How save works

1One file per save, extension says what it is

THUG2.exe builds the name with sprintf("Save/%s.SKA", name) and friends, one extension per save type. The directory listing goes the other way: the extension tells the type.

The port used to do it the Xbox way: a folder per save, a SaveMeta.txt with the name, an icon nobody ever looked at. THUG2 PC never did any of that. Out it went.

2Inside a .SKA: THUG1's layout, with 32-bit sizes

A header, a small summary (what the files menu shows), the save itself, then 0x69 padding up to a fixed size. It's the same layout the engine already wrote, with one catch: the header has two sizes declared as size_t. On a 32-bit PC in 2004 that's 4 bytes. In a 64-bit port it's 8, and every offset after it moves.

The checksums are THUG1's too: a CRC of the header (with its own checksum field zeroed), the summary and the data. All eight retail saves checked out with a 20 line Python script before any C++ was touched. The fixed size settles the block size: SaveSize_OptionsAndPros is 90000, plus the 20 byte header, rounded up to 1 KB blocks, makes 90112. THUG2.exe's block size table agrees (1024 for the PC), and the files menu now says 88 KB like the original.

3Find the file, even when someone renamed it

The files menu loads a save by the name in its summary. One of the test saves was called Custom_Skater.SKA with "Custom Skater" inside: renamed by hand at some point, because THUG2.exe never swaps spaces for underscores. THUG2 itself would look for Custom Skater.SKA and fail. The port tries the name first and then asks every file of that type who it is:

Saving goes through the same lookup, so overwriting "Custom Skater" rewrites Custom_Skater.SKA instead of growing a twin. File names are matched ignoring case: THUG2 itself left both .SKA and .ska behind.

4Save what THUG2 saves, where THUG2 saves it

Getting the file to open was the easy part. The first retail load crashed, because the data inside is shaped differently. THUG2.exe's save and load functions were read straight out of the disassembly, key by key:

The key names are CRC32 checksums, not text. A few were guessed by brute force from word lists (careerTotalScorePotential came out of the blender on the first spin). Two are still nameless. They're saved anyway, as raw numbers.

5Prove it: load, save, diff

A temporary command in the test hook calls SaveToMemoryCard. For each retail save: boot with only that file in Save/ (the game autoloads the newest save), save it back under a new name, decode both files and compare every field. The first run caught the chapter coming back as 0 (the story reset ran after the career had set it) and a "valid" gap list with no gaps reading back as "never checked". After those fixes:

The only fields allowed to differ are the ones that should: the last level and game mode (the copies were saved from the main menu) and the file's own name.

6Know where your saves are

Back up a save by copying its file. The newest story/skater save loads automatically at start. A lowercase save/ folder that's already there is used as well, for file systems that care about case.