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  • Joined: 16 Mar 2005
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MEKA Installer and NSIscript code
Post Posted: Fri Oct 27, 2006 7:55 pm
Last edited by BiafraRepublic on Thu Jun 03, 2010 9:37 am; edited 7 times in total
Hi everyone!

I've been toying around with the idea about writing an installer for MEKA for a while. Then I pitched it to Bock, and he thought it was interesting.

..and the rest was history.

I created the installer-maker script using HM NIS Edit (http://hmne.sf.net/), a front-end/editor/IDE for the powerful Nullsoft Scriptable Installer System, or NSIS for short (http://nsis.sf.net/).

The .nsi scripts are used by NSIS to (which can be found instead of being listed in the post directly, since one of the shortcuts causes a spam error) generate the executable installers:

For MEKA 0.71
http://tpr.gushi.org/goldeneye/meka/mekaw071.nsi - NSI Script
http://tpr.gushi.org/goldeneye/meka/mekaw071.exe - Installer

For MEKA 0.72
http://tpr.gushi.org/goldeneye/meka/mekaw072.nsi - NSI Script
http://tpr.gushi.org/goldeneye/meka/mekaw072.exe - Installer

For MEKA 0.73 NEW!
http://tpr.gushi.org/goldeneye/meka/mekaw073.nsi - NSI Script
http://tpr.gushi.org/goldeneye/meka/mekaw073.exe - Installer

Feel free to test it out and let me (and Bock as well ;) ) know what you think.

-Biafra
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Post Posted: Fri Oct 27, 2006 10:53 pm
You ought to make a better, different icon for the installer; even the default NSIS one is better than having it look the same as the MEKA executable.

I realise it's something you took off the shelf, but the MUI stuff is not Unicode and thus sucks (and doesn't display properly for me because I've not set Windows to assume MBCS encoding for anything).

Fullscreen blue->black gradients are so Windows 3.1! Keep it windowed, maybe add a side/top wizard graphic.

Can you lose the "close other applications" crap? Meka doesn't need it.

You should give an option not to make a start menu shortcut.
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Post Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2006 7:13 am
Maxim wrote
You ought to make a better, different icon for the installer; even the default NSIS one is better than having it look the same as the MEKA executable.


I realized that. I did toy with the idea of using one of the other icons (the default NSIS one is so generic). But I felt the MEKA icon was the best choice currently...

Maxim wrote
I realise it's something you took off the shelf, but the MUI stuff is not Unicode and thus sucks (and doesn't display properly for me because I've not set Windows to assume MBCS encoding for anything).


Keep in mind I'm running Windows 98 while working this, which has little, if any, unicode support.

Maxim wrote
Fullscreen blue->black gradients are so Windows 3.1! Keep it windowed, maybe add a side/top wizard graphic.


Eliminating the gradient is a possibility, though I haven't figured out how to add a side/top graphic, so that's out for now...

Maxim wrote
Can you lose the "close other applications" crap? Meka doesn't need it.


That's another thing I can't change for now. Sorry!

Maxim wrote
You should give an option not to make a start menu shortcut.


Odd... I thought I added that. Oh well, I'll see if that can be arranged.


Another possibility is a intro splash pic (possible candidates include the MEKA header pic from the main page, though I am open to suggestions/candidates)
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Post Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2006 12:30 pm
Thanks a lot.
I will try to have this integrated, and consider releasing Win32 installers along with a ZIP on the official homepage. It's good for many users.
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:P installers :P
Post Posted: Sat Nov 11, 2006 9:35 am
Alright Update i Just made a new installer, I saw this installer on here and was amazed it exists, i had already made one, but just for kicks i made a new one :) hope you like it

http://gamendesign.servegame.com/sega/
just made the page to show the installer.

http://gamendesign.servegame.com/meka.exe

(unoficial) but hopefully you'll like it :P

its a developers package.

has:

0.71
0.72 wip

Configurator
other utilities from

Maxim's World of Stuff - SMS/Meka stuff

zip files

themes included.

