Compatibility with Pcem?

[bitcrushed-velvet]

I have a Windows 95 virtual machine I built in my Pcem emulator that I use primarily for playing old pc games. Could I use this to get save states for those games?

If so, would I be able to place this software directly into the Windows 95 vm or would I need to add it to my actual modern day pc hard drive and create a directory pathway leading from my hard drive to the pcem emulator, to the vm, and finally to the game?

[cookesan]

Short answer: only if the Windows 95 game saves are visible to SaveState as normal files or folders on the machine where SaveState is running.

SaveState is not an emulator save-state system and it is not hooking into PCem. The app backs up and restores filesystem paths into zip archives. PCem is also not in the supported-emulator list, so I would not expect automatic PCem detection.

I would not install it inside the Windows 95 guest. SaveState itself targets modern Windows/Linux, and the source/runtime requirements are modern as well. The practical setup would be on the host:

1. Find where the game save files live.
2. Make that folder visible to the host OS, either because PCem already stores it as normal host-side files or because you can mount/export/copy the relevant files from the virtual disk.
3. Create a manual SaveState profile and point it at that folder.
4. Test with one backup and one restore using a disposable copy before relying on it.

If the saves only exist inside a PCem hard disk image and are not exposed as normal files, SaveState will not automatically reach through the virtual disk image for you. In that case you would need a separate way to access or extract the save folder first.

[bitcrushed-velvet]

Ah! That makes sense and helps me figure out how to set this up for my needs. Thank you very much for taking the time to give a such a thorough reply so quickly

[cookesan]

You're very welcome, @bitcrushed-velvet! :)