From 798db14bb5a74ce38b017b12373a74d8da409ca9 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Dominic Masters <dominic@domsplace.com>
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 2026 12:49:20 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] Recover from a corrupt or version-mismatched save file
 instead of crashing

saveLoadSettings()/saveLoadSlot() previously let a read failure (e.g. a
version mismatch from the new schema check) propagate all the way up
through saveUpdate()/engineUpdate() to main(), which just prints the
error and exits - taking down the whole game over one bad file. Both
now catch the failure, log it, and fall back to init defaults instead,
matching the existing "no file yet" convention.
---
 src/dusk/save/save.c | 31 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++-----
 1 file changed, 26 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/dusk/save/save.c b/src/dusk/save/save.c
index 4586b0af..bc7ae1ce 100644
--- a/src/dusk/save/save.c
+++ b/src/dusk/save/save.c
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
 #include "util/memory.h"
 #include "assert/assert.h"
 #include "rpg/cutscene/cutscenesystem.h"
+#include "console/console.h"
 
 save_t SAVE;
 
@@ -186,10 +187,18 @@ errorret_t saveSaveSettings() {
 errorret_t saveLoadSettings() {
   assertTrue(SAVE.deviceCurrent != 0xFF, "No current device");
 
-  errorChain(saveDeviceSettingsRead(
+  errorret_t ret = saveDeviceSettingsRead(
     &SAVE.devices[SAVE.deviceCurrent],
     &SAVE.settings
-  ));
+  );
+  if(errorIsNotOk(ret)) {
+    // Corrupt or incompatible (e.g. wrong/missing schema version) settings
+    // file - don't take the whole game down over it, just reset to
+    // defaults and carry on.
+    errorCatch(errorPrint(ret));
+    consolePrint("Settings file could not be loaded, resetting to defaults.\n");
+    saveSettingsInit(&SAVE.settings);
+  }
 
   SAVE.settingsDirty = false;
   errorOk();
@@ -222,12 +231,24 @@ errorret_t saveLoadSlot() {
     errorOk();
   }
 
-  errorChain(saveDeviceSlotRead(
+  errorret_t ret = saveDeviceSlotRead(
     &SAVE.devices[SAVE.deviceCurrent],
     &SAVE.slot,
     SAVE.slotCurrent
-  ));
-  
+  );
+  if(errorIsNotOk(ret)) {
+    // Corrupt or incompatible (e.g. wrong/missing schema version) slot
+    // file - don't take the whole game down over it, treat it the same as
+    // an empty/unused slot.
+    errorCatch(errorPrint(ret));
+    consolePrint(
+      "Save slot %u could not be loaded, treating as empty.\n",
+      (uint32_t)SAVE.slotCurrent
+    );
+    saveSlotInit(&SAVE.slot);
+  }
+
+
   // Update cache
   SAVE.caches[SAVE.slotCurrent] = SAVE.slot.cachedData;
   SAVE.slotDirty = false;