Sleep/Savestates/Memories support?

[zkat]

When I try to do sleep mode on my Analogue Pocket, it says it's not supported by this cartridge, and offers to power off instead. Is it possible to add support for sleep?

[agg23]

Sleep requires save states, which won't be coming to the SNES core. The only third party core currently available with save states is my NES core.

[zkat]

Thanks for the response! I was wondering whether this was a save state thing. I've linked this issue (see above) in upstream in hopes that it'll get resolved someday. :)

[DunhamGitHub]

For me, save states / sleep mode is essential for SNES. Which is why my analogue pocket is collecting dust...

Hoping it will happen due to competition in the market (I see it on the horizon)

[ToniWonKanobi]

Just wondering why save states won't be coming to this SNES core? Is that the owner doesn't care, or that it's incredibly difficult (more difficult than NES)?

[agg23]

Unlike software emulators, hardware emulators (what we're running on FPGAs) have a significantly higher complexity and must keep track of much more information. Consequently, retroactively adding save states to a core that was not planned around it is a very difficult task (and it's still not easy if you have planned for it).

The person most knowledgeable about the core, srg320_, has previously stated that he has no interest in adding save states. Unless someone very skilled and dedicated decides to do it, it isn't going to happen. It's honestly probably more likely that someone else starts a SNES core from scratch with the idea of including save states.

[ToniWonKanobi]

Unlike software emulators, hardware emulators (what we're running on FPGAs) have a significantly higher complexity and must keep track of much more information. Consequently, retroactively adding save states to a core that was not planned around it is a very difficult task (and it's still not easy if you have planned for it).

The person most knowledgeable about the core, srg320_, has previously stated that he has no interest in adding save states. Unless someone very skilled and dedicated decides to do it, it isn't going to happen. It's honestly probably more likely that someone else starts a SNES core from scratch with the idea of including save states.

Thanks for the quick reply. I hear what you're saying, but why does the NES core have save states then?

[agg23]

Someone (RobertPeip, and a few people helping him, I think) was dedicated enough to add them. Other than mappers (of which only some are supported for save states), the NES is significantly less complicated than SNES, and the hardware is more understood by more people.

[ToniWonKanobi]

Fair enough. Really appreciate your responses. Hopefully, my questions didn't come off as frustration pointed in your direction. Thanks, and have a good day sir!

[zarkone]

An update in MISTer land about save states: https://misterfpga.org/viewtopic.php?t=8459

[agg23]

An update in MISTer land about save states: https://misterfpga.org/viewtopic.php?t=8459

It's a very impressive set of changes. I don't believe the source is available at the moment, and even if it was, I don't think it's in a stable enough state to warrant the significant amount of work it would take to get working on the Pocket. I will look into it as it becomes more stable and I have time available though.

[ToniWonKanobi]

An update in MISTer land about save states: https://misterfpga.org/viewtopic.php?t=8459

It's a very impressive set of changes. I don't believe the source is available at the moment, and even if it was, I don't think it's in a stable enough state to warrant the significant amount of work it would take to get working on the Pocket. I will look into it as it becomes more stable and I have time available though.

Does this mean save states could be coming to the SNES core!? 🙃

[TheJayMann]

I've not done anything to verify this outside of compare names and dates, but I believe the source code for the latest release in the forum thread (including the update for SA1 support) is available at https://github.com/paulb-nl/SNES_MiSTer/tree/ss_wip.