u/uhdBeard

Should I create a Memory at the title screen?

Nope! This will not capture any of your save file information. If you capture and load a Memory like this, you’ll have no save files.

Where should I capture Memories?

You should capture each save file you’d like to back up when you’re in game. You don’t need to be paused or do an in-game save to successfully capture Memories.

Alternatively, you can capture a Memory at the file select screen. You'll load that Memory, load into your file, and save in-game to write to your cart. You can use that same Memory again and repeat with your other two files. This is quicker.

Can I load Memories onto my Summer Cart / Everdrive?

Yes, provided that you are using the same “Revision”/Rev of the game in your flash cart. Ocarina has several versions, and they’ll need to match for the Memory to come up in the OS when you’re running Ocarina from the flash cart.

How do I store my saves / Memories on the flash cart?

Load your Memory, then save in-game. If you happen to have a translucent flash cart, you’ll probably see a light flash as the save is written to the SD card.

What happens to the old save file?

Saving in-game will write over the save file in the same save file slot that you captured with the Memory. This works smoothly, but it’s important to keep in mind which slot you are manipulating. It also means that, as an example, you can’t combine Memories from save files that exist on the same slot onto one flash cart save or original Ocarina cartridge. You would need to copy one of those saves to a different slot before you begin.

You mentioned original cartridges. Does all of this work the same way for original carts?

Yup!

So I can replace my battery?

Yes, once you have captured each of your saves or your file select screen, the Analogue 3D has the tools to restore the files via Memories.

Does it matter what order my Memories are in, or which order I load them and save them in-game?

Nope. The Memory knows which file slot is active and will write to the slot that was active when the Memory was captured.

But how do you know there isn’t some weird glitch I’ll encounter with my saves?

I am not 100% sure that every aspect of the saves will be captured perfectly with Memories. I can tell you I checked through the inventory and progress on each file, ran around a bit, saved in-game, soft reset and hard reset, and then loaded those saves, all without issue. Out of an abundance of caution, I think it would be wise to create two Memories for each file that you treasure, in the event that one gets corrupted or won’t load. If that’s still not sufficient, you can wait for Ocarina die hards to say more about their experience with loaded Memories.

What about other games?

It seems like each game handles the save data slightly differently. This FAQ should be considered specific to Ocarina of Time, though some of the same ideas may be applicable to other games.

Edit: capturing the file select screen does capture your saves, and you'll need to load that Memory and save in-game for each file you want to write to your cart. Thank you u/ExtraLives and u/V64jr for checking my work!