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[Hungry Horace]

Pretty-much everything you need to know about the RAM-Installed Save-States (R.I.S.S.)

Please read this thoroughly before asking any questions!

What are the R.I.S.S.?

The ram-installed save-states (hereby referred to as R.I.S.S.) are a concept devised as an alternative to ADF, for running games on PSPUAE.

Instead of having the game stored on one or more ADF, which is accessed during your games, R.I.S.S. has the entire game stored into the Amiga's RAM, which is then saved and kept as a single save-state. This is accompanied by a config file which pre-sets PSPUAE to suitable settings for running the specific game.

This makes running-games much simpler and was devised as a demonstation of how to get the most out of Amiga emulation, and to show "casual" retro-gamers who are used to single game roms for console-based systems, that the Amiga is only as difficult as the end-user makes it for themselves.



How do they work?

The savestates work by taking a version of an Amiga game, intended for either HardDrive installation or CD storage, and having them copied to and run from RAM.

Because PSPUAE does not feature either HD or CD support, this is achieved by placing the games files across 1 or more "boot disks" and copying them into RAM via AmigaDos. Once in memory, a save-state can be saved from PSPUAE, and the game accessed again in future without the need for further ADF access.



Why would i want to use them?

Vastly improved loading times compared to ADF. Minimal in-game waiting more suited to portable gaming.

No need for any disk-swapping whilst playing.

Additional Functionality (Trainers, bugfixes etc)



Where can i find these save-states?

You can find our save-states in the Downloads Section of this site!



Why can't I download them?

Most likely it is because you are not a registered member of PSPUAE.com or you have forgotten to log in.

Save-states are offered purely to PSPUAE.com members, as an incentive for you to support the work of the developers by giving appropriate feedback about PSPUAE. This means the downloading of them is limited to registered members only.



What do i need in order to use them?

All the save-states found on site (via downloads) require either the Amiga Kickstart 1.3 or Kickstart 3.0 depending on the game.

These must be placed in your :PSP/GAME/PSPUAE/KICKS/ (or similar) folder on your PSPs memorystick

The download description should also tell you the version number on which the save-state was created,



How do I install these save-states on PSPUAE?

Each save-state on site should contain a CONFIGS/ and a STATE/ folder, containing the state-file and config file for the appropriate game. Simply drop these folders from the download ZIP into your /PSP/GAME/PSPUAE/ folder on your memory card.

After this it should only be necessary for you to select the "Load State" option from within PSPUAE.



The save-state isnt loading properly, or is crashing PSPUAE. What's wrong?

Certain states wont load properly on a first attempt. Either the game will be hung, and will the reset to the classic Amiga "guru" red-box screen, or a game will operate normally for a while, before resetting / crashing later on.

This is usually fixed simply by immediately loading the save-state again, after it has just been loaded. This seems to give PSPUAE the time to correctly set its options, move across to the appropriate kickstart and get the game running.

Another option you can try to avoid possible crashing is by loading the RISS's Config file first, resetting PSPUAE, (it should then reset to kickstart 3.0 with most RISS) and then you can re-attempt loading the save-state.

If problems persist, it is possible that you have an incorrect ROM labeled... for example, you may have kickstart 3.1 labelled as kick30.rom instead of kick31.rom. Select the roms on the menu, reset the amiga and check your roms are labeled correctly, by looking at the version number given on the Amiga boot screen.

On other occasions, you may find that PSPUAE and the PSP crash completely. This is likely to be due to a memory shortage if the save-state you have loaded is a particularly large one  (Alien Breed: Tower Assault for example is 6 meg) - if this problem persists, it is recommended you delete or re-name the backdrop picture used by PSPUAE, which can be found in the /PSPUAE/GUI/ folder. This frees the necessary memory for PSPUAE to load and run larger savestates. On occasions, pre-loading the config file also avoids these crashes.

Large crashes such as this can also happen when you attempt to load a save-state for which you do not possess the required kickstart rom.



