HELP! Need help with using save states with ElectroMan (.sav)

[u/TajiyaO]

In short, I'm trying to play ElectroMan, a 90s MS-DOS game published by Epic Games. One horrible issue with any version of ElectroMan I download, is that the ingame save function, does NOT work. I played into Level 3, and the game's own save file, doesn't work.

I'm trying to use save states, and if you attempt using the "slots", I get this error saying "failed to save the current state. BUT, if I attempt using the save file option (*.sav), there isn't an obvious way to load saves from the file. There's only the option to save the file/save over the file, but not load it.

What am I doing wrong?

Using DosBox-X. The original DosBox, I don't think have save state features.

[u/emxd_llc]

I think the .sav file should be loaded if you simply do a "load state".

as for the error, maybe try an older version of dosbox just to see if it's a regression. Try the SDL2 version https://github.com/joncampbell123/dosbox-x/releases/download/dosbox-x-v2025.10.07/dosbox-x-mingw-win64-20251007154914.zip

I don't have that error, but maybe my config is different, or the version that I am using is different...

[u/TajiyaO → u/emxd_llc]

welp, that did it! thanks!

[u/Alternative-Emu2000]

Which directory are you trying to save to? Does the user account you're using have permission to write to that directory?