Game save not working - file location problem?

[kmancali]

I am unable to get my game saves to work when running MAME. I have the hotkey setup correctly and when I hit it, the screen just freezes until I go back (escape). Game load, shows that no saves are available, but again, seems to be acting correctly. It's the same issue for all games in MAME. I imported a MAME romset and left the games in the original location (I didnt' have launchbox move them). I wonder if that might be causing an issue where the rom is in one location, but game saves are trying to save in another location. How can I check on this and make sure it is setup correctly?

[JoeViking245]

What version of MAME are you running?  MAME changed the default keys for saving and loading Save States back in February (v0.263). 

As for ROM location(s), that wouldn't affect the Save States [which are saved under the /MAME/sta/ directory.

This thread discusses a little more about default key bindings.

 

[kmancali]

Thank you so much! This helps get me on the right track!

I set the keys for save, load, quick save and quick load.

I'm using MAME 0.269.

I also have "pause" configured, and when I go to that menu, save doesn't work either. Regardless of whether I do it from the pause menu or not,

When I hit the quicksave key, I get the screen to pop up saying:

Error:Failed to open gamename\quick.sta for save state operation.

When I hit the "quickjload" key, I get the screen saying:

Error:Load state file gamename\quick.sta not found

When I hit the "save" key, I get this screen saying:

[no saved states found] and I can't do anything other than exit (as far as I can tell).

Lastly, when I hit the "load" key, I get this screen saying:

[no saved states found]

Thanks in advance for any ideas!

 

[JoeViking245]

1 hour ago, kmancali said:

When I hit the "save" key, I get this screen saying:

[no saved states found] and I can't do anything other than exit (as far as I can tell).

Did you try just pressing "a key or joystick button"?  Try pressing the "1" or "2". Something like that.

[kmancali]

When I try to save from the pause menu, and get the first error message, and then press a key "like number 1" I get an error message that says "Error: Failed to open gamename\1.sta for savestate operation."

This is why I think it's a file location problem. I think Launchbox is trying to access a location to save files that is not where MAME has unzipped the game to... 

[JoeViking245]

7 hours ago, kmancali said:

When I try to save from the pause menu, and get the first error message, and then press a key "like number 1" I get an error message that says "Error: Failed to open gamename\1.sta for savestate operation."

This is why I think it's a file location problem. I think Launchbox is trying to access a location to save files that is not where MAME has unzipped the game to... 

RE: Pause Menu:  You need to change the "Send" key assignment(s) in the Save and Load scripts (in LaunchBox < Edit < Emulator). 

The giveaway that this is the issue is when you say you "try to save" and it says "failed to open".  aka: The Save script is 'pressing the keyboard button' for "Load Save State".

[kmancali]

I edited the save script in launchbox and made it match the name save key (I currently have it set to F6 for save), but I still get the error that says “failed to open… for save state”. Is there something separate that has to be changed in big box?

[JoeViking245]

1 hour ago, kmancali said:

I edited the save script in launchbox and made it match the name save key (I currently have it set to F6 for save), but I still get the error that says “failed to open… for save state”. Is there something separate that has to be changed in big box?

Not sure what to say other than ask, 'can you show your work'?

• Open MAME and share a screenshot of your input setting showing what's mapped for
  • Create a save state
  • Load a save
  • and the ones for Quick Save while were at it
• In LaunchBox, edit your MAME emulator and share a screenshot of the
  • load save script section
  • create script section

[kmancali]

Thanks for the continued support!

Here's my MAME save settings 

And here's my launchbox save script

And load script

Edited January 6 by kmancali
added load script

[JoeViking245]

I see you've changed several of the defaults in MAME. Which seems like it should be OK.

Just to note, your Quick Save/Load may not work because F8 and F9 are already assigned to Frameskip Dec/Inc.  

Otherwise, that should all be working.

One more screenshot please...  in LaunchBox, edit your MAME emulator and share a screenshot of the main Details section.  If it doesn't have -keyboardprovider dinput in the default command line parameters, try adding that in.

[kmancali]

I do have that parameter in there, so that doesn't seem to be it. Any other ideas why this is still not working?

 

[JoeViking245]

Please verify: 

• Any chance you have more than one install of MAME on your computer? 
  • If so, any chance that the one you show the key assignments (above, where you manually changed them for Pause and the Save/Loads) is a different install than the one you point to in LaunchBox? 
• Any chance you have 2 instances of MAME (emulator) in LaunchBox? 
  • If so, make absolute sure the one for Emulators\MAME 0.269\mame.exe is the Default for your Arcade platform. 
• (This happens more than you'd think it would.)

