From 84dd2304d60a47816bee348272b4dc0946dbbfea Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Jordan Woyak <jordan.woyak@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2026 11:12:22 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] HW/GBACore: Allow save states to work when the GBA core is
 stopped.

---
 Source/Core/Core/HW/GBACore.cpp | 12 ++++++++----
 Source/Core/Core/State.cpp      |  2 +-
 2 files changed, 9 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Source/Core/Core/HW/GBACore.cpp b/Source/Core/Core/HW/GBACore.cpp
index 5f2c3ff5b6..d95617b9b3 100644
--- a/Source/Core/Core/HW/GBACore.cpp
+++ b/Source/Core/Core/HW/GBACore.cpp
@@ -650,11 +650,13 @@ void Core::ExportSave(std::string_view save_path)
 void Core::DoState(PointerWrap& p)
 {
   Flush();
-  if (!IsStarted())
+
+  bool is_started = IsStarted();
+  p.Do(is_started);
+
+  if (!is_started)
   {
-    ::Core::DisplayMessage(fmt::format("GBA{} core not started. Aborting.", m_device_number + 1),
-                           3000);
-    p.SetVerifyMode();
+    Stop();
     return;
   }
 
@@ -675,6 +677,8 @@ void Core::DoState(PointerWrap& p)
     return;
   }
 
+  Start(0);
+
   p.Do(m_video_buffer);
   p.Do(m_last_gc_ticks);
   p.Do(m_gc_ticks_remainder);
diff --git a/Source/Core/Core/State.cpp b/Source/Core/Core/State.cpp
index b9f655e578..e121dcfb7b 100644
--- a/Source/Core/Core/State.cpp
+++ b/Source/Core/Core/State.cpp
@@ -95,7 +95,7 @@ struct CompressAndDumpStateArgs
 static Common::WorkQueueThreadSP<CompressAndDumpStateArgs> s_compress_and_dump_thread;
 
 // Don't forget to increase this after doing changes on the savestate system
-constexpr u32 STATE_VERSION = 184;  // Last changed in PR 14110
+constexpr u32 STATE_VERSION = 185;  // Last changed in PR 14526
 
 // Increase this if the StateExtendedHeader definition changes
 constexpr u32 EXTENDED_HEADER_VERSION = 1;  // Last changed in PR 12217