Editing Saved game (section)

==Overview and history==
In early [[video game]]s, there was no need for saving games, since these games usually had no actual plot to develop and were generally very short in length.{{cn|date=January 2023}}

Classic [[arcade video game]]s from the [[golden age of arcade video games]] did not save the player's progress towards completing the game, but rather [[high score]]s, custom settings, and other features. The first game to save the player's score was [[Taito]]'s seminal 1978 [[shoot 'em up]] title ''[[Space Invaders]]''.<ref name="IGN-10">{{cite web|author=Geddes, Ryan|author2=Hatfield, Daemon|date=2007-12-10|title=IGN's Top 10 Most Influential Games|url=https://www.ign.com/articles/2007/12/11/igns-top-10-most-influential-games?amp=1|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120604020558/http://games.ign.com/articles/840/840621p1.html|archive-date=June 4, 2012|access-date=2008-07-11|website=[[IGN]]}}</ref>

The relative complexity and inconvenience of storing game state information on early [[home computers]] (and the fact that early [[video game consoles]] had no [[non-volatile]] [[data storage]]) meant that initially game saves were represented as "[[password (video games)|passwords]]" (often strings of characters that encoded the game state) that players could write down and later input into the game when resuming.{{cn|date=January 2023}}

''[[BYTE]]'' magazine stated in 1981, regarding the computer [[text adventure]] ''[[Zork I]]''{{'}}s save-game feature, that "while some cowards use it to retain their hard-earned position in the game before making some dangerous move, it was intended to let players play over many weeks“.<ref name="liddil198102">{{cite news | url=https://archive.org/stream/byte-magazine-1981-02/1981_02_BYTE_06-02_The_Computer_and_Voice_Synthesis#page/n263/mode/2up | title=Zork, The Great Underground Empire | work=BYTE | date=February 1981 | access-date=18 October 2013 | author=Liddil, Bob | pages=262–264}}</ref> ''[[InfoWorld]]'' disagreed that year, stating that save games "allow users to experiment with different approaches to the same situation".<ref name="barry19810511">{{Cite magazine |last=Barry |first=Tim |date=1981-05-11 |title=In Search of the Ultimate Computer Game |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cz4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA11 |magazine=InfoWorld |pages=11, 48 |access-date=2019-04-17}}</ref> Home computers in the early 1980s had the advantage of using external media for saving, with [[Cassette tape#Data recording|compact cassettes]] and [[floppy disk]]s, before finally using internal [[hard drive]]s.{{cn|date=January 2023}}

For [[ROM cartridge|cartridge]]-based [[console games]], such as [[Taito]]'s ''[[:ja:未来神話ジャーヴァス|Mirai Shinwa Jarvas]]'' (1986),<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Bravo World Record! |magazine=[[Famicom Tsūshin]] |date=16 April 1993 |issue=226 |page=91 |lang=ja |url=https://archive.org/details/famitsu-issue-226-apr-1993/page/91}}</ref> ''[[The Legend of Zelda (video game)|The Legend of Zelda]]'' (1987) and ''[[Kirby's Adventure]]'' (1993), saved games were stored in battery-backed [[random-access memory]] on the game cartridge itself. ''Pop and Chips'' (1985) for the [[Super Cassette Vision]] was the first-ever game to allow saving game progress on a video game console, using an [[AA batteries|AA battery]] on the game cassette.{{cn|date=January 2023}}

In modern consoles, which use [[disk storage|disks]] for storing games, saved games are stored in other ways,{{clarify|are games stores on disks or in other ways?|date=January 2023}} such as by use of [[memory card]]s or internal [[hard drive]]s on the game machine itself. The use of memory cards for saving game data dates back to [[SNK]]'s cartridge-based [[Neo Geo (system)|Neo Geo]] arcade system and home console in 1990.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=This Fall Everything Turns To Gold With Neo-Geo: The Player's Gold Card Keeps Them Coming Back For More |magazine=RePlay |date=November 1990 |volume=16 |issue=2 |pages=26–7 |url=https://archive.org/details/re-play-volume-16-issue-no.-2-november-1990-600dpi/RePlay%20-%20Volume%2016%2C%20Issue%20No.%202%20-%20November%201990/page/26/mode/2up}}</ref>

Depending on the game, a player will have the ability to save the game either at any arbitrary point (usually when the game has been paused), after a specific task has been completed (such as at the end of a level), or at designated areas within the game known as save points.{{cn|date=January 2023}}

The available ways to save a game affect gameplay, and can represent a practice of players or an explicit decision by designers to give the game a particular feel or alter its difficulty.<ref name=PlayingwithGameTime>{{cite journal|last=Moran|first=Chuk|title=Playing with Game Time|journal=Fibreculture|year=2010|volume=16|url=http://sixteen.fibreculturejournal.org/playing-with-game-time-auto-saves-and-undoing-despite-the-magic-circle/|access-date=16 July 2012}}</ref>