Advanced Game Loading Thought/Scenario

[CaptainGreenhat]

I was watching video about all the various pinball video games and thought to myself, "some of those unlockable tables look really fun". Then my next though was "I wonder if there is a way to force retroarch or another emulator to load a particular save state on command from launchbox or rocket launcher".

Basically I was wondering if it is possible to force load a save state. That way I can unlock the tables and make a save state at the unlocked table and launch "the table" from launchbox. Could work for mini games or whatnot that are within games like mario party or geometry wars. Random thought more or less. I looked around and I couldn't find an answer so I thought I would ask here. 

[neil9000]

19 minutes ago, CaptainGreenhat said:

I was watching video about all the various pinball video games and thought to myself, "some of those unlockable tables look really fun". Then my next though was "I wonder if there is a way to force retroarch or another emulator to load a particular save state on command from launchbox or rocket launcher".

Basically I was wondering if it is possible to force load a save state. That way I can unlock the tables and make a save state at the unlocked table and launch "the table" from launchbox. Could work for mini games or whatnot that are within games like mario party or geometry wars. Random thought more or less. I looked around and I couldn't find an answer so I thought I would ask here. 

Retroarch already has a option to auto load save states in the UI.

[CaptainGreenhat]

I saw that option but I can only get it to work per instance/rom for lack of terminology. As it is I am able I have to clone the rom and make a separate instance to do what I want but not one rom and several loading pointers. Not undoable but eats a lot of space eventually. I guess I will go read through any command line docs I can find for libretro/retroarch and see if I can do it that way (very preferred). time to play with it some more. Thanks for taking the time to respond to my random thought.

[Your Friendly A.I Overlord]

1 hour ago, CaptainGreenhat said:

I was watching video about all the various pinball video games and thought to myself, "some of those unlockable tables look really fun". Then my next though was "I wonder if there is a way to force retroarch or another emulator to load a particular save state on command from launchbox or rocket launcher".

I don't claim to be an expert on pinball games, but a lot of them allow you to directly launch into tables. I myself do this with Pinball FX and Future Pinball. On the matter of RetroArch, RetroArch has a command-line parameter:

--appendconfig PATH
              Appends a different set of config files  to  the  config  file  loaded  in  -c  (or
              default).   Multiple  config files are delimited by ','.  Every config file will be
              appended in order where the key-value pairs of the next config file takes  priority
              over the old ones.

First put your save state in its own folder and then create a config which contain the lines:

savestate_auto_load = "true"

savestate_directory = ":\states"

Ofcourse ":\states" should point to your new folder. You can add those save states to LaunchBox as new games, or as additional apps with your existing games and (with the custom command-line option in the "Edit Game" menu) append the new config.

P.s.

Not that I actually tested this, but it seems doable.

 

[CaptainGreenhat]

That works for loading different save states, Thanks. Not that we needed more launching options, but this also works great for directly loading racing tracks in various games (assuming you always pick the same car, lol). Also works for directly loading mario party minigames. I found both of these " "savestate_auto_load = "true" savestate_directory = ":\states" " but am too much of a noob to have figured out the -appendconfig to make it work.

Thanks!!

Edited January 25, 2021 by CaptainGreenhat