PICKnMIX Help & Support thread.

[Razoola]

I have started this thread so users can ask for help and get support when using the Universe Bios v4.0 PICKnMIX feature. Hopefully this thread will stay small as everything should work and has been well tested. But you never know.

A special thanks to 'ack' for exstensive bug reporting and testing on multislot hardware, also 'miisalo' and 'RockstarRunner' for MVS and AES testing.

A couple of easy to understand requests I ask forum members try and respect in this thread;

• Before posting for help visit www.universebios.com/picknmix.html and see if your query is answered or listed in the known issues at the bottom of the page.
  
  
• Look through this thread to see if your question has already been answered.
  
  
• Please do not post in this thread unless you are either asking a question about PICKnMIX or directly posting the answer to a question asked.
  
  
• Do not ask questions about other UniBios related things, use the Universe Bios v4.0 thread here for that.
  
  
• Please do not post questions about what PICKnMIX is etc, please direct those kind of questions to the main Universe Bios v4.0 thread (here). This thread is a help and support thread if you are already using PICKnMIX.
  

Hopefully adhering to these to simple things will keep the thread as short as possible and make it as easy as possible for members to find answers. With this in mind, here are the current known issues. Remember some issues affecting games on the 161-in-1 cannot be fixed unless a way to reprogram these carts is found.

___________________________________​

Issues with games on the 161-in-1 cart.

• Aero Fighter 3 will not play correctly unless you are in the Japanese region due to corrupted game data on the cart.
• Magical Drop II hiscore table does not display correctly due to the 161-in-1's patched in start button trigger timer location in workRAM.
• Magical Drop III hiscore table does not display correctly due to the 161-in-1's patched in start button trigger timer location in workRAM.
• Metal Slug 3 has NGH of 0x299 which belongs to the mslug6 hack. When in USA region the 'parental advisory warning' screen is corrupted. When set to Japanese language (softDIPs) the Japanese 'how to play' font is corrupted.
• Garou MOTW will crash when preforming Kim's B+C top attack, this due to 161-in-1 using the prototype version of the game.
  

MVS / AES issues.

• No known issues at this time.

MVS only issues.

• No known issues at this time.

AES only issues.

• Popup gamelist disabled when current game is King of Fighters 2003 (no font).
• When in Arcade mode some softDIPs in the Metal Slug series of games will always be forced to a set state, the level setting for example will always be 3.
• You will only see one attract mode sequence for games that have two or more.
• In ARCADE mode most games will not have sound in attract mode even if the games 'demo sound' softDIP has been enabled (because AES does not have backupRAM).

 

[Razoola]

A couple of usage tips as I have had an email or two on these already.

• If you have an issue of the popup menu closing quickly its because you are not using it correctly. You MUST keep the game select button held down as explained on the PICKnMIX webpage (link in first post). When you release the button the popup will close. In short keep the button pressed as you use the joystick to choose a game. You will quickly get the hang of it.
  
  
• If your not able to swap games on a MVS while its in attract mode don't worry, its not broken. Go into the cabinet SoftDIP settings (testmode) and set the game select option to 'Free' or 'Anytime' (named differently depending on region). PICKnMIX really does act like a genuine multislot, including how the system is setup in test mode and the hardDIPs (freeplay etc).

 

[sammargh]

I'm using this with a MV-1C, NBM with VMC in US Arcade mode. Once Unibios 4.0 was loaded I did a complete reset of both the backup ram and my memory card.

Have you come across any issues with games randomly crashing while using PICKnMIX? I was playing Ganryu, died to the first boss and when I tried to start the boss battle again the system rebooted. Trying to recreate it from power on instead of menu switching the system rebooted randomly halfway through stage 1.

I haven't been able to recreate it but switching from Blue's Journey to Blazing Star and each time the attract loop would try to start on either it'd reboot. I think it might have been due to a lack of initializing softdips for one of the games.

I've also come across sound completely dropping out eventually requiring a full reboot. It also seems to happen sometimes after first turning on the system as well. Switching from Ganryu to Garou while the Neo Geo splash was up and sound was not playing resulted in a "New eye catch!" Z80 error.

Edit: so I popped my 150-in-1 in and noticed that it was just as crash-prone as the 160-in-1. Started playing with the settings and I've found that re-enabling the BootUp HW test made it so that the crashes/sound issue went away. Problem is since this is a MV-1C this results in a Z-80 error on boot up every time that has to be acknowledged with the 160-in-1.

