Saving java application data

[jsobel]

What would be the easiest way to save my java games progress to a file so i can read it and use it later serialization will not work because im using several objects and fields any external libraries that are free are fine

[Tolls]

Figure out the minimum amount of data you need to save.
If it's a handful of numbers then just save those, if it's a whole load of state (think some strategy games) then you'll have to come up with a structure to hold that.

I am curious, though. Why does serialisation not work?

[javin.paul]

If you have more sophisticated data like user preferences as well, you can probably consider using xml files for storing data. Benefit of using xml is that you will get lot of open source library to work with but as Tolls pointed out it depends upon how much data you are saving, more small piece of data it would be overkill.