Save Game Manager Thingy

[Stu1983]

This is quite off topic

I have an idea for a program and I'm wondering if any of you have ever came across such a program, I've scoured my side of the internet but I can't see any thing.

Basically I want something that will backup all my save games from various PC games to a specified location and then, should I have to reinstall Windows for some reason... or what I'm about to do, update to Windows 7, I can quickly restore my save games and carry on as normal.

I've started working on a little utility to do this but before I get too carried away with it I'd like to know if something already exists.

The big problem I'm coming across is that every games stores it's saves in a different location so it requires creating a seperate profile for each game, though you only need to do this once and thats it taken care of forever. This is a bit time consuming but I was thinking many hands make light work and some way of submitting profiles created by other people could certainly help the idea if enough people were on board.

Anyone any ideas?

See post 9 below for my solution

Stu

[smd111]

well it sounds good but vista has something just like that i think windows 7 will have the same thing as well its located in your documents/Saved Games

[Stu1983]

Problem is that developers don't always choose to use these folders

Here's the locations that the 11 random games I've picked for testing use:

C:\Users\@CURRENTUSER@\AppData\Local\Activision\CoDWaW

C:\Users\@CURRENTUSER@\AppData\Local\CAPCOM\STREETFIGHTERIV

C:\Users\@CURRENTUSER@\Documents\CAPCOM\DEVILMAYCRY4

C:\Users\@CURRENTUSER@\Documents\CAPCOM\RESIDENT EVIL 5

C:\Users\@CURRENTUSER@\Documents\CAPCOM\STREETFIGHTERIV

C:\Users\@CURRENTUSER@\Documents\Codemasters\GRID

C:\Users\@CURRENTUSER@\Documents\NFS SHIFT

C:\Users\@CURRENTUSER@\Saved Games\Command & Conquer 3 Kane's Wrath

C:\Users\@CURRENTUSER@\Saved Games\Eidos\Mini Ninjas

C:\Users\@CURRENTUSER@\Saved Games\Halo 2

C:\Users\@CURRENTUSER@\Saved Games\Red Alert 3

As you can see only 4 of these actually use the Saved Games folder, it's a nice idea by Microsoft, shame the developers think they know best

Stu

[bkenobi]

I'd say if it's a good idea, then everyone will eventually start using it (for the most part). Pre-Win95 there was no "My Documents" or "Program Files" directories. Everything was strewn across the entire drive all willy-nilly. When Win95 introduced the concept (actually, NT 4.0 may have been first), it took some time for developers to incorporate this methodology. As it is today, about 99% of programmers do use these folders.

I do know what you mean though. I've done the same thing in the past to save my games prior to re-installs. It used to take scouring every game folder to find every setting, save game, etc. Sounds like you just have to back up the current user's folder and you're golden!

[Endaar]

No matter how thoroughly you try to selectively backup, you will realize weeks later that you missed something. With the prices of large external drives being so low, why make things so complicated? Before you format your system drive, copy the whole thing to an external drive. Then you have whatever it is you may need.

Endaar

[Stu1983]

A backup of the drive is definite must before I change but I really like the idea of a simple program that can backup my save games at any time meaning it could be put in the startup folder and backup you games every boot that way if a drive failed then you still have your save games. I lost a Half Life 2 save game that I'd been playing for weeks because a drive failed never played it again because I couldn't be bothered doing it all over.

Backing up the users folder is fine but I haven't even started looking at the games that still choose to create the save game in the directory you install it... I'm looking at you Colin McRae Dirt

Maybe it'll only be me that finds it handy but I made some good progress with it last night so I'm going to batter on with it and see how it goes.

Stu

[bkenobi]

Well, if what you want is a backup utility, there are a bunch available. You can have them run at any time setting you want (startup, shutdown, midnight, every xx minutes, etc). You can have an app like that check if the file has changed and only backup if it has. Now, that won't be as cool as what you are trying to accomplish, but it will do the same thing.

[Endaar]

Your other option is an online automatic backup service like Carbonite. For around $60 a year, it will continually backup whatever you choose to their servers, so it's always available for a restore. This is really the best bet if you're concerned about data loss.

Endaar

[Stu1983]

Took a bit longer than I thought but here it is my little vision of the future lol

Save Game Backup BETA 1

Features:

- Command Line Support for easy scheduling

- Each game is stored in a single .sgb file for easy sharing

- Variable directory paths are used to, hopefully, allow the same save file to be used on different operating systems

- Steam user directory support, configure your Steam directory and username in the Settings|Variables

- .sgb files are compressed to save space

- Built in profile editor

I've included 60 odd profiles for games I have installed, I haven't been able to test them all but the few I have, have worked fine... I think though that there will be problems with 'Games For Windows Live' (spits in disgust) games as they seem to go out of there way to stop you backing up your saved games.

If you go to Settings|Profile Editor you can add your own games, just give it a name and add any directorys that this program uses to save settings/games

All I ask is if you do add a game that istn't included then please send me the .sgb so I can import it to my collection, that way everyone can benifit

I've added the following command line swtiches:

-backupall This will backup all available profiles to the backup location defined in 'Backup Options'

-restoreall This will restore all .sgb files that are contained in the backup location defined in 'Backup Options'

-b full_sgb_path This will backup the single .sgb file specified

e.g. savegamebackup.exe "c:\_savegames\my game.sgb"

This could easily be used in the GameEx run after box to automatically backup your saved game when your finished playing

-r full_sgb_path This will restore the single .sgb file specified

e.g. savegamebackup.exe "c:\_savegames\my game.sgb"

Hope someone else finds this usefull

Stu

SaveGameBackup.rar