Update time: it worked! Popped in the chip and it actually initialized to the factory defaults on its own. Tested saving different settings and it all works fine now! Only outstanding issue is the input issue but I can deal with that later because it's time to sit down and enjoy the game. Thank you so much ekorz and ShootTheCore for patiently guiding me through this. This combined with soldering jumper wires on another board has me feeling unstoppable lol 
