You should press the 9 key and enter the settings menu.
1st option (number of lives): set the number of lives you want.
2nd option (Pulse): here you edit how many times the 5 key must be pressed to add one credit.
3rd option (Free or not): here you choose whether the game will be free play or not.
4th option (save and exit): move the arrow to the left; it will save and exit the game. Only after editing these settings will it work correctly.
This version is much better, thank you for sharing.
Actually, these games are made by Chinese developers and placed in TV boxes (like the MXQ 4 Pro), and sold as arcade kits on AliExpress.
Not all of them are bad, but they are limited.
In the original post's title, I put "Chinese version," a reference to the mod, but it was edited, and I can't say why it's like that.