Saved Game Issues - MacOS - Going Insane Please Help!

[OldLace]

This has been a long term problem. I downloaded this Emulator a while back on this same computer, but when it crashed I lost it-- and now I've recently re-downloaded, hoping that the new version may have fixed my issues. This is an issue that crosses the version numbers and my own OS editions.

Alright, here it goes:
I open Earthbound, play it for quite a while, save often. I have it as "save in Snes9x Folder". I get to level four, save, leave... turn it back on soon after, load, everything's fine.

So I get to level ten, save, turn off... get back on later, turn it on, and it says I'm at level four. It's lost hours of game time like this. I'll restart (God, I love this game) and do it again, the game will work up till level fifty... then sometime after it will load at tell me I'm at level three.

This has also happened with Seiken Densetsu 3, so it's not just Earthbound.

This is basically the single most devastating, awful, infuriating thing I've ever had happen to me. It will soon make me cry. (That is a lie, it has made me shed a few tears already)

Alright, warning, I'm not very good at... well, computers. I can figure out things rather quickly, but I'm not good at the lingo. But please, please, take pity on me. I'm dying, here. I just... I just want to play video games. So bad.

[Camo_Yoshi]

Are you using Save States or actual S-RAM saves (i.e. saving in-game)?

Save States from versions 1.51 and older will not work with Snes9x 1.52 and newer, due to the new sound core.

[SparroHawc]

One thing you may run across is save states. Be careful with those things! If you use save-states at all, they may overwrite your regular saves. Here's what happens.

You play your game just fine, your characters are all level 10. Then you save your game afterwards, and call it a night.

You come back, load your game from yesterday, and during the course of the game you run across a tricky spot. You use a save-state to get past it. After playing for a while longer and hitting level 20, you save your game, and call it a night.

The next day, you look at your save-state you made yesterday (or your emulator auto-loads the most recent save-state, which it might be set to do). When you load your save-state, it also pulls up the information from the regular save as it existed when you made the save-state. If the emulator writes that information to the hard drive at any point, your level 20 save has now been overwritten by your old level 10 save, just by loading your save-state.

If I'm playing anything with a regular save, I avoid using save-states at all costs for this exact reason. The alternate is to save your state every time you save normally. That way, if anything gets screwed up, you can load that save-state and then the save data is back.

[odditude]

tl;dr version: save states include current battery save (SRAM) data. loading a save state also loads the SRAM as it was when the state was saved. carelessness can lead to you nuking your savegames.

[OldLace]

Sorry for late reply, my charging cable died and I had to buy a chinese one so... I just got my computer charged up again.

Alright, I'm about to sound mentally challenged: Regular save = saving in-game. Save-State = saving data using the emulator itself to write a separate file. Right? Basically?
If so, I've... never used a save state before. Not on purpose, at least. I've only ever saved in-game. So... I am obviously doing something stupid.

[Camo_Yoshi]

That is correct; Save States (or Freezes) basically save the game's current "state" (hence the term). This includes the SRAM data that was included when the game had been last saved using the in-game save function.

So yes, you are correct.

[odditude]

what's your install path? are you playing from portable media (e.g. USB flash drive, external hard drive)?

[OldLace]

Oh, good good. I hate not knowing the lingo.

what's your install path? are you playing from portable media (e.g. USB flash drive, external hard drive)?

I'm not playing from an external device, and... Install path. Do you mean in what order did I save things, or perhaps where I am keeping all my information? Or how I set the emulator to save?
Here, lemme include an image of what I assume will be all the pertinent information I can get on one screen, just in case it's more helpful than my idiotic ramblings. I'll link it, so it doesn't take up any space in the event that it is not, in fact, useful.
http://s1037.photobucket.com/albums/a46 ... ndhold.jpg

By the by, totally in awe of the helpfulness of the community. I'm used to 4chan, admittedly, but this is pretty legit. I really appreciate everyone's time, and am ashamed in advance for the inevitable "you're doin' it wrong"

[zones]

First of all, please use the newest version 1.53. You're using an older version.

[Camo_Yoshi]

Oh, good good. I hate not knowing the lingo.

what's your install path? are you playing from portable media (e.g. USB flash drive, external hard drive)?

I'm not playing from an external device, and... Install path. Do you mean in what order did I save things, or perhaps where I am keeping all my information? Or how I set the emulator to save?
Here, lemme include an image of what I assume will be all the pertinent information I can get on one screen, just in case it's more helpful than my idiotic ramblings. I'll link it, so it doesn't take up any space in the event that it is not, in fact, useful.
http://s1037.photobucket.com/albums/a46 ... ndhold.jpg

By the by, totally in awe of the helpfulness of the community. I'm used to 4chan, admittedly, but this is pretty legit. I really appreciate everyone's time, and am ashamed in advance for the inevitable "you're doin' it wrong"

You're doing it wrong.

In all seriousness, here's a verified good mirror to download version 1.53: http://bigkidtennis.com/snes9x/snes9x-1 ... osx.dmg.gz

[OV2]

That's actually not a good version, you'll want snes9x-1.53-macosx-113.dmg.gz from one of the mirrors listed in the release thread (e.g. https://sites.google.com/site/bearoso/)

[OldLace]

Alright, I swear this was the newest version... when I got it. Haha. I'll start downloading the new one now.

[Camo_Yoshi]

That's actually not a good version, you'll want snes9x-1.53-macosx-113.dmg.gz from one of the mirrors listed in the release thread (e.g. https://sites.google.com/site/bearoso/)

Crap, they released another update? Goddammit. :\

[OldLace]

Alright, newest version downloaded. I notice there's a new option for where to save games to, (at least, to my memory), so my games will now save to Application Support Folder. Now, before restarting Earthbound / Seiken Densetsu / whatever, have I already made a mistake?

[MarioMcG]

Okay so I am running this on Snow Leopard and I downloaded this new version like OP just did. I see the place for SRAMs and now my question is: how can I import save files properly?

I accidentally destroyed my save data by fumbling through the defrost menu and now I am trying to import save data that matches the point I was at in the game.

This is the website I am using for the save http://www.fantasyanime.com/legacy/earthb_saves.htm

Even though I follow the instructions it has at the top, the save doesn't show up in the ROM. Can any of you help me out?

[odditude]

did you rename the *.srm to match the rom image (eg earthbound.smc requires earthbound.srm)?

[steve1222]

EVERYTIME YOU LOAD A SAVE STATE, A "gamename.oops" SAVESTATE IS CREATED.

THIS WILL FIX YOUR PROBLEM AFTER LOADING THE WRONG STATE AND HAVING UR PROGRESS ERASED.

RENAME THIS FILE TO "gamename.000" , THEN LOAD SAVE STATE 1.

NOW UR OLD .SRM FILE IS REPLACED. TA-DA!

[momoka1234]

Thank for great question and great answer .