I watched a video about the Naki GameSaver for the SuperNES on RetroWareTV a while ago. Even if it's not compatible with all games, it's still a very interesting device and I wonder if there are similar products for other systems. Does anyone know if real time save carts or copiers with this feature do exist for Famicom, Mega Drive or even Game Boy? I found only a Game Action Replay for the NES: http://porroe.blogspot.com/2007/12/game-accessories-part-1-game-action.html Unfortunately this thing is damn expensive
The Pro Action Replay 4Max (AKA Gameshark (4?)) has real-time saves as well. It works pretty well, apart from the occasional save which freezes the game upon restart. It can also upload real-time saves to the PC, and download codes, saves, and colour skins from the PC via a parallel transfer cable, although the PC software works in Windows 95/98 only. Not a bad piece of hardware for the original GB/GBC.
My SNES Super UFO Pro 7 copier can do this as well. The only problem is that it doesn't save the SPC700's ram, which means that when the save is reloaded the music is missing until the game switches to another track...
I think most copiers don't do this correctly. At least I've always experienced that sound information was never saved.
No copier does it "correctly" because a lot of aspects of the system state just can't be saved and restored via software. Only emulators or theoretical clones with test/debug signal access can fully save the state.
Well no copier does it correctly, but it’s safe to say some copiers do it better than others? I think with all of the implementations of Save State I’ve seen, non of them do the audio correctly. It’s probably a technical limitation I’m sure. But as far as limitations go, I always thought it was mostly because no matter how hard you try, when trying to save the state of your system, you inevitably modify the state of the system you’re trying to save. Or something to that effect. I'm sure there's lots of other reasons too, but that one always came to mind first.
btw, what about that Game Master and Turbo Game Doctor Game Saver for the Famicom. These are real time save devices, aren't they? Turbo Game Doctor Game Saver http://cgi.ebay.com.hk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190304264866 Game Master http://www.gamechoiceclub.com/navigateProduct.asp?product_id=77
The Turbo GD Game Saver is a real time save addon for the TGD4/6, but it only works when playing back hacked games from RAM (because it can access the state of the TGD's bankswitch registers). It can hold one save state, needs a proprietary utility disk to use and an impossibly hard to find proprietary "save disk" to manage your saves. Real time save was very important because the copiers mapped the FDS RAM adapter, which isn't battery backed, to the save area. It's the only way to save your games. The Game Master (Boy) is the Famicom counterpart of the Game Action Replay for NES, it amazingly works with (most) original cart games by having some sort of mapper write buffer. There are no other FC/NES devices like the Game Action Replay probably due to it's sophistication. BTW, the Naki GameSaver is a scaled down Game Doctor SFIII.
wow, that would be a great addition to my Famicom collection :110: btw, I've noticed that ConsoleFun posted pictures of several Game Master units in his collection thread. What's the difference between Game Master, Game Master Boy and Master Link?:shrug:
Game Master is a copier (runs hacked games off specially formatted FDS disks), Game Master Boy does real time save only, Master Link is an adapter that interfaces the GM/GMB to a FDS through the GM(B)'s I/O port in order to backup saves to disk. Something very annoying about the GM/GMB/GAR is that it's operated by controller only (whereas the other copiers have a dedicated interrupt button), and the FC/NES has a hardware defect that which results in the controller returning the wrong values in many games. This can periodically cause it to save/load states when you don't want it to! Also if the game doesn't read the controller (like during a cut scene), there's no way for the GM/GMB/GAR to read the controller either so you can't save. BTW the *PowerPak* can theoretically do real time save too, it's just not implemented in the mappers/BIOS. A project of mine a couple years ago was to make an NROM (mapper) RTS demo but lost interest.
Not console-related, but I have a Multiface 3 for the ZX Spectrum. You press a button on the top of it and it saves a snapshot of the game at the current position to disk. You could then load that save off the disk the next time you turned your computer on, and it would resume play from where you were - sound and all! Of course, sound is handled in a more complex way in games nowadays. So if you want a true snapshot, get a Spectrum and Multiface!!
btw, is all that Bung stuff compatible with the new AV Famicom? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AVFamicom.jpg
The GD7 can do it but it needs a game specific code to load the save correctly again. I've searched for those codes before but never found them.
