Could someone explain the difference between these two. I have Lakka setup to auto save/load “Save States” to the console’s rom folder. I assume this is “States” but I’m not sure what purpose “Saves” serves.
Also, a different question regarding zip files. I’m looking at compressing most of my roms. Do most cores support zip format? (exc. iso and chd roms).
Save [Files] = files generated by the game itself, e.g. saving into the “cartridge” save chip. in emulation these are separate files from the rom file with different extension. Also can be described as files created by the internal saving mechanism of the game.
[Save] States = snapshots of the console memory/cpu state/registers/videoram/etc created by the emulator, which can be loaded at any point to replace the current state of the emulator, e g. for rewinding the game, or to continue the game at later time, but at exact state of the game.
ZIP files - your best source is docs.libretro.com, I usually Google <core_name> site:docs.libretro.com. you should find there what type of compression is supported.
Thanks for the explaination vudiq 
. So having save states load/save automatically makes save files redundant. I’ll keep the setup as is as it seems to work well for me.
it does not make the save files (in game saving / saving to memory card) redundant, it is just a different method of keeping the game progress. save files follows the original method of saving a game, like at specific save-points in the game (e.g. fairies in spyro games, main “room” in crash games, etc.). save states can be used at times when in-game saving is not possible (game does not provide in-game saving) or before a hard section of a game (kind of a cheating ). both methods can be used concurrently (save files: long-term save of the overall progress, save-state: short-term save in case of difficult section ahead). some games give extra features when they detect save state from a finished prequel game (in such case you have to make a copy of the save file to match the rom/game, so RA uses that save file for the different game).