Quest for Glory Anthology Installer

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Goilveig
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Quest for Glory Anthology Installer

#1 Post by Goilveig » Sat Sep 06, 2008 3:40 am

OK, because I was bored this afternoon, I wrote a GUI installer for the QFG Anthology. It's written in C# so you'll need an updated .NET runtime from Microsoft (.NET 2.0 or greater is needed in this version).

It installs the games, fixes DOSBox config files, and creates shortcuts for you to launch the games directly. Bundled is DOSBox 0.72, and NewRisingSun's patches, so this + your anthology CD are all you need to install and play the game.

!NEW! Version 1.2 now uploaded.
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Last edited by Goilveig on Tue Sep 09, 2008 5:17 pm, edited 4 times in total.

Goilveig
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Re: Quest for Glory Anthology Installer

#2 Post by Goilveig » Sat Sep 06, 2008 3:53 am

Oh, and note, it mounts the folder you specify as a save characters folder to drive D:, so when you save a character for a later game, save it to D:\<your filename>.sav.

Then to import, change directory to D:\ and it should have your files.

I was originally going to map that to A: but for some reason Quest for Glory IV didn't like reading from there.

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Re: Quest for Glory Anthology Installer

#3 Post by Asrai » Sat Sep 06, 2008 5:48 am

Very cool Goilveig. I can't test it out because my computer doesn't read disks anymore, so uninstalling the games would be a supremely bad idea. But this is definitely going into a folder where I know I won't forget to back it up along with the rest of my files to bring onto a new computer. Thanks for taking the time to make it and sharing it with everyone. :)

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Re: Quest for Glory Anthology Installer

#4 Post by Goilveig » Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:17 am

Not a problem :) I realized when I finally got QFG4 installed and functional that I'd probably never remember how to do it again, so I'd better write a program that does it for me ;)

Keep an eye on this thread as I'll probably release a 1.1 version, just to fix up some minor issues (for example, the current version auto-detects most existing DOSBox installs (as long as they're to Program Files), but I planned to add (and promptly forgot) a version check that will recommend (but not require) you to upgrade if the version is lower than 0.72.

Also the uninstaller crashes if you manually delete the config directory (where it stores the DOSBox profiles for the games) and then try to uninstall a game. While that's a low priority bug, I'll fix it in a future version. But I'll hold off and keep testing/soliciting feedback.

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Re: Quest for Glory Anthology Installer

#5 Post by Goilveig » Sat Sep 06, 2008 11:02 pm

To those who tried version 1.0, note I edited the link in the first post to the new version 1.1

Barring any new bug discoveries, this is the last version, as I'm pretty sure it now does everything I'd like for it to do; the option for a minimal install of 4 and the alternate language installs were the only real features I thought the 1.0 version lacked.

Fixes and new features in 1.1:

Bug Fixes:
  • Uninstalling games after deleting the \Config directory will no longer crash.
  • Fixed a minor issue where desktop shortcuts would not display until the user hit F5 to refresh the desktop.
  • Fixed a crash which happened if the user clicked to install DOSBox and then at the windows "Are you sure you want to run this program" prompt clicked cancel.
  • Fixed a bug where the progress bar window failed to close after giving an insufficient disk space message.
New Features:
  • Using versions of DOSBox earlier than 0.72 will recommend (but not require) you to upgrade.
  • It now checks and repairs missing files in the \Config directory without needing a full reinstall of the game(s).
  • Recompiled as a .NET 2.0 instead of a .NET 3.5 project, reducing the requirements to run.
  • Added the options for a full or minimal install of QFG4. Minimal install requires the anthology CD to run. It saves 490 MB of disk space by not copying audio files.
  • Added the ability to install non-English versions of the games. Quest for Glory III supports English, French, German, Italian, or Spanish. Quest for Glory IV supports English and German (German has no voice acting however). If your preferred language isn't available for a game that you've chosen, it installs the English version.

Nightfall1121
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Re: Quest for Glory Anthology Installer

#6 Post by Nightfall1121 » Mon Sep 08, 2008 12:54 am

I'm sorry to be such a reoccuring bother on this forum (i.e. only posting about problems), but I can't seem to get this to work. When I try to go on to step 3, I get this error message, "Unhandled exception has occured in your application. If you click Continue, the application will ignore this error and attempt to continue. If you click Quit, the application will close immediately. Could not find file 'E:\\QG1New.ico'."

