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Help u/quartertank ·

How is a save state different from a normal in-game save?

I've been using save states while playing some old RPGs in my browser and I'm confused about how it's different from the game's own save file. Does a save state actually save my progress the same way, or is it doing something completely different under the hood?
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3 comments

  • u/turbo_button ·
    A save state is a snapshot of the whole system at that exact instant, not just your game progress. It captures CPU registers, RAM, the video and sound chip state, everything, so you can drop back into the exact frame you were on, mid-jump or mid-battle, rather than only at a spot the game itself was designed to save at. A normal save (battery-backed cart, memory card, or password) only stores the specific data the developers chose to write out, usually at a save point, a level start, or a menu.
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  • u/lowres_lo ·
    Because of that fragility I treat save states as a quicksave for right now, not a real backup. If a game has its own save system, I still use that for anything I'd be upset to lose, and only lean on save states for skipping past a hard section or picking up exactly where I left off in a single sitting.
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  • u/pixelrot ·
    One catch with save states is that they're tied to the exact emulator and often the exact core version you made them with. Load one on a different emulator, or even a different version of the same one after a big update, and it can refuse to load or come back corrupted. An actual cartridge or memory card save doesn't have that problem, since it's just game data the game itself knows how to read, so it'll work on basically anything that plays that game.
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