Famicom World

Family Computer => Famicom / Disk System => Topic started by: cr4zymanz0r on March 09, 2011, 06:57:39 am

Title: Hold reset while turning off the power?
Post by: cr4zymanz0r on March 09, 2011, 06:57:39 am
I know on NES games that have battery backup saves you're suppose to hold down reset while turning the power off. Is the same true for Famicom games or do they have a different design where you don't have to hold reset?

Bonus Question: Does anybody know the technical reason why you have to hold reset on the NES games? I've always wondered that.
Title: Re: Hold reset while turning off the power?
Post by: nintendodork on March 09, 2011, 08:14:07 am
You're supposed to hold reset? I've always just turned the games off after I saved. :P
Title: Re: Hold reset while turning off the power?
Post by: ericj on March 09, 2011, 08:33:02 am
I believe it has to do with the potential of a small voltage spike resetting/corrupting the "save" memory when just pressing the Power button to turn it off. By first pressing the Reset button, this wouldn't happen because the power to the cartridge is cut off. Of course, I could be totally incorrect.  :crazy:
Title: Re: Hold reset while turning off the power?
Post by: MS-DOS4 on March 09, 2011, 08:34:07 am
I believe you're spot on!
Title: Re: Hold reset while turning off the power?
Post by: satoshi_matrix on March 09, 2011, 11:59:18 am
I do this with all cartridge based systems that have a reset button from the NES to the N64. Famicom games are no exception. Better safe than sorry.
Title: Re: Hold reset while turning off the power?
Post by: Jedi Master Baiter on March 09, 2011, 11:59:43 am
I believe you have to do the same for Famicom games (at least on an NES).  I found out when my Tetris II + BomBliss saves were gone. :(
Title: Re: Hold reset while turning off the power?
Post by: tappybot on March 09, 2011, 06:02:53 pm
First time I've ever heard of this  ???

I suppose it might be in instruction manuals but I usually never really look at any of the first so many pages that have nothing to do with the game.


Wow, I guess I'll start doing this from now on, just in case.  :yoshi:
Title: Re: Hold reset while turning off the power?
Post by: UglyJoe on March 09, 2011, 06:11:50 pm
When I was in college, one of my room mates started playing through Zelda 2 and at some point it erased his game.  He got pissed off and went to bed.  My other room mate booted the game up and registered the three save games like this:

(http://ximwix.net/storage/178.png)

When my room mate started the game over again in the morning, he got the message :octorok:
Title: Re: Hold reset while turning off the power?
Post by: Jedi Master Baiter on March 09, 2011, 08:45:10 pm
Quote from: tappybot on March 09, 2011, 06:02:53 pm
First time I've ever heard of this  ???


You've never seen one of these?

(http://i498.photobucket.com/albums/rr343/JediQuestMaster/CautionBatteryBright.png)

Unless you only have Famicom, then that's different. :-\
Title: Re: Hold reset while turning off the power?
Post by: tappybot on March 10, 2011, 03:07:55 am
I was playing NES from before I can remember...  I guess my only excuse is that it was always there so it was never of interest to me.

Actually, the part in black print sounds familiar, the part in red I had never bothered to read I suppose, or maybe when I was young I didn't understand it, so ignored it.
Title: Re: Hold reset while turning off the power?
Post by: fredJ on March 10, 2011, 03:35:10 am
Maybe it can't happen on the top loader or the twin fami. I haven't heard of it anyways.
Title: Re: Hold reset while turning off the power?
Post by: UglyJoe on March 10, 2011, 04:53:41 am
Final Fantasy was pretty explicit about it:

(http://i.imgur.com/gNpyw.png) (http://i.imgur.com/9723t.png)
Title: Re: Hold reset while turning off the power?
Post by: NintendoKing on March 10, 2011, 07:30:02 am
I once didn't hold reset and lost my Kirby's Adventure game save.
Title: Re: Hold reset while turning off the power?
Post by: cr4zymanz0r on March 10, 2011, 01:42:01 pm
So can anybody read Japanese and know if the Famicom carts with save batteries have a similar warning on the back or in-game, or is it all just speculation?
Title: Re: Hold reset while turning off the power?
Post by: satoshi_matrix on March 10, 2011, 02:16:24 pm
It'd be on the back of a copy of Mother 1, if anyone's got one loose. Mine is sealed.
Title: Re: Hold reset while turning off the power?
Post by: Jedi Master Baiter on March 10, 2011, 11:35:21 pm
Baseball Stars was also less subtle about it.

(http://i498.photobucket.com/albums/rr343/JediQuestMaster/26.png)
Title: Re: Hold reset while turning off the power?
Post by: MWK on March 11, 2011, 01:23:35 am
Quote from: The Uninvited Gremlin on March 10, 2011, 07:30:02 am
I once didn't hold reset and lost my Kirby's Adventure game save.

Quote from: cr4zymanz0r on March 10, 2011, 01:42:01 pm
So can anybody read Japanese and know if the Famicom carts with save batteries have a similar warning on the back or in-game, or is it all just speculation?


That is weird, I've never paid any attention to this thing either AND didn't ever lost my save states in any of my Famicom game with battery backup. However I might have been lucky...

Anyway, that is some intel worth consideration, thx.
Title: Re: Hold reset while turning off the power?
Post by: P on March 11, 2011, 03:51:17 am
Zelda 1 cartridge version comes with an orange warning card in Japanese that tells you to hold reset when powering off. Also many RPGs for both Famicom and NES have a similarly in-game warning when saving like that one in Final Fantasy.

When I was a kid I never held down reset while turning off as I didn't understand English, but I never lost any data because of it. Maybe I was lucky?
Title: Re: Hold reset while turning off the power?
Post by: Drakon on March 12, 2011, 08:16:09 pm
my repro of earthbound the official english translation keeps mentioning that too.  I've never held down reset and I've never lost the data.  My super famicom games lose data more frequently than this game.  Really it's the only famicom/nes game I have with a save feature.
Title: Re: Hold reset while turning off the power?
Post by: dukbrand on March 13, 2011, 06:16:41 pm
It's crap when you've got a dirty 72 pin and the flashing pink screen wipes your game save >:(
Title: Re: Hold reset while turning off the power?
Post by: Drakon on March 13, 2011, 07:19:21 pm
Quote from: dukbrand on March 13, 2011, 06:16:41 pm
It's crap when you've got a dirty 72 pin and the flashing pink screen wipes your game save >:(


.....

Most of the time nes/famicom games don't connect to the system is because of the zif socket.  On a top loader you really never get that.
Title: Re: Hold reset while turning off the power?
Post by: UglyJoe on March 13, 2011, 07:24:15 pm
Quote from: dukbrand on March 13, 2011, 06:16:41 pm
It's crap when you've got a dirty 72 pin and the flashing pink screen wipes your game save >:(


You know, now that you mention it, this is really how I lost all my save games.  It wasn't holding down reset when turning it off (which I did), it was turning it on and off so frequently while performing cart feng shui to try and get the NES to boot the game.