Has a power outage ever erased a save file?

[Ando85]

Why they say don't turn the system off while saving. In my long gaming career (20+ years) it has only happened to me one time during a thunderstorm. Heavy Rain (quite fitting), at the very end no doubt. Luckily it was not that long of a game. I ended up watching my ending on youtube. Also luckily it was a game that warranted many playthrus.

 

[Lieju]

Why they say don't turn the system off while saving. In my long gaming career (20+ years) it has only happened to me one time during a thunderstorm. Heavy Rain (quite fitting), at the very end no doubt. Luckily it was not that long of a game. I ended up watching my ending on youtube. Also luckily it was a game that warranted many playthrus.

Years ago my friend turned off his Gamecube while Super Smash Bros melee was auto-saving and erased his file. A month or so ago power went out while I was playing Dragon Age origins, and it was saving. When I turned it on it took a long time (15-30 minutes) for it to load the file, and I thought I lost it, but eventually it managed to start the game ok.

 

[Esotera]

Even if it's just one player in every million that this will happen to, if your game has a million players, then this will happen quite frequently, and your players will not be happy. It's very unlikely that a save file will be corrupted if you turn the game off during, but it's best to tell the player not to switch off just to be certain.

 

[Limecake]

anyone remember the original zelda for NES? you had to hold down reset to save I think, or something along those lines.

It's never happened to me, I've had a couple close calls but have never lost a save because of it. I have ruined a couple gameboy games though by starting my gameboy before the cartridge was in all the way, and then pushing the cartridge in.

It usually prevents me from ever saving on the game again.

 

[Ando85]

anyone remember the original zelda for NES? you had to hold down reset to save I think, or something along those lines.

It's never happened to me, I've had a couple close calls but have never lost a save because of it. I have ruined a couple gameboy games though by starting my gameboy before the cartridge was in all the way, and then pushing the cartridge in.

It usually prevents me from ever saving on the game again.

Oh yes I remember that while playing the NES Dragon Warrior games. Luckily I never screwed up a save file. Seems like a very risky and archaic way to save a game.

 

[Jodah]

Never had one erased. Had a couple that got corrupted making them unusable but never actually erased.

 

[Sean Hollyman]

I once accidentally bumped my gameboy while pokemon was saving..

Ugh :/

 

[Swyftstar]

Final Fantasy II on the super nintendo (which I believe was actually IV). Not so much and outage as a surge. Erased all my saves. I ended up playing it again and finishing it. In the process I realized I had about 10% of the game left to play. So I basically played the game, from start to almost finish two times in a row.

 

[OneCatch]

anyone remember the original zelda for NES? you had to hold down reset to save I think, or something along those lines.

It's never happened to me, I've had a couple close calls but have never lost a save because of it. I have ruined a couple gameboy games though by starting my gameboy before the cartridge was in all the way, and then pushing the cartridge in.

It usually prevents me from ever saving on the game again.

I lost my first 'Ocarina of Time' save file because the N64 fell off of the table (not as bad as it sounds, it only fell a few inches, and those things were pretty tough anyway) and pulled the power cord out. Made me sad

Slightly off topic; I lost save files twice in the Fire Temple, because there's a way that you can use a Small Key in the wrong place and make it impossible to get the Boss Key.
I did it. Fucking. Twice.

"And from then on, never did he save inside the Fire Temple; it was completed in a single runthrough, for the alternatives were too ghastly to comprehend"

 

[targren]

anyone remember the original zelda for NES? you had to hold down reset to save I think, or something along those lines.

I had early versions of Zelda and Dragon Warrior, so mine didn't have the "Hold Reset as you turn the power off!" message...

I lost many a savegame to thunderstorms, sneezes that made me knock the toaster half an inch, or someone in the next room taking a leak and scratching his head at the same time... Damn battery-backed SRAM...

The original Final Fantasy was the worst. ONE savegame. You bastards...

 

[onewheeled]

Never had a save file fully erased, but I did lose a solid few hours of progress in Twilight Princess a year or so ago when the power went out.

I had to replay the entire Forest Temple, which I really don't particularly like. >.>

 

[Shoggoth2588]

It's happened before but really, my biggest nemesis was the memory card. Back during the PSX days I didn't have a Sony memory card so of course, it kept needing to get reformatted. I somehow managed to beat Metal Gear Solid but it took me years to get through Final Fantasy IX. I had to beat 7 on PC and, VIII took me years as well. Stupid memory cards.

 

[Shining_Pyrelight]

I've been playing WoW a few times before when the power went out, but never lost anything worthwhile.

Did lose an Animal Crossing save several years ago to a corrupted memory card though. Never been able to reinvest time into that series since then either

To lose something because of a power outage though, never. I normally won't play anything during a storm due to an irrational fear of a stray lightning bolt destroying a console or *gasp* my computer.

 

[direkiller]

i got AC2 for the PC as a gift(darn it)

i figred what the hell and played it
i was getting though most of the side quests first and collectible quest first. Turns out I lost connection to there server about an hour into a 5 hour gaming section. For those that dont know after the yelling about it they changed it so you need net connection to save(it saves on there end apparently) and start up the game.

So yea I gave up on the game

 

[Stein Inge]

My brothers dog (a puppy at the time) ran head first into my PS1 and got tangled in the cables.
Yanked out the power chord (and somehow snapped the other one) in his struggle for freedom...

Bye, bye Die Hard Trilogy save file! I missed thee sorely!

 

[DirgeNovak]

My brothers dog (a puppy at the time) ran head first into my PS1 and got tangled in the cables.
Yanked out the power chord (and somehow snapped the other one) in his struggle for freedom...

Bye, bye Die Hard Trilogy save file! I missed thee sorely!

No kidding! My dog stepped on the reset button while I was saving Crash 3 on PS1. I wasn't too far into the game, but I was pissed at her for a while because of it...

 

[Mariakko]

I corrupted a save on Kingdom Hearts II once when the power cut out. Fortunately I always keep two saves of everything. Another time I was at a LAN and we blew a fuse during the middle of a game of COD. I enjoyed feeling superior with my laptop then.

 

[VaudevillianVeteran]

I've had a few corrupted saves, on the PS2 and I think a few on the 360 too. Not caused by a power outage, mind, A power outage did cause me to rage because I'd lost 3 hours worth of progress on a game though.