Grabbed EarthBound offa eBay. Seller hasn't played it in five years and no longer owns their SNES so they can't test it. Risky move on my part, I know, but this isn't something I knew until after I had bid on the item.

I've got a feeling the game-save battery on this game is going to be in bad shape, especially since it went so long without being played. I've resolved to replace the battery even if the current one still holds a bit of a charge.

I'm familiar with the mechanics of replacing the battery, and picked up a pair of 2032s in anticipation of receiving the game. It will be replaced.

What I wanted to ask, for anyone who's done this before: I read that if one is not confident in one's own soldering skills, then using electrical tape to secure the battery will also work. Can anybody vouch for this? It seems a lot safer than any other option I might have.

Wait, soldering? I was thinking of getting an SNES and some games for it myself, but I thought hat it's only a matter of unscrewing the cart, and replacing the battery...

I'm joining Khuutra in this question.

All I have to say is be careful because if you screw up, you have a $100 shell.

I'm scared to play a few of my old SNES games (Earthbound included) for fear that the battery will be dead and I can't save my games.

I would solder it. The tape will degrade over time, and it's not very secure. 

That was kind of my assumption

But I don't know the first dang old thing about soldering

I don't know a thing about game carts, perhaps they are difficult to solder... but soldering is pretty easy as long as you have the tools (and a relatively steady hand), just practice on a few things beforehand as solder is cheap.

I've seen videos about soldering batteries onto SNES games.
If you have good precision, you should be OK, it doesn't seem too complicated.

I tried soldering once, in elementary school. It's really not that difficult. But you should practive on some crap cartridge before trying to solder.
Buy a few old crap games to practice on first.

It shouldn't be hard to solder, the battery is very accessible.

Just use slightly moist chewing gum.


Seriously, soldering is really easy. As others said, practice on other worthless crap first so you see how it works.

Soldering is easy however there is a taken for granted element to soldering you need to know. I watched soldering done and no one told me.

Your not heating the solder, your heating the metal the solder is going too. The heat of the target material will melt the solder.

Anyways have fun :)