Mechanically they are quite similar, in the same way all FPS games are similar to every other FPS game. You could also make the same argument about racing games and platformers.

They belong to the same genre or sub-genre that's for sure. However, they are completely different In terms of graphics, world design and storyline-concept.

Not that Binding of Isaac invented this style of gameplay, the "room-to-room" shooter has been around for decades now, like GOG's own Alien Breed for example, yet Isaac is the most popular one perhaps.

Since Binding of Issac was itself not unique in it's mechanics, it was the visual design and storyline-concept that made it unique. You can plead the same case for Starward Rogue.

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Starting the base game and downloading the patches first. With UAC controls it will interrupt the auto updater after the zip files are downloaded (as it wants permissions before it will execute, saying no will simply prevent the update from finalizing).

The zip files are saved in RuntimeData/Updates. Save the zip files, and you got the updates.

Using the updates is fairly simple, copy to this folder, and then run the UDA/ArcenUpdater.exe which will find the updates already in the folder and extract them as appropriate.

edit: To note, I'll take the updates i have collected and put them where they can be downloaded. Which will be for all the games. Last Federation, Bionic Dues, Starward Rogue, and any others i am forgetting about. If they are large enough as a whole I'll have to supply a download helper since the site I'm using is iffy with large files.

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Correct.

The zips/updates will be in the game's Runtime/updates folder. There will probably be more than one, as each zip is an incremental update. the filenames are also 4 numbers, specifically the version number. so for Bionic dues you'd have 1008.zip, 1017.zip, 1100.zip, and 1103.zip. The updater also makes a text file specifying these versions are downloaded and ready to install.

Running the Updater under UDA/ArcenUpdater.exe is merely what the game would call anyways, you just inturrupted that step.

I'll be uploading the bulk of updates fairly soon, tonight for anyone who doesn't manage to get this all done. Besides having all of them at once will be easier than doing it manually. Curious I did a search and found Shattered Haven is an Arcen game, so I had to download updates for that too :P Makes 5 games I have updates for. The smaller games I'll probably include a separate zip rather than a combined zip.


As for expansions, I don't see any special updates for expansions, it goes for the game/program period. I tried Last Federation without DLC and With and got the same packages, so if there's a special case, I don't know.

All the updates available on arcen updater are just smaller bug fixes that are to small to be included in to main installer. Arcen usually updates the game installers when they push big updates. I asked Chris Park about this once and he said that it takes so much time to update the base game that its not worth it unless its for bigger updates so they rather pay for the bandwith for smaller patches then to update main installer. Also they think about all of their games as under development. Even those like Ai War, that are like officially finished :)

Starward Rogue has 20Mb and 80Mb patches... so I don't know. Still I'd like offline updates avaliable. Just in case

Alright, got it done. For simplicity use The downloader.

Personally I hate downloaders, but the website I'm using hates files above 5Mb and loves to drop files and say they are complete when they aren't. Trust me, with a 6 part file it was hell. This simplifies things; All the downloader does is confirm the filesize is correct, as that's likely where it will break. If you really don't want to use a downloader and want to do your own thing, Be my guest.

For the games with smaller updates, we have:

Bionic Dues
Shattered Haven
The Last Federation

Notes about use: The downloader automatically starts inside a folder it creates. Don't move it out of the folder. Why? Because the downloads are split into parts, 20 something parts. Having 1 folder containing the 20 something parts is easier than your desktop covered with a bunch of files, and cleaning them up later is annoying.

Finally there's a md5 checksum file that is downloaded you can verify the files with if you feel paranoid. Otherwise use 7zip when it's complete. The large download includes for 5 games i have. Including The last Federation, Bionic Dues, Shattered Haven, AI Wars, and Skyward Rogue.


edit: Experimenting with decompressed zips vs compressed zips and relying on 7zip to do the compression, and saved something close to 18 megs. This might be worth scrapping the current files and reuploading them. Of course extracted the zips for the updates are much larger because they are uncompressed. Hmmm... Since it's already in place I'll leave things as they are.