Does the megaeverdrive x7 save state feature suck?

[niggelmymiggel]

Hi boys and girl.
I am the not so happy owner of a megaeverdrive x7. I bought it to use the save state feature to practice and defeat hard ass shooters like thunderforce 3 and 4. Unfortunately the save state feature is broken as far as I can tell. I tried playing 5 different shooter games with the x7 and all of them had the same issue. The save state loses audio unless I load state from a point in the game with the same audio track as the save state. So it kind of works but it's janky. I don't expect jank from everdrives. I purchased an n8, x3 and a snes everdrive new with no issues. I thought I was upgrading my x3 to an x7 but as of now my crtemudriver emulation setup is superior. I can't see myself using the x7. Am I missing something here? Is there a new os that fixes these issues?

[unfnknblvbl]

The problem is that save states on real hardware is not supported by said hardware.

The manual of the MED X7 states:

Save State function is experimental and may not work properly with some games. In some games this function may cause of hang, lost sound, some graphics artifacts etc. There is no known way to make complete snapshot of system state on real hardware, so, it working as is and probably will never be improved

The manual for the MED Pro elaborates on this a little better (I assume since it's much newer), so hopefully this is useful for you:

Genesis hardware wasn't designed for using such functions as save states, there is basically no way to save audio subsystem state. By this reason using save state function in some games may result glitches or even hangs. That's why this function is provided as is and it can not be improved to be fully stable. However few simple steps may help reduce glitches rate:

• Do state saving during the pause when audio is muted.
• Do not load state created in the game level if you have not enter the level yet, from the title screen for example. In this case the game will have a chance to initialize audio driver properly before state will be loaded. Save state system completely ignores audio subsystem initialization.

[niggelmymiggel]

Bummer. Thanks for getting back to me. At least now I know that it's nothing faulty with my unit and that there is no need to upgrade to the pro model. I think it should be advertised differently. On stone age gamer it just says, "save states supported". "Supported" is not what save states are on the x7.

[Adrian Gauna]

Games that use 68k sound drivers save state with the music, games that use Zilog Z80 sound drivers do not save state with the music. And the X7 does support save states, it's jerky because it's something the Mega Drive/Genesis was never designed to do and Krikzz is not responsible for this, you're lucky you can save state at all. In the old days, games were designed to be played in one sitting not like today where games go on forever without an ending.

If you're smart enough to learn when and where to use a state you can avoid the muted music issue.

For example in a Sonic game, save state right at the end of a completed level ''Sonic Got Through Act 2'' when the continue icon is flashing, that way when you load a state next play the music will kick in straight away for the next zone or act. This practise should be applied on all games. Another thing you can do is go to the sound test and play the track from the level you've save stated and then load that state then and there and the music will continue playing through your save.