Save

Processing data with Ciel in . — Processing data with Ciel in *Mega Man Zero*.

Password redirects here. For the Mega Man Battle Network 3 items, see List of Mega Man Battle Network 3 Key Items. For others, see Sky Room, Biometal and KeyMan.

Save (セーブ, Save) and load (ロード, load) are features in the Mega Man games that allow the player to save their progress in a video game, which can be used to take a break from a long game, or to continue from the last point saved after a Game Over, preventing the loss of the progress.

Passwords[]

Before save files were added, passwords (パスワード, passwords) were used to record the game's progress after completing a stage or after a Game Over in most Mega Man games released for NES, SNES, Game Boy and Game Gear, as well as Street Fighter X Mega Man. To continue from a specific point, players must input the password in the Password Screen. The passwords are made of dots, icons, or numbers, depending of the game.

Most platform Mega Man games only recorded the progress from the Stage Select Screen and carried items, including Special Weapons, the currency (Screws or P Chips) gathered, and Armor Parts. Final stages had to be cleared in one playthrough to make them more challenging, exceptions being Mega Man X2 and the special password from Mega Man 7. Also, some games may not record specific items in passwords, examples being the Tanks from Mega Man 4 to Mega Man 6, the Turbo Accelerator in Mega Man IV and V, and the Hyper Chip in Mega Man X3.

Passwords were replaced by saves due to the increase in memory and games becoming more complex for a password screen, which would result in more complex password screens like the one in Mega Man's Soccer. Mega Man's Soccer and Mega Man X3 have more than one valid password for the same point. For example, the Mega Man X3 passwords 7741-5231-3441-2486, 3721-1281-3751-4456, and 5628-4884-3851-4221 will start after the Opening Stage.

The instruction manual from some games had a space to write passwords, and each Pokeroku from Rockman Complete Works included a password memorizer. Bandai made a Rockman 5 password memo kit in Japan.^[1]

The following games have special passwords that unlock extras that normally are not possible, three of them requiring a command to be activated:

Game	Password	Effect
Mega Man 7	1755-8187-6486-2322	Starts the game with the eight Robot Masters available to be fought in any order, and the Opening Stage and Middle Stage are skipped. This code does not work in the Mega Man Anniversary Collection edition.
Mega Man 7	1415-5585-7823-6251	Hold L and R and press Start to start a small two-player fighting mode. Without the command it starts at Wily Stage 4 with all items.
Mega Man X	2653-3848-7587	Hold Down, X, L, R and press the Start button to start on Sigma Stage 1 with all items, alongside the Hadoken if the command is input correctly.
Mega Man X2	8377-8143-6822-7651	Hold Down, Left, R, B, and press Y to start on X-Hunter Stage 1 with all items available, alongside the Shoryuken with the command. Before entering the command, leave the cursor on the last line and hold Down first to move the cursor to the confirmation, preventing a number change when holding B.

Saving[]

Saving first appeared in Mega Man: The Wily Wars, and is present in most games released from 1996 onward. The Rockman Complete Works, Mega Man Anniversary Collection, and Mega Man Legacy Collection versions of games with a password system allow the player to use both passwords and saves. Newer versions of older games may also include additional saving options, such as the Save-Assist feature in Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection.

In most games from the Mega Man and Mega Man X series, saving becomes available after completing a stage or after a Game Over. Some games also allow to save or load in a menu from the Stage Select Screen.

Some games give the player freedom to save almost anywhere, including most games from the Mega Man Battle Network and Mega Man Star Force series, which can be saved from the Sub Screen, and will also ask the player if data should be saved before the character goes to sleep in the end of a scenario. Other games only allow saving on specific points, including save devices in Mega Man X: Command Mission, Ciel in the Mega Man Zero series, Transervers in the Mega Man ZX series, Data in the Mega Man Legends series, and inside the Gesellschaft's HQ in The Misadventures of Tron Bonne.

Mega Man Xtreme introduced auto save (オートセーブ, auto save), a function that in the Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games temporarily saves data to continue from the last checkpoint. In later appearances, such as Mega Man Anniversary Collection, auto save became an option that automatically saves game progress when possible. In some games auto save is optional due to the risk of overwritting a desired save point. Some games also feature cloud storage.

In online games, the game's progress is automatically saved and maintained on a server. While the player can't save manually, the saving from the Mega Man Zero series is referenced in the Mega Man X DiVE events The Savior Has Come and Toll of Christmas Bell from Afar, with Ciel asking if Zero or the player want to save.

Save methods and slots[]

Depending of the system, the saved data may be kept inside the game's cartridge, in the console, or in an external device, such as Memory Cards, and some may allow the use of more than one and the exchange of data between them.

Early cartridge saves used SRAM, relying on an internal battery to keep them, but the battery would eventually die after some years, resulting in the loss of the saved game. This issue was later solved by replacing them with EEPROM saves. Mega Man Battle Network 4 carts use both types, early copies (and earlier games) having SRAM, and later copies (and later games) having EEPROM.

Saved data on a system or on an external device can be managed from the system's settings, allowing the player to transfer and backup saves between them, although there may be exceptions, even if the system has this function. For example, while saved games can be managed in the Wii, it does not allow the transfer or copy of Mega Man 9 and 10 saves.

The amount of saves a game can keep varies, some only keeping one saved game, while others have multiple slots, allowing the player to keep saves with different settings, such as the character and difficulty selected in Mega Man 10, Mega Man X4, and Mega Man ZX.

Examples[]

Game	Notes
Mega Man: The Wily Wars	Has three save slots. The Wily Tower mode is unlocked by completing the three games in the same slot.
Mega Man 8	Has three save slots, which are kept in one file. The Mega Man Anniversary Collection version only has one auto save.
Mega Man Legends	Has five save slots, each occupying one block from a PlayStation Memory Card. The Nintendo 64 and PlayStation Portable versions have more slots.
Mega Man X: Command Mission	Has eight save slots, all being kept in a single file in the Memory Card.
Mega Man Network Transmission	Has ten save slots, each being a separated file in the Memory Card.
Mega Man & Bass	Has four slots. The Game Boy Advance version also included an auto save slot. Unlocked database entries are available for all saves.

Other media[]

Passwords were referenced twice in the Mega Man comic series by Archie Comics. In Worlds Collide, Vector complains why someone would use red and blue dots as a passcode while attempting to access the teleporter pad under the Wily Egg. In Mega Man #37, the passwords Dr. Wily gives to Mega Man in the Mesa Lab are identical to the special passwords from Mega Man 7.

Gallery[]

Password screens[]

Save icons[]

This section requires expansion. SAR, PS2, NGC and Wii icons.

PlayStation Memory Card icons

GameCube Memory Card icons

PlayStation Portable icons

Trivia[]

The games Rosenkreuzstilette and Rosenkreuzstilette Freudenstachel have the same passwords as Mega Man 4 and Mega Man 6, respectively.

External links[]

Saved game article in Wikipedia
Password article in Wikipedia
Mega Man password cracks and generators in The Mega Man Home Page
GameFAQs - Site with backup save files from multiple games.

References[]

↑ Protodude's Rockman Corner: Auction: Rockman 5 Password Kit

[1] Protodude's Rockman Corner: Auction: Rockman 5 Password Kit

[1]