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  • Joined: 15 Aug 2019
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Save States on Mega SG
Post Posted: Mon May 16, 2022 11:55 am
Hi guys, had my Mega SG a couple of weeks now. It's awesome. In terms of getting save states on there what are my options?
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Post Posted: Mon May 16, 2022 12:26 pm
8BitBoy wrote
Hi guys, had my Mega SG a couple of weeks now. It's awesome. In terms of getting save states on there what are my options?

I suppose when you say save states you actually mean ingame saves, right? I'm asking because for example the Everdrive X series has a save state feature that allows you to save at pretty much any time. No idea if the Mega SG has a similar feature.

If you mean ingame saves, it should be straightforward given you find where the ingame saves get stored by the Mega SG. You can probably find .sav or .srm files for your games. These typically are just a raw dump of the SRAM contents and are thus compatible with emulators and other flash carts.
Someone else needs to answer where these files get stored because I don't no anything about the Mega SG.
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Post Posted: Mon May 16, 2022 2:45 pm
Hi buddy, I don't think the MEGA SG will save "in-game" on its own.



Calindro wrote
8BitBoy wrote
Hi guys, had my Mega SG a couple of weeks now. It's awesome. In terms of getting save states on there what are my options?

I suppose when you say save states you actually mean ingame saves, right? I'm asking because for example the Everdrive X series has a save state feature that allows you to save at pretty much any time. No idea if the Mega SG has a similar feature.

If you mean ingame saves, it should be straightforward given you find where the ingame saves get stored by the Mega SG. You can probably find .sav or .srm files for your games. These typically are just a raw dump of the SRAM contents and are thus compatible with emulators and other flash carts.
Someone else needs to answer where these files get stored because I don't no anything about the Mega SG.
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Post Posted: Tue May 17, 2022 5:11 pm
Mega SG is designed to function like real hardware would, right?

So it would only natively save if the cartridge supports that?
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Post Posted: Tue May 17, 2022 7:25 pm
Oh right it's an emulator with a cartridge port. Yeah then it's gonna save on the cartridge. So either you use a flashcart with it and backup your save data from there, or use a cartridge dumper to dump SRAM instead of the rom.
If you have a flashcart, you could even write a rom that allows reading SRAM from a cartridge after hot swapping it or if you have a system with multiple slots (e.g. Japanese Mastersystem) with corresponding adapters you could avoid the hot swapping by using 2 slots at the same time.
If you have an MSX with a Playsoniq you could use it to dump the SRAM contents to somewhere else.

So there are several options depending on what you have
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Post Posted: Tue May 17, 2022 10:21 pm
8BitBoy wrote
Hi guys, had my Mega SG a couple of weeks now. It's awesome. In terms of getting save states on there what are my options?


It saves normally in the cartridge, or in the SD card, (using jailbreak firmware) but only if the game uses backup memory.

If you are looking for an anytime save/load feature, as in emulators, forget it. I doubt Analogue will ever implement it on the Mega SG.

On the other hand, both the Mega Everdrive and the Terraonion cartridge have this save/load feature, but it is not perfect.

So, in the end of the day, if you want to play with savegames, just stick with emulators.
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Post Posted: Fri May 20, 2022 6:31 pm
Thanks guys, I did hear about an Everdrive with save states when I researched called the x7 but it's over £100 so not cheap. Not comfortable jailbreaking so think I'll just make do. I'm really happy with the Mega SG so far.
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Post Posted: Mon May 30, 2022 9:46 pm
8BitBoy wrote
Thanks guys, I did hear about an Everdrive with save states when I researched called the x7 but it's over £100 so not cheap. Not comfortable jailbreaking so think I'll just make do. I'm really happy with the Mega SG so far.


The Mega Everdrive Pro is the next step up from the x7 and that's where your money should go if you're spending £100 plus. Has all the features of the x7 with the addition of Mega CD support through FPGA.

I have a Mega SG with an Everdrive Pro and it's a great combo. I'm also able to use a Master Everdrive with the included SMS adaptor and it'll even run SG-1000 games with that cartridge.
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Post Posted: Tue May 31, 2022 8:09 am
Thanks buddy so the first one you mention, does that run everything I assume ie, MD, SMS, GG, SG-1000 and Mega CD? So no need for a Master Everdrive then. Do I have that right?
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Post Posted: Tue May 31, 2022 8:57 am
8BitBoy wrote
Thanks buddy so the first one you mention, does that run everything I assume ie, MD, SMS, GG, SG-1000 and Mega CD? So no need for a Master Everdrive then. Do I have that right?


It doesn't run SG-1000 and I have noticed a pause button issue with Alex Kidd in Miracle World and California Games which isn't present on the Master Everdrive with the Mega-SG. No such issue is present on the original Mega Drive hardware so I suspect the issue is a conflict between the pause button on the Pro and the pause button implementation on the SG because the Master Everdrive doesn't have a pause button.

I got my Master Everdrive about 6 years ago when it was the older version and it was a lot cheaper. I haven't upgraded to the x7 model and it seems a lot of money to pay if you're already able to play SMS games and aren't so worried about SG-1000.
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Post Posted: Tue Jun 07, 2022 7:56 am
cheers buddy, interesting. I'm in no rush to get an everdrive but I probably will get one eventually.
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