**Navigate quickly through the comparison by clicking the links below**
Introduction - Menu - Cheats - Real Time Save - Real Time Guide - Support - Price - Conclusion

3.  Real Time Save
Real Time Save or more commonly initialled RTS is also known as Save State and Instant Save is a feature that is most common on emulators played on the computer.  It basically allows you to save at any point of the game, and being able to load to that part at any part of the game.  So it is somewhat of an alternative save engine, and frees users from relying on the game’s own save engine.  This is generally used in games that use save points.

CycloDS Evolution:
The CycloDS Evolution’s real time save engine stresses stability and reliability.  To enable real time save, you must enable it in the settings menu, then as you boot a game, you must hold select to enable it.  This will create a 4.77MB .RTS file.  The reason for making this setting only for individual games is because of the massive size of an RTS file.

Tick tock tick tock...

To use real time save, you must once again enter the extend mode (L+R+A+B+X+Y), and move down to Real Time Save.  Click A, and you will get a saving screen for about 4.5 seconds (sorry, I would be more accurate but human reflexes just aren’t that reliable).  To load, you click Real Time Load, and you wait for about 2.5 seconds for it to load.

The load times are definitely acceptable if you haven't seen how well the Supercard DS ONE performs.  

There isn’t too much to say about the Real Time Save feature on the CycloDS Evolution.  It works very well, corruptions are rare occurrences.  The time is in the acceptable boundary, although faster would be better.  I feel that the CycloDS Evolution’s real time save method is more reliable, I rarely get fuzzy backgrounds or odd static in the sounds, or anything like that in the latest few versions.

Supercard DS ONE:
The Supercard DS ONE stole CycloDS Evolution’s thunder when it was the first cart in the world to release the Real Time Save feature, with CycloDS Evolution lagging shortly behind.  It seems to go for speed rather than reliability.

 
Real Time Save on the Supercard DS ONE in action.

To use the Supercard DS ONE’s real time save, you will have to click L+R+Select+Up, this will get you to a menu that lets you save or load.  Clicking save will give you an “Are you sure?” message, then you can commence the saving.  It takes only 1.5 seconds to save, in comparison to CycloDS Evolution’s 4.5 seconds.  The Supercard DS ONE saves files into a 4.94MB .SCI file, which is obviously slightly larger than the CycloDS Evolution’s files.  The load time is even faster, again, you hold the same combination and choose load instead, and you are brought to your save in about 1.0 seconds.  That is a huge improvement over the CycloDS Evolution’s 2.5 seconds.

Remember to enable the Real Time Save option, it won't work either if you have Fix Download-Play enabled.

Now we have the sacrifices.  I haven’t exactly found huge corruptions with the Supercard DS ONE’s real time saves, and almost never has it froze.  But it does at times have messed up graphics or odd static in the background.  Generally this can be fixed by entering a different region of the game, going into the menu and exiting it, etc.  I find it completely acceptable, and a very fair sacrifice for the speed.  But sometimes it could really cause some problems if you can’t fix the graphical issues.  You can always solve it by using the game’s actual save system.  But suppose you wanted to save before a boss fight, now with the messed up graphics, it could be quite tough to beat what you can’t see, let alone save afterwards.

So who’s real time save is better?  I have to say both carts have their own philosophy.  From the time, you can immediately tell that the Supercard DS ONE’s engine is by far the faster one, on the other hand, I feel safer with the CycloDS Evolution’s engine, it makes sense to value your save files even at the cost of a few seconds of your life every time you play.  Again, Supercard DS ONE’s engine hasn’t caused any major problems for myself, and I don’t think it happens often at all, but the risk is there, on both carts.

Saving takes time, loading takes time, by the time it is ready, you have to get back to work.

Next Page

**Navigate quickly through the comparison by clicking the links below**
Introduction - Menu - Cheats - Real Time Save - Real Time Guide - Support - Price - Conclusion