Managing Save Games and States

As of LaunchBox 13.16, you can now manage your save files and save states directly within LaunchBox. This means no more hunting through file systems or worrying about filenames—LaunchBox handles it all for you.

Check out the release video for an overview, or read on below to find out exactly how it works:

🚧 Why It’s Marked as Early Access

This is just the beginning. The scope for save management is broad, and we plan to expand it in the future. Some features and workflows may evolve as we continue to develop this functionality.

🎮 Supported Emulators

At this stage, save management is supported with RetroArch. We plan to extend support to additional emulators in future updates.

🧠 Understanding How It Works

To access save management:

Go to Edit Game > Metadata > Game Saves

Here you’ll see your game’s saves broken into two sections:

• Active Saves

  These are the live save files that RetroArch uses, stored in RetroArch > saves. There can only be one active save, and its name must match your ROM filename exactly.

• Save Backups

  These are managed by LaunchBox and stored in LaunchBox > Saves. They’re automatically renamed and numbered by LaunchBox to avoid conflicts.

LaunchBox takes care of the file movement and naming behind the scenes, so you can manage your saves with confidence.

💡 Real-World Examples

📥 1. Importing Saves (e.g., Childhood Cartridge Dumps)

Let’s say you have a save file dumped from an old cartridge.

1. Open Edit Game > Game Saves.

2. Click Import Save and locate the file.

3. It will appear under Save Backups.

4. (Optional) Rename the save within LaunchBox to make it more recognizable. This won’t change the actual filename—just how it’s labeled in the interface.

5. Click Restore Backup to make it the active save.

If an active save already exists, LaunchBox will prompt you to back it up before overwriting.

Just like that, you can relive your childhood game progress—no renaming or manual file handling required.

🛡️ 2. Backing Up Saves (e.g., RPGs with Missables)

Say you’re playing an RPG and want to capture a snapshot before a major choice or boss fight.

1. In the Game Saves window, select your current Active Save.

2. Click Backup Save.

3. LaunchBox will create a copy under Save Backups and auto-number it.

4. (Optional) Give it a descriptive label like “Pre-final boss” or “Before branching path”.

You can create multiple restore points, then swap them in later with Restore Backup.

🗑️ 3. Deleting Saves

You can delete old or unused saves by clicking the trash icon next to any backup or active save.

This is especially handy when combined with:

• Badges (to identify games with active saves)

• Filters (to clean up your collection)

📌 What About Save States?

Everything above applies to save states too. The only difference is:

• You can have multiple active save states, whereas

• Only one save file can be active at a time

You’ll manage them the same way through the Game Saves tab.

🏷️ Using Badges and Filters

To quickly find games with saves or states:

• Enable the “Has Saved Games / States” badge via:

  Badges > Game Attributes > Enable Has Saved Games / States

• Use the filter:

  Game Saves > Has Any Saved Game / State

This is great for identifying what to back up, clean up, or revisit.

➕ What About Additional Apps?

Each additional app attached to a game now has its own Game Saves tab, allowing you to manage its saves independently.

🗂️ RetroArch Save Directory Compatibility

Whether you’re using:

saves/[platform]/[savefile] (RetroArch default),

or

saves/[platform]/[core]/[savefile]

LaunchBox detects and works with both directory structures out of the box. No manual configuration required.

▶️ See It in Action

Want to watch how this works in real-world scenarios?

Check out our live stream where we walk through:

• Dumping saves from cartridges

• Managing memory card files

• Backing up saves

• Using save states

• Working with unsupported emulators

• And more!

🚀 More to Come

This is just the start of what we want to do with save management in LaunchBox. We’re excited to continue improving this feature—and we’d love to hear your feedback as we do!