PSP Emulator
One of the best things about playing on a PSP emulator is the ability to save anywhere. But save states and the game's own save files work very differently, and mixing them up is the most common way people lose hours of progress.
In-game saves
These are the saves the game itself creates when you use its save menu or reach a save point. The emulator writes them to the virtual memory stick in PSP/SAVEDATA, exactly like a real PSP would. They survive emulator updates and can even be copied to and from a real console.
Save states
A save state is a snapshot of the entire emulated system at one moment: memory, graphics, sound, everything. You can create one in the middle of a boss fight and return to that exact second later. They are stored in PSP/PPSSPP_STATE and each game has several slots.
The catch with save states
Because a save state captures the emulator's internal state, a state made in one version may not load correctly in a much newer version. States can also capture a game in a bad moment, such as halfway through writing its own save. For long games, that risk adds up.
A simple routine that never fails
- Use the game's own save regularly, at every save point you pass.
- Use save states for convenience: retrying hard sections or stopping in a hurry.
- Before updating the emulator, make a normal in-game save in every game you are playing.
Backing up your progress
Copy the whole PSP folder from your memory stick location to cloud storage or a computer once in a while. On Windows it sits inside the emulator folder under memstick; on Android it is in the folder you chose when you first launched the app.
Moving saves between phone and PC
Copy the game's folder from PSP/SAVEDATA on one device to the same path on the other. Normal saves move between platforms without problems, so you can play at home on a PC and continue on your phone.
Next: Texture Upscaling and Shaders: Make PSP Games Look Sharper