The Miraculous DS Battery

There are two certainties in life. The first is death, and the other is that your Nintendo DS Lite will power up the next time you turn it on.

I spent the first two weeks of August back in the UK. It was a delightful trip spent with family, largely outdoors, enjoying a summer the likes of which I can't recall. Glorious sunshine every day, and barely a cloud in the sky. It was a trip that was long overdue, and one that I was in no rush to return from. Anyway, one afternoon I tore myself away from the fields and spinneys of rural middle-England to empty a cupboard and have a good rummage through the games I'd left behind when we last moved to Japan. Several boxes worth, which my mum has been good enough to hold onto these last few years. 

When we moved to Japan in 2016, I took my current-gen games and most of my handhelds; I brought my Virtual Boy because I'm a show-off. Every last Saturn game made the move with us, but almost everything else retro stayed behind. I can't say I particularly miss what I don't have here with me in Japan, but I certainly do enjoy having a peak at my absent collection whenever I'm back in England. It's a reminder of my long history with video games as well as my fastidious preservation of my belongings.

Every manual pristine, and each disc scratch-less.

One of the half dozen boxes was full of hardware. An original PS1, a Dreamcast, an imported Saturn; a boxed, fat PS2 and my first console, a Master System 2. Underneath it all, in a well-worn, pink Hori hardcase, nestled a Japanese DS Lite. This was my wife's DS and hadn't been touched for at least six years, though likely much longer. In the cartridge slot an R4 cart - the height of Japanese consumer-level crime circa 2007. Honestly, we were all doing it! Keen to remind myself of what we had on there, I flicked the power switch and of course the DS powered up. As if there were ever any doubt.

I have no idea why the DS Lite battery is so good at holding a charge. Some kind of Nintendo magic, or the by-product of a handheld that is doing fuck all when switched off? Unlike the PSP, or subsequent generation handhelds, the DS' 1000 mAh lithium-ion battery can hold onto a charge for years on end. It's up there with some of the greatest hardware achievements in gaming.

Your DS knew you'd be back, and it wanted to be ready when you did. A marvel.

I brought a few things back with me from the UK last week, meticulously bound in bubble wrap and carefully placed between pants, socks and t-shirts in my suitcase. My old PS One and Game Boy SP, which I should add hadn't retained its charge. I also grabbed a few Mega Drive games to revisit on the Mega SG. I'm looking forward to seeing if I'm still hopelessly shit at Desert Strike and whether my save-game codes will still register on Road Rash 3. 

The DS, however, I left where I found it. Back in its case, and returned to the plastic crate of hardware. It's comforting to know that the next time I'm back in the UK, it'll still have some juice left in it.