Bug "Save and Exit" disappears

[Sage Sharp]

After playing The Cave for several minutes (half an hour?) the option for "Save and Exit" disappears from the menu, and the last menu item is "Drop Character" (which doesn't do anything).

I'm running Steam on Linux Ubuntu 12.04 with the latest Mesa master on a Sandy Bridge Intel graphics system. The only thing I did besides just install the game was add my wired USB XBOX controller to ~/.steam/steam/SteamApps/common/TheCave/Data/Config/SDLGamepad.config:

030000005e0400008e02000010010000,Microsoft Xbox 360 Gamepad (xpad) (Linux),a:b0,b:b1,y:b3,x:b2,start:b7,guide:b8,back:b6,leftstick:b9,rightstick:b10,leftshoulder:b4,rightshoulder:b5,dpup:h0.1,dpleft:h0.8,dpdown:h0.4,dpright:h0.2,leftx:a0,lefty:a1,rightx:a3,righty:a4,lefttrigger:a2,righttrigger:a5,

When I play the game for a very short time, the "Save and Exit" option is still there. I exit out of the game, don't close steam (the steam icon is still in my tray), and restart the game. If I press escape, I see "Save and Exit" is still there. It's only after playing for a longer time that it disappears.

It might be related to finding cave paintings. Maybe the option is still there before I find the painting, but not after I view it? I'll have to play around and debug some more.

Anyone else have a work-around for this?

[Sage Sharp]

Oh! I just figured it out. If I press 'Esc' on my laptop keyboard, I get the menu without the save. If I press the equivalent button on my XBOX controller, I get the menu with the save option. Very odd.

Once I've used the 'Esc' button, the buttons on the XBOX controller stop working. That means I can't use the movement wheel to move through menu selections. If I use the XBOX menu button, the keyboard buttons don't work on the menu. That means I can't use the arrow keys to move through the menu selections.

[Dangerous Beans]

Same thing here: Esc gets me to a menu without Save & Exit, the Start button on my Xbox 360 controller shows the same menu plus Save & Exit.

[Maze]

Hey there,
I know it's pretty old... I just had the same issue (Ubuntu 18.04), and realized only gamepad 1 had the option "save & exit". The others don't. So it simply seems to be a player 1 thing. ESC doesn't do anything here. (But maybe the bug has been solved since then).