diff -ru Maelstrom-3.0.6/main.cpp Maelstrom-3.0.6-new/main.cpp
--- Maelstrom-3.0.6/main.cpp	2002-10-19 22:53:32.000000000 -0400
+++ Maelstrom-3.0.6-new/main.cpp	2006-05-09 01:05:07.000000000 -0400
@@ -170,12 +170,21 @@
 	/* Command line flags */
 	int doprinthigh = 0;
 	int speedtest = 0;
+	gid_t gid;
+	
 	Uint32 video_flags = SDL_SWSURFACE;
 
 	/* Normal variables */
 	SDL_Event event;
 	LibPath::SetExePath(argv[0]);
 
+	GetScoreFile();
+	gid = getgid();
+	if (setresgid(-1,gid,gid) != 0) {
+		error("Could not drop privleges. -- Exiting.\n");
+		exit(1);
+	}
+	
 #ifndef __WIN95__
 	/* The first thing we do is calculate our checksum */
 	(void) checksum();
diff -ru Maelstrom-3.0.6/scores.cpp Maelstrom-3.0.6-new/scores.cpp
--- Maelstrom-3.0.6/scores.cpp	2000-09-24 13:55:39.000000000 -0400
+++ Maelstrom-3.0.6-new/scores.cpp	2006-05-09 01:26:19.000000000 -0400
@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@
 */
 
 #ifdef unix
+#include <arpa/inet.h>
+#include <fcntl.h>
 #include <sys/types.h>
 #include <sys/stat.h>
 #endif
@@ -15,22 +17,42 @@
 #include "load.h"
 #include "dialog.h"
 
-#define MAELSTROM_SCORES	"Maelstrom-Scores"
+#define MAELSTROM_SCORES	"/var/lib/games/Maelstrom-Scores"
 #define NUM_SCORES		10		// Do not change this!
 
 /* Everyone can write to scores file if defined to 0 */
-#define SCORES_PERMMASK		0
+#define SCORES_PERMMASK		002
 
 #define CLR_DIALOG_WIDTH	281
 #define CLR_DIALOG_HEIGHT	111
 
 Bool gNetScores = 0;
 Scores hScores[NUM_SCORES];
+int gScoreFile = -1;
+
+void GetScoreFile(void)
+{
+#ifdef unix
+	int omask;
+#endif
+	int f;
+	
+#ifdef unix
+	omask=umask(SCORES_PERMMASK);
+#endif
+	f = open(MAELSTROM_SCORES,O_RDWR|O_CREAT);
+	if (f == -1)
+		f = open(MAELSTROM_SCORES,O_RDONLY);
+	if (f == -1)
+		error("Couldn't open score file %s.\n",MAELSTROM_SCORES);
+	gScoreFile = f;
+#ifdef unix
+	umask(omask);
+#endif
+}
 
 void LoadScores(void)
 {
-	LibPath path;
-	SDL_RWops *scores_src;
 	int i;
 
 	/* Try to load network scores, if we can */
@@ -44,50 +64,50 @@
 	}
 	memset(&hScores, 0, sizeof(hScores));
 
-	scores_src = SDL_RWFromFile(path.Path(MAELSTROM_SCORES), "rb");
-	if ( scores_src != NULL ) {
+	if (gScoreFile != -1) {
+		lseek(gScoreFile,0,SEEK_SET);
 		for ( i=0; i<NUM_SCORES; ++i ) {
-			SDL_RWread(scores_src, hScores[i].name,
-			           sizeof(hScores[i].name), 1);
-			hScores[i].wave = SDL_ReadBE32(scores_src);
-			hScores[i].score = SDL_ReadBE32(scores_src);
+			Uint32 tmp;
+		       
+			if (read(gScoreFile,hScores[i].name,sizeof(hScores[i].name)) != sizeof(hScores[i].name))
+				break;
+			if (read(gScoreFile,&tmp,sizeof(Uint32)) != sizeof(Uint32))
+				break;
+			hScores[i].wave = ntohl(tmp);
+			if (read(gScoreFile,&tmp,sizeof(Uint32)) != sizeof(Uint32))
+				break;
+			hScores[i].score = ntohl(tmp);
 		}
-		SDL_RWclose(scores_src);
 	}
 }
 
 void SaveScores(void)
 {
-	LibPath path;
-	SDL_RWops *scores_src;
 	int i;
-#ifdef unix
-	int omask;
-#endif
 
 	/* Don't save network scores */
 	if ( gNetScores )
 		return;
-
-#ifdef unix
-	omask=umask(SCORES_PERMMASK);
-#endif
-	scores_src = SDL_RWFromFile(path.Path(MAELSTROM_SCORES), "wb");
-	if ( scores_src != NULL ) {
+	
+	if (gScoreFile != -1) {
+		lseek(gScoreFile,0,SEEK_SET);
 		for ( i=0; i<NUM_SCORES; ++i ) {
-			SDL_RWwrite(scores_src, hScores[i].name,
-			            sizeof(hScores[i].name), 1);
-			SDL_WriteBE32(scores_src, hScores[i].wave);
-			SDL_WriteBE32(scores_src, hScores[i].score);
+			Uint32 tmp;
+			
+			if (write(gScoreFile, hScores[i].name, sizeof(hScores[i].name)) != sizeof(hScores[i].name))
+				goto out_err;
+			tmp = htonl(hScores[i].wave);
+			if (write(gScoreFile, &tmp,sizeof(Uint32)) != sizeof(Uint32))
+				goto out_err;
+			tmp = htonl(hScores[i].score);
+			if (write(gScoreFile, &tmp,sizeof(Uint32)) != sizeof(Uint32))
+				goto out_err;
 		}
-		SDL_RWclose(scores_src);
-	} else {
-		error("Warning: Couldn't save scores to %s\n",
-						path.Path(MAELSTROM_SCORES));
+		fsync(gScoreFile);
+		return;
 	}
-#ifdef unix
-	umask(omask);
-#endif
+out_err:
+	error("Warning: Couldn't save scores to %s\n", MAELSTROM_SCORES);
 }
 
 /* Just show the high scores */
diff -ru Maelstrom-3.0.6/scores.h Maelstrom-3.0.6-new/scores.h
--- Maelstrom-3.0.6/scores.h	1998-07-13 21:50:17.000000000 -0400
+++ Maelstrom-3.0.6-new/scores.h	2006-05-09 01:05:25.000000000 -0400
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 // Functions from scores.cc
 extern void	LoadScores(void);
 extern void	SaveScores(void);
+extern void	GetScoreFile(void);
 extern int	ZapHighScores(void);
 extern int	GetStartLevel(void);
 extern void	PrintHighScores(void);