For today’s interview I got to chat to the developer of 1retro. His program and service is made to back your retro emulated games’ saves up, automatically, so you know you’re safe and secure.

https://1retro.com/

Quick dot points straight from the website of 1retro:

  • Saves upload automatically in the background. Smart syncing means only changed files transfer – fast, efficient, seamless.

  • macOS, Windows, Linux. Our lightweight desktop app runs natively on all three without slowing you down.

  • Your saves are backed up and stored safely in the cloud. Your data is yours. Always.

  • Every save is versioned. Overwrite something by accident? Roll back to any previous version instantly.

  • Power users can automate their workflows, write scripts, and integrate custom emulators with our command-line tools.

I spoke with developer Hans to learn more about building 1Retro, retro gaming fragmentation, accessibility, and why he believes some of the hobby’s biggest improvements still happen behind the scenes.

If you’re curious about saves in retro gaming, development, or the service he’s looking to offer, have a read with my link. 1retro is new to the scene, but I’m curious about what you think:

https://gardinerbryant.com/fixing-retro-gamings-save-problem/

  • t0fr@lemmy.caEnglish
    15·
    2 months ago

    I mean, I kind of want this, just self-hosted on my own server

  • Orion the Elder@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    2 months ago

    This is good timing. I’ve recently been trying out a few ways to sync my saves and have come away, unsatisfied with my own results. If this can offer a plug in option that just works it will be the answer to my wishes.

    • PerfectDark@lemmy.worldOPMEnglish
      2·
      2 months ago

      Let me know how it works out for you, and if it works as what you’ve been looking for! I’ll be super curious to hear your thoughts

      • Orion the Elder@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        My initial report is that it works. However my first attempts didn’t sync all of the saves from my games. Perhaps my roms have too many country extensions making them incompatible with the backend database? In any case, I’m going to install on more of my devices to see what happens.

        • hansl@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          6 days ago

          Hi, 1retro developer here. Sorry I just found out about this thread. Here’s the 1retro discord if you want to discuss bugs: https://discord.gg/vYKSvqVkdE

          I’m very curious to hear about your experience and to fix any issues you encoutered.

          As for your first impressions, 1retro actually matches the save with a ROM of the same name (depends on the platform), then hash the ROM to figure out which game. If we cannot find the game, we most likely upload it and match it with the ROM so if we see the ROM somewhere else we’ll download its save. We don’t use the filename outside of certain edge cases (like when we can’t find a ROM).