Hour 24. Keeping Track of High Scores

Unless you grew up during the heyday of arcade games in the 1980s, you might not have an appreciation for the sense of nerd accomplishment associated with a top spot on a game's high score list. The high score list in arcade games serves as a public acknowledgement of who has the time, skills, and quarters to be the best of the best. If you think I'm dramatizing this a bit, keep in mind that a major plot device within a Seinfeld episode involved the character George Castanza attempting to move a Frogger game across a busy street while connecting it to a temporary battery supply to keep his high score from being lost. Even if you don't have a large nerd ego, it can be rewarding to know that you placed within the upper ranks of those who have played a game before you. This hour shows you how to develop a high score list for the Space Out game that is saved to disk so that the scores are retained between games.

In this hour, you'll learn:

Why it's important to keep track of high scores
How to represent high score data in a game
How to store and retrieve high score data using a file
How to add a high score list to the Space Out game