When It's Just Too Old

Earlier today I slotted my second-hand copy of Pokémon Ruby into my DS (as, with great apologies to Vidofnir, the GNamer Nuzlocke Challenge is somewhat emotionally draining). The game told me that the battery had run dry, so time-based events would no longer be possible.

The game got too old. In a similar fashion, my first copy of Luigi's Mansion stopped loading completely, and my save data on Pokémon Silver has long since left the building. Have you experienced anything like this? Details, gory, gory details, please!

Pokemon Silver... which is depressing because that's definitely the first game I ever reached 100% completion on.

My copy of Pokémon Gold popped its clogs donkey's years ago, which is sad because I finished the Pokédex with all 252 monsters. The game still works, but the most important bit is dead: the battery.

See also: my ghost times from Mario Kart 64 had disappeared like their spectral counterparts when I booted the game up later. Such a waste.

Once upon a time, Nintendo released an add on for the Gamecube allowing GBA games to be played on a TV with a GC controller. I loved it and played Minish Cap quite a bit in this fashion.
However one day I ejected the game before powering off, losing my save and breaking the ability to save in the future.

I ended up trading it in knowing full well it was knackered .

My copies of Pokemon Ruby and Sapphires batteries have run dry as well yet Emeralds is still fine

sounds a lot of gameboy games, as i still have N64 games with saves like mario 64 and still loads etc from and saves fine.

You can replace internal cell batteries, but it's a bit of a chore, and it'll just die again one day anyway.

My pokemon Ruby had the same thing happen. And it's just not the same anymore

But my worst retro-gone-wrong experience was the death of my SNES. Dug it out of the cupboard a few years back when I Mum and I came across some games for it. We were all 'Yeah! DK Country 3!!!!' (we hadn't uncovered the first two yet...) Turned it all on, got through a couple of levels with our awesome (and in every other aspect of our lives, non-existent) teamwork and cooperation and then...black screen of death. The poor SNES never turned on again...

It was a sad, sad day....