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Save States

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nickybmon edited this page Apr 7, 2026 · 2 revisions

Save States

Save states are snapshots of a game's exact running state — every register, every byte of RAM, frozen at a moment in time. Unlike a game's built-in save system, you can create them at any point, even mid-battle or mid-cutscene, with no limitations imposed by the game or hardware.

Warning: Save state compatibility is not guaranteed across core updates. If a core is updated, previously created save states may no longer load. Use the game's built-in save system for anything you want to keep long-term.

Automatic Save States

OpenEmu automatically saves your progress when you close a game. The next time you launch it, you'll be asked whether to continue from where you left off or start fresh.

Quick Save / Quick Load

Quick Save (⌘S) and Quick Load (⌘L) give you one fast save slot per game.

  • In-game: use the Controls menu or assign Quick Save / Quick Load bindings in Preferences → Controls → Special Keys.
  • The Quick Save slot also appears in the HUD disk menu (the floppy disk icon) while playing.

Manual Save States

Saving

While playing, hover the mouse over the game window to reveal the HUD bar. Click the floppy disk icon and choose Save Current Game. Enter a name (defaults to the date and time) and click Save Game.

Loading

Two ways:

  1. From the library: Right-click a game → Play Save Games → select a state.
  2. From the HUD: While playing, click the floppy disk icon and select a state from the list.

Deleting

Go to the Save States collection in the sidebar, right-click a state, and select Delete.

Incompatible Save States

Some save states from older core versions are incompatible with the current ARM64 builds. Loading one would crash the app, so OpenEmu-Silicon checks for them on every launch. If any are found, a warning dialog appears listing the affected cores and count, with two options:

  • Delete Save States — removes them immediately
  • Keep for Now — leaves them in place so you can back up first (the dialog will appear again next launch)

We recommend backing up before deleting:

cp -R ~/Library/Application\ Support/OpenEmu/Save\ States/ ~/Desktop/OpenEmu-Save-States-Backup/

Save states on disk live in ~/Library/Application Support/OpenEmu/Save States/, organized by system. In-game saves (battery saves / SRAM) are stored separately in the ROM folder and are never affected.

Affected cores:

Core Condition
CrabEmu All Game Gear, Master System, and SG-1000 saves (core replaced by Genesis Plus GX)
DeSmuME Saves from versions 0.9.10–0.9.11 only (0.9.12 saves are kept)
Genesis Plus GX Saves from versions 1.7.4–1.7.4.6
Mupen64Plus Saves from versions 2.0–2.5.3
NeoPop All saves (core removed)
VisualBoyAdvance All saves (core replaced by mGBA)
Dolphin All saves from the pre-integration Dolphin_Core

Notes

  • Save states are tied to the core they were created with. If you switch cores for a game, old states won't load on the new core.
  • If you try to load a state created with a different core than the one currently active, OpenEmu will automatically switch back to the correct core to load it.
  • The automatic save state is separate from manual states and the Quick Save slot.

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