Nintendo and the Reset Button

[SoulBlazer]

Someone asked this question in another thead, and I gave what I thought was a good answer, but I don't really KNOW the answer to this. I've never talked to anyone who claimed to know or read or seen it anywhere. Maybe someone with know how as to how the NES worked can help?

Why was it needed to hold down the Reset button before turning Power off on the NES with the first generation of battery back up games?

My theory was due to the power current. If you just hit Power, it sent a surge of eletricity through the system, the same way that computers do when starting or shutting down, and when the NES starts up. With the early batteries, there was a danger of that surge damaging save data. But if you hit Reset first, there's no surge of power, and then while holding it in that 'reset' mode you could then cut the power off and be safe.

Later NES battery games were better protected, I guess, or better designed, so no problem with that. Sega did'nt have a problem with it with their battery games either, so it's really a weird problem.

[QBert]

As far as I ever knew or believed, thats true.





Qbert

[autobotracing]

I was told by someone that holding the reset button charged the battery


sounds like bs to me ,but what do I know.

[tholly]

I was told by someone that holding the reset button charged the battery


sounds like bs to me ,but what do I know.

yea, i would think that that reason is bs also.

[robo3355]

well more than likely the rest button just causes a short on the board. much like homebrewn C=64 switches.

if you think about it, the surge theory makes sense seeing that the reset would short out the system, nothing would happen and the surge wouldn't go through.

[sisko]

well more than likely the rest button just causes a short on the board. much like homebrewn C=64 switches.

if you think about it, the surge theory makes sense seeing that the reset would short out the system, nothing would happen and the surge wouldn't go through.

I'll buy that. It's by far the most logical explanation I have ever heard.

[Aussie2B]

What I want to know is: Did anyone here actually lose any data from not holding the reset button? I forget to most of the time, yet I have NEVER lost data from that.

[autobotracing]

What I want to know is: Did anyone here actually lose any data from not holding the reset button? I forget to most of the time, yet I have NEVER lost data from that.

I did but I was hit the power button on and off multiple times in a row.

[Ayce]

I used to always hold reset before shutting off when playing Zelda or Startropics but I still play them to this day and all I do is shut off the system. Not once I have ever had deleted games.

[Algol]

What I want to know is: Did anyone here actually lose any data from not holding the reset button? I forget to most of the time, yet I have NEVER lost data from that.

I've lost data before. Once while playing The Legend of Zelda and once while playing what I think was Shadowgate.

[tholly]

What I want to know is: Did anyone here actually lose any data from not holding the reset button? I forget to most of the time, yet I have NEVER lost data from that.

i have lost 1 or 2 zelda save games by just turning the system off without holding reset

[rbudrick]

I believe the reset button causes a system interrupt that stops the surge of power (when powering on or off) from reaching the cart. The amount of power on start up or shutdown is very strong and abrubt. The power button releases a short surge that erases whatever is in RAM and potentially the SRAM of a cart too.

Since games are backed up by battery using SRAM, the smallest jolt would reset the sram (and the system RAM) or make it unreadable, causing the NES to erase it or write over it, or just not read it.

Corrections, anyone?

Does the cart version of LoZ in Japan do this (obviously the FDS version doesn't)? I know that the Famicom does not do any of that green screen bullshit, so does anyone know what the hardware difference is there?

-Rob

[goatdan]

What I want to know is: Did anyone here actually lose any data from not holding the reset button? I forget to most of the time, yet I have NEVER lost data from that.

I did but I was hit the power button on and off multiple times in a row.

Heh...

That's the only way that I've ever seen a game lose it's data. I did that with a rental game after it stopped working while playing it. Hit the reset button and didn't get it back and then couldn't. Turned it on and off fifteen times and then gave up...

Tried it the next day and it worked, but the game saves were gone.