How to Backup Bowmaster Saved Games

Update: Bowmaster Winter Storm now features online saving. The process below is not necessary if you register for a LostVectors forum account and use the online log-in method. However, if you only use the “offline” mode then your saves are stored to your computer instead of online and the following instructions apply to you.

Some of my games use Flash Shared Objects to store game save data to your local computer (for example, any of my Bowmaster games). They work like cookies, but are stored in a different location on your computer.

Unfortunately (for your game saves) it looks like Flash Shared Objects can now be deleted when you clear your browser cache (delete temporary internet files), depending on the browser you use. And sometimes for some people the save data seems to disappear randomly. This may be due to the computer’s settings.

In any event, I’m going to show you how to backup your game files so that if you ever lose your profile data you can re-load it from the files you backed up.

Step 1. Find the game data files
These files are somewhere in “application data” which is a hidden system folder. It’s a place where applications can store temporary data. The location varies depending on your OS.

Windows XP:
%APPDATA%\Macromedia\Flash Player\#SharedObjects\

For xp users, copy that path directly into an explorer window address and hit Enter “%APPDATA%\Macromedia\Flash Player\#SharedObjects\” without the quotes. It should take you directly to the shared object directory. Inside there will be a single folder with random letters.

For xp users, this is what the actual full path might look like:
C:\Documents and Settings\”your user name here”\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash Player\#SharedObjects

For Windows 7/Vista I think it is “Application Data\LocalRoaming”.

Once you’re in the #SharedObjects\”random_letters” folder go to the “www.lostvectors.com\winterstormbeta\bmws_beta.swf” folder.

E.g.
C:\Documents and Settings\”user name”\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash Player\#SharedObjects\UXHRVSEB\www.lostvectors.com\winterstormbeta\bmws_beta.swf

There you’ll find the game save data files:
bmws_beta_1.sol
bmws_sound_settings.sol
bmws_visitor_news_data_v1.sol

Step 2. Copy the files or entire folder

Copy these files to somewhere else on your computer. If your computer ever loses game data it’s probably because these files were deleted somehow.

You might even just save the entire folder starting from www.lostvectors.com\winterstormbeta\bmws_beta.swf

This way if the entire folder is removed you can just copy and paste it back in there.

Alternatively you can just go to your windows user folder and do a windows search for “bmws_beta.swf” (which is a folder). It may take a while to search but eventually it should find the bmws_beta.swf folder as long as your computer is able to save shared objects in the first place.

For more information about Flash Shared Objects go here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_Shared_Object