Obviously trying to continue with whatever exception occured wouldn't work. What I'm guessing (besides maybe it has to do with me no longer having a D drive---they're just E,F, and A now...), is that for the VGA remake of QFG1, it couldn't locate the shortcut icon in the right folder? Bear with me, I'm completely new at this and Dosbox (*tries not to cringe with embarassment*).

Anyway, any help or thoughts would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

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Re: Quest for Glory Anthology Installer

#7 Post by Goilveig » Mon Sep 08, 2008 1:42 am

Nightfall1121 wrote:I'm sorry to be such a reoccuring bother on this forum (i.e. only posting about problems), but I can't seem to get this to work. When I try to go on to step 3, I get this error message, "Unhandled exception has occured in your application. If you click Continue, the application will ignore this error and attempt to continue. If you click Quit, the application will close immediately. Could not find file 'E:\\QG1New.ico'."

Obviously trying to continue with whatever exception occured wouldn't work. What I'm guessing (besides maybe it has to do with me no longer having a D drive---they're just E,F, and A now...), is that for the VGA remake of QFG1, it couldn't locate the shortcut icon in the right folder? Bear with me, I'm completely new at this and Dosbox (*tries not to cringe with embarassment*).

Anyway, any help or thoughts would be very much appreciated. Thanks.
It's looking for the icon file from the CD -- is your anthology CD in the E:\ drive and does it have a file called "QG1New.ico" inside it? My anthology CD does, I hope there's not multiple anthology versions I need to worry about now too ><

I can easily fix a check to not copy icons if there aren't any to copy, just curious how your CD is different from mine.

I imagine if you continue, it would work but using a default icon in place of the icons off the anthology CD. I didn't want to bundle in the icons as they're Sierra's IP, I only wanted to bundle freely distributable stuff. Maybe I'll create some quick and dirty icons to use for the series in case it can't copy the icons off the CD.

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Re: Quest for Glory Anthology Installer

#8 Post by Nightfall1121 » Mon Sep 08, 2008 2:05 am

I checked and I'm afraid it does not [have the file/icon]. :(
Last edited by Nightfall1121 on Mon Feb 09, 2009 9:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Goilveig
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Re: Quest for Glory Anthology Installer

#9 Post by Goilveig » Mon Sep 08, 2008 2:14 am

Wild. There must be different versions of the anthology.

Do this for me. Start up a command prompt (Start->Run and type 'cmd' without '')

In that prompt, run the line:

dir E:\*.ico /s /b

(which should list every icon file on all subdirectories of the CD).

I'm curious if your version has the icons in a different location or if they're absent altogether.

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Re: Quest for Glory Anthology Installer

#10 Post by Brainiac » Mon Sep 08, 2008 3:48 am

There was the QfG Anthology and the QfG Collection. They have slight differences from one another, I imagine.

Anthology
Image
Collection
Image

Goilveig
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Re: Quest for Glory Anthology Installer

#11 Post by Goilveig » Mon Sep 08, 2008 4:04 am

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh OK. I have the original one.

Nightfall, I'd like you to run the following batch file -- you can edit it and see what it does if you like, it just does a directory listing on your E:\ drive (which I assume is your CDROM) and writes a directory.txt as the output. It will list every file and directory on your CD.

I'd like to see that, so I can make sure there won't be other issues later on (especially with QFG4, which is kind of spread among a few different directories on my anthology CD).
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Nightfall1121
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Re: Quest for Glory Anthology Installer

#12 Post by Nightfall1121 » Mon Sep 08, 2008 2:09 pm

Ahhhaa... I'd forgotten there were two different box sets of the Quest for Glory series. Anyway, that does make sense---I've got the "Collection". Back to the installation process, thank you for the file. I just downloaded it and copied it to a rewritable CD (the internet connection in my room isn't working for some reason, and the computer upstairs is *shrugs*). I'll let you know how it goes *crosses fingers*.

