Nintendo DS Era Save Chips

The DS Era games use a NOR flash chip that communicates over SPI. The chips are notorious for two major changes from previous cartridge hardware. First they are SLOOOOW. Updating the save file takes a significant amount of time. Second, they are prone to spontaneous death. Once they die they will need to be replaced with a compatible chip. More on that later. Each game has a different size requirement depending on how big the save file is. Pokemon games are the worst in this regard requiring 4Mbit of storage. Most other games require 2Mbit. When replacing a chip, a chip of the same size or larger must be used.

Sourcing a compatible chip for the Pokemon games is actually surprisingly challenging. There are four things to consider.1. The chip must be big enough (4Mbit+), 2. The chip's package must be VFQFPN8 or WSON8 6x5, 3. The chip must speak the correct language, 4. The pinout must match the originals. Point 3 is by far the most disappointing. There are actually a lot of modern chips being manufactured today that cover 1/2/4 however at some point in the last 20 years they all switched to a slightly different language. This means the modern chips can't work without patching the rom chip (impossible) so they can't be used. These restrictions effectively mean that only the original chip can be used. This chip was still being manufactured until around 2020 but is no longer being made.

The chip name is M45PE40-VMP6TG. The 40 means 4Mbit. For a short time, I was able to find small (<20) stocks of the chip but today that is entirely outside my ability. After a lot of research and testing, I discovered a compatible alternative M45PE80-VMP6TG. The 80 means 8Mbit. Everything else is identical. After two years of searching I found a reasonable stockpile. In 2025, I put together a group buy that allowed me to secure 4000 pieces for the community. Unfortunately the slightly newer M45PE80 hasn't been manufactured since 2020. Its available in fairly limited quantities and will likely fully run out for new orders in the coming couple of years.

2025 Group Buy

In Winter 2025 I put together a group buy to secure this chips for at least a number of years. This was successful and 4000 chips were purchased and currently being stored by me. I wrote a fair amount about it during that time. You can read those posts if you are interested: Announcement and Update. I will eventually pull that information into this page. Below are interesting photos from that whole ordeal.