SF install assistance needed

[HEMISENT]

Frinik
Thank you for the offer and I may yet take you up on it. The friend who dl'd the game for me is returning in a couple days...I'm hoping I can re-copy the game making sure I get the correct contents this time. If this somehow blows up in my face then I will PM you for sure. Can you believe I've been trying to get this stupid thing since Christmas time? Makes you want to chuck sims and go buy a Playstation or something.

Thanks once again.

[frinik]

I prefectly understand yoru frustrations Hemi as I have been following your long treck to get the game ever since you originally started looking for it.

Your problem seems to be connected to your pc though not to the installtion Cd since it works well on your friend's pc. There's something missing and since you have Direct X9 C installed and all your drivers updated I really wonder

I have the game installed on a laptop and a pc with 2 different OS Win 7 64 bits and Vista 32 and absolutely no issues. I also have 2 different anti viruses AVG and Panda thus we can eliminate these causes as well.

Have you looked into your BIN folder? Take a look and see if you have a shell file.My suspîcion is that a file is missing either one of the codelib ones(base_main or base_install or base_gener) of perhaps the shell starter .You should also have in the same BIN folder the following:

d3dx9_31,35,36,37,38 and 39 and msvcm80, msvcp80, msvcr80. All these files are eseential for the game to start or work properly.

One way or the other we are goign to solve your problem. don't quit!

Cheers

[HEMISENT]

Thanks Frinik
I have no intention of giving this up and greatly appreciate all the help from both you and Kyth.

Checking the bin folder as I write to compare and I find:

shell.exe, all 3 base files you mention (11 total base_ files), also seeing the d3dx9_31,35,36,37,38 and 39 and msvcm80, msvcp80, msvcr80. Everything in your list appears to be there.

I got an E mail from the guy who dl'd it and he checked his laptop for the setup.exe in question and it does exist on his machine. I think right now the first step is to get another copy burned and check all the files-those you mention plus the setup.exe. That probably won't happen till late tomorrow or even Monday.

[frinik]

OK good but do you see the shell folder at the bottom of the list?This where the soul of the game is , the spark if you will.Without it your game is.... Uh an empty shell

[HEMISENT]

Frinik
Sorry for not getting back sooner, my work load has been really heavy this week. As for a "shell" folder you refer to, all I have in the bin folder is a "shell.exe"

3 base_ files
8 basic_files
1 compress dll file
6 d3dx9 files
a microsoft manifest file
3 msvcp or m files you mentioned earlier
1 shell.exe file

no shell folder

[Kyth]

I have no shell folder on my CD either.

I hope you've gotten your new copy of the CD (with the setup.exe this time),

[HEMISENT]

Kyth
Thanks-should be picking it up this weekend, unfortunately real life reared it's ugly head once again and I was swamped with work.

Glad to hear there is no shell folder-I guess I misunderstood Frinik's reply.
Right now, thanks to both of you I have an idea what to look for on the new copied disc and will be sure to double check the contents before I go through all this again.

H

[frinik]

Yes >Hemi actually <i should have been more specific there's only shell.exe file.

BTW You did not mention the protect folders inn the bin/rel folder there a protect exe , protect dll and protect.x64 and protect.x86 folders as well( I guess it depends on what type of OS 32 or 64 bits).Do you have them?

One idea comes to mind .What if I email you my starter.exe file in rar format? Just paste into your game and see if it starts? What do you think?Might be worth a try....

[HEMISENT]

Hello Frinik
Just sitting down reading this and find your referance to "protect.#" folders...there is nothing that even closely resembles that. I just now called my friend, told him of your reply and we agreed to bring my computer over to his place and re-dl the game from Gamersgate. He says it runs perfectly on his machine that's why we're puzzled that the copy seems to have gotten so screwed up. I wonder what other files if any are missing.

If for some reason I cannot get to his place I'd really appreciate it if you could e mail me the set.exe and see what happens. I'll know by later tomorrow hopefully.

Thanks for everything
H

[Kyth]

To clarify things a little:

The 'protect' files and starter.exe will only appear after installation.

The setup.exe executable is needed, to start the actual installation process, which I think is the main problem?

Get it installed first, is what I'm saying, then see if you have all the other stuff.

[HEMISENT]

Kyth
what you said makes sense. Some files don't show up until the install process is complete and the game has run. What I'm wondering is if the game downloaded, and my friend copied that download or did he install it, start it, then copy it to a disk. Having never ever dl'd a game before I didn't think of this. I think there may have been process that was required to make a successful copy.

He went out of town on business right after all this so we never really got to iron it out.

Thank You
H

[frinik]

Yes what Kyth says makes sense but my understanding is that you have the game installed but it just won´t start.Is´n´t it?

As for copying the game it works very well.I have 9 copies of my game on a pc and a laptop and they work without a problem( the only thing with copying id that you have to re-create the Mission Editor every time as it does not work on a copy but I have the bat files copied to a folder so it´s not a problem for me).

Worse comes to worse I ll make a rar file for the protect files that I have and email them to you as well.What kind of OS do you have? I have the game installed on Vista Home Premium 32 bits and Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bits.

Hang on!

[HEMISENT]

Originally Posted by frinik

Yes what Kyth says makes sense but my understanding is that you have the game installed but it just won´t start.Is´n´t it?

Frinik
Negative. I have a copy of the dl'd game on a disc. I cannot get the game to install. As we now know there is no setup.exe file on my copy, only something called autorun.exe which only brings up the install screen but does nothing else.

H

[frinik]

Sorry Hemi my misunderstanding! I put my Cd installation disc in my pc , opened the folder and made a copy of the setup.exe file on a USB.Might be worth emailing it to you as a rar file so you could paste into into your CD's game files? Might work! What do you say? If you're Ok just PM me your email address.

Cheers

[HEMISENT]

SUCCESS AT LAST!!! sort of

Here's the latest question in this saga. My friend and I dl'd the game at his place last night using his connection on my computer. 35 minutes later it successfully completed, we installed it successfully. The game started on my rig and ran just fine...no issues, I'm happy at last.

Just out of curiosity we checked the game contents looking for the previously missing setup.exe file. It's not there. We checked his computer that originally was used a couple weeks ago...no setup.exe either. I compared the screen shot of Kyth's game contents earlier in this thread and it matches perfectly except for the setup.exe.

Frinik;
I just pm'd you.

Having never dl'd a game before I have no clue what's going on.
I'm hoping that with your "setup.exe" I can add that to the game contents which will allow me to make copies as you have in case something crashes.