10 megabyte file in all
_______________
recommend if your not a developer
do not get this package for it is larger
than the original --> zip file
wich is

mekaw071.zip (733 KB)

or the other installer :) wich is made by
-Biafra

Thanks :) hope you enjoy
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Updated installer and code.
Post Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 9:20 pm
Last edited by BiafraRepublic on Fri Dec 15, 2006 2:22 am; edited 1 time in total
I apologize for any lack of updates, as I upgraded to Windows ME. I added a couple of features to the installer code and recompiled, New Features:

(*) Detects if DirectX is installed and downloads DirectX 9 if it isn't. After which the installer SHOULD continue on restart... (EXPERIMENTAL!!!)
(*) Installation now requires user-level priveleges in all Windows versions (before it would require Administrator access in Windows Vista, but user-level in 9X/ME/NT/2000/XP)
(*) Option for disabling Start Menu shortcut creation (Thanks, Maxim!)
(*) Quick and dirty Splash screen for the installer. (The sound clip is directly recorded from MEKA, while the image can be found here. Don't be afraid, the bitmap is only 75K or so and in 256 colors...)
(*) UPX-compressed header (which can be set up by editing nsisconf.nsh in your NSIS root folder)
(*) Added the following extensions to the registry and linked them to MEKA as the type "MEKA-compatible ROM image"
> .sms (Master System/Mark III rom extension)
> .sf7 (SF-7000 rom extension)
> .gg (GameGear rom extension)
> .sc (SC-3000 rom extension)
> .sg (SG-1000/Mark II rom extension)

The download link has been updated.

(NOTE: I did not add any extensions for Othello Multivision or Coleco Colecovision, since I do not own those consoles or any games for them. Any help on this would be appreciated. (Also, I did not associate .bin, because I didn't want to ruin anyone's that usins Good* tools on their roms. Go figure...))
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Post Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 11:39 pm
There is a problem with the order of the dialogs. The first is ok, it says "click next to begin installing", but the second one says "successfully installed, click finish"! Clicking finish doesn't finish, it continues along like the normal installer should.
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Post Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 11:36 pm
DMEnduro wrote
There is a problem with the order of the dialogs. The first is ok, it says "click next to begin installing", but the second one says "successfully installed, click finish"! Clicking finish doesn't finish, it continues along like the normal installer should.


OOPS! Sorry 'bout that. I'm fixin' it now...

EDIT: Fixed it and recompiled/reposted things. Try now.
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Re: Updated installer and code.
Post Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2006 9:08 am
BiafraRepublic wrote
I apologize for any lack of updates, as I upgraded to Windows ME.

(OT) That's arguable, most consider ME to be a downgrade from 98 and that both are not safe to use on an internet-connected PC.

BiafraRepublic wrote
(NOTE: I did not add any extensions for Othello Multivision or Coleco Colecovision, since I do not own those consoles or any games for them. Any help on this would be appreciated. (Also, I did not associate .bin, because I didn't want to ruin anyone's that usins Good* tools on their roms. Go figure...))

Colecovision tends to use .rom (same issues as .bin), OMV tends to use .sg; but you will find .bin, .col and .omv occasionally.
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Re: Updated installer and code.
Post Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2006 9:21 am
BiafraRepublic wrote
I apologize for any lack of updates, as I upgraded to Windows ME. I added a couple of features to the installer code and recompiled, New Features:

(*) Detects if DirectX is installed and downloads DirectX 9 if it isn't. After which the installer SHOULD continue on restart... (EXPERIMENTAL!!!)
(*) Installation now requires user-level priveleges in all Windows versions (before it would require Administrator access in Windows Vista, but user-level in 9X/ME/NT/2000/XP)
(*) Option for disabling Start Menu shortcut creation (Thanks, Maxim!)
(*) Quick and dirty Splash screen for the installer. (The sound clip is directly recorded from MEKA, while the image can be found here. Don't be afraid, the bitmap is only 75K or so and in 256 colors...)
(*) UPX-compressed header (which can be set up by editing nsisconf.nsh in your NSIS root folder)
(*) Added the following extensions to the registry and linked them to MEKA as the type "MEKA-compatible ROM image"
> .sms (Master System/Mark III rom extension)
> .sf7 (SF-7000 rom extension)
> .gg (GameGear rom extension)
> .sc (SC-3000 rom extension)
> .sg (SG-1000/Mark II rom extension)

The download link has been updated.

