In-Game Reset (IGR)

In-Game Reset lets you leave a running game and come straight back to RiptOPL — or power the console off — without touching the console's own Reset button. It is a controller shortcut that works from inside the game.

RiptOPL installs a small hook into the running game that watches the controller for a reserved button combination. When it sees one, it tears the game down and either returns you to the browser or shuts the console down.

The button combinations

Every combination starts the same way: hold all four shoulder buttons — L1 + L2 + R1 + R2 — and then, while still holding them, press the second half.

L3 and R3 are the analog-stick clicks, so the power-off combination needs a DualShock with the analog light on.

The console power button

The power button on the front of the console is hooked too, and does not need a controller:

The second press has to land within about a second — RiptOPL waits ~50 vertical blanks after the first press to see whether another arrives, then acts on the count.

Where a reset takes you

By default a reset returns you to the RiptOPL browser, started fresh. It does not restore what you had selected: Remember Last Played Game (Settings → General & System) is a separate setting, off by default, and it is what re-selects the last game you ran.

You can send it somewhere else with the IGR Path setting (Settings → General & System). Point it at an ELF and that ELF is booted on reset rather than the browser — a common use is to drop straight back into a different launcher or a homebrew menu. The file must live on a memory card (mc0: or mc1:); leave the setting blank to return to RiptOPL normally.

If you use MMCE cards, IGR Bootcard Slot(s) (Settings → Game Sources → MMCE Settings) additionally sends a "switch to bootcard" command to slot 0, slot 1, both, or neither as the reset happens, so the card is already back on its boot image by the time the next thing loads. See MMCE.

When IGR is not available

IGR is not universal. It is worth knowing the three cases where the combinations will do nothing, so you do not spend time hunting a fault that is not there.

Before the game opens a controller

The hook attaches by patching the game's own scePadPortOpen / scePad2CreateSocket call. Until the game asks for a pad, there is nothing hooked — so IGR does not respond during very early boot logos on some titles. The console power button still works.

When the game is incompatible

A few games handle input in a way the hook disturbs. Per-game compatibility Mode 6 — Disable IGR turns the hook off for that title. If a game misbehaves in a way that started when you launched it through RiptOPL, this is the mode to try — at the cost of losing IGR for that game. See Per-game Settings.

Under the Neutrino core

PS1 titles are a separate case again: they run under POPSTARTER or Ember, each of which has its own independent IGR behaviour built into that binary. RiptOPL's hook is not involved. See PS1 Games and the sister POPStarter docs.

In-game screenshots (IGS)

The L1+L2+R1+R2 + Up combination captures the current frame to a bitmap on memory card slot 1, named from the game's ID with a zero-padded sequence number starting at 001 — for example mc1:/SLUS_012.34_GS(001).bmp. The number increments to a maximum of 255 per game.

Two conditions gate it, and both catch people out:

1. GSM must be enabled for the running game. The capture is gated on the game's GSM setting, so with GSM off the combination does nothing at all.
2. The build must include IGS. The Makefile defaults EXTRA_FEATURES to 0 and IGS follows it, and the main release loader is built with that default — so the loader most people run has no IGS and the Up combination is simply inert.

Troubleshooting

Nothing happens when I press the combination. Check, in order: the game has actually started (past the early boot logos); the Loader Core is OPL rather than Neutrino; Mode 6 is not set for this game; and — for the power-off combination specifically — the controller is in analog mode, since L3 and R3 are the stick clicks. The screenshot combination uses Up, so it needs no analog mode.

Try the console power button as a cross-check: if that resets and the pad combination does not, the hook is fine and the problem is in the pad half.

Reset takes me somewhere unexpected. Check IGR Path in Settings → General & System. A stale path left over from an earlier setup will boot that ELF instead of returning to the browser.

The game resets on its own during play. A game that uses all four shoulders plus Start or Select in normal play can trigger IGR by accident. Set Mode 6 — Disable IGR for that title.