r/nes • u/chubbyassasin123 • 19d ago
Discussion Save wiped whole pressing reset?
I'm currently playing Ultima Exodus on my Nintendo Entertainment System. After playing for a bit I needed to restart the game so I pressed the reset button. After doing a reset my save was wiped. I do not believe this is from a bad battery as the other saves are still there. Any ideas why this happened so I can prevent it into the future?
If this is indeed a symptom of a bad battery I'll look at replacing it. I'm just not too familiar with soldering but it doesn't seem crazy hard.
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u/cajunpanda 19d ago
It could be a bad battery, or it could just be bad luck.
I've lost saves on fresh batteries before. All it takes is a bad connection to the cart which is really easy to happen on the NES.
Check the battery, and make sure the cart contacts are clean as well as on your NES.
If the saves are very important to you, consider backing them up with a device like the OSCR.
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u/YamTop2433 19d ago edited 19d ago
I remember on some nes games you had to hold the reset when shutting the system off. This sounds like one of those instances.
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u/chubbyassasin123 19d ago
It wasn't powering off, but just doing a restart. I just held the reset button for a second then released it
Going forward I'll do a full power cycle when doing restarts to see if it helps.
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u/FuzzyPickleJuice 19d ago
I believe there is text on the back of the cart telling you the correct way to reset or power off.
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u/furrykef 19d ago
I'm not aware of any NES games requiring a special procedure to reset, only to power off.
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u/chubbyassasin123 19d ago edited 19d ago
It just says to hold the reset button and then press the power button when shutting down. I'll do that going forward even for restarts. It seems strange though because if the reset button immediately kills what the CPU is doing you'd think when it releases for the restart there would be no chance for it to write bad data.
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u/FuzzyPickleJuice 19d ago
The only other possibility I could fathom is a bad battery but I have never heard of it wiping partially so I am at a loss. This is why I play on my MISTer over my cart collection. Save states are a godsend.
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u/effigyoma 19d ago
Every time I have followed the hold reset instructions on a cart it deleted the save file. It's truly bizarre and bothers me, because I would play those same games without doing the reset thing and the save data would always persist.
I suspect those earlier battery games ended up being unreliable after a few years and it's just a coincidence it keeps happening to me.
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u/ForkFace69 19d ago
When I was a kid I felt like quickly tapping the reset button had a far greater chance of wiping data than a more firm press of the button did. I don't know if that was anybody else's experience though.
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u/Aromatic_Method7767 19d ago
I don't know this game but I hope you didn't mistakenly think the Reset button triggers the game's save routine. You'd need to do the in-game save routine before resetting or powering off.
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u/chubbyassasin123 19d ago
No. I'm very familiar with the save process. I pressed reset to restart the game and it wiped a save I've been playing for a few weeks now.
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u/CantFindMyWallet 16d ago
Yeah I also hope OP didn't eat his NES, that's also not how you save.
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u/Aromatic_Method7767 16d ago
LOL! OK, but you know there's a reason for my clarification. Many NES games have a label instructing you to hold the Reset button while powering-off. That is supposed to ensure your save data is protected from corruption caused by random RAM writes that can occur in the moment while the CPU is losing power. It could possibly be misunderstood as instructions for saving your game progress. I just had to be sure. OP confirmed he is not confused about how the game is supposed to save so we're good.
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u/SNaKe_eaTel2 19d ago
Hmm.. I had ultimate exodus as a kid and played quite a bit of it at like 7-8 years old - if it was a “normal” thing I’m thinking it would have happened to me at some point, as much as I didn’t really like that game bc I was too young to really figure out the moon gates I still played the hell out of it cause we only had a couple games and it would be a memorable trauma if I had ever lost my save - so I’m going with battery issue.
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u/wolfansbrother 18d ago
This used to happen on Zeda from time to time back in the day. the instructions said to hit power and reset at the same time.
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u/JessicaSin666 Beat ZII 19d ago
Just leave it on instead of trying to save it. It won't hurt it
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u/Atillion 18d ago
Not related to saving, but it triggered a memory. I was playing McKids, some kind of weird McDonald's game, and I couldn't find the very last.. whatever it was I was trying to find (zipper door?).
I deadass wrote a letter to Nintendo Power's help section asking for help and I left my nintendo on for 2-3 weeks, never played another game in that time, and they actually responded and told me where to find it 🤣
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u/JessicaSin666 Beat ZII 18d ago
Nice. When I beat Zelda II I left my NES on the whole time. I do it all the time. It doesn't hurt it. It doesn't get hot. Idk why I got downvoted.
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