Setting Up Game Saves

jo15765

So I am new to the retropie community and have some linux experience. I found this tutorial http://blog.petrockblock.com/forums/topic/how-to-save-games-in-retropie-retroarch/ on saving games using retropie so I thought I would mimic. I used putty from Windows to connect to my retropie and navigated to cd /opt/retropie/configs/all/ where I found retroarch.cfg

But the issue that I ran into was I could not open the file using putty (or at least I was not smart enough to figure out how to - not even using VIM)

So I went grabbed my controller and went to Retropie then used a Wireless keyboard and navigated into settings and down through the folder hierarchy until I arrived to cd /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg - I was then greeted with multiple options to turn on or off - but nothing that I saw that mentioned "save state"

Question at hand is:

How can I open retroarch.cfg using putty on Windows to copy/paste over the lines from the tutorial above to allow game saves
What setting(s) need to be altered from the multiple on/off options that appear when I use my wireless keyboard to access cd /opt/retropie/configs/all/

Thanks in advance!

Further Info:
Pi 3 Model B
2500 mA Micro USB Power Supply -- 5-Feet Long
OS = TRIPLE-BOOT – RETROPIE V4.0.2 + OPENELEC found here:
http://www.multibootpi.com/builds/retropie-v4-0-2-raspbian-kodi-libreelec-openelec-or-osmc-you-decide/#comment-1447
One Retro SNES Controller found here:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01JYGYAUG/ref=ya_st_dp_summary

If you need to see configs or logs let me know, I feel at this point (since I can not figure out how to modify them) they are not necessary.

jo15765

BUMP --> Can anyone provide any insights into what is causing this issue?

mrbwa1

Are you trying to use built in system game saves or the Retroarch option where you can hit a button combination to save (or load saves) at any time?

PetroRie

You said you're on Windows? In that case just go to Windows Explorer and add this path in the browser and hit enter:

\RETROPIE\configs\all

It's the easiest way to do in my opinion. Open the retroarch.cfg file with Notepad, the first thing you should see are the options of the save games.

-# Save all save files (*.srm) to this directory. This includes related files like .bsv, .rtc, .psrm, etc ...
-# This will be overridden by explicit command line options.
savefile_directory = "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/SAVE/SAVE_FILES/"

-# Save all save states (*.state) to this directory.
-# This will be overridden by explicit command line options.
savestate_directory = "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/SAVE/SAVE_STATE/"

If you cannot find it, just use the search option in notepad and search for the variable savefile_directory. Once you do, remove the # in front of the variable and you must add a directory in which the save games and files will be saved. You must make these folders manually.

As you can see I made them in my roms directory so I can acces them easily. Just use Windows explorer to go to the directory of the roms which is located at:

\RETROPIE\roms

In my case it the folder structure looks like the following:

\RETROPIE\roms\SAVE\SAVE_FILES
\RETROPIE\roms\SAVE\SAVE_STATE

jo15765

@PetroRie - thank you for the advice of using Windows Explorer and opening the SAMBA share. That was the easiest thing to do!

I do have an additional question about save states - is this something you have to manually tell retropie to do? Or does it automatically do such?

PetroRie

@jo15765 said in Setting Up Game Saves:

@PetroRie - thank you for the advice of using Windows Explorer and opening the SAMBA share. That was the easiest thing to do!

I do have an additional question about save states - is this something you have to manually tell retropie to do? Or does it automatically do such?

What do you mean? Normally the save state option is not enabled, in my previous post I showed you how to enable them. You still need to configure a hotkey button to make a save state while playing. It's basically a hotkey for saving and for loading.

Go to the config file of your controller which is located at:

\RETROPIE\configs\all\retroarch-joypads

And look if there is:

input_enable_hotkey_btn = "8"

input_load_state_btn = "4"
input_save_state_btn = "5"

input_state_slot_increase_btn = "h0right"
input_state_slot_decrease_btn = "h0left"

The number of the buttons are different in your case because I'm using a different controller.

input_enable_hotkey_btn this is simply the button you need to press and hold to use any hotkey. So you use this button in combination with an another button. Compare it to the hotkeys in Windows like CTRL F4 etc. Like in my case this button is the SHARE button on my PS4 controller (I call it the select button haha used to snes I guess).

input_load_state_btn this is the button you need to use in combination with the hotkey enable button in order to load a save state. In my case its L2 on my PS4 controller, so if I press and hold SHARE and L2 it will load a save state.

input_save_state_btn same as the load state but this will save a state, I've set this one on R2. So ingame if I press and hold SHARE and R2 it will save the game.

input_state_slot_increase_btn; this is an option I like, there are in total 10 slots you can use for your save states (from 0 till 9). I've assigned the right d-pad button for this option. So when I press and hold the enable hotkey button (which is the SHARE button on my PS4) and I press the right d-pad it will increase the save slot. You will actually see it on your screen, so everytime you use this combination it will increase the slot number.

input_state_slot_decrease_btn; same as the previous option I mentioned the only difference is that this decreases the number of the save slot. I've set the left d-pad button for this option.

That is how you use the save states in game.

mrbwa1

I am using old Playstation controllers, so I set up the following combos:

Select+ L1 = Load State
Select + R1 = Save State
Select + L2 = Change down Save slot (example Save slot 1 -> save Slot 0)
Select + R2 = Change up Save slot (example Save slot 0 -> save Slot 1)

(select is my hotkey button: input_enable_hotkey_btn = "8")

PetroRie

@mrbwa1 Well let me know if it works. You also can use a turbo button, very handy if you need to tap a button rapidly like at Metal Gear at the part where they tortured Snake.

Add this to the controller config:

input_turbo_btn = "xx"

xx is where you need to put the number of the button.

jo15765

@PetroRie - how do you get the button numbers? I am still trying to figure out the save part :(

mrbwa1

Most of what you need should be outlined here: https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/retroarch-configuration

It goes over controls and talks about the defaults. Look for the video Tutorial links. There is one on testing joysticks that shows haoe to test joypads and get button numbers. they are done better than I can explain in words.