Can I reset highscores somehow by editing some cfg?

[J van E]

See topic title. Just curious. At a certain moment the high score list is filled with my best ever results and I never get that great feeling of making it to that list. ;) So I would like to cheat and empty the list so I can slowly build it up again!

Does anyone know if there is a file I can edit to change or reset the high scores?

[Psiklops]

There is a HighScore file in C:\Users\<username>\My Games\Pinball Arcade
(this path is win7; it may be slightly different if you're on another OS)

If you delete it it will recreate the file after you play PA again. (alternatively, just rename the file abd you can later restore it if you want) Note that this will reset the table goals too. If you know how to hex edit you could just change the scores. It looks like all the tables are saved in here, so you would need to search for your initials and a known score to figure out which table is which. ToTAN starts at 0378 for example.

[J van E]

Ok, thanks! Removing the file is quit alright already: editing would be even better but I am no hex edit expert so I skip that. ;)

[J van E]

Tried to Hex Edit it but I couldn't make any sense of the numbers. I did find my initials but I couldn't figure out which weird icons and signs should be the high scores. So I guess I indeed have to do with the removing of that file to reset the scores.

EDIT
Ah, I got it anyway. I managed to set all the scores of my favorite table to 2.800.000 which is almost the same as zero LOL. Nice! :)

[Psiklops]

Here's how to convert the scores. Open the file in a hex editor and find your initials. Look at the 8 bytes that come before them.

For example, the 1st place score of ToTAN I mentioned is at 0x0378 in my file. It is possible it may vary depending on if you have other tables (I haven't got any extras yet; I already have a bunch of them on xbox)

0378: f0 72 e6 06 00 00 00 00

x86 systems store the bytes in reverse order (look up "Endianness" on wikipedia if you're interested in the details), so you have to swap the bytes around to get the score, like so:

06e6 72f0

type that into calc and convert to decimal (change to Programmer mode under the View menu) and you'll get the score:
115,766,000

you can reverse these steps if you want to change an existing score to something else.

I briefly experimented with changing the score to more than 4 bytes (4,294,967,295 is the max that can be represented) and got some strange results, so not sure what the proper format is for larger scores. I think elsewhere in the file it indicates which table goals you've completed.

[J van E]

Thanks for the explanation. I simply searched in the game itself for the lowest possible score, noted the initials, opened the file with a hex editor, searched the initials, noted what numbers it showed before that name (Windows 7 64 bit here) and simply entered that exact number before every initial of the table I wanted to edit the scores from. Now my table starts off with 5 times that exact low score so I can build my own scores without getting frustrated. ;) Love it! I saved a backup of the file so whenever my own scores can't be beaten anymore, I simply have to replace that file and the table has been reset again.

Anyway, after reading your post I now know how to set a score to the exact number I want, which is even nicer. Also thanks for the heads up on the reverse order which explained why I couldn't find the numbers simply be searching for them!