ok I think I have something. It's more of a "hack" than anything. AKA not properly done but I'm too lazy to pursue it further as long as it works!

It worked on my own tests as well as the save file fatfonzi provided me.
Anywho Fatfonzi if you wanna be part of the beta thread so you can get your hands on my beta. Just let me know so that we can make sure you have a working version.

The only thing I need to do at this point is modify the savestate code so that it remembers what disk was loaded into drive 8 and to "reload" that disk on a save state load since this particular version of the core does not do so.
I am grateful as im sure many are that you found the time to work on this emu. I know you have a ton of other projects going on right now, like snesbox and xspectrum and others so it is especially sweet that you have taken time out to fix these issues, Particularity the savestate issue.
I got the beta version from the emuxtras site and will do many tests with it next weekend (will be gone this week) and I will update as soon as I can but im sure it will all be in order.
And thanks again for your time and sacrifice. Without guys like you none of this exists! Just know that we are all grateful and appreciative!