Shandalar 2012 Revisited

[hip63]

I have included the ACT fix for saftey's sake.

And having the installer apply the DEP setting has proven to be challenge (mainly due to limitations in the installer software) but I have risen to the to meet that challenge and.... I won!

So now I'm doing my own "in house" testing before sending out a release candidate for "a private group" testing. If that goes well then it will be ready for the general public.

The new installer for new people should be as easy as hitting a goblin with a fireball!

Next thing to figure out is how to get it to the private group...

hip63

[Huggybaby]

Two ways to do that: Make a torrent and PM the link, or upload to a private mediafire folder.

[hip63]

Good News! I've completed XP testing all is good!

Now for windows 7 testing...

hip63

[sandman423]

Yes on Windows 7 testing...I noticed that when I toggle the Sound off and try and fight the Main Mage in the castles the game locks up.

[CirothUngol]

I noticed that when I toggle the Sound off and try and fight the Main Mage in the castles the game locks up.

Ahh... so that's the problem? A few people have reported that issue, but no one had ever mentioned the Sound Toggler before. OK, searching for a fix now...

About an hour later:
Found it! The file DAMBLOOP.WAV is required in the \Sound\ folder. Thanx for the bug report sandman423... you pin-pointed the problem.
You can download a corrected version of the Sound Toggler.cmd below.

Corrected Sound_Toggler.cmd file for Shandalar 2012. Fixes Main Wizard Lock-Up issue due to missing file DAMBLOOP.EXE.

Edit: File moved to bottom of 1st post.

[n3r0]

Refresh the link in the first post, as it contains Shandalar Gamma, and there is newer version of it.

[CirothUngol]

Refresh the link in the first post...

Done.
I haven't looked at that 1st post in quite awhile, thanx for pointing that out.

[sandman423]

Troubleshooting like a boss...Thanks guys I am glad my tip helped was frustrating going through castles like 5 times and getting to main mage and then freezing up.

Glad I can help out. Plus I notice when I try and listen to Pandora while Shandalar is on my Flash Crashes.

[hip63]

OK, quick FYI guys, unfortunetly some bugs poped during win7 testing on the new installer. Dammned DEP settings are being a pain. So to that end, I'm going to have to use a differnet bit of software to build the installer. That means I have to start over basically.

But I will win!

Also grabbing that toggle sounds update to add to the mix.

hip63

[CirothUngol]

That means I have to start over basically...

Aw man, sorry 'bout that. I know just how frustrating that can be. Way to show your tenacity...

Never Say Die!

I'm glad you got the Sound_Toggler.cmd fix as well, as that was the last unresolved issue that I can remember being reported. Now it's...

All Systems Go! ^_^

[hip63]

The installer (take 2) is progressing, I'm hopin' to have it finished up this weekend. I've also put together a little extra sumthin' sumthin' that'll be included with it.

What is that extra "sumthin' sumthin'" you might ask? Well now, you'll just have to wait and see!

hip63

[Huggybaby]

We're used to waiting around here.

[hip63]

We're used to waiting around here.

Good thing huh?

Now that it out of the way, I gotta say...

EUREKA!!!

I FINALLY figured out how get an installer to play nice on windows 7(ish) Operating systems. It required some software upgrades but also I had a lotta coding work to figure out. AND I've managed to do what a lot of folks on different installer forums said could NOT be done. And that being single installation package that can do both 64-bit and 32-bit in one install package. (Techincally they are correct, but I've done enough projects by now to know that there is a workaround for everything!)

The only promise on the install I could not keep was to make the installer smaller. Due to all the stuff I had to do to get it all working, I couldn't use my plan to use 7zip for some uber compression. Still the final package will only be around 350mb, so not too bad I think. ALSO I've included something else very special to be included with the game itself.

Anywho, I've still gotta tidy up some things and do some double-check testing but I should have some availible soon for private testing.

hip63

[CirothUngol]

Good News, Huzzah!

As for compression, can you not embed a small executable? For about ~250KiB, NanoZip might be the best choice. It's small, fast, not too memory hungry, and it wins about 60% of the time side-by-side with 7z, RAR, ACE, ARC and several others. If you'd like to check out a custom ReArchiver, eXoCrunch is still in vBeta... but v1.0 should be along shortly. ^_^

...and if ZIP files are your thing, then ZipMax is easily the best tool for the job.

...I've included something else very special to be included with the game itself.

Oh!? What is? Me want... gimme, gimme!

[hip63]

Believe me when I say that it will not be worth the effort. Due to the complexity of this project to make the installer play nice on 64-bit or 32-bit from one single package, I've had to resort to Installshield for heavy lifting. Installshield which, while powerful and can do things that no other install packagers can do, is extremely cumbersome to use and not very intuitive as a whole. Not to mention, it doesn't always play nice with others apps.

If I hadn't figure how to do it the way that I did, we would have had to have completely seperate packages. One for 32-bit, one for 64, which would have wieghed in at about 250mb each and not to mention, make life hard for me on this project. Plus, you just know some people would download the wrong version, no matter what, lol.

And it got a lot under the hood too. The VB files, ACT Fix, DEP Fix, with appropriate 64/32-bit registry entries and prompting for the correct 64/32-bit C++ files, all automatically. You will be pleased! The installer supports Windows XP as well as Windows Vista 32/64-bit, Windows 7 32/64-bit, Windows 8 32/64-bit. That's seven flavors of operating systems, with varing background action depending on the OS version and architecture. That's no small feat!

But wait 'til you see the new installer bro. It's beautiful, if I do say myself. One of the most badass looking and most advanced installers I've ever put togther. While the Shandalar 2010 CD is faithful recreation of the original game disc, the Shandalar 2012 Installer is not! And it's really purty!

And my "little" suprise should put yer jaw on the floor, HARD! (I worked my ass off on it too so that jaw had better hit hard, lol!) And it can only be descriped as awesome.

Now I've just got to figure out how I want to get it to ya!

hip63