I'm backing up stuff on my computer so that I can reformat it, and I can't find the save files for some of my games. These are ones that I got from GOG:

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
Gabriel Knight 20th Anniversary Edition
Q.U.B.E. Director's Cut
Realms of the Haunting
Signal Ops

Here are ones that I have on CDs/DVDs:

Mystery of the Mummy (the first Sherlock Holmes game, which I don't think is on GOG for some reason)
Aura 2 - Sacred Rings
Nibiru

I'd like to find the files for any or all of these games - whatever you can tell me would be appreciated.

I really especially need the save files for I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, and Gabriel Knight 20th Anniversary Edition, because I'm fairly far into it but nowhere near finishing.

I've finished Mystery of the Mummy, C.U.B.E. Director's Cut and Aura 2, but I like to keep my save files as like a trophy I guess.

I'm stuck on Nibiru so I'm not sure I'll ever play it again unless I can figure out how to get unstuck. But it would be nice to have the files in case I ever do play it again.

I haven't gotten very far in Realms of the Haunting or Signal Ops, so those are low priority, but if you happen to know where the files are located I'd still appreciate it.

Thanks!

I highly recommend this tool:
https://www.gamesave-manager.com/
It's free and can backup your saves wherever they are (and set it up to do it hourly/daily/weekly, etc.)

It's better than cloud saves because any* game is supported.
*I've personally never encountered a game it didn't recognise - but don't see it as a promise.

You can install the game wherever you want... but I've yet to come across a game that let's you select a custom absolute or relative save path...
But like I said, on my system (for my games) it finds them all...
Just try it... what have you got to lose? (not time, that's for sure)

I recommend Everything from https://www.voidtools.com/ to locate files and folders by name instantly. Supports boolean operators and has ultra-small foot-print.

I use it daily instead of the windows search as it indexes in seconds only names and literally finds what I searches for in the same instant that I write.

They should almost all be in three main areas:
1 - The install location of the program. Some games, principally older ones have a folder for saves or something along those lines.
2 - In documents folder. This can easily be located in windows explorer.
3 - Under the hidden appdata areas. This is hidden by default, you can enable hidden files/folders in explorer. Also you can access this area by putting in windows explorer bar: %appdata%
Once in there you will be in roaming, a commonly used area. Going up one level will show local which you can also get to by putting in the bar: %appdatalocal%
You will likely find a load of junk in these folders, part of cleaning up should involve removing unused things from these areas.

You mean: <path-to-game>\SCREAM\Scream.sav

To me that sounds quite obvious. With MS-DOS era games, like IHNMAIMS, it was quite normal that it places the saves into the game installation directory.

That ".sav" in the filename is also quite a clear hint.

To me the Windows games from different eras are more confusing, because at different times Microsoft wanted applications and games to save their data to different centralized locations. Too bad those didn't remain the same but kept changing with different Windows versions.

I recall the worst being Minecraft (JAVA version). IIRC it saved the save games under some %AppPath%\Roaming\something something, and there hiding the save games (ie. saved Minecraft worlds) under some hidden folder. Phuck that shit. It took me quite some time to find where the saved Minecraft worlds were.

I also recall that place was different on two different PCs, on the other it was not under "Roaming" but something else, or something like that. Quite confusing.

I'd much prefer all Windows games would also save the games under the game directory, and that's that. Don't spread them to dozen different places. I wonder if some stupid game saves the game into depths of the Windows registry? I wouldn't be surprised...

Yes, but the important word is relative, so even though it's in the same sub directory within the game directory, that doesn't necessarily mean that the program would know where the game directory is, if it could be installed anywhere. And besides that, what does it do, just have a huge database of every game in existence to list where the save files are stored for each one? I mean, there can't be any sort of automated way of just finding them for any and all games without any specific knowledge of the game, right? Because as far as Windows or any program just reading files would be concerned, how would it know which programs are games and which aren't, or for that matter, which files are save files and which aren't? They could potentially have any name or extension. Well that sounds like a great tool, but in this case I'm not sure it would do much good, because I don't already know the names of the files, so how could I search for them? I had searched in all of those areas, actually. I found most of the save files for most games, but the games that I listed are just the ones for which I couldn't find them. Well it's obvious that it would be in the game directory, but I guess I didn't think to look in the scream directory, because some of these games have a ton of directories inside of them and I couldn't just look through them all. Or maybe I just missed it because I had already spent all day organizing the files on my computer and searching for every bit of everything anywhere that might need to be backed up (I got the computer in 2012 and I've been putting junk on it ever since, in probably not the most organized way, so stuff was all over the place, and I had never reorganized it). What's IHNMAIMS, by the way? I didn't know that; I thought people were just expected to put files wherever they want, usually either in their own directory or optionally somewhere like the My Documents folder if they feel like putting it there. Actually, I've found a lot of them in that folder, and it's not unusual at all. But I haven't played Minecraft so I wouldn't know about that. Yeah, unfortunately that's possible, but I'm not sure I ever encountered a game in which there wasn't a way to back up saved progress just by making a copy of a file, unless, I suppose, if it were saved directly to a cloud instead of a hard drive on the same computer, but I don't deal with that stuff.

Yes, a database I'm sure. But what's your point? Ask the developer for technical information. ;-)

Forget the file name - that, as you have seen, can literally be anything.

Thing is, every game/developer (as far as I have seen) uses a common naming system on the folder, anything related to that game, company or engine. Try for the games name, then developer/engine.

Like Torchlight uses the folder name "runic games" and then "torchlight". EVE Online uses also "CCP" beside the game name.

However, some years back the game Machinarium only saved in a .sol file related to the flash player, and it was a nightmare to find the first time. All that changed when someone made a program to locate and store a copy for you. Also, some obscure games only saved to %temp, but usually they uses a common name scheme.

Everything will list folders first, then files so you can inspect them further. I use it the first time as it's faster to search for these folders (especially when modding) than to go through the whole path. I usually forget these kinds of things :D

Well, I just meant that it's hard to find the folders/files because they're not always named anything obvious, or necessarily put in an obvious place, but I'll try the information from the wiki and if that doesn't work, I'll try that program.

Theoretically should be the same, but you never know, so don't rely on that. Some games might be configurable and have custom save paths, but I think this is the case with more recent games.

This is pretty rare, I guess, but some will have their saves in the registry. I remember Defense Zone games being like that.

There was also the Save Game Locations Wiki, but I don't think there's anything on it that isn't on PCGamingWiki too.

Just an idea for the games you're having trouble locating their saves. Run the game and make a new save file, then exit and search for the most recent files in certain locations, like My Documents and C:\Users\.

Most relatively recent games will save in \Users\*your user*\ , but some (like STALKER Call of Pripyat) will save in \Users\Public\. Though I wouldn't be surprised if there are games that will save in \Users\All Users\.

Why would they, though?

What's Defense Zone? I couldn't even find it on Wikipedia.

I'll check that, thanks.

That's not a bad idea.

Yeah, I always tend to check all those folders just in case.

I'm not saying they would, just that there is a possibility, and is usually there for the users, if they want to configure the save location.


These games.