Instances of Saturn games sharing the same GameID and save file name are described below:
Different regional releases of the same game
The stated issue occurs with Scorcher (Europe)
and Scorcher (USA)
. They both share a GameID of MK-81214
, a save file name of SCORCHER_00
, and their save files are not interchangeable. With these two games, it is easy to re-produce this issue by following these steps:
- Download this file: satiator-saves.zip
- Copy the extracted folder to the Satiator's SD card.
- Set
Per-Game Save Slot
to '00' in the Satiator Rings options menu.
- Launch
Scorcher (USA)
and satiator-saves\MK-81214\SCORCHER_00.BUP
will be copied to internal memory.
- Once the game is opened, go to
Options -> View high scores -> Best lap time -> Time Attack
and observe the initials 'SHY' in third place.
- Reboot to Satiator Rings and
satiator-saves\MK-81214\SCORCHER_00.BUP
will be written to the Satiator's SD card.
- Launch
Scorcher (Europe)
and satiator-saves\MK-81214\SCORCHER_00.BUP
will be copied to internal memory.
- When the game loads, you will notice the message "Creating save file". At this point,
SCORCHER_00
is overwritten and the previously-observed lap time is no longer available.
- Reboot to Satiator Rings and
satiator-saves\MK-81214\SCORCHER_00.BUP
will be written to the Satiator's SD card, losing our original save file in the process.
Of course, you could intervene after step 8 by clearing the contents of internal memory, thus preventing the loss of the save file in step 9. But if a user isn't savvy enough to do this and also doesn't keep regular backups of save files, then this scenario would result in them losing save data.
One solution is to append [region-code]
to the folder names in satiator-saves
. If this was done then the specific issue described above could not occur, as:
Scorcher (Europe)
would have a save folder name of MK-81214[E]
Scorcher (USA)
would have a save folder name of MK-81214[UT]
Different revisions of the same game
In most (if not all) cases, save files from different revisions are compatible with each other. For example, the save file from Metal Slug v1.002 is compatible with Metal Slug v1.005. Furthermore, the version number should not be added to the folder name in an attempt to be cautious, as this would mess with Per-Game Saves' ability to work with multi-disc games that have different version numbers for each disc. For example, Grandia (Disc 1)
has a version number of 1.002 whereas Grandia (Disc 2)
has a version number of 1.004.
Different discs in a multi-disc game
Of course, it's completely natural for each disc in a multi-disc game to share the same GameID and save file name, so there's nothing to worry about here.
Interestingly, there are some games that share the same GameID despite being completely different to each other. For example, Darius Gaiden (Japan)
and HatTrick Hero S (Japan)
share a GameID of T-1102G
. However, this is not a cause for concern since different games will have different save file names (if they save at all), hence there is no risk of the Per-Game Saves feature overwriting save files in such instances.