(NOTE: I did not add any extensions for Othello Multivision or Coleco Colecovision, since I do not own those consoles or any games for them. Any help on this would be appreciated. (Also, I did not associate .bin, because I didn't want to ruin anyone's that usins Good* tools on their roms. Go figure...))



I like your new installer :) thanks for the update.
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Post Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 10:15 pm
This is partly to make sure that this doesn't die and all.

I'll be updating the MEKA Installer later tonight, hopefully. However, here's a couple of things that'll be new...

    Added a UPX header compression line to the the NSI file (making it easier to config UPX header compression)
    Adding .col and .omv (Colecovision and Othello Multivision) to the list of extensions to associate with MEKA
    Adding option to associate or not in the installer.


Also 2 other things...

1.) For all MEKA users running Windows Vista, the installer recognizes DirectX 10 without a hitch...
2.) If no one can find any faults in running MEKA on Vista, I plan on stripping the Vista installation warning in a future post

EDIT: All files updated
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Post Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 2:25 am
Last edited by BiafraRepublic on Sat May 19, 2007 6:24 am; edited 1 time in total
<strikeout>Now available for 0.72 RC1... the MEKA Installer...
Get it from the links above.</strikeout>

Redundant as of release of the 0.72 final version installer...
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Post Posted: Sat May 19, 2007 6:23 am
MEKA Installer now updated to 0.72 final version.

Fixed a couple glaring bugs

1.) MEKA Configurtion shortcut (hopefully) now works and (likely) is removable on install...
2.) Added reboot to (hopefully) eliminate all traces of the "MEKA-compatible ROM Image" from Windows (particularly Windows 98). So far so good...
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Post Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 9:42 pm
Just wanted to let you know that I'm still alive and all that stuff. Now for a couple of things:

This weekend I'm removing the Vista compatibility warning, after some testing on a Vista Ultimate-based system. Also, after some testing on my old POS (before grabbing DirectX 9) I realized that the code for the DirectX downloader isn't really doing what it's supposed to do, so I'm scrapping the downloader and replacing it with a trap to open up Microsoft's DirectX page before quitting if it doesn't direct DirectX >= 7.0. With that as well as adding some commenting to make things easier for people to understand, this will take a while. I should have the .nsi files up by monday

Also the URLs have changed. Take heed.

-Biafra
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Post Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 9:32 am
Another MEKA version, another updated Windows installer. (Apologies for the delay, I only found out about it 18 hours prior to posting this).

A couple tidbits:
1.) The NSI script has been cleaned up, and utilizes NSIS 2.46 and the Modern UI 2 (same thing, uses nsDialogs instead of MUI_INSTALLOPTIONS_* macros.
2.) The SetCompressorDictSize has been decreased to 128 due to an NSIS deflateInit() error.
3.) The Installer header has been packed using UPX v3.04w
4.) All of the links above have changed (again).

-Biafra
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Post Posted: Wed Nov 05, 2014 10:46 am
Yes, I'm still extant, and posting updates. This one is going to be a fun one, too, as I've done some interesting things


  1. Switched to Unicode NSIS 2.46.5 from www.scratchpapaer.com
  2. UPX doesn't seem to like to play nice with Unicode NSIS, and as it only shaved off a few KB from the final install size, I've decided to strip the UPX lines from earlier
  3. Increased SetCompressDictSize up to 163. Anything higher causes errors for me, YMMV. Adjust as needed to your system.
  4. Added in an APPBETA flag (commented out by default) for those of you who wish to package the current beta into an installer using NSIS, so that the datafiles folder that exists in the 0.80 beta can be included, without having to maintain two .NSI files. The output should end up as an EXE named something similar to mekaw080-beta.exe
  5. Added in VIAddVersionKey attributes and the VIProductVersion attribute, to make it neat and tidy on modern Windows versions. NOTE that the VIProductVersion us formated as x.yy.0.0 as opposed to something more simple like x.yy. This is required by the VIProductVersion attribute.
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