Who really holds down the reset when they turn the power off?

[Oldskool]

Who does this? Games like Zelda state to hold the RESET button while turning the POWER off so that you don't kill your save games. I used to do this ALL the time as a child in fear of nuking my game. But as I've gotten older and not really cared anymore, I just turn it off. And my Zelda save file is STILL there to this day.

What's the story behind this? Does it just keep the power from spiking the battery or something?

[mobiusclimber]

What's the story behind this? Does it just keep the power from spiking the battery or something?

Yes. And I've had game saves get erased from not doing that. DW1 not Zelda, tho.

[Double Ugly]

Interesting. I don't recall ever noticing this. Is this for the NES?

[CDiablo]

Did this religously, and saves still got erased.

[Ro-J]

I lost my Final Fantasy game save from not holding down the reset, at least that's what I am choosing to believe what erased it. My fiance at the time hated RPG's and said they were a waste of time, she was more of a Bubble Bobble player and would complain we should play something together. But regardless, one night I was playing FF and fumbled on the power button (light flickered a few times) and the next day my game was gone. If I held down the reset button this wouldn't have happened.

[Voliko]

I make sure to do it every time. I don't want to be taking any risks that can be easily avoided.

[Arkhan]

I loaned Wizardry 1 to a friend.

a few hours later "WHats it mean if the party roster is FIGHTER1 FIGHTER2 etc"

I hung up the phone, lol.

My 68 Ninja was goneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

I about punched his face in!

I always hold reset in. It's a frigging rule.

[Zing]

I think it's not so much that the reset button itself does something more "gently", but that it prevents an accidental quick on/off, which is what seems to wipe saves.

[Kitsune Sniper]

Of course I do, that innkeeper chick in Final Fantasy yelled at me all the time so I would do it!

[jdheins]

Holding the reset button actually screwed up my Tecmo Super Bowl season, or so I think anyway, now I never do it!

[csgx1]

I never do it.....maybe I'm lucky but no lost saves yet either.

[MASTERWEEDO]

Never did it.

[buzz_n64]

I never hold the reset button, but I have lost game saves once or twice on Zelda. Not sure if it's because of this or not, maybe.

[FoxNtd]

I've been aware of this from the writing on the back of the carts since as long as I can remember, and have always used the reset+power shut down procedure. My first Famicom game that has a battery back-up for save files also seems to describe the very same procedure on it.

From the hardware point of view, I can't explain how this influences what happens when the game is powered off and/or why the save is preserved (or at risk) depending how you power down. Hmm..

[Rickstilwell1]

I never used to and I never had my games erased except on rare occasions. I had a gold cartridge copy of Zelda 1 and I thought its battery had died like my copy of DKC3 on SNES. It turned out that when I played it again and held the reset button when powering off, it actually kept the new save and held it there ever since I started doing this.

I think it's really hit or miss, but taking extra precautions never hurt much. I've had far more problems with SNES saves but that's because my first SNES was filthy inside and all my original copies of the games got dirty from it. I since re-bought all the games I had at the time as I sold them in a lot.

[Zing]

I have always done this procedure and never, ever, lost a game save.

I see several people post here who have lost saves and claim they did not do the procedure.

Use this information wisely.

[Zing]

From the hardware point of view, I can't explain how this influences what happens when the game is powered off and/or why the save is preserved (or at risk) depending how you power down. Hmm..

Here is my hypothesis:

When you just hit the power button, the power to the cart and the system is terminated at the same time. This could cause power surges or voltage spikes which interfere with the battery's voltage or the SRAM memory chips.

When you hold the reset button, just the power to the cartridge is disabled. Then, when you press the power button, no voltage is being supplied to the cart, so it is safe.

[Arkhan]

sounds good to me.

I usually hold reset while powering on too, incase a flickerfuckfest happens.

[FoxNtd]

Here is my hypothesis:

When you just hit the power button, the power to the cart and the system is terminated at the same time. This could cause power surges or voltage spikes which interfere with the battery's voltage or the SRAM memory chips.

When you hold the reset button, just the power to the cartridge is disabled. Then, when you press the power button, no voltage is being supplied to the cart, so it is safe.

If that's true, then the RAM still has power and the CPU is still running. Any instructions in the pipeline should still be ongoing in execution and will probably work uninterrupted since RAM is still live too. I suppose a crash/freeze would occur if there is a page fault... If this is still true for consoles then why is it that hitting reset seems to immediately halt execution? (I have to go and test this, but from what I remember, as soon as you hold reset, but don't let go, it's like you pause the CPU.)

Resetting ought to be going back to the known starting state, just like where the machine finds itself when first powered on. I wonder what the reset button is really doing when it's held down before being released. The answer to this ought to tie into the save file preservation. Damn, we need a computer engineer who specializes in consoles to address this.

See, when I first thought about what the state of the machine is during the time reset is held, initially I wanted to say that the halting of execution would ensure there wasn't any I/O ops being done to wherever the save data is stored. But, if you were right in the middle of I/O and held reset right there, you'd prevent the CPU from completing the task. So... it doesn't make sense. I really wanna figure out just what the hell happens in the machine that is supposed to make it "safe" for your save data, argh, what a puzzle..

One other thing. I also consider that any data in the segment that stores save data that does not resemble a save file is ignored and reported to the gamer as an empty slot. This is because there is no particular reason to arbitrarily assign any values to that segment if there is nothing of interest to store there, and hence since the value there is unknown, you will have a random set of data (i.e. garbage.) My point of this is that it is important that the data that ends up being in your save file still resembles a save file, and if it can't be identified by the game it will assume it's garbage and report an empty slot. So no save or somehow-corrupted save is the same as, well, nothing.

EDIT: If I have made an error, please correct me.

In reference to the quote above, in any case, if nothing special is going on, at the least perhaps the disabling of the flow of voltage to the cart slot is an added preventative measure. Reset held or not, cutting the power (or halting execution) during saving is probably going to screw you no matter what. But, if the cart is off first to prevent flukes, it might simply just boost your chances of not getting screwed. Would be funny if this is actually the answer.

[Zama]

*Raises hand* I always hold the Reset button before turning off a saved NES game.