# Hiscore Support Plugin

The hiscore support plugin saves and restores high scores for games that did not originally save high scores in non-volatile memory. Note that this plugin modifies the contents of memory directly with no coordination with the emulated software, and hence changes behaviour. This may have undesirable effects, including broken gameplay or causing the emulated software to crash.

The plugin includes a hiscore.dat file that contains the information on how to save and restore high scores for supported systems. This file must be kept up-to-date when system definitions change in MAME.

High scores can be saved automatically either on exit, or a few seconds after they’re updated in memory. To change the setting, activate the main menu (press Tab during emulation by default), select Plugin Options, and then select Hiscore Support. Change the Save scores option by highlighting it and using the UI Left/Right keys, or clicking the arrows.

High score data is saved in the hiscore folder in the plugin data folder (see the homepath option). A file with a name corresponding the system short name (or ROM set name) with the extension `.hi`. For example, high scores for the game Moon Cresta will be saved in the file mooncrst.hi in the hiscore folder in your plugin data folder. The settings for the hiscore support plugin are stored in the file plugin.cfg in the hiscore folder in the plugin data folder (this file is in JSON format).