The save state simply did not load at all so I gave up on that.

The crash was trying to load the games own save game facility, as you have to choose an empty or existing save game in order to start the game.

It clearly loads the save game and everything as I see the in-game screen flash up for a millisecond sometimes, or the sound plays a few seconds, before the emulator locks up or quits entirely. Will have to wait and see once the joystick problem is fixed.