There's a bit of difference between an NES and as PSX, which came out a full 2 generations and 12 years later.
The NES didn't have any way of saving, for instance.
The two have about much in common as a PSX and an Xbox1.
The NES didn't have any way of saving, for instance.
The two have about much in common as a PSX and an Xbox1.
FWIW, the SNES also had no storage, and saves were in the carts. Not until the N64 did Nintendo ship a device with fungible, non-cart storage.
Most of them had codes you'd type in that was a save point. Many had actual save states on the cartridge.
The earlier games got around not having a code by having a secret early on the game that was revealed later on in the game so you could skip all of the parts you previously played.
Basically just an encoding of "start at level X with Y lives". Maybe not even lives.
There were only 54 NES releases with actual, battery based saves, out of 716 officially released and licensed titles (and heaven knows how many bootlegs).
So, "most" is an overbid.