Universe Bios v3.1 is released. The UNIVERSE BIOS is for owners of MVS or AES hardware that want an easy way to change country region or between Arcade or Console mode on boot. Also included are other features that are not possible using the standard MVS bios. The UNIVERSE BIOS is also designed to give easy access to things like inserting coins, test mode and memory card management when using the joystick ports only. Of course the BIOS still allows standard operation too.

Universe Bios Main Features:
- The ability to quickly and easily change operation from MVS to AES. Play your favourite games as the home console version enabling all the extra gameplay options that come with some games.
- The ability to quickly and easily change country region (great for games that disable blood under USA region).
- Access to the DEBUG DIP's and DEVELOPER mode.
- Want unlimited lives or energy... Then cheat in games using the built in cheat engine which currently holds over 1570 cheats!!!
- High score saving support on AES hardware by smkdan (memory card required).
- If you are not happy with the cheats already there then you can patch directly into memory any place you like adding your own.
- Jukebox player where one can listen to game music without sound FX from gameplay over the top. Nice option if you want to create MP3's.
- A ROM CRC32 check where you can confirm a games program roms are good.
- True USA region support (correct coin display on bottom left and right of screen in the same way a true USA BIOS does.
- Arcade VS-MODE support which is known to be in the version 6 JAPAN bios. Turn this feature on via hard dip 2.
- PC-2-NEO which gives the ability to upload and download data from the system using a cable which can be easily built.

Universe Bios Other Features:
- Remapping of coin switches to select buttons and visa versa. This allows a SNK joypad pad to do everything.
- Once region and operation mode is set the BIOS will remember settings until you change them again (memory card required on AES hardware for this to work).
- Access to the standard Memory Card Utility no matter what Mode the BIOS is in (one could never access this menu with the normal MVS BIOS).
- Access to Test Mode on boot without the need of wiring the Test Mode JAMMA pins or fiddling with DIP's.
- Enhancements to the TEST MODE menu and hardware test screens.
- Console mode lockout protection removed from latest games when running on MVS hardware (bypasses the red warning screens).
- Arcade mode lockout protection removed from latest games when running on AES hardware (bypasses the red warning screens).
- Look at internal memory with the built in memory viewer. This is handy for tracking faults with slots that don't work (multislot hardware) or carts that simply won't start.
- The ability to soft reboot the system without the need of powering off and on.

Universe Bios v3.1 Changelog:

Additions / Changes Hiscore saving to memory card!!! -------------------------------- Big thanks to smkdan for allowing the use of his code here. This is not fully tested and there could very well be problems. To this end and to allow the greatest testing possible this feature is also included in the free 3.0 version of the unibios. This should work in both MVS and AES mode but given scores are saved to backupRAM on MVS there could be extra problems. If this is the case only use the feature on AES hardware. There may also be issues with multigame bootleg carts. To enable, format the card using the unibios (must be formatted with unibios). Then set the last character of the cards username to '!'. To stop filling the hiscore tables with scores obtained using cheats, debug DIPs or patches high score saving will be disabled if these features are used until the system is reset. NOTES. It may not work with all games so please report issues you have. Puzzle Bobble In AES mode high scores are not loaded until the 2nd time the score table draws. PC-2-NEO Improvements --------------------- U.S.B. support is added and information will be made available in due course on how to build the hardware. Speeds to expect are 155k/sec upload and 32k/sec download. This spec will be ported to the NeoGeo CD system making it possible to upload entire homebrew/small games faster than loading from the CD. Parallel port upload and download speeds improved to around 2.5k/sec. The new PC client is required which is available on the homepage. Added ability to disable the splash screen on AES providing a memory card is present. To use format the card using the unibios (must be formatted with unibios). Then set the second from last character of the cards username to '!'. Stopped error message when changing games with multigame bootleg carts. Added the screensaver to the jukebox. Removed Crossed Swords protection that cleared the bios System and Region settings. This protection could be used in other games also. Removed SS4 Korean backupRAM protection. Removed RBFFS Korean backupRAM protection. Fixes Fixed currupted graphics on splash screen/menu when playing NgDevTeam games (thanks Timm). Fixed memory card manager username input curruption if the sysyem is overclocked to 16Mhz. Fixed bstars going funny after exiting ingame menu sometimes. Fixed NAM1975 Unlimited Lives cheat so you don't start off of the screen after dying Fixed SamSho2 inf energy cheats to not cause infinate bonus count after round win. Fixed MSlug3 save 15 prisioners cheats to not cause game freeze on mission completion. Fixed Sengoku permanent weapon cheats so you can pick up and change weapons when active. Fixed Bang Bang Busters debug dips currupting the Hiscore table (no debug dips). Cheats / CRC Database Added cheats for SS4 Korean into database. Added cheats for Quiz Daisousa Sen Korean into database. Added cheats for RBFFS Korean into database. Added infinate Exceed cheats to SVC. Added infinate Quota cheats to magdrop 2. Added infinate Quota cheats to magdrop 3. Added some new cheats to bstars. Added some new cheats to bstars2. Added cheats for Bang Bang Busters. Added Treasure of the Caribbean crc into database. Added Bang Bang Busters crc into database. Added Quiz Daisousa Sen Korean crc into database. Added Quiz King of Fighter Korean crc into database. Added RBFFS Korean crc into database. Added SS4 Korean crc into database. Added new SS2 Korean crc into database. Added new Bstars crc into database. Added Ironclad crc into database. Added new Jockey GP crc into database. Added new Alpha Mission II crc into database. Added new Burning Fight crc into database. Added new Iron clad crc into database. Added new King of the Monsters 2 crc into database. Updated Jyanshin Densetsu crc in database.

Source: Here