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DarkBASIC Discussion / Setup Makers

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Soroki
19
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Joined: 26th Jan 2006
Location: United States
Posted: 12th Sep 2006 21:30
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I have browsed google for a setup application maker like the ones that come with games, but I can't decide which ones are trustworthy and whatnot. Anyone got a suggestion?

The program is only as good as the programmer...
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SimSmall
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Joined: 7th Aug 2004
Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 12th Sep 2006 21:33
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CreateInstall is one I swear by... I post exes compressed with that as sometimes, they actually end up smaller than rars.

Generally, just use winrar, as everyone whinges abouts exes
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H4ck1d
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Joined: 27th Dec 2005
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Posted: 12th Sep 2006 23:03
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I have found 3 very handy installers (one of which appears to now be unavailable ), my favorite of which is Install creator. The links are below:

http://www.clickteam.com/eng/installcreator.php
http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php

Install creator is easy, straightforward, and makes a beautiful setup program. Inno uses a scripting language, which can make things complicated to learn. Choose wisely

There are 10 types of people, those who understand binary and those that don't.
The programmer's national anthem is 'AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH'
Never forget: 2 + 2 = 5 for extremely large values of 2.
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Legend
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Posted: 13th Sep 2006 02:13
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Really, i believe you'd only ever require one of these... if you were going to put your software / game on a cd really.

I used to put everything into install files.. which some of my audience at the time diss-liked, mostly because there was NO NEED for it.

You may annoy customers with things like this, but if it is REALLY necessary then its understandable. Granted if you have a ton of files that need to be installed to certain directories then fair enough.. but really.. com'n =P

Well hope you have found what your looking for via the other users posts, but heed my advice, or at least take it into consideration
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SimSmall
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Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 13th Sep 2006 03:25
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Quote: "Granted if you have a ton of files that need to be installed to certain directories"


Then you'd just organize them into the correct directories before compression...

The point I'm going to add is, I don't think anyone would mind too much (in all honesty) if I posted my current game (when finished) with an installer... why? because it's registered, no annoying screen "This setup program was created by CreateInstall 2003... blah blah. The continue button will be greyed out for 3 seconds whilst we exaggerate this" I believe this is the reason most people hate installers. as there's actually less effort to using them than unraring a rar, or unzipping a zip in wizard mode...

It no better or worse, and provided it doesn't have the annoying screen I emntioned above, it just looks like you've made that bit more effort. Of course fon't use an unregistered setup creator, they just get everyone's back up, and with good reason.
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Soroki
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Posted: 13th Sep 2006 20:25
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Thanks for the advice. I have a great number of files to include within my game and I think an installer would make it easier to add them and remove them.

The program is only as good as the programmer...
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Uncle Sam
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Joined: 23rd Jul 2005
Location: West Coast, USA
Posted: 14th Sep 2006 09:46
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How so?

If your game was using an installer I would not download it. It's faster jsut to unzip and play.

Uncle Sam
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Soroki
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Posted: 14th Sep 2006 20:25
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Because in a zip, there is no uninstaller. If the user decides he wants to delete the application, game, etc, then he/she can simply uninstall it rather than have to go and delete everything manually. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but saying a setup is not useful is basically saying you get annoyed by any software you can buy nowdays, because I havn't yet encountered something that does not unless it came from DB or some other freeware made by someone else.

Downfall:Arena by A Squared Software is currently in development. Features full online or AI multiplayer maps, with 35 online maps and 15 AI maps. Demo release date will be somtime in October.
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SimSmall
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Posted: 14th Sep 2006 22:51
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As a rule of thumb, anything your software requires should be in it's own directory, you can have as many subdirectories in that one directory as you like, but with having only one main directory, there's no need for an uninstaller.

Files not in that directory or any of its subdirectories are probably shared resources, and shouldn't be uninstalled anyway... so uninstallers are absolutely unnecessary unless your setup program must write some registry values, but then what stops your DB application writing them if they don't exist (i.e. on the first run)? Leaving in an orphaned registry key really isn't a problem as they are so small, and nothing else should be reading them anyway...

Besides, providing an uninstaller seems like you're sending across the message "You might not like my game - here's a way to get rid of it, if you don't"
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Uncle Sam
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Posted: 16th Sep 2006 10:20
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Quote: " If the user decides he wants to delete the application, game, etc, then he/she can simply uninstall it rather than have to go and delete everything manually."


Hmm, seems a lot easier to me to select a whole folder and delete rather than go to the control panel...

Uncle Sam
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Soroki
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Posted: 18th Sep 2006 20:24
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Whatever. I don't really care. Like I said, everyone is entitled to their own opinions. Most games in this day and time come with an installer, and uninstaller. That's all I'm saying. I want to present it in a professional setting. Thanks those who answered the post with links.

Downfall:Arena by A Squared Software is currently in development. Features full online or AI multiplayer maps, with 35 online maps and 15 AI maps. Demo release date will be somtime in October.
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nojbox87
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Joined: 26th Jun 2005
Location: England
Posted: 18th Sep 2006 21:00 Edited at: 18th Sep 2006 21:01
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I totally reccoment install creater (as linked above) have used it several times and had no probs at all. really good program

[edit] granted it was mainly useful when i was using liberty basic and some dlls were recomended to be placed in the windows folder
[/edit]

I am a Christian and I know that God loves me. That is what makes my life so great!
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