Install software

[VYTIS_KNIGHT]

What does everyone use to build an install program for games created with Game Editor?

[ingsan]

Try INNO SETUP COMPILER.
It's a free installer but for Windows programs, so you can install a Windows EXE game made in GE for example
Have a good day, new friend !

ps : what is your website about ?

[Steve13]

Ingsan, thank you. Wonderful advice.

Inno Setup appears to be a quite solid and robust program for creating your installation package for a Windows setup.

I'm not the sharpest cookie in the bag, but it only took about an hour or so to create a professional looking setup.

I highly recommend that you use the QuickStart Pack. They state that it is easier for first timers. I agree. After I had created my setup.exe for my game with the QuickStart Pack, I explored the program. There is much more to do if you don't use the QuickStart. I would be fooling around for days without it.

My one small problem was that I couldn't locate the setup.exe after it had created it. I didn't specify a destination directory, and it automatically sent it to a subfolder of Inno named Output.

Lady from France, you made this good ol' boy's day.

Steve13
aka south end of a northbound horse[/quote]

[Kodo]

I've been trying 'Easy Pocket PC Installer' for PPC which I've had problems with, firstly my Mcafee Firewall doesnt like it as it tries to communicate with the PPC directly instead or going through active sync, it also garbles the EULA so I wasnt impressed, I contacted the author of the software but got no response Does anyone know of a good installer for PPC?

[plinydogg]

Dr. Reed,

I just went through the process of trying to find a PPC installer for the game I just released (Quest of the Styli). My search was unsuccessfull.

As far as I'm concerned, there are two types of PPC installer programs: professional installers and everything else. Professional installers can be $500 or more and so I didn't even look at them. Even the other solutions were expensive ($50 to $150 dollars). I really liked Easy PPC Installer too (and its price) but had problems with it as well. After exchanging a few e-mails from the developer, it became apparent that the version available for download on their webiste was not the most current version but was instead an older, buggier version. They sent me the demo of a version that was supposed to work, but it didn't and I never received any more responses to my e-mails.

ALL of the PPC installers I tried (in the non-professional category) had one problem or another. WinCE CAB Manager (from ocpSoftware) for example made CABs, but they didn't work. An e-mail inquiry revealed that Microsoft (not ocpSoftware) had acknowledged some kind of problem and the developer pledged that the next version of its software would provide a workaround for the problem and that they would work with me, etc. But at $150, that just wasn't good enough.

I've become convinced that the best (i.e., cheapest) way to go is to learn how to make your own CAB files. I didn't have the time to do so this go around, but I plan to try to learn in the future. PPC CAB files are made with a program known as CabWiz, which is available free from Microsoft. I'm pretty sure that it requires installation of the [also free] Pocket PC 2003 SDK, which in turn requires installation of the [also free] eMbedded Visual C++ (I could be wrong about this).

The problem with CabWiz is that it looks fairly cryptic and difficult to use. You have to write your own .INI file for each .CAB file you create (for an example of what this entails, see for example, http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-1298108.php). Also, CabWiz is a command line utility (I don't know if that bothers you or not). I may be wrong but I think that a lot of these $150 installer programs are little more than front ends for CabWiz.

The good thing is that if you can figure out how to create .CAB files yourself, there are several highly rated cheap or free tools to create installation packages (EZSetup, for example).

Good luck! Please report back here if you find anything!

[twobob]

Following on from the discussion from the topic at:
http://game-editor.com/forum/viewtopic. ... hlight=cab
And this topic I have managed to create an installer for my game onto the pocket pc.
I will explain how I managed this for my reference and to share if anyone else needs an installer.
I have taken much of what BeyondtheTech has said in the above topic as this has been good advice, and has enabled me to achieve the installer.

I apologise for being very detailed with the following but I am not the best in explaining things.
You could probably do the following in about 10 mins, start to finish including the inf file.
Once you have done it a couple of times it becomes easier, it just looks complicated at first.

The inf file was a pain to find out what details were needed in the file.
I managed to locate one already done and altered some details.
The inf file below should, when loaded into the Pocket PC, place your game into the games folder.
(Make sure in game editor that you have chosen an icon for your game in game properties)
The following is the inf file.
Copy and paste this into notepad and alter your details.
NOTE……take out my comments in BOLD before you save the inf file.