Edit x2: actually seems the sound issue isn't 100% gone, more like one in every 10 boot ups with HW test enabled instead of one in every three. The crashing seems to have stopped though. Double-checked the CRC on my bios chip by dumping it and it matches so I'm starting to wonder if my MV-1C is just deciding it's not worth living anymore.

 

[Razoola]

I will look at these later today if I have time. If the system is simply resetting with no exception error it more sounds like a watchdog issue. Try the game without using picknmix and see if the same thing happens.

What you mention about the MV-1C may very well be correct (probaby affects the MV-1B also), the thing I have found with the initial z80 code presented at cold boot is that its probably bad (because of the cart). I had trouble with the AES for example also (that does not have on board z80 either) but I can detect AES so was quite easy to solve. It is not so easy with the MV-1C.

Sound dropping out can happen just like it does on real multislots but I will look at the reports you have given. I suspect one may be related to the MV-1C and your suggest fix might help alot.

(edit) to answer your 2nd edit.

I have had a look now at ganryu/garou switching and Blues Journey/Blazing Star and cannot reproduce the issues you had. The latter could be related to a poorly inserted cart maybe. The first is related to the z80.

In relation to the sound situation, can you please try the following, disable the hardware check again. Boot into PICKnMIX. When you have the situation again of sound not working, bring up the ingame menu and do a soft reset. Does sound start ok once its booted again?

 

[leonk]

Hey Razoola.

Based on the readme the PicnMIX sounds like a new dashboard for the 161-in-1. please correct if I’m wrong.

I’m surprised that unibios has suppprt for this multicart given its lack of voltage translators and my understanding that it has potential to cause damage to your console. Any reason to support this device?

 

[Razoola]

Hey Razoola.

Based on the readme the PicnMIX sounds like a new dashboard for the 161-in-1. please correct if I’m wrong.

I’m surprised that unibios has suppprt for this multicart given its lack of voltage translators and my understanding that it has potential to cause damage to your console. Any reason to support this device?

This is meant to be a help and support thread only. I'll answer here given my first post was not clear enough maybe, if you want to continue this conversation though please post your reply in the main unibios v4.0 thread (in the main NeoGeo tech support). Anyone wanting info on what it is rather than help using it please use the main v4.0 thread only, I will edit the first post to make this a little clearer. No worries.

The main reason I wanted to look at and maybe add support is since its release I have had many emails and questions asking if I could do something about the 161-in-1 not being able to change games without a power cycle if a memory card was inserted. With many CMVS builds (using VMC for example) its not possible to simply take them out (or turn them off). I totally agree with you that the carts themselves are quite poorly done by many people's standards, this is one reason why PICKnMIX is an unsupported feature, many issues will be due to the cart themselves, some people it may work fine for, others not.

PICKnMIX is not a dashboard though, it alters the 161in1 so game swapping is basically identical to how real NeoGeo multislots allow game swapping. Given the way I am I wanted to add my twist on how I see a multi game cart should be in relation to game selecting at the same time as giving a solution to the memory card issue. Basically PICKnMIX is a poor version of NEOGEOLAND given the Unibios space limitation and lack of being able to use custom graphics.

 

[sammargh]

I had verified that the resetting was happening without picknmix as I tested the 150-in-1 and found the crashing in both carts so common that I could just sit at the default menu and flip around pages to wait for a reboot.

I tried the following regarding sound:
Test1: HW test disabled boot up enabling picknmix with Ganryu selected until Neo Geo screen came up with no sound, soft reboot
Test2: HW test disabled boot up enabling picknmix with Ganryu selected until Neo Geo screen came up with no sound, soft reboot, re-enable HW test, soft reboot
Test3: HW test enabled boot up enabling picknmix with Ganryu selected until Neo Geo screen came up with no sound, soft reboot

All three resulted in no sound playback after a soft reboot and I noticed Ganryu bugged out on loading after the Neo Geo splash screen. Using the game swap button to switch a game and back fixes it but the sound issue remains and soft reboot does not bring it back.

 

[Razoola]

@sammargh

Can you please email me at razoola@universebios.com, I have some things I would like you to try but I don't want to bog down this thread with this issue.

