Mame not saving with 108 and hiscore.dat??

[AE35]

Hey all!

You built my galaga machine, and started playing. Exited the game, and entered
again. Hiscore was gone.

I'm using the hiscore dat file, and it has always worked for me. Could it be
something with the new mame autostate thingy making the hiscore.dat not
working?

I'm getting tired of seeing the 20.000 highscore in Galaga

Thanks,

Nicholas

[fatfingers]

Yes, hiscore.dat was removed in 107.

[um3k]

Hi score support was removed in 0.107u1.

-- You can try using save states (if your game supports it) by using the -autosave option in v0.108 and above.  This basically writes all of the state information in the game to a file when you quit the game and reads it back in when you start the game.  In this way, the game picks up right where it left off (no boot up).   Since the game never appears to be "turned off", hi scores are saved and you get faster boot up.
-- You can use v0.107 and prior which support hiscore.
-- Or you can compile the current version of MAME and add back hiscore support.   There is a thread here http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=58012.0, that has a source code diff to add back hiscore and a number of other tweaks.

[southpaw13]

I have been watching this one.  How far off are the Dev's from getting all the games to work with save state?

Thanks

[AE35]

Thanks guys!!

I rolled back to 105

Thanks,

Nicholas

[u_rebelscum]

I have been watching this one.  How far off are the Dev's from getting all the games to work with save state?

Thanks

There are 694 games with save state supported.  (Info direct from 0.108u5 -lixtxml) 
This is higher than the number of games supported in hiscore.dat (but hiscore.dat starts with a smaller group of games, so really this is really an apples to oranges comparison).

Adding savestate is a catch22.  It helps in debugging, but possibly a moving target if emulation isn't finished, and not needed for debugging if the emulation is perfect. 

This is why mameDev is suggesting the users to help add savestate to games already emulated; they'll worry about the moving targets where they need it for debugging, the people who want to help a little and learn about mame can add to the games they like where they need it for playing.  If you want to help add savestate to certain games, check out aarongiles.com savestate fundamentals: parts 1, 2, 3, & 4.