dtgreene: Here's one, applied to some game that uses password saves:
The game is 100% DRM-free, except that the save feature works as follows:
* The game sends its state to a remote server.
* The server generates a password, and sends it to the game.
* The game then displays the password, which the player then needs to write down.
(If the server can't be accessed, the game will fail to save.)
Loading works as follows:
* The player enters the password that was previously obtained. (Hopefully the player didn't make a mistake.)
* The game sends the password to the server.
* The server loads the game state associated with the password and sends the saved game state back to the game.
* The game then loads that state.
(If the server can't be accessed, the game will fail to load. If the player makes a mistake with the password, most likely the server will respond with a "bad password" message, which then gets passed on to the user, and the game does not load.)
Now, this approach does have an advantage, in that it provides cloud saves without the user needing an account; however, if it's the only way to save, it can be a problem, particularly if internet is down or the server is discontinued. Also, it has the same annoying issue that classic password saves have, in that the password has to be written down properly and manually re-entered, which could be a problem (and means that you need to copy the password by hand).
one of them, I wonder?) in that the checkpoint was available to any player who knew the correct code for it. (I think all the checkpoints had unique codes, not random codes for each player / licence.) This allowed someone who had reached the later levels to start where they left off, even on a new instantiation of the game. (But you had to write the codes down, they were not kept in game saves.)