Adjusting Dip Switch Settings On A Board
Just like most console video games, arcade games have different options that you can adjust in order to change the gameplay experience. Options such as difficulty, number of lives and number of plays per coin are just some of the options that can be changed on your arcade game. While newer arcade games usually use service menus for these adjustments, classic arcade games typically use a set of switches on the board known as DIP switches. In this post, we will discuss how to adjust these DIP switches so that you can customize the gameplay experience to your liking.
Adjusting Dip Switch Settings On A Board
Before we can adjust our DIP (or Dual In-line Package) switches, we must first locate them on our board. Take a look at your board and see if you can find a set of switches all in a row. The DIP switches themselves should be one of two styles: slide or rocker. Slide style DIP switches have a small plastic square that “slides” to indicate the on or off position. Rocker style DIP switches “rock” down or up to indicate the on or off positions respectively. In our video for this post, we demonstrate how to adjust slide style DIP switches but the process is very similar for rocker style DIP switches as well.
Once we have located our DIP switches, we can begin adjusting them. Please note that DIP switch settings are typically only read when the game boots up. As such, make sure your game is turned off when adjusting the DIP switches then turn the game back on for the settings to take effect. Please do not blindly try and adjust these DIP switches as doing so could lead to undesired results. The manual for your game should contain all of the information you need to know about which DIP switches control what settings. If you do not have a manual, please check out the sites below for help locating one.
Arcade Manual Sites:
- The ARCade ARChive – http://arcarc.xmission.com/
- Crazy Kong Manuals – http://www.crazykong.com/manuals/
- Textfiles Arcade Manuals – http://pdf.textfiles.com/manuals/ARCADE/
- MikesArcade.com – http://www.mikesarcade.com/arcade/manuals.html
Depending on the setting you are trying to change, you might have to adjust multiple DIP switches. For example, the first four switches on your DIP switch might control the amount of coins per play. Your manual should indicate how to set each of these in order to achieve the desired setting. If you are trying to set your game on free play, the setting might be related to the coins per play switches or it could be on a separate switch altogether. Also, some of the games that you encounter might not have a setting for free play in which case it might just be easier to install a credit button which we will discuss in a future post.
Whether you are an arcade operator that needs adjust the coins per credit settings or a collector that likes all of their games on free play, adjusting DIP switches is a valuable skill. Just remember to always consult your manual before adjusting them to make sure you achieve the desired effects. Please leave any questions or suggestions in the comments section below.
