Saving gamestate on the Gameshell

Emulators
1

Hi guys,

I recently ordered a Gameshell and was wondering about how the unit saves a games progress :

  1. Does the unit save the state of a game, or does it use the game’s native save function?
  2. Can you save the progress in a PICO-8 game?
2

GameShell is essentially just a linux computer with a custom UI. What you are asking is COMPLETELY dependent on the software you are using.

By “game” I am assuming you mean a ROM being run in an emulator. If this is the case, GameShell has RetroArch installed for this and you can save game state using RetroArch save state features.

For PICO-8, this will be completely dependent on the game you are playing. https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=3366

3

Thanks for replying Cecilectomy! I’ve notice that there’s a “Retro games” section out of the box on the Gameshell, is that just a link to a core in Retroarch?

I suspected that the pre-installed Retroarch option and the “Retro games” option used two different methods of handling ROMs, am I correct in this assumption?

4

So the “Retro Games” menu item basically wraps RetroArch into a UI for selecting and playing ROMs. Each folder under Retro Games, for example “NESTOPIA”, contains some configuration files that tell the GameShell UI where to find ROMs to list out, and some retroarch information so it knows which emulator core to use, where to download the core from if it isn’t already installed, etc. Using this, you can add any number of folders to list out and launch roms using RetroArch and associated emulator cores.

You can also just run RetroArch directly, download and select cores, and select which rom to launch. Although this is not as convenient as having the GameShell UI just show you the roms, and launching them.

Btw, IMO GameShell is not as user friendly as some other emulation devices, and a fair bit of technical knowledge, specifically Linux, is sometimes required. Programming knowledge helps out a lot too. Aside from that, the forums are fairly good at answering questions, and If I can help, I typically will.

Good Luck!

5

Fair enough, thanks. In my search for portable consoles with support for multiple emulation types and a decent sex appeal of the unit itself, Gameshell definitely came out as one of the better options. Do you know of any devices that come close to what this unit does, how it feels and how it looks?

6

Not really. I don’t tend to buy them because they are so limited, and from reviews, they can be hit or miss.

The only other device that compares (IMO) is a hacked PSP. The only downside is the PSP hacking community is basically dead. It’s still fairly Viable as an emulation device though, but again, it takes a little technical know-how unless you can get one already hacked.