Save Management

The most important aspect of a game you’re playing is the save data. The last thing that you want in a game is to have your data corrupt and then start it all over again. Fortunately, Rominator has a solution for backing up, storing, and retrieving save game data. Whenever a game is brought into Rominator, a folder is created inside the Rominator Data folder under NDS Save Files, that is named after the internal name of the game. This is so Rominator knows which folder to keep save games in, as well as keep it organized and clean.

To back up your save games, simply hilight the games on your Flash Card that you wish to backup the save game for, and press the ‘Backup Save’ button in the Toolbar, or right click on the game and select ‘Backup Save’ from the contextual menu.

In the example below, I have two games: Guitar Hero: On Tour and Super Mario 64. Both games have been backed up by myself and I use these as backup, but I would like to backup the save data for both. I have only played Guitar Hero and not Super Mario 64, so when attempting to backup the save for Mario, you will get an error.

There was however no error for Guitar Hero’s backup, and a message appeared in the Message Bar at the bottom of Rominator, which says ‘Save File(s) Backed Up Successfully.’, so your save game has been backed up.

Working With Backed Up Saves

So now that you’ve backed up your saves, how do we deal with them if we ever want to flash them back? Easy! In your game list (any list that has the game with the save you backed up), simply double-click on the game. It will open up a Game Saves window.

• You will see the save games you have backed up for the selected game, as well as a checkbox underneath the heading called ‘Flash’. If the checkbox is selected, that save will be flashed upon copying the game to your flash card. Only 1 save can be checked at a time. Rominator will automatically check off the latest save game that was backed up, so you don’t need to worry about setting which save file to restore to your flash card.
• You can also rename the save games here in case you have multiple and want to keep track of them. Simply double click on a save game name, and you can edit it. Note that you do not need to provide the ‘.sav’ for the extension, Rominator will do that automatically. Feel free to rename them to whatever you want, according to your operating system’s naming policy. When the game is flashed, it will be renamed to the same name as the .nds file.
• Another naming option is to automatically include the date that the save was backed up. This can be configured in the Settings. More on this in the ‘Changing Settings’ section.
• More obvious options in this screen are to delete a save game, hilight it and click the delete button. To export a save game to another location, click the Export button, and to close this window, click the Close button.

Save management doesn’t get easier than this, and it is a great way to ensure that your data is protected.