Is it at all possible to save a state in a game for older consoles? I'm talking about old school game consoles like NES, SNES and Sega MegaDrive.
I know it's not built in, so maybe somebody knows of some kind of add-box, or something to put between the cartridge and the console to record the game progress or something like that..?
It would really help me finish certain older games.
Best Answer
Forgive my bluntness but Agent86 is not entirely correct.
Both the SNES and NES actually do have hardware devices that can save and restore state with off the shelf cartridges. As an added bonus both offer true slow motion capabilities (not the pause button hack commonly implemented by some controllers). These are perfect for games like Mortal Kombat and Battletoads.
For SNES you are looking for the Nakitek Game Saver Plus available at www.stoneagegamer.com for about 20 bucks.
A Genesis version was mentioned in a Game Pro magazine back in the day http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?91593-naki-game-saver
But the Genesis version they talked about never saw the light of day.
For NES you want the much more rare and elusive Game Action Replay (not to be confused with the Pro Action Replay, a game genie like device.) these are very hard to find and typically go for 80-100 dollars on ebay.
I own both and they work mostly as advertised with a few quirks. Because of the lack of accurate information and abundance of misinformation on these devices I am in the process of putting together a complete review.
I should be done with it sometime in February and I'll post a follow up comment with a link once it's up.
In the meantime order it now if you want it because once I clear up the confusion that's currently making people overlook these devices they are going to become very hard to find!