Having an issue with some save files!

[Pyromann]

Hello everyone, first time posting here, I ran into an obstacle my brain has melted trying to find a soliution.

First of all, I was playing Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles on Dolphin 5.0-540 which is a stable version I can play without crahsing, and that is what I thought, but it did crash on a specific spot because I misread something. So then i tried the following: I created a save on the 5.0-540 version and then I loaded up the 5.0-400, all went fine I could finally progress, but not quite. For some reason when I save my game (ingame) on the 5.0-400, it tells me the game has been saved, etc. all seems fine, I always save state JUST IN CASE it fails. And so it did, when I reboot the game, the save file that shows, it's the same save file I saved just before switching to 5.0-400. Almost in anger, I loaded the save state I did in case this happened, then I thought, I'll remove the memory card A and B from the save folder and I will save again in this version, I save, says written on dolphin, I reboot dolphin and nope, the same files as before, same save files before switching to 5.0-400. I then tried to manage the save files with dolphin, with the GC save file, I deleted them inside, then improted a save file I think it's the one, and still nothing.

I'll attach here a couple pictures showing what I mean:

Here is when I load up the Save Slot A when i boot the game:


And this, as you can see is when I load up state save 1, it's where I last left it:


And when i go to save a file and I press save, I can see the saves as if I have saved before:


For some reason, when I load the save state, it's as if the whole game it's on another version of itself, when I try to save, it says it saved. Even when I'm ingame and I DELETE the SaveSlotA and SaveSlotB files, the game still detects save files when I press to save, as if It's reading ghost files, I save, it says it's been written and there are no new files on the GC folder where the save files are supposed to be. Did I create an interdimensional save file? Because I tried checking all Dolphin Folders and nothing is anywhere, all's empty, but the game still detects the save files, and what is the most strange thing, is that if I load state, then I press Restart, the game detects the save files, even though there are no files in the folder just like before!

Anyone knowd what's going on? I have bad memory and i tend to make mistakes, i could progress the game via save states, but I fear one day I might miss it and just close it and loose a lot of progress.

Thanks in advance for helping me! I'll answer any question that might help find a solution to this problem!

[Jack Frost]

First of all, you should probably update to a more recent version. 5.0-400 is two years old by now, and has a lot of issues regarding Memory Card regions etc.
Second, you should prefer using in-game saves to save states. While they should be safe on the same version, they wouldn't be between versions; and you shouldn't be using them long-term either.

That being said, you should probably grab a recent version from the download page, create a file named "portable.txt" in it and copy over your User folder after saving in the old version to test out whether that Memory Card actually has the right data on it (it should!)

[Pyromann]

(08-11-2018, 09:58 PM)Jack Frost Wrote: First of all, you should probably update to a more recent version. 5.0-400 is two years old by now, and has a lot of issues regarding Memory Card regions etc.
Second, you should prefer using in-game saves to save states. While they should be safe on the same version, they wouldn't be between versions; and you shouldn't be using them long-term either.

That being said, you should probably grab a recent version from the download page, create a file named "portable.txt" in it and copy over your User folder after saving in the old version to test out whether that Memory Card actually has the right data on it (it should!)

I tried doing it on a more updated version, but I use this one because then I can play multiplayer with my brother, because earlier versions can't connect with VGA link and therefore I can't play multiplayer. And when I tried to load up the save file it has the same save file just before I went to 5.0-400. All i need to find out is how to actually save the game from the ghost state to an actual save file.

[Jack Frost]

As mentioned, simply using an in-game save point should be enough. Dolphin will tell you where that Memory Card file is; you can check using the Memory Card manager if that is the case.

[Pyromann]

(08-11-2018, 10:07 PM)Jack Frost Wrote: As mentioned, simply using an in-game save point should be enough. Dolphin will tell you where that Memory Card file is; you can check using the Memory Card manager if that is the case.

I also did try that, as I said on the first post, when I load the save state, I delete the files from the GC save folder and when I save ingame, not save state, it says it has written but nothing is really done, I have tried to launch Dolphin with Admin rights but still, nothing is done.

[JosJuice]

There is a specific spot in the game that corrupts the RAM copy of the game ID in older versions of Dolphin and that causes a crash in newer versions. The game will write the RAM copy of the game ID to each save file it creates, and it will only be able to load save files that were stored with a game ID that matches the one that currently is in RAM.

Maybe it's possible to hex edit one of the save files that were saved with the wrong game ID. I haven't tried it.

[Pyromann]

(08-12-2018, 04:19 AM)JosJuice Wrote: There is a specific spot in the game that corrupts the RAM copy of the game ID in older versions of Dolphin and that causes a crash in newer versions. The game will write the RAM copy of the game ID to each save file it creates, and it will only be able to load save files that were stored with a game ID that matches the one that currently is in RAM.

Maybe it's possible to hex edit one of the save files that were saved with the wrong game ID. I haven't tried it.

Sadly, my knowledge doesn't go that far, I don't know anything of hex editing files or how to even start editing them or what I have to change to make it work. 

EDIT: But yes, from what you say it makes sense. You think you could help me or know someone else who could?