Saved games embedded in the Windows registry!

Mario · 15th June 2014, 01:46 PM

Recently, I played and finished two PC games. They were Defense Zone 2 and I Am Vegend - Zombiegeddon. Both are tower defense games. As is protocol for me, I back up save game files once I finish a game. After looking in the usual places to find the save files, I was stumped. I could find nothing for either game. Interesting. I usually have no problem finding any save game file, and even those harder-to-find are easily found, by, simply playing the game and have something change, whereby the save data is modified by the game, exiting, and searching for the newest files on the system. Until now, this method has worked flawlessly, even with the most obscure locations. For these two games, I could find no save game files. Something was being saved in both cases. The next step I was going to take, would have been to start monitoring the games during play. I was going to use Process Monitor and see exactly what was being saved and where. Before doing that though, I decided to post a question, asking where the save file location is, in the official forums of Defense Zone 2. The developer is a Russian man, who seems to genuinely want to support his game. He answerd promptly, stating that it's in the registry. Holy fucking shit. Save game data in the Widnows registry? Yes, sir! WOW! Never in my twenty five years of PC gaming, have I come across a game that stores the actual save game "file", in the registry of the operating system. Both of these games do. At least from now on, that will be another location I will be checking when looking to find save game files.

Defense Zone 2

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Artem Kotov\Defense zone 2]

I Am Vegend - Zombiegeddon

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\AppMania\I Am Vegend]

15th June 2014, 01:46 PM	#1
Mario Special Guest Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: @home Posts: 627	Saved games embedded in the Windows registry! Recently, I played and finished two PC games. They were Defense Zone 2 and I Am Vegend - Zombiegeddon. Both are tower defense games. As is protocol for me, I back up save game files once I finish a game. After looking in the usual places to find the save files, I was stumped. I could find nothing for either game. Interesting. I usually have no problem finding any save game file, and even those harder-to-find are easily found, by, simply playing the game and have something change, whereby the save data is modified by the game, exiting, and searching for the newest files on the system. Until now, this method has worked flawlessly, even with the most obscure locations. For these two games, I could find no save game files. Something was being saved in both cases. The next step I was going to take, would have been to start monitoring the games during play. I was going to use Process Monitor and see exactly what was being saved and where. Before doing that though, I decided to post a question, asking where the save file location is, in the official forums of Defense Zone 2. The developer is a Russian man, who seems to genuinely want to support his game. He answerd promptly, stating that it's in the registry. Holy fucking shit. Save game data in the Widnows registry? Yes, sir! WOW! Never in my twenty five years of PC gaming, have I come across a game that stores the actual save game "file", in the registry of the operating system. Both of these games do. At least from now on, that will be another location I will be checking when looking to find save game files. Defense Zone 2 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Artem Kotov\Defense zone 2] I Am Vegend - Zombiegeddon [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\AppMania\I Am Vegend]

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