diff --git a/src/BizHawk.Client.Common/RomLoader.cs b/src/BizHawk.Client.Common/RomLoader.cs
index 0db096835d..02fd411a76 100644
--- a/src/BizHawk.Client.Common/RomLoader.cs
+++ b/src/BizHawk.Client.Common/RomLoader.cs
@@ -258,13 +258,10 @@ namespace BizHawk.Client.Common
 
 				if (OpenAdvanced is OpenAdvanced_Libretro)
 				{
-					// kind of dirty.. we need to stash this, and then we can unstash it in a moment, in case the core doesn't fail
-					var oldGame = Global.Game;
-
 					// must be done before LoadNoGame (which triggers retro_init and the paths to be consumed by the core)
 					// game name == name of core
 					string codePathPart = Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(launchLibretroCore);
-					Global.Game = game = new GameInfo { Name = codePathPart, System = "Libretro" };
+					Game = game = new GameInfo { Name = codePathPart, System = "Libretro" };
 					var retro = new LibretroCore(nextComm, game, launchLibretroCore);
 					nextEmulator = retro;
 
@@ -272,7 +269,6 @@ namespace BizHawk.Client.Common
 					{
 						// if we are allowed to run NoGame and we don't have a game, boot up the core that way
 						bool ret = retro.LoadNoGame();
-						Global.Game = oldGame;
 
 						if (!ret)
 						{
@@ -318,8 +314,6 @@ namespace BizHawk.Client.Common
 							}
 						}
 
-						Global.Game = oldGame;
-
 						if (!ret)
 						{
 							DoLoadErrorCallback("Libretro failed to load the given file. This is probably due to a core/content mismatch. Moreover, the process is now likely to be hosed. We suggest you restart the program.", "Libretro");
diff --git a/src/BizHawk.Client.EmuHawk/MainForm.cs b/src/BizHawk.Client.EmuHawk/MainForm.cs
index b4c4ca5911..14d9bc3b3c 100644
--- a/src/BizHawk.Client.EmuHawk/MainForm.cs
+++ b/src/BizHawk.Client.EmuHawk/MainForm.cs
@@ -3679,8 +3679,11 @@ namespace BizHawk.Client.EmuHawk
 					//path = ioa_openrom.Path;
 				}
 
+				var oldGame = Global.Game;
 				var result = loader.LoadRom(path, nextComm, ioaRetro?.CorePath);
 
+				Global.Game = result ? loader.Game : oldGame;
+
 				// we need to replace the path in the OpenAdvanced with the canonical one the user chose.
 				// It can't be done until loader.LoadRom happens (for CanonicalFullPath)
 				// i'm not sure this needs to be more abstractly engineered yet until we have more OpenAdvanced examples
@@ -3703,7 +3706,6 @@ namespace BizHawk.Client.EmuHawk
 				{
 					string openAdvancedArgs = $"*{OpenAdvancedSerializer.Serialize(ioa)}";
 					Emulator = loader.LoadedEmulator;
-					Global.Game = loader.Game;
 					InputManager.SyncControls(Emulator, Config);
 
 					if (oaOpenrom != null && Path.GetExtension(oaOpenrom.Path.Replace("|", "")).ToLowerInvariant() == ".xml" && !(Emulator is LibsnesCore))