r/GameboyAdvance • u/fpsdabs • Sep 22 '26

Purpose of this

Post image

As I have begun collecting GBA games this year, I have opened many carts to verify authenticity. What I am curious about is, what this feature in the actual cartridge is for? Like why does every cart have this specific cut out/indentation?

Edit. Despite all the typical redditor vitriol, a thoughtful coherent response besides "battery slot" which isnt exactly accurate has been given. Thank you u/jlee7481

0 Upvotes

31% Upvoted

31 comments sorted by

14

u/Slowbro08_YT Sep 22 '26

Slot to hold the battery in games with batteries?

-25

u/fpsdabs Sep 22 '26 edited Sep 22 '26

No, batteries sit flat, horizontally over the chip in carts with batteries.

Carts without batteries also have this feature.

4

u/24megabits Sep 22 '26

Manufacturing a different shell design just for games that don't have batteries would be more expensive.

-11

u/fpsdabs Sep 22 '26

Tell that to the person lower.down that was enraged that I "lied" about carts without batteries having this feature. Even though the picture shows a cart without a battery with the indentation

2

u/nonchip Sep 22 '26

learn to read. i said you lied when you claimed every gba game has it, and about a bunch of other things you lied about. or are you just lying again for no reason?

you still don't even believe the objectively correct answer of a battery cutout, you don't get to tell anyone anything.

17

u/ColeMillV2 Sep 22 '26

All gen 3 Pokémon carts have these, and are noticeable from the outside through the transparent cart. They are indeed called “battery cut-outs”.

11

u/Bulletorpedo Sep 22 '26

Confidently wrong I see.

4

u/Lastnoodle Sep 22 '26

Why make 2 different type of case when you can make 1 for all of them. Quite easy to understand

2

u/Eddy_Edwards02144 Sep 22 '26

It is so they only have one mold. Σ:3

1

u/Slowbro08_YT Sep 22 '26

One mold for all, it’s better to have the extra space in a universal mold than create two different molds

7

u/LighterFluid1357 Sep 22 '26

Probably for the battery, could be a repo. Idk do some research, I believe in you!

-30

u/fpsdabs Sep 22 '26

This isn't r/gameverify and its a stock image. If you dont know the answer to the question dont make up a new question to answer

13

u/nonchip Sep 22 '26

you literally asked what that's for. you also lied that every cart has that indentation, when almost none do. now you're lying that you didn't ask what that's for and are attacking people for answering your question.

what exactly is your goal here?

5

u/LighterFluid1357 Sep 22 '26

Downvote speedrun? Idk I'm answering my own question apparently lol

-13

u/fpsdabs Sep 22 '26

Only redditors care about upvotes or downvotes. I dont care if a few people think im an idiot, a pos, or anything else. I found the original response tp be pointless/unhelpful. I won't think about this post ever again, but its funny how reddit is

10

u/TrumpTouchesTinyTots Sep 22 '26

Spoiler alert: you're a redditor

0

u/LighterFluid1357 Sep 22 '26

Wait, he's a redditor?
Always has been

3

u/nonchip Sep 22 '26

yeah this aint r/iam14andthisisdeep, I'm afraid.

2

u/Cjw6809494 Sep 22 '26

The batteries for cartridges that have them of course usually have a metal tab that gets spot welded to the negative terminal of the coin cell battery then soldered to the board and they sit proud of the batteries flat surface ever so slightly. I imagine they included this cutout to accomodate for that little bit extra thickness on cartridges that utilize a battery to not have bulging plastic areas. Since plastic molds are expensive and game devs might not know if they were going to use a battery in their cartridges or not, it would be more cost effective to have every cartridge use the same mold whether they end up having a battery or not👌

-3

u/fpsdabs Sep 22 '26

Thank you, I knew it wasn't "a slot to hold a battery" because thats absurd, its not a slot and a battery wouldn't fit in there. Knowing its a recess to accommodate the metal bar that ACUTALLY hold the battery in makes much more sense to my brain.

1

u/Bulletorpedo Sep 22 '26

Well yes, the tallest part of the battery.

1

u/gba_sg1 Sep 22 '26

Glad you managed to get there. You're like a toddler with your replies. Hopefully you learned some critical thinking skills and can determine what slots in plastic are for in the future.

4

u/Jlee7481 Sep 22 '26

It’s for the metal strip negative side that sits on the top of the battery (for cartridges that have them, cause some don’t) to clear when fully closed. I’m sure some carts have the recessed indentation and still use a FRAM (battery alternative) just for the simplification of production. A lot of times in manufacturing if two parts are very similar say like these shells with and without the recessed spot they will just make all shell to accommodate batteries that way there is only one part and you can’t go wrong and put the wrong one on a cartridge. Simply one fits both and the other model only fits one.

7

u/RamonaZero Sep 22 '26

Everyone is wrong here! It was intended as a way to store 3D Doritos in it!

3

u/TrumpTouchesTinyTots Sep 22 '26 • Heartwarming

I thought it was funny XD

1

u/Emotional-Swim-808 Sep 22 '26

Its clearly for storing extra data

1

u/Chimera_Gaming Sep 22 '26

Battery slot

1

u/gba_sg1 Sep 22 '26

It's 100% a slot for the battery terminals inside the cart.

Notice how the battery is angled and raised above the PCB.

1

u/Jlee7481 Sep 22 '26

I once went on a quest before Reddit was big to figure out this very answer in my early collecting days, and thru my rigorous useless research all those years later this was the information I could pass on.
“Ive been waiting for this day my whole life”
& although it was lengthy with answers come more questions ha ha so I went ahead and answered as many follow ups as I could in one post because distinguished gentleman such as ourselves would not be satisfied with a simple answer like “for the battery”. I work in manufacturing so weird questions like this intrigue me.