MVS soft DIP reset

[shmupsrocks]

I just noticed that my Metal Slug 3 MVS cart only gives me a single life which must be controlled by a soft DIP. Can I just remove the coin cell battery from my MVS motherboard for a few seconds to reset the soft DIP settings for all of my MVS games? If so are there any drawbacks to doing this?

[it290]

That should be no problem, although obviously you'll lose the settings and data for any other games. IIRC settings are only stored for 8 games at a time, so you could also just boot up games until the MS3 settings are lost assuming you have enough carts. Of course, if you have a Unibios or a test button wired up you can just access the soft DIP settings directly and change them.

[Ryoandr]

all 8 dip on then powering will do a backup ram reset.

[shmupsrocks]

All 8 DIP on worked great!

[Ryoandr]

note that dip 1 on while powering will bring the setup menu which allows to setup soft dips

[Neo-Alec]

Dip 1 also gives access to the Hardware Test menu, which contains the option to clear the backup ram, which will have the same effect as turning on all the switches at power on.

If you have a dirty system or games, then this option is your friend. It's also just handy to know as a troubleshooting measure -- it's not uncommon for the soft dips to be initialized incorrectly, usually due to a bad connection to the game's P rom.