Pause Menu aside:   When Launching 1941 (our test game) from LaunchBox, during gameplay, if you press F6

• do you get this Save State screen?

• If so,
  • what happens when you press "1" (top of the keyboard. Not on the ten-key)?   (alternately, press "a")
• If NOT,
  • exit that screen back to the game
  • press Tab, select Input Settings < Input Assignments (general) < User Interface
  • Is Save State [still] assigned to F6?

[kmancali]

Hi,  

 Thanks so much for the continued support.

I only have 1 copy of MAME, but it is on a different hard drive from the main system files, and is in fact located in the Launchbox Directory under the folder "emulators" (not sure if that matters).

I also confirmed that there is only 1 MAME emulator showing in Launchbox:

When I press F6, I see this:

And when I press "1" on the keyboard (top row, not number pad), I get this:

When I press "a", I see this:

Input assignments (general) seems to show the correct assignments:

[JoeViking245]

Looking closer, it appears it's not able to create (vs find) the Save State file.  Write permissions error?

• In your /MAME 0.269/ folder, is there a /sta/ subfolder? 
  • If so, is there a /1941/ subfolder? 
  • If so, are there any files in that folder?
• If not, do you have LaunchBox or mame.exe set to run as Admin?

On a fresh MAME install, /sta/ will not exist.  The 1st time you create a save state (F6), MAME will (is supposed to be able to) create it. It will also create a folder within that named after the ROM's filename.  Manually creating /sta/ will most likely not fix the underlying issue.

[kmancali]

There is NOT an /sta folder under Mame. How can I fix it so launchboc and mame can write?

[skizzosjt]

save and loading of states work for me even if running in Admin. kmancali has something else buggered up.

I tried recreating the issue. I made the game I test with, also 1941, (it's always my test game too lol) to have its save states as read only. Here I made some headway. This was the only way I got the same error. So, in conclusion, you def has something blocking write access. I did it myself on purpose. But you will need to dig further yourself to figure out what is blocking write access for you!

Do you use Google Drive or Dropbox or some other cloud syncing service?

[kmancali]

OK. So the plot thickens. I went to the directory where MAME is located and ensured that all users had "write" access. Then I tried again using BigBox to launch 1941 via MAME. Still cannot save. Same issue as before. However, I then tried loading MAME directly and running 1941. Under that condition, save and load now work fine! I then tried again via BigBox and it not only doesn't allow me to save or load, it doesn't even show that there is a saved game, but via MAME, I DO see the saved game.  I also checked the location where the MAME roms are located, and that directory also has full write access.

Any ideas why this is happening?

 

It seems like I have 2 versions of MAME, but I can't figure out how that would be. I did search across my hard drives and I'm positive that I only have 1 version of MAME installed.

[JoeViking245]

When testing stand-alone MAME, in LaunchBox right-click 1941 and select Open MAME (or it should say Open MAME 0.269).  If for some odd reason there are 2, that will open the mame.exe that you've assigned to LaunchBox.  Try your standalone testing from there (that way).

What is the actual full path to your mame.exe?  x:\something\something\LauncBox\Emulators\MAME 0.269\mame.exe  (what is x and something(s)?)

"Do you use Google Drive or Dropbox or some other cloud syncing service?"

[kmancali]

OK, so from Launchbox, when I click on 1942 (faster to load, so I started using 1942, but all the same behavior as 1941), this is what I see:

then, I click on Open MAME 0.269... and the game loads.

When I try to save, I see this:

If I hit "1" I get this:

When I Look at my MAME shortcut, it is this location:

 

A

And again, loading MAME directly via this shortcut, and then selecting 1942, I AM able to save and load games as normal.

 

Should I have Launchbox extract ROMS? It is currently set to "no".

[JoeViking245]

18 minutes ago, kmancali said:

Should I have Launchbox extract ROMS? It is currently set to "no".

No. Do NOT have LaunchBox extract MAME ROMs.  Ever.

When you start sand-alone MAME, you can load the games without issue.  (correct?)  Which tells me you have either the ROMS in the /MAME 0.269/roms/ subfolder or you have the path mapped [to where they're actually located] in MAME itself.  So try removing from the Default Command-line Parameters -rompath %romlocation%.