[Version]
Signature = "$Windows NT$"
Provider = "My Company" PUT THE NAME OF YOUR COMPANY INSTEAD OF MY COMPANY
CESignature = "$Windows CE$"
[CEStrings]
AppName = "My Game" PUT THE NAME OF THE GAME INSTEAD OF MYGAME
InstallDir = %CE1%\%AppName%

[SourceDisksNames]
1 = ,"Managed",,
[SourceDisksFiles]
THE FOLLOWING IS ALL OF YOUR FILES THAT YOU NEED IN YOUR GAME - CHANGE THE EXAMPLES IN THE LIST AND ADD YOUR FILES WITH =1 AT THE END OF EACH FILE NAME - DOUBLE CHECK YOU HAVE THE CORRECT FILES.
maingame.exe = 1
gameeditorexport.dat = 1
anotherexportfile.dat = 1
myhighscorefile.sav = 1
myuserdetailsfile.sav = 1
myreadme.txt = 1
[DefaultInstall]
CopyFiles = Files.App
CEShortcuts = Links
[DestinationDirs]
Files.App = 0,%InstallDir%
Links = 0,%CE14%
DefaultDestDir = 0,%InstallDir%
[Files.App]
"maingame.exe",maingame.exe,,0x20000001 PUT HERE(TWICE) YOUR MAIN EXE GAME FILE - JUST REPLACE THE TEXT, DON’T TOUCH THE FORMATING.
[Links]
"maingame",0, maingame.exe MAINGAME WITHOUT THE EXE IS WHAT THE LINK IS CALLED
AND MAINGAME.EXE IS YOUR MAIN EXE GAME FILE - AGAIN DON’T TOUCH THE FORMATING.

When you have changed all above and taken out the BOLD comments, save this file into a empty folder
Make sure you save the file with extension inf (example myinformation.inf)

Do not ask me what each section is about - I do not have a clue! All I know is if you do the above you should have a inf file that works. (hopefully)


Next
Make sure you have ALL your files you exported from Game Editor into a new folder - make sure you also copy and paste the inf file you done above into this folder as well. All the files should match what you typed in the inf file above (do not include the inf file itself in the list )

Download WinCE CAB Manager http://www.ocpsoftware.com (15 free uses before you have to buy)

Run this software and in the wizard fill in the company details, name of game, supported devices, processor then click finish - (the last two sections I just left as it was)

On the left hand side of the window you should see folders - Cab Information/file/shortcut/registry
Just above where it says Cab information, you should see 2 icons like a small page - click the one with the red arrow going down (if you leave your mouse pointer over it, it should say ‘import from inf’)
This will open a window where you can choose your inf file that you saved (make sure you open your inf file in the same folder where your main game exe is)- open your inf file and another window should open where it should say ‘import operation completed’
Click finish
Now click on the files folder (below cab information) and you should have your main game exe file there on the right of the screen.
If you have not, then make sure you have the inf file in the same folder as your main game exe file, then try again with import.
Next Stage
Right click the ‘files’ folder and click add - now add all your other files, but not your main game exe or the inf file (as it is already loaded in the import operation above)
You should now be ready to save the file as a cab file.
Click file at the top on the menu bar (not the files folder) and click save
Choose a name for the cab file and save in a new directory - you now have a cab file.

Now you want a loader so that it automates the loading of the cab file into the pocket pc from your main computer.

Before you do this you might want to think about a end user licence agreement (eula) and a text file for the loader. I leave it up to you what you want to do - at this stage you can leave it for now as the loader does not have to have these files for it to work. (Look on the internet for a eula, the cheapest I seen is about 7 dollars) With the text file you might want to inform the user of the software about the details of the game.

Right - enough about that - lets get on.

You can use EZSetup with command lines and all that, but I have found a program that has taken EZSetup and put it into a user interface It is called PocketSetupCreator
You can download from here
http://www.windowsgames.co.uk/PocketSetupCreator.html

Before we go on - don’t close down winCE cab manager, but close down the smaller window (look at the top right where the big red x is to close the program down, below this is a smaller black x - close this down)
The reason I said do this is that that I had problems with PocketSetupCreator recognising the new cab file that was created, I think it was because winCE cab manager was still holding onto this file - until you close the smaller window it wont release it. The reason you don’t close down winCE cab manager is that you have one less go at the program each time you open it. This allows you to redo the cab file over again if it did not work the first time.

Once you have downloaded PocketSetupCreator, place it into the folder with your cab file - now click on PocketSetupCreator.exe which opens a window.
Here you can copy and paste your text and/or eula where it says readme and licence buttons.
Put a name at the top along with your version number.
Where it says output, put the name of your game- this will be the final name of the completed exe file.
Now open file explorer, open your folder where your cab file is and drag it across to where it says ‘drag and drop..’
Once done click on build - if all is well it should say finished and then click ok.
You should now have your final exe game installer - Click on it to install the game into the pocket pc

Please add any comments if you find any mistakes, a easier way to do things or if you got your exe to work.
Also is there anyone out there who could explain more about the inf files.
The one above does the job - but I would not know if it was completely correct.