The ROM hacking community is one of the coolest parts of the larger retro gaming community. ROM hackers are passionate fans of retro games that use their programming, art, and creative skills to create brand new levels, graphics, or even whole new experiences from our favorite games. In a previous guide, I showed how to use your iPhone to patch a retro game into a ROM hack using the JS Patcher and the original ROM and patch file. Often ROM hacks will release updates with even more new content or features. Many times your old save data from the previous version is still valid and you can continue on your adventure using the updated patch. If you use Afterplay.io to keep your ROMs and saves in sync on all your devices, follow this guide to help you update your ROM and import your save from your previous version. Prior to this guide, I downloaded the 4.0 update to Radical Red, a ROM hack for Pokemon FireRed Version; I will be importing my save from my old ROM which is on version 2.3. Note: Check the documentation for the ROM hack you wish to update to. Sometimes saves may be incompatible between versions. The documentation may have more information on how to prepare your save for updating if necessary. With all that out of way now, lets get started.

Follow these quick instructions for simple advice on importing your save

  1. Open the old version of your ROM hack and open the “Saves and Settings” menu.
  2. Go to the “Game” tab under the settings and scroll down to “Auto-load state” and disable that setting.
  3. Create a new in-game save (eg. opening the menu and choosing save in Pokemon, pausing the game and choosing “Save and Continue” in Super Mario, etc.)
  4. Go to Saves -> SRAM -> “Download”
  5. For iPhone, click the ⬆️ “Share” button and then choose “Save to Files”, browse for a location to save it to and click “Save” and then click “Done”. For PC, the browser will ask you where you wish to save the save file or will automatically download it to your default downloads location.
  6. Close the game and open the Afterplay menu (the logo in the top-left with the three lines next to it).
  7. Choose “Add Game” and then choose the system the game is for. Upload the updated version of your ROM hack to Afterplay
  8. Open the newly uploaded version of the ROM hack.
  9. Go to the “Game” tab under the settings and scroll down to “Auto-load state” and disable that setting.
  10. Go to Saves -> SRAM -> “Add SRAM”
  11. Browse to your previously exported save in your phone/PC directory and select your save.
  12. Choose the “Load” button on the newly imported save and then immediately close the game after the game reloads.
  13. Re-open the newly uploaded version of the ROM hack again.
  14. Your save data should now be properly imported. You can now re-enable “Auto-load state”.

Video Guide: Step-by-Step

Step 1

Open the Afterplay app (pinned to homescreen) or go to afterplay.io and launch the old version of the ROM hack you wish to export your save from. Notice in the example, my version of Radical Red is 2.3. Once the game has loaded, press the menu button at the bottom-right of your screen and choose “Saves and Settings”. Scroll the menu headers to the right to the “Game” tab. Under “Game”, scroll down until you find the “Auto-load state” button. Toggle this setting off. Close the menu and create a new save in your game. For Pokemon, its as simple as opening the menu and choosing save. For other games you may need to get to a certain point in the gameplay to be able to save. After creating a new save, open the menu and choose to the “Saves” tab. The default page is “Autosaves”, choose “SRAM”, and then choose “Download” from the first save in the list. This will open the save file in a share context on iOS. Choose the share button at the bottom middle of the screen and then scroll up from the share context menu and choose “Save to Files” option. Browse to a location where you would like to save the save file and choose “Save”. Then choose “Done”. Close out of the game.

Step 2

Open the Afterplay menu. (The logo at the top-left with the three lines next to it) Choose “Add Game” and then choose the button for the console that your ROM hack is for. In our example, Radical Red, I choose “Gameboy Advance”. Choose “Select File” and then choose “Choose File” from the context menu. Browse to the location on your device where you have your updated ROM saved. In our case the updated ROM is named “Radical Red 4.0.gba”. Your updated ROM is now uploaded to Afterplay. You can rename the file and upload some box art if you wish but that is outside the scope of this tutorial.

Step 3

Open the newly updated version of your ROM hack. Immediately press the menu button in the bottom-right of your screen and choose “Saves and Settings”. Scroll the menu headers to the right to the “Game” tab. Under “Game”, scroll down until you find the “Auto-load state” button. Toggle this setting off. Scroll back up to the menu headers and scroll back left to the “Saves” tab. Choose “SRAM”, and then choose the “Add SRAM” button. Choose the “Select File” button and then choose “Choose File” from the context menu. Browse to your previously exported save on your device and select it. Click the “Load” button from the first save in the list. Open the menu again, and close the game immediately. Re-open the game again and your imported save data should be present. Note that in my example, the game version now says 4.0 and I have resumed from the same location that I initially saved at. At this point you can, you can turn on “Auto-load State” again by opening the menu, choosing “Saves and Settings”, scrolling the the “Game” tab, and toggling the button back on.

It is recommended to keep the old version of the ROM hack, and old save file, just in case there are some bugs. If these steps don’t work the first time, delete all the saves, and then delete the updated ROM from Afterplay and try again. The steps need to be followed exactly or the save data may not import correctly.