Does anyone know what the "Suspend" option does in NES.app?

Tinman

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I can't figure out what this does...
If you have Allow Suspend set to "Yes" then if you leave NES with a game in progress (say, by pressing the Menu button on the iPhone) it will be auto-saved and you will be returned to the game in progress the next time you start NES. If it was set to "No" it would just exist the game without saving, and you would be returned to the ROM select screen the next time you ran NES.


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wildonrio

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If you have Allow Suspend set to "Yes" then if you leave NES with a game in progress (say, by pressing the Menu button on the iPhone) it will be auto-saved and you will be returned to the game in progress the next time you start NES. If it was set to "No" it would just exist the game without saving, and you would be returned to the ROM select screen the next time you ran NES.


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Mike
Do you think leaving it on would drain the battery since NES would have to stay in your memory?
 

Tinman

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Do you think leaving it on would drain the battery since NES would have to stay in your memory?
I suppose it could, but I would think it would be very little.

That said I don't usually leave NES while a game is in progress, so I leave suspend set to on (just in case!).



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x999x

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I suppose it could, but I would think it would be very little.

That said I don't usually leave NES while a game is in progress, so I leave suspend set to on (just in case!).



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Mike
I would think it shouldn't affect battery life at all. If this is working as intended, the suspend state is nothing more than a save state that's automatically called upon relaunch. The save state is just written to a temporary file, it shouldn't be held in ram which would otherwise be responsible for a slight power draw.
 

Tinman

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I would think it shouldn't affect battery life at all. If this is working as intended, the suspend state is nothing more than a save state that's automatically called upon relaunch. The save state is just written to a temporary file, it shouldn't be held in ram which would otherwise be responsible for a slight power draw.
I considered that but could find no such file created.

Moreover, if it's really saving its state it shouldn't be using a tmp file, but rather a file that survives an exit from NES or an iPhone reset.

Suspend in NES does neither.

Safari, OTOH, does save its list of open tabs, and this survives a reset.



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wildonrio

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I considered that but could find no such file created.

Moreover, if it's really saving its state it shouldn't be using a tmp file, but rather a file that survives an exit from NES or an iPhone reset.

Suspend in NES does neither.

Safari, OTOH, does save its list of open tabs, and this survives a reset.



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Mike
I think that as long as we can save our games that I don't think I will use Suspend. If I want to come back to the game I will save it before I leave.

By the way, have you guys gotten a call yet while using NES? It's way cool - while the phone is ringing a screen pops up that asks you if you want to save. Pretty smart programming. I'm thinking about giving the author some money, but I wanna take advantage and think of a sweet suggestion to go along with it first (since he only takes suggestions with donations).
 

x999x

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I considered that but could find no such file created.

Moreover, if it's really saving its state it shouldn't be using a tmp file, but rather a file that survives an exit from NES or an iPhone reset.

Suspend in NES does neither.

Safari, OTOH, does save its list of open tabs, and this survives a reset.



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Mike
Yes, Safari creates a temp file that retains the addresses open, I have been able to locate it in the tmp folder. The NES temp file on the other hand could very well be the sav state itself, whereby not showing you any new additions to your working folder when you were investigating this.

The save states on this program have always been a little wonky. I mean sometimes I forget im on Mike Tyson with my save and just fire up punchout only to remember I've got to get all the ways back to tyson again because my save state was just blown out :T Yeah I have the code to tyson, but that's not the point of this example :p
 

x999x

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I think that as long as we can save our games that I don't think I will use Suspend. If I want to come back to the game I will save it before I leave.

By the way, have you guys gotten a call yet while using NES? It's way cool - while the phone is ringing a screen pops up that asks you if you want to save. Pretty smart programming. I'm thinking about giving the author some money, but I wanna take advantage and think of a sweet suggestion to go along with it first (since he only takes suggestions with donations).
My suggestion is to add a 3rd button in between the A and B buttons. This button would be A+B.

As it stands it's impossible to jump in mario while maintaining your momentum (holding B) and achieving the maximal height (holding A). You simply can't press Right+B+A on the current setup and it's making me "relearn" Super Mario bros which is what I am against doing in the first place. If it doesn't work as intended, I dump it, and unfortunately that means a lot of good games are lost to A+B woes.
 

Tinman

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Yes, Safari creates a temp file that retains the addresses open, I have been able to locate it in the tmp folder. The NES temp file on the other hand could very well be the sav state itself, whereby not showing you any new additions to your working folder when you were investigating this.

The save states on this program have always been a little wonky. I mean sometimes I forget im on Mike Tyson with my save and just fire up punchout only to remember I've got to get all the ways back to tyson again because my save state was just blown out :T Yeah I have the code to tyson, but that's not the point of this example :p
I've done that too many times to count. Would be great if there was just one list, and if you tap a ROM with a corresponding save-game it just asks you if you want to use it.

Wait a minute...

Just had a thought. If you have suspend turned off, if you exit a game in progress it does not write any saved game data. Think I am gonna turn it off. That way if I accidentally start a new game I can just press Menu, go back into NES, and start the game again from the saved games list.

EDIT: Yep, this trick works. If you don't understand what I was referring to, let it go. If you did understand, you play too much NES!


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wildonrio

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My suggestion is to add a 3rd button in between the A and B buttons. This button would be A+B.

As it stands it's impossible to jump in mario while maintaining your momentum (holding B) and achieving the maximal height (holding A). You simply can't press Right+B+A on the current setup and it's making me "relearn" Super Mario bros which is what I am against doing in the first place. If it doesn't work as intended, I dump it, and unfortunately that means a lot of good games are lost to A+B woes.
Funny you should mention this because it currently is my number one desire for NES! Double Dragon II is unplayable currently because jump is A+B and you can't do that. My other suggestions are of course that he fix the skippy music and increase the speed so we don't have to use frame skip, but I'm sure he's working on those already so I won't bother him.
 

wildonrio

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I've done that too many times to count. Would be great if there was just one list, and if you tap a ROM with a corresponding save-game it just asks you if you want to use it.

Wait a minute...

Just had a thought. If you have suspend turned off, if you exit a game in progress it does not write any saved game data. Think I am gonna turn it off. That way if I accidentally start a new game I can just press Menu, go back into NES, and start the game again from the saved games list.

EDIT: Yep, this trick works. If you don't understand what I was referring to, let it go. If you did understand, you play too much NES!


--
Mike
Oh whew, I didn't understand. Good, I'm not a nerd :p