supposedly, the only enhancement is the optional battery compartment, but I've seen indications that it has much better compatibility than the non-Plus version. Someone with the non-plus version complained that it didn't work with Super Mario RPG, but mine works perfectly fine with that game. There's a chart with compatibility codes you can enter. Some of the games I tried are on the chart, but they work fine without entering any codes. Go figure!

[Tanooki]

I know I never do this but necro time.

I just found one of these complete in the box, but not the PLUS version.

I get that it supposedly is RTS/RTL before that existed in emulators to come a few years later, but what's the deal with all the conflicting stories online that can't get it straight? Is this a glitchy mess? Does it supposedly break games? Will it just retain saves for 10 min or 6 hours if the batteries are in there? (I know it otherwise works staying in your SNES slot.) And is there some list of stuff is hates?

I'm kind of fascinated enough to throw a super everdrive at it out of curiosity to see the weird behavior, especially if you try and load state another game off that same kit cart. Also would it have issues using a non-standard SNES since i'm not unboxing mine after getting a Super NT.

[Sarge]

It's mostly a glitchy mess. Sometimes it will work, sometimes it won't. There were codes you could enter to get past problematic behavior, but there's not all that many codes. For a time, I used it as an adapter to play Terranigma. That worked okay, but when using other carts, like a lot of the Super Famicom games I imported, they won't actually work. Turns out that the device sucks up too many cycles and will interfere with some games' boot sequence. The Game Genie can also have this problem, although not to the degree of this device.

Basically, it was too good to be true. I guess for the games where it works, yeah, it'll do the trick. Just don't expect anything even close to the reliability of save states on a PC, or even save states via the various EverDrives.

I don't think there's much out there on using the device, mainly because it was so niche in the first place. I doubt very seriously there are many codes out there to fix problem games. I will say, though, that I haven't tried it much with most US releases (despite having owned one for quite some time).

[BoneSnapDeez]

I have (had?) one of these and it's a complete pile.

It did have a useful (secondary) use at one point in time in that it would boot imports. But now there are much more effective ways to do this.

[Tanooki]

Hmm understood, maybe I can just turn it over and just get out from under it. I tried it on the NT and it didn't work after power down. Doom didn't work at all, but Dracula X did in game. The NT isn't like a SNES when it's off, it's off, so since the base unit has no battery box or ac cable bypass it's basically just a quick save/load mechanism, and on a real system it works when it works. I use the NT these days so it has no functional use for me which stinks. Thanks.