Quick PowerPak question

Can you use save states for non-battery backed up games, or are the .SAV files only for games like Zelda/Final Fantasy that have battery.   Would like to be able to skip to a second loop on certain games that are harder on second quests.

Thought I'd ask quick before reloading my flash and testing.

Comments

  • thefox has some savestate mappers, you might google them or search NA I remember reading about them here.



  • Yep, thefox's savestate mappers work like the Game Action Replay.
  • Thanks Paul, I see the info is in the official Powerpak thread, don't know how I missed that.



    Basically if I read the readme right, you just copy in the fox mappers to replace the ones downloaded from the retrousb site to make it work, thanks!
  • So are nestopia save state files in the same format or different? Any one tried?
  • I'm going to answer my own question, they aren't the required 32KB so no, maybe someone could write a conversion program.
  • What would you need? And most save files should be 8KB. Although MMC5 games can get to 32KB(?) IIRC. What would you need to do?
  • Let me know how this works for you, I've been very curious about the save state mappers, just haven't had time to mess around with them.



    Thanks.

  • Originally posted by: jdheins

    Thanks Paul, I see the info is in the official Powerpak thread, don't know how I missed that.



    Basically if I read the readme right, you just copy in the fox mappers to replace the ones downloaded from the retrousb site to make it work, thanks!


    you honour me by labelling the thread the "official" one. Be sure to download the savestate set of folders and files I created (at the end of the thread), it includes all licensed US games. I want to do an incompatibility list for them, but just haven't had the time. What sucks about them is that I can't save my excite bike's custom tracks . Otherwise, they are über-great, and I wonder why won't Brian just ask the Fox to make them official, and put them in the next mappers release (I also wonder why hasn't he made the beta mappers already official, it's been some time now).
  • The save state feature works pretty cool, but doesn't seem like there is a way to save savestates between runs.



    You can still only save battery backed RAM as far as I can tell.
  • Originally posted by: buttheadrulesagain

    I also wonder why hasn't he made the beta mappers already official, it's been some time now


    Because save states are silly and have no real value. They are fun to screw around with, but no actual game playing should be done with them.

  • Originally posted by: jdheins

    The save state feature works pretty cool, but doesn't seem like there is a way to save savestates between runs.



    You can still only save battery backed RAM as far as I can tell.


    I'm sure there's something you're doing wrong man, the Fox savestates are just like emulator savestates. You can either save in games like Zelda (battery save), or in games like TMNT, at any point. To save like that you have to press A and select. You can load the game by pressing B and select, and save it to a file by pressing reset for a few seconds; it'll ask you if you want to save, exactly as if it was the battery save.
  • Originally posted by: MrMiniMog

    Originally posted by: buttheadrulesagain

    I also wonder why hasn't he made the beta mappers already official, it's been some time now


    Because save states are silly and have no real value. They are fun to screw around with, but no actual game playing should be done with them.


    I find them quite useful actually (no, I don't use them for the contests, word!). For example, games that use looong passwords (like Captain Tsubasa/Tecmo Cup Soccer), or any password at all (saves you from writting down stuff) benefit a lot from it. Or if I like certain boss battles/levels, and don't feel like going through all the game to play them (also to show off to friends "Do you want to see how I beat XXX?").  I seldomly use them to pass through "unfair" parts of some games.

    Besides, not everyone is a purist like you and me, and it would sure be a great selling point for regular customers (and you can just not use the feature). And the sentence you quoted from me refers to the eternal "beta" state of latest mappers release, which fixes the controller issues in games like Dirty Harry.
  • Originally posted by: MrMiniMog

    Originally posted by: buttheadrulesagain

    I also wonder why hasn't he made the beta mappers already official, it's been some time now


    Because save states are silly and have no real value. They are fun to screw around with, but no actual game playing should be done with them.


    The topic of my thread: skip to second quest seems like a good reason, just sayin

    I know zelda has a built in way by typing in zelda as a name or link maybe

  • Originally posted by: buttheadrulesagain

    Originally posted by: jdheins

    The save state feature works pretty cool, but doesn't seem like there is a way to save savestates between runs.

    You can still only save battery backed RAM as far as I can tell.


    I'm sure there's something you're doing wrong man, the Fox savestates are just like emulator savestates. You can either save in games like Zelda (battery save), or in games like TMNT, at any point. To save like that you have to press A and select. You can load the game by pressing B and select, and save it to a file by pressing reset for a few seconds; it'll ask you if you want to save, exactly as if it was the battery save.


    Have you actually personally gottin it to work, I pictured it to work exactly like you are saying, but when I try to load in never prompts me from "where" to load from.
  • Never mind just tried again, you load the save state, game starts as normal, then you have to select Select+B to load, so awesome it does work.
  • ^^yep, forgot to mention that little detail. If you find incompatible games for it (besides the ones already listed), post them in the powerpak thread please, so we can start adding more .
  • I was wanting to practice the second loop of Super C on real equipment, turns out I didn't really need the practice, but I have it saved where I can now, If I want to pick the game up again later.

    Maybe i'll put together a list of games with second quests and create saves for all of them

    Super C
    Contra
    Super Mario
    Ghost N Goblins
    Gun.Smoke
    GI Joe

    Zelda (not needed built-in shortcut)

    Are there anymore anyone can think of?

  • Rolling Thunder.
  • Has there ever been any discussion if savestates for the SNES version is possible?
  • Castlevania is another one, I almost went as far as to getting the FDS just so I could save at the second quest.
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