Save States: Do you partake?

[capcom_suicide]

A lot of my classic games (16bit era) were hard. Very hard indeed. Not only that but losing a life could easily mean re-playing half or even the whole level. Often the boss battles had a pattern, and you needed to learn that pattern. What that meant for me was that I would spend the whole day getting to the boss and maybe using 15minutes of game time to learn patterns, and perhaps 6 hours of gaming to get those 15 minutes...

With save states and my lack of time or interest in re-playing the levels I find them the ultimate "Trainer." I tend to approach my games with two mindsets now:

1.) Use SaveStates at every tricky part to learn the game and enjoy the end credits.

or

2.) Having learnt the game, see how far I can get on one credit/continue

How do others view save states?

[QualityChimp]

Deffo save states.

On PC gaming, quick saves are a lot more prevalent and I remember playing Max Payne and Half-Life with loads of quick saves.
It didn't make the game easier, I just enjoyed replaying a section over and over until I could do it without taking a hit.

With retro stuff, if it takes the fun out of the game, I won't use quicksaves, but to see the whole game and if I can only play a game in short chunks, I'll do it.

I remember Gain Ground on my old Nokia was great for a quick blast but far too long to keep starting over.
I have no regrets and my toilet breaks were all the more rewarding for it!

[nakamura]

Rarely. Only if I absolutely have to leave and can't save the game normally. Or I'll use them on games like Road Rash to save password entry.

[acidbearboy]

I Iove 'em, but time is precious these days and I'm probably even worse at games than when I was young. So if I die at the same place a few times, I set a save state just before to avoid frustration.

[Asura]

I nearly always use them if available.

The only exception is for games of the type where you expect to replay them from the start each time, so stuff like Ikaruga.

I've been tempted for many years to use them on Alien Soldier, as I've never finished it, but I'm still resisting out of some misguided sense of gamer honour.

[Wools]

I was always against them but growing up in the very late 80's and early 90's most console games were Arcade ports and bastard hard!

I got used to that methodology but as I got into PC Strategy, FPS's and Adventure games, I got used to and enjoyed the freedom that saving offered. Also, reading interviews with the designers of the day, it became clear how some of them had never completed their own game and how the Arcade experience was built around extracting money from the player. After that, certain Arcade games seemed cheap and I had no problem with the concept of saving at checkpoints or after every encounter.

Save states? Yes please!

[Cepp]

I don't use them for retro games, it takes the fun out of it.

Unless it's an old PC game of course in which case it's part of the game and expected.

[Neon Ignition]

Typically I stick with whatever save method is built into the game unless I have to switch off at short notice.

[samanosuke]

Normally I don't use them as 90% of my gaming time is spent playing on the 16-bit consoles with no Everdrives so I don't have access to them even if I wanted.

The other 10% comprises emulation via my Wiz and, like nakamura, I'll use them for games that require password entry. Sod entering the 876 characters on Golvellius and as for Flashback on the Mega CD, for the love of Pedro why did it not utilise the internal save memory? I'll also use save states when my missus starts nagging me to do something when I am half way through a game :/

[stepaz]

I never used to use them, however as get less time to play these days don't want to waste that time replaying same levels over and over. That said certain games like shoot em ups do need to be played properly.

[J0e Musashi]

What is a save state?