Use Filer to delete or save game scores
When Thaddeus Computing's mailing director, Kerry Smith, started sharing Palmtop game playing with her family, she found that one family member won all the hands in her favorite pamtop game. The program, like many games, keeps track of (and displays) the highest scores from previous games.
The youngest children in the family, who never could beat the "champion's" highest scores, were disappointed because their scores never appeared in the score box, even when they played the game by themselves.
Luckily, Kerry discovered that it was possible to delete the record of scores from the program (as well as from many other games). After she deleted the file that stored the scores, the youngsters' scores appeared in the score box. (If there's no existing score file, the program creates a new one.)
Some games automatically start with a score of zero each time, but other games (like Kerry's program) store their scores in a special file. Here's how to try to "reset" the scores.
First, play a hand (or session) of the game. This will cause (in most games) a new score file to be saved (i.e., a file with the current date and time).
Second, press (FILER) and go to the directory where the program is located. If there's a score file, chances are it will be in the same directory as its program.
Third, press (F7) (Full), which will display in full view the file list. This will allow you to see the date of creation of each file.
Fourth, press (MENU) Options, Sort. Then select "Sort files by...Date" and "Order....Descending. This will display the most recently saved file at the top of the screen.
Fifth, if the file at the top of the screen has a date and time which is only a few minutes old, that's the program's score file. (The file may or may not have a *.DAT or *.SCO extension. Kerry's program stores its scores in a file called GAME.RES.)
You could delete the file, but it's safer to rename it, or move it to a different directory. By renaming or moving the file you give yourself the option of reintroducing the old score file if you want to.
To rename the GAME.RES file, press (MENU) File, Rename. Then type in a different name, such as GAME.R, or GAME.OLD.
Now play the game again. The previous high scores should be gone, and the youngsters will be happy when they see their own scores displayed.
Carol de Giere
Associate Editor, The HP Palmtop Paper
carol_degiere@thaddeus.com