Save Manager

The Save Manager is a third-party add-on for the Super Famicom dedicated to storing save files within save cards. It was released on November 30, 1990, making it the first add-on to be released on that system. Two save cards were included, though they were also sold separately. The add-on was manufactured by Gaming Game, who developed them at their request.

The Save Manager gets plugged into the second controller port, though a 2-player multitap peripheral was also included in order to handle two-player in-game modes while the add-on is plugged.

Development
In October 1990, Gaming Game had just released Stickventures 2 for the Family Computer. The Famicom' successor, the Super Famicom, was about to get released in a month. Gaming Game Japan had already obtained the Super Famicom software development kit, which was used to develop the "shoot 'em up" title Super Dagon, made as the first SNES entry in the Dagon series.

Yoshitake Yumezumi, the founder of Gaming Game Japan, was worried about how little SRAM space made it impossible to create infinite save files. Following this, Yumezumi and his team began working on an add-on to combat this, named the Save Manager. Save files were stored on save cards and the add-on featured a cable on the back that could be applied to the second controller port, which furthermore, also required Yumezumi to include a 2-player multitap within the add-on in order to make two-player playing possible while the add-on was plugged.

On November 21, 1990, the Super Famicom launched in Japan. Yumezumi bought and played Super Mario World. Upon playing however, he noticed that there are only 3 save files, which were very little, especially for families. He played the game using two save cards, and tested the add-on. To his surprise, it worked. He later showed the add-on to Nintendo's headquarters in Kyoto, which was eventually approved, and so only 9 days after the launch of the Super Famicom, the Save Manager was released in Japan.

Post-release
After Gaming Game's international branches saw the project, they wanted to work on something similar. It would be called the Super Save Switcher and would feature both a save card slot and a cartridge slot. It would have been put on the SNES's add-on slot and would only function once either the system is turned off or if a different cartridge is put onto the cartridge slot, with saving being done using the "SAVE" button. The Super Save Switcher was eventually released on October 5, 1991 in the United States and August 2, 1992 in Europe, making it the only SNES peripheral outside of Japan to be put onto the system's add-on slot.

Functions
The Save Manager is an add-on made to handle infinite save files. A save card is put onto the card slot and the add-on would have been connected to the second controller port, which furthermore, also required a 2-player multitap to handle multiplayer, which was included with the add-on. When the add-on is put onto the second controller port, the save card loads data from the cartridge and then saves the data in it. The save card could then be switched onto another one, in which there are no save data until it gets written in-game.

Release
Upon release, the Save Manager received mixed-to-positive reviews. Famitsu gave the add-on a score of 30/40, praising its ability to store infinite save files, but criticizing it for the size of the save cards, which are so small that they're easier to lose, and therefore suggested owners to instead store save cards in a big box.

Sales
The Save Manager became successful after release. In 1992, over 640,000 units of the add-on were sold. In 1993, it reached one million units. making it one of the best selling add-ons for the Super Famicom in Japan alone. As of the Super Famicom's discontinuation in September 2003, over 2,750,000 units were sold.

Retrospective
In retrospective reviews, the Save Manager was widely acclaimed, with most SNES fans praising it for being able to combat against the limited amount of save files in several games, with some even considering useful for families, as well as for loading multiple drawings in Mario Paint and multiple custom battles in ME-tan de Tetris.

Trivia

 * The Save Manager unit shown on the box art was a pre-rendered 3D model, which back then, were still in its infancy.