Project64 not creating *.FLA save files

[jrinco11]

Hi all - I've recently run into a problem while playing Zelda Majora's Mask with project 64. I loaded my rom which appropriately had my saved progress from the last time I hit the owl statue, started playing a while, *thought* I pressed f5 to save the state and a few minutes later pressed f7 to restore and it went back about 5 hours of game play (to some very very old saved state which I could have sworn I had created MANY save states, and restored from, since then). So then I reset the game and tried to load the saved game again only to find it brought me back quite a bit in game play (since the last time I played the time song)...

I then remembered I have my rom directory in dropbox, so I figured I could maybe quickly grab the .s64 file on my other computer, in hopes that it would be the saved version I had from before I had this issue. Prior to looking into this issue, I assumed project64 created a 'save file' that was always created in the same directory as the rom (as it had with other games i've played such as mario 64) -- but to my dismay, there was no save file in the ROM directory. After researching a bit, I also found that there was a default folder that game saves were placed in, but the default "save" directory in the project64 installation folder didn't exist! So here lies my two questions:

A) if Project 64 isn't creating any save files (there is no save directory where it's looking for one), how is my progress being saved for my Majora's Mask ROM? I found that if I run Project64 with administrator privileges, it creates the game save file in the "save" directory, but then my saved game is lost. If I change the save directory to a location that doesn't exist, then I am able to pull up my saved game again! (where/how, therefore, is it saving the game?)

B) From the above, it appears that somehow the installation of project 64 was messed up in that it couldn't create a save directory/create the *.FLA gamesave files - but now that it can (by running w/admin priv), is it possible to 'extract' the game save that IS being done and have it be it's own stand alone file so I can periodically back it up?

(yes, I know I can just continue playing from the saved status I *do* have, which is what I'll have to do, but just checking on what might be going on and how it's currently saving with the exiting issue)

thanks for any help!

 

[Toasty]

I'm assuming you're on either Windows Vista or Windows 7? If that's the case, PJ64 will not have permission to write any permanent save data or configuration changes to the default locations unless it is run as an administrator, or you alter the permissions on PJ64's directories so that the user running it has write permissions. The simplest solution is probably to just always run PJ64 as an administrator. Alternatively, run PJ64 as an administrator and while doing so, change the default save directory to one that your user account has permission to write to, then close PJ64 and subsequent runs can be done as a normal user.

Also, open Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del, or right click the Windows task bar and click "Task Manager") after you've closed PJ64 and ensure that PJ64 has indeed terminated on the Processes tab. (Note that if you ran PJ64 as an administrator, you'll also have to click the button in Task Manager to view all processes - not just processes owned by your user account.) If "Project64.exe" is listed on the Processes tab, go ahead and kill it by selecting it on the list and clicking the "End Process" button.

 

[Agozer]

Are you an administrator on your computer or just a regular user? Do not install Project64 in Program Files under Vista or Windows 7, for one. You should install it your your own user (home) directory, at least then you should have all the required permissions.