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Relying on save states while playing dozen hour long RPGs, is a bad idea for another reason as well. These RPGs weren't play tested in a state where the game thinks its being beaten in one unbroken 20-30 hour long session. So, if you use save states and work the game that way, its emulated memory can begin to develop leaks or corruption that wasn't caught during the traditional testing process. It's a good idea to load an emulated RPG through its own internal save system, to clear out the emulated memory registers, to avoid this situation.

Exhuminator wrote:These RPGs weren't play tested in a state where the game thinks its being beaten in one unbroken 20-30 hour long session

So the developers didn't know about people like MrPopo?

BoneSnapDeez wrote:

Exhuminator wrote:These RPGs weren't play tested in a state where the game thinks its being beaten in one unbroken 20-30 hour long session

So the developers didn't know about people like MrPopo?

Games are developed for use by mortals, not gods.

ElkinFencer10 wrote:

BoneSnapDeez wrote:

Exhuminator wrote:These RPGs weren't play tested in a state where the game thinks its being beaten in one unbroken 20-30 hour long session

So the developers didn't know about people like MrPopo?

Games are developed for use by mortals, not gods.

Yea, mine countenance shall look forth kindly upon thee.

BoneSnapDeez wrote:So the developers didn't know about people like MrPopo?

The machine learning algorithms and processor farms needed to construct the game devouring machination that is "MrPopo", simply didn't exist at that time.

MrPopo wrote:Yea, mine countenance shall look forth kindly upon thee.

Exhuminator wrote:The machine learning algorithms and processor farms needed to construct the game devouring machination that is "MrPopo", simply didn't exist at that time.

Do they exist now?!

My problem is that I didn't consistently use both. I was consistently using the in-game save, but had only really used the save state once, just to make sure it "took" when I was done one night. Oh, it took, alright.

So, if anyone's played around with the EDN8, the way it does save states is to have a button-press hook. You can change the two buttons that it maps to. I had changed mine to Down+Select to save, Up+Select to load. Well, I'd gone so far using the normal system that I'd forgotten to keep being "safe", and happened to press Up+Select (Select accesses the inventory, and I was walking upward while I did it), and it loaded the state. Heck, I'd forgotten I still even had it enabled! I'm actually pretty lucky it didn't happen sooner. It's far less an issue in an emulator, because of the way the save states are mapped to the keyboard and whatnot, or accessed in a separate menu on consoles.

Save states are awesome, but yes, especially with longer RPGs, it's advisable to keep up with your real saves. If you use both, be sure to keep both updated at the same time lest you lose portions of your battery save when you screw up and restore the wrong one.

I'll also add that there was a point where I completely lucked out, and would have really appreciated save states had the worst happened. For whatever reason, several of my Gun Hazard save slots got corrupted on the SD2SNES. I don't think it was an issue with the hardware, but probably some weird glitch introduced in the patch. Or maybe it was even in the original game! Anyway, thankfully it didn't nuke all the slots, so I didn't have to drop back too far, but if I'd lost it all... well, that would have been 20+ hours down the drain.

Save states, depending on the emulator implementation, can screw over manual saves. If the implementation saves not just the state of the running memory but also the SRAM then loading an old save state will blow away your save.

MrPopo wrote:Save states, depending on the emulator implementation, can screw over manual saves. If the implementation saves not just the state of the running memory but also the SRAM then loading an old save state will blow away your save.

Yep, I've run into that before. I sorta alluded to it, albeit in an unclear fashion.

The only RPG I ever emulated was Shining Force II. I quickly realized that using save states was a recipe for disaster, and I began using only the in-game save feature and my PSP's sleep function.