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Re: Quest for Glory Anthology Installer

#13 Post by Goilveig » Mon Sep 08, 2008 4:07 pm

The file won't make the installer work, it's just a batch file I'd like you to run while your collection CD is in the drive, it will make a list of all the files on the collection CD so that I can release a version 1.2 of the installer that can handle both the anthology and the collection.

Just download that file, and run it while your anthology CD is in drive E:\. It'll create a file called directory.txt (listing every file and directory on the CD), just attach that file here and I should have all the info I need to write a newer version of the program.

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Re: Quest for Glory Anthology Installer

#14 Post by Nightfall1121 » Mon Sep 08, 2008 4:33 pm

Oh, okay. So, I just insert my QFG Collection CD and click on the icon? I've never dealt with this kind of file before, so I need a few instructions. I'll wait for a reply.

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Re: Quest for Glory Anthology Installer

#15 Post by Goilveig » Mon Sep 08, 2008 6:45 pm

Yup. It's just a batch file, which is more or less a macro for running DOS commands. All it does is run the command to list all files and directories on drive E:\ and writes the output to a text file called "directory.txt". Just put the CD in and click the icon, it'll make a text file in the same directory as the batch file.

If you can then upload directory.txt to this board, I can then make all the necessary changes to my program to support both the collection and the anthology.

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Re: Quest for Glory Anthology Installer

#16 Post by Nightfall1121 » Mon Sep 08, 2008 11:11 pm

Okay, that seems simple enough. Here you go. :)

http://www.sendspace.com/file/826lj2

Let me know if that works for you. Thanks.

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Re: Quest for Glory Anthology Installer

#17 Post by Goilveig » Tue Sep 09, 2008 2:03 am

Perfect, has all the info I need to make this work with the collection as well as the anthology :)

Gimme a little bit, shouldn't take long.

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Re: Quest for Glory Anthology Installer

#18 Post by Goilveig » Tue Sep 09, 2008 2:33 am

Sent you a private message with a beta version of 1.2. Since I can't directly test it, please try it out and see if it works. It should try to grab icons off the CD but I put in a failsafe generic "treasure chest" icon in case it can't find any icon files.

Apart from icons the CDs are almost identical, which was good news for me. Everything else should work without modification.

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Re: Quest for Glory Anthology Installer

#19 Post by Nightfall1121 » Tue Sep 09, 2008 3:25 am

I sent you a private message (concerning the details of the close, but not quite sucess) reply. Sadly, it didn't quite work.. :( Sorry.

Goilveig
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Re: Quest for Glory Anthology Installer

#20 Post by Goilveig » Tue Sep 09, 2008 5:18 pm

Version 1.2 is now uploaded. It does the following:
  • Added support for the Quest for Glory Collection in addition to the Quest for Glory Anthology
  • Fixed a bug with installing into a path with spaces in the path name

Nightfall1121
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Re: Quest for Glory Anthology Installer

#21 Post by Nightfall1121 » Tue Sep 09, 2008 9:53 pm

So far, so good. Thank you, thank you, thank you x1000.

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Re: Quest for Glory Anthology Installer

#22 Post by Brainiac » Tue Sep 09, 2008 10:07 pm

Took a look at the files. One question - why was the QfG1 patch by NewRisingSun left out?

Goilveig
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Re: Quest for Glory Anthology Installer

#23 Post by Goilveig » Tue Sep 09, 2008 10:24 pm

Brainiac wrote:Took a look at the files. One question - why was the QfG1 patch by NewRisingSun left out?
Umm... because I didn't know there was one :o

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Re: Quest for Glory Anthology Installer

#24 Post by Schloss Ritter » Tue Sep 09, 2008 10:39 pm

Looks like a 1.21 or 1.3 is in order then ;)

By the way, this installer should totally be added to this site: http://tawmis.com/collector/ (along with the individual installers already there).

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Re: Quest for Glory Anthology Installer

#25 Post by Goilveig » Wed Sep 10, 2008 1:37 am

Here's another question maybe someone knows. I tried emailing NewRisingSun but the email address is dead. Which are the newest patches of his?

http://tawmis.com/collector/Patches-Upd ... dates.html seems to have larger patches that change more files, while http://www.geocities.com/belzorash/ seems to be his official site but has smaller patches with fewer changes. None of the patches have version info, they all claim the same fixes.

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