gb-save-states

Patches to add save state support to Game Boy and Game Boy Color games when playing on the original hardware.

How to use

For Game Boy games:
- Flash cart that supports 32KB of save RAM and MBC 1/5 mapper
For Game Boy Color games, and Game Boy games that originally include save RAM:
- Flash cart that supports 128KB of save RAM and MBC 5 mapper, e.g. EZ Flash Jr. or EverDrive-GB X3/X5/X7. Not sure how much save RAM your flash cart supports? Try this test ROM on your flash cart.
Original ROM file for the game
Patching software that supports bsdiff patches:
- Windows (command line) - BsPatch
- macOS (GUI) - Multi Patch
- macOS (terminal) - install Homebrew and then run brew install bsdiff in the terminal

Due to different button layouts on the GB/GBC and the GBA, there are two different button combinations that can be used to save/load a game.

After pressing the button combo, the screen will flash as the save/load process runs.

Combo 1: Hold Down and press Start

Combo 2: Hold Select and press A

Combo 1: Hold Up and press Start

Combo 2: Hold Select and press B

Submit an issue and hopefully someone will create a patch for you.

If you have a bit of Game Boy assembly knowledge then you can create a patch yourself. Check out the How To document

Sound/Music cannot always be restored 100% due to some sound registers being read only. This generally isn't a problem unless loading a save game from the startup menu instead of during gameplay. Pausing and resuming the game can sometimes resolve any sound problems.

Kirby's Dream Land uses Select + Down + B and Select + Up + A to access hidden features on the title screen. To avoid conflicts with the save/load combos, these hidden feature combos have been remapped to Down + B and Up + A.