Possible to load direct a save state (and play) (MAME) ?

[top-specci]

Hi,
for Arcade games, I use the MAME LibRetro Emulator.
Saving and loading states is working.

Question, is it possible to load directly a save state and start the game from there?
Make a "link" in the ROM folder to the state, so I have a two entries for one game:

• orig. ROM (beginning from start) and
• one to the saved state

I.e. in a sport games like "Track and field", I will start directly a saved state from 3th discipline.

[mitu]

You can configure RetroArch to auto-load the save state with the option savestate_auto_load = true that you can add to the system's retroarch.cfg file (\\retropie\configs\mame-libretro\retroarch.cfg).

As for starting the game with different options, that's not supported by RetroArch - though if you configure the auto-loading of the save state, starting the game from scratch would be easy - just use Hotkey + B and the game will reset.

[top-specci]

OK, thanks for the info.

For the ZX-Spectrum I can create "snapshots" from a running game on the PC-Emulator (with same extention as the orig. game),
and this snapshot contains the whole code, so the emulator can start this without an issue.
But this is not possible for the old Arcade games, correct?

I had the hope that I can make a entry in the gamaelist.xml like this:

<path>./trackfld.zip   /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/mame-libretro/trackfld.state12</path>

Maybe this can be a "dirty" solution or help?
I set the .state<x> file I have to: read-only (# chmod 444 trckfld.state<12>), so I prevent to override the wanted states I store for some games.
So first discipline will have trackfld.state11, second discipline will get trackfld.state12, ...
I have to load the states manually, but they can't get overwritten by mistake ....

Or other idea(s) ?

[mitu]

@top-specci said in Possible to load direct a save state (and play) (MAME) ?:

But this is not possible for the old Arcade games, correct?

No, it's possible through save states.

I had the hope that I can make a entry in the gamaelist.xml like this:

That's not supported by EmulationStation, it's just a front-end that launches a game, it doesn't know what emulator is run or if it supports save states.

[TonyBonzo]

@mitu and @top-specci FYI, if you want your games to always load at a predefined area (Bypassing a long intro, etc)

• Create a save state through Retroarch like normal, find that saved state "yourgame.state" and add ".auto" to the end of it

• Ensure that you have savestate_auto_save = "false" and savestate_auto_load = "true" in your /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg file (Or specific config file of your choice)

This will give you the flexibility you need, without worrying that you will override that default save state to load your game by.

[IanDaemon]

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