 

[J-P]

Hey Raz - silly question; I know there is lot's of stuff that's probably specific to the 161, forgive me if this has already been asked. Are you planning to make this feature work with the other multicarts? I have the 138-in-1 (I avoided the 161 because of various issues it has) and I'm using the dip switch mod.

 

[Razoola]

Hey Raz - silly question; I know there is lot's of stuff that's probably specific to the 161, forgive me if this has already been asked. Are you planning to make this feature work with the other multicarts? I have the 138-in-1 (I avoided the 161 because of various issues it has) and I'm using the dip switch mod.

Wrong thread but the answer is no.

 

[phoenixdownita]

Some minor feedback/points (I managed to install the Uni4 just tonight)

1) On an AES no memcard + 161-n-1 (MagicKey) in ARCADE mode if I start PICKnMIX with SELECT pressed how do I insert credits?
[I made so many mistakes with pressing A when I didn;t want to it's not even funny]

2) Capt Tomaday 161-n-1 (MagicKey), AES no memcard in EUR+ARCADE mode seems to save all the softDip if PickNMix is enabled, when I hard reset though and use the 161-in-1 menu (no PickNMix) if I go to the softDIP the "Level ON" switch is back to "without" (I like it "with"), is there a difference in the way the 161-in-1 handles the softDIP saves with or without PickNMix?

3) Glitch report (not a biggie): AES no memcard with 161-in-1 (MagicKey) inserted, hard reset with ABC pressed, Unibios menu comes up with I'd say 1/3 of the characters on screen (it's functional but the gfx is ...whatev ... which is "better" than before as it was garbled although I think the actual fix is that now you have the Uni splash screen AFTER the 161in1 abomenu [not a typo])

4) 161-in-1 Hacks: if I save the softdips in PickNMix mode for a game (or maybe just the level) would the hacks of that game get the same settings too [booted obviously without PickNMix] or do they have a different "save slot"?

 

[Razoola]

@phoenixdownita

1) Thats right, on AES in arcade mode you must use A and B as game select buttons, there is no way around that. You will get used to A and B though... Eventually......

2) Its important to make distinction between PICKnMIX and the 161-in-1 in its default mode.

It has always been the case that on AES hardware with unibios set to arcade mode that a game will use the default softDIP settings (it does not expect softDIPs stored somewere). This is not changed in v4.0. PICKnMIX however will get a games softDIPs stored on the cart. This is why you see the difference in settings, its just an extra feature of PICKnMIX over standard 161-in-1 (is not designed for AES and I suspect even those AES version of the 161-in-1 suffer the same problem). I have made a note of this and may try and do something about it in a future Universe Bios release.

3) This is another issue with the 161-in-1 in its standard mode and not PICKnMIX. At power on it does not have the default font available, the solution is to pick a game, soft reboot (ingame menu) and then enter the main Unibios menu.

4) Yes, they each have a different game slot.

 

[phoenixdownita]

@phoenixdownita

1) Thats right, on AES in arcade mode you must use A and B as game select buttons, there is no way around that. You will get used to A and B though... Eventually......

2) Its important to make distinction between PICKnMIX and the 161-in-1 in its default mode.

It has always been the case that on AES hardware with unibios set to arcade mode that a game will use the default softDIP settings (it does not expect softDIPs stored somewere). This is not changed in v4.0. PICKnMIX however will get a games softDIPs stored on the cart. This is why you see the difference in settings, its just an extra feature of PICKnMIX over standard 161-in-1 (is not designed for AES and I suspect even those AES version of the 161-in-1 suffer the same problem). I have made a note of this and may try and do something about it in a future Universe Bios release.

3) This is another issue with the 161-in-1 in its standard mode and not PICKnMIX. At power on it does not have the default font available, the solution is to pick a game, soft reboot (ingame menu) and then enter the main Unibios menu.

4) Yes, they each have a different game slot.

[slight off topic but still 161-in-1 related]
Wrt to 3) I am sure it is by design but I noticed that after the 161-n-1 abomenu comes up if I chose a game I get directly into the Uni4 splash screen with no gfx corruption as far as I can tell and if I press ABC quick enough I can even change settings. So it seems ingame soft reboot is not even strictly necessary.

