YES RSE WAS AWESOME. I prefer GSC over it though.
But yeah, cartridge games of this type do not use save cards like consoles, they save the information on the game card itself. In order to do this, they must have a battery to keep the files stored (GSC also went a step further and exploited this battery technique to keep the clock and calendar running while the game was off, which probably had an effect on battery life). These batteries supposedly only lasted for 7 years. Although future games such as Crystal managed to avoid having batteries with this lifespan, practically all copies of Gold and Silver can no longer save unless you get a custom battery fitted inside.
Regions (best to worst) as ranked by Shad:
Hoenn
Sinnoh
Kanto
Unova
Johto
Idk, to me, Johto was like someone tried to copy Kanto and failed epicly.
:s: