You can go to the game files (of whatever version you had before), there's a "www" folder and inside it is another folder called "save", you copy that and put it in the www folder of the new version and that should do it
Also, about the "or was that never an issue", as far as I'm aware, it never was an issue for RPGmaker games, you could always do it so long as the developer didn't outright make a new game with different code.