Wrt 4) I guess PickNMix won't help saving back any difficulty settings for those hacked games as they are not choosable.
I noticed that the level settings alone [at least in AeroFighters 2 & 3 & ASO2 and a couple more I don't remember] keeps whatever set on SoftDIP by PickNMix also on hard reboot + abomenu selection. As stated somewhere else I never managed to get 1UP start break code work on my 161-n-1 on AES + MagicKey, so now I am using PickNMix as a way to store back sane default difficulty settings ... I will test again tonight to make sure I didn't dream about the difficulty carrying over from PickNMix to coldstart but I am quite sure AeroFighters 2 was at 8 and AeroFighters 3 at 7 and I set them back to 4 and it seems they retained it outside PickNMix (which is great for my setup).

 

[Razoola]

Yes, softDIPs set while picknMIX is enabled will save on the cart so they survive a cold boot.

 

[Damulta]

This is on the AES 161

One thing I seem I can't change my difficulty in PicknMix mode.

For instance I change it to lv6 and get lv3

It starts up all whited out till u hit default D(this is in all games)

I start the game normal screen no PicknMix it's not Whited out at first

But does not show lv-1-8 if I change it


Other games show it in non PicknMix mode like Drift out the lv-changes at the bottom.


Edit:
Tried a set lv6 then cold boot into PicknMix with Drift Out. Didn't save onto the cart. I know AES is not supported. Just reporting Raz.

Still a great feature!!!!

 

[Razoola]

I will look at this MS3 softDIP situation shortly.

Raz

 

[Damulta]

I will look at this MS3 softDIP situation shortly.

Raz

It's softdips with the entire cartridge.
Last blade 2 with PicknMix

Without PicknMix


They just stay default with PicknMix which is okay for the most. If you ever want to borrow this cart just ask and I'll send it your way.

 

[Razoola]

That might be an issue with the new revision multicart. Once you set the softdips for a game in PICKnMIX once and then cold boot is the softDIPs then ok?

I tried NeoDrift out and that saves and loads fine here on AES. The Metal Slug softdip issue is a bug in PICKnMIX, I can fix that in future version. I will make a note of this on the PICKnMIX page, it only affects AES.

Raz

 

[Damulta]

Softdips never set while in PicknMix in any game. In normal mode they work just fine. There is no saving softdips while in PicknMix or normal boot.

normal boot MS3
]

Normal boot Drift Out

Drift Out PicknMix

Game works fine if I start it fast put coins in it. Other wise get this message from a soft boot.

Normal boot does not lock up if I let it set there
]

 

[Razoola]

Please not so many pictures. I'm suspecting this cart is then slightly different in how it loads and saves softdips compared to the MVS cart. If other people have the same issue it will probably mean you need MVS 161-in-1. No way to know for sure unless I actually have one of these AES version of the cart.

I guess other people need to confirm this.

 

[Damulta]

Japangameonline released 3 different AES versions(at least they say 3 different versions I bet they're all the same) US, Japan, and International. This is the US AES copy.

Just trying to be helpful. Like I said if you ever want to borrow this copy just let me know.

 

[Razoola]

Yes I know and I am very thankful.

Some of the pictures however have no useful information in them apart from the first post. Is it possible to keep the pictures in that post but remove all the pictures from the other 2 newer posts?

[edit] thanks for removing the pictures.

I'm a little annoyed with myself because rockstarrunner hilighted that MS3 issue with softDIPs on AES and I fixed it once. Seems I broke it again when I reorganised some code to save space. The good news, its an east fix for the future.

 

[ggallegos1]

Bumping this thread because I'm confused and can't find an answer.

I'm using Unibios 4.0 on a MV1-FSZ in a cabinet. Whenever I use the 161, I can't pop the menu up to select a game in Pick mix mode, the 1P Start button makes the Unibios in game menu pop up. This is difficult, as now I can't actually start games from player 1 side unless I wait out the timer.

How do I get the picknmix menu to pop up, and how do I make it so that I can start a game from 1Ps side?

 

[HeavyMachineGoob]

How are you enabling Pick n mix? Hold start while powering up? Or select?

For me, what works is hold Select while powering up, then during a game, press and hold select until the game menu appears. You have to keep select held while moving around, let go to load the current selected game.

 

[ggallegos1]

How are you enabling Pick n mix? Hold start while powering up? Or select?

For me, what works is hold Select while powering up, then during a game, press and hold select until the game menu appears. You have to keep select held while moving around, let go to load the current selected game.

Unfortunately I don't have a Select button on the cab, only Player 1 Start and Player 2 start. I can try it out on the big red next weekend, but it doesn't seem to work well on the 1 slot due to the lack of select button