Where Does MAME Store Save States?
MAME keeps save states in sta, NVRAM in nvram and screenshots in snap beside the exe. Defaults and package variants.
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MAME splits machine memory from save states, and the folders show it. Save states land in sta, NVRAM and EEPROM contents in nvram, screenshots in snap, per-game settings in cfg. Each default is a folder name relative to the working directory, overridable in mame.ini.
This post covers the save side only. ROM and INI search paths live in a separate post, since they answer a different question. States only exist for drivers with save support, and autosave stays off unless enabled. Folders create themselves on first use, so a fresh install shows none of them.
Where MAME stores this, by platform
<MAME folder>\sta
Save states (*.sta) with one subfolder per driver by default. Siblings nvram for machine memory, snap for screenshots, cfg for per-game settings. Run mame -createconfig then edit the CORE SEARCH PATH OPTIONS section to move them.
~/.mame/sta
Distro and Flatpak builds remap the defaults here via mame.ini, with nvram, snap and cfg beside it. Self-compiled builds in a home folder behave like Windows with exe-relative paths. Check mame -showconfig for the live values.
~/Library/Application Support/mame/sta
SDL builds check this folder first, then ~/.mame. Same sta, nvram, snap and cfg siblings. Finder launches set the working directory to home, so exe-relative defaults resolve differently than double-clicking suggests.
Frequently asked questions
Why is there no sta folder in my MAME install?
MAME creates it on first state save, so fresh installs show nothing. Save a state once and the folder appears with a driver subfolder inside. The same lazy creation applies to nvram, snap and cfg.
What is the difference between sta and nvram?
States in sta are manual snapshots you load to rewind. NVRAM in nvram is the machine remembering itself, like high scores and settings, written on every exit. Deleting states loses rewind points; deleting NVRAM resets the machine to factory.
How do I move MAME saves to a new machine?
Copy the sta and nvram folders with matching ROM versions on both ends. States bind to the exact driver version, so mismatched MAME builds refuse old files. Keep cfg too if per-game tweaks matter.
Notice an outdated path? Let us know.