Just as an update. The high scores get lost each time, but all other settings, credits, free play or whatever are there. Only high scores seem to reset whenever the game is shut down. Weird, I know. I have a feeling its a bad chip or something like that, but no reason to believe a damaged board.
I probably talk my games down more than I need to, this is a fine playing game that could be made even sweeter with some very minor tweaking IMO.