Very New to this: Question about saving a game.

[16 bit warrior]

Ok so lets say I play Final Fantasy III and want to make sure that my game is saved for next time. Do I just have to save it in the game itself? I saw an option under the GAME function called SAVE STATE. what does that do? If I change my version of zsnes (I think I got this one like 4 or 5 years ago I just never used it till now) can I still played the saved game I played on an earlier version? Under CONFIG there is a SAVES. Should I check mark any of those options. BTW I running version 1.42 if that helps. Thanks.

[odditude]

Ok so lets say I play an RPG and want to make sure that my game is saved for next time. Do I just have to save it in the game itself? I saw an option under the GAME function called SAVE STATE. what does that do? If I change my version of zsnes (I think I got this one like 4 or 5 years ago I just never used it till now) can I still played the saved game I played on an earlier version? Thanks.

BTW I left the RPG unmentioned, can I mention names of games here?

if you save the game (you CAN name it) in-game, it will work properly.*

save states aren't a bad idea for backup purposes in battery-backed games, but save states are not guaranteed to work between versions of zsnes (and generally don't).

*OS-related issues can break all kinds of saving (from zsnes configs to games saves); i recommend explicitly defining paths for such files in the GUI.

[Gil_Hamilton]

Save states aren't the same as normal in-game saves.
They're... more like freezing a copy of the SNES in time at the instant you press save(with a few caveats).
If you load a state, it's like going back in time. You never quit playing, never even paused. As far as the game can tell, absolutely nothing happened.

If, for example, you state save during a glitch, that glitch will still be there when you reload a state.




If you intend to play OTHER RPGs(and you really should), when you get to Star Ocean it's recommended that you not rely on state saves because in ZSNES it crashes. A lot.
States will preserve the conditions that caused the crash, and if you're depending on them it can make it very difficult to recover without losing a lot of work.