Emulationstation can list and launch games directly from a given savestate.

Before batocera 41, it is possible only for retroarch cores.

Since batocera 41, it is possible for standalone emulators.

In emulationstation, you've 3 options :

• Auto save/load : when you start a game, it will automatically load the “auto” savestate, and when you exit a game, it will automatically save the “auto” savestate.
• Incremental savestates : used to increment the slot each time you save a state in game, search a free slot at game launch, or let you manually change the slots in game
• Show savestate manager : by default, the savestate manager is show only when you long press a game, and select “savestates”. You can change this behavior to open it each time you start a game, whenever some savestates are available or not.

If you use incremental savestates and that the emulator supports them, Emulationstation will display the savestates ordered by time, instead of sorted by slots, as shown in the screenshot above.

So that it works, an emulator requires to have several features.

In this table, for each emulator, we list what's supported out of the box by the emulator, and what's done via patches.

1. of course, the emulator must support savestates. This is not true for emulators of most recent system, mainly because it now takes a lot of memory/disk/time.
2. the emulator must use a savestate filename easy like the rom filename + an extension
3. the emulator must support the loading of a state at boot time
4. the emulator must support the configuration of the slot at boot time (if you load savestate 5, the current savestate must selected must be 5)
5. the emulator must take a screenshot at the same time a savestate is done
6. the emulator should support the automatic savestate at exit time (for auto savestates)
7. the emulator should support the automatic increment of the savestate slot at save time (just before to save)