Save Slots
DOSGamePlayer saves your in-game state to slots. Each slot holds the entire emulator state at the moment of saving — memory, registers, video, audio buffers — so loading it puts you back exactly where you were.
The slot model
- Each game has its own set of slots (slots are not shared between games).
- The default slot count is 4, configurable up to a higher cap.
- Slot 0 is conventionally the quick save slot (for one-tap save/load when supported).
- Slots are independent — saving to slot 2 doesn't affect slot 1.
How to change the slot count
- Open Settings → General → Save Slot Count.
- Pick the number you want (typically between 1 and 10).
- The change applies globally to all games.
Increasing the slot count is non-destructive — existing slots are preserved. Decreasing the count hides slots beyond the new limit but doesn't delete the files; if you increase the count later, those slots reappear.
What a slot stores
A slot file holds:
- The full RAM and CPU state of the emulator
- Cartridge/disk state where relevant
- A timestamp
- An optional thumbnail (a screenshot of the moment of saving)
Slot files live in the app's private storage under each game's folder. You don't manage them directly via a file manager; instead use the in-app slot picker.
Where slots show up
| Place | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Game Detail page | Horizontal list of slot cards under the Play button |
| In-Game Menu → Save State | Pick a slot to write to |
| In-Game Menu → Load State | Pick a slot to read from |
| Backup & Restore | Slots are part of what's uploaded by cloud backup (premium) |
See Save & Load Workflow for the full lifecycle.
What does not go into slots
- Cheats — those are toggled separately
- Controller bindings — saved in Settings
- Core options — saved per-game in
coreVariables - Settings, themes, language — those are app-level, not per-game
Compatibility caveats
Save states are tied to the core that produced them. If you save in NDS using DeSmuME, loading that slot in MelonDS will not work — and vice versa. If you switch cores for a game, start fresh state files (or rely on the game's own in-cartridge save system, which most retro games have).
State files are also generally tied to the core's version. Updating the app may invalidate older slots for some cores. The app keeps a MelonDsSavesMigrator and similar migrators for known formats — most updates do not break your saves, but it's good practice to keep an in-cartridge save as a fallback.