When to make a save state

[BDslick]

I apologize for making another thread on Nascar 09, but I don't know when to make a save state, or when to jump from disable ee cache to recompiler.

[gtgamer468]

Does the game saves on its own often (a.k.a. autosave)? If you can, try disabling it ingame. Either way, try using savestates after making them BEFORE the game saves. For some games, it doesn't really matter (mostly older PS2 games). Other games, especially newer games, would complain that the state changed and you must restart the game so that it can load again without any corruption.

[TkSilver]

In general Savestates should only really be used when you are either
1. Trying to cheat (or see the outcome of some other option): for example if you need to win 4 races in a row and the game does not save in between to make you win all 4 with out losing, then you can use a savestate after each race so at most you only have to repeat 1 not 4. Or in a RPG or adventure game to make a point you can go back to if you don't like where an in game choice takes you.
2. Life calls and you are not near a place you can save. if you have to quit a game and the game only offers very select "save points" (RPGs are really bad about this, but the PS2 generation was one of the last great bastions of selective places you were "allowed" to save at) and you need to do something else then you can make a Savestate. Just remember to make a much more stable and better in game save after you start playing again.

Basically just realize that savestates are less stable and should generally not be your only way to save. In game saves will cause less issues in the long run (unless the game has a buggy save system). Savestates should be a temporary solution when you are not able to do an in game save and you should save in game as soon as you can after a savestate or be prepared in case you loose all your progress since your last in game save.


If this is about a way to use a savestate to fix a Nascar 09 issue then I don't know since I never really got in to that series.

[BDslick]

Someone told me to use a save state to be able to run the game without EE Cache on github:https://github.com/PCSX2/pcsx2/issues/2663

[gtgamer468]

So it's for to skip a couple of pre-game screens? I guess it's fine as long as the game doesn't try loading from your memcard. I played this game only a couple of times on a real PS2 hardware and that was ages ago, so I can't remember. On a couple of games, I created a savestate before it loads from my memcard so I don't have to enter Codebreaker/Gameshark before swapping with the game all the time.