The game is working, but the screen keeps flashing

Because memory on PSPUAE is limited, some games are set up to include "OS flashing" - this means that the game is still reading the Amiga RAM whilst the game is running and at these points the screen will flash to the backdrop colour (usually black)

However, if there is enough memory available, the game will be "preloaded" and this will not occur. With the current 6 meg limit on PSPUAE v0.62, some of the larger games do currently have OS Flashing.



I don't like the way the config is set-up. Can i change it?

Whilst it is not recommended you change any of the major Amiga hardware settings such as; memory, chipset type etc, there are many options you can safely change within PSPUAE which will change the way the game runs / operates, to make it suit yourself better.

CPU Speed, Sound, Display settings and Input Settings can all be safely changed, and when you are content with your new settings, these can be re-saved over the save-state's old config file.

Simply going to "Save Config" after loading a savestate, will present you with the extra option "Save for Save-state."



Why am I getting a multi-coloured screen saying something about limited functionality, and the game refusing to run?

Many of the save-states use an Amiga program called WHDLoad to make them HD installable, where the original games were intended for floppy drive only. The WHDLoad patches to certain games require you to register the program in order to use them (e.g. Moonstone, Supremacy, Elite) whilst others have imposed limitations without registration (Pinball Dreams, Bloodwych).

Since the R.I.S.S. project would not exist without the development of WHDLoad, we at www.pspuae.com feel it is our duty to respect the wishes of the WHDload slave authors, and have decided to impose their limitations within our savestates. We would encourage anyone who uses our save-states to consider registration, as this is one of the few major software projects still in development to this very day, and the slave authors do excellent work to aid us, the users.

if you would like further information on WHDLoad, or would like to register, please visit their site at www.whdload.de

Please note that PSPUAE is in no way affiliated with WHDLoad directly. We are just users of the software like anyone else. (Except, since writing this, Horace has become a developer as well as a user, and started adding extra functions to WHDload slaves!)



I decided to register WHDLoad. How can i use my keyfile with the R.I.S.S. that require it?

You need to create a keyfile disk which the game's front-end can detect. It is recommended you use WINUAE to do this.

When you register WHDLoad you should receive your keyfile inside an LHA archive, which you should copy to a standard Workbench setup for WinUAE. An LHA archive can be mounted as a disk in WinUAE and accessed like any other drive.

You must create a blank amiga-formatted ADF with the amiga label DEVS or L

In WinUAE go to  Settings: Hardware : Floppy Disks - and at the bottom you will see a text box for "disk label" - type "DEVS" here, and click "Create Standard Disk" - it will ask you to name the ADF, which you can call anything you like ( WHDKey.adf for example )

You now need to boot workbench, insert your Key disk, and simply copy the file whdload.key onto the floppy disk.

Copy the ADF over to your PSP, and when the coloured screen appears, insert the ADF into DF0: or DF1:

There will be a moment of disk-access, and you should now find you are able to enjoy registered WHDLoad on those R.I.S.S which require it.



Why is X game not available as a save-state to download?

This could be for a number of reasons:

1) None of the R.I.S.S team have wanted this game installed for themselves, and so have simply missed the game. It is suggested you simply request it.

2) The game has been requested, but does not have an HD installer, or compatible CD version.

3) The game is too large to fit in the allocated memory settings of the current release of PSPUAE.

4) The game is incompatible with PSPUAE. e.g. AGA chipset required, game-crashes etc.



I would like to request a save-state to be made, how can i find out if it is possible to install X game?

the only way to find out for sure is to ask for it in the Wanted thread, and one of the R.I.S.S team will look into it.

Hall of Light contains a lot of detail on many Amiga games, an its often possible to gauge from the details there as to whether the game would be a possibility. Look for machine requirements (must be non-aga), number of Disks (PSPUAE 0.62 limitation is roughly 4 or lower) and HD install fields.



Can i make my own R.I.S.S?

yes of course, although the task is somewhat cumbersome to anyone who is new at Amiga emulation, the primary members of the R.I.S.S team have a few shortcuts to make things easier.

Details on making your own states can be found on this thread here



if you have any further questions.... just ask and they may find their way into this FAQ!