Scanning specific pixels (and the hassle associated with it) was why I was hoping there was an OCR solution.
I can try doing it this way but unfortunately, though the text to be scanned is always in the same place, the background behind it (this is a game) changes quite a bit. Might even match the color of the number image occasionally.
I read another post of yours regarding OCR but I didn't see any mention of a utility that could scan an arbitrary region.