Yeah, I did. And I hold no grudge against you despite not using smileys.
Meh, script is script, whether it's in typed code or generated through a GUI.

I like code, I've had fun learning HTML, Javascript, CSS, and PHP, and I'm continuing to have fun with Python, cmd, bash, Inno Setup, and Autohotkey. Slowly but surely I'll attack real programming languages as well rather than just scripting.

In theory could this be used if I installed BG, BG2, BG Tutu and then made one perfect little executable? I suspect it sounds too easy.

Karl

That's basically what I did with the discs before GOG got the games. Set up the games for your preferences and mods, then make an installer with InnoSetup (seeing how the free version of Advanced Installer cannot do >2GB installers and the BG games aren't exactly lightweight)... it requires a bit of tinkering to handle different install locations, but is entirely doable.

Another way would be to zip the game's folder together with a registry export of the required entries - less work to begin with, but slightly more work when reinstalling (and quite a bit of work when installing to another location).

That's quite exciting actually. However as it is 0110 here currently, it can wait until I get up again.

Thanks for the information :)

Karl

Thanks everybody for all the input. I'll try to process my Carmageddon in the not so distant future and see what I end up with. :)

I really dislike how the installer runs integrity checks on launching (twice if you're on Vista/7). It should be optional in the installer itself, having it run automatically every time is just annoying, even if you can skip it.

The way how Game Explorer functions has changed (going from Vista to 7), but GOG still cling to their Vista ways, and probably that's why it gets bloated with useless crap.

A nicely done GE integration is Starcraft 2's for example. Just with one icon you can run the game, run the game as an administrator, run the map editor, repair the game (if some files got corrupted somehow), go to your battle.net account management website, go to blizzard's support website.

Its intent is to have everything a game offers in one place (eliminating the need to fill the Start menu with lots of shortcuts), just the problem is that so few developers take advantage of it.

Check out this thread for an example installer:

http://www.gog.com/en/forum/general/teenagent_windows_7_server_2008_r2_installer

GREAT! :D I'll check it when I'm back home. Thanks for the efforts.

I'm not really sure most repliers replied to the right question in the original post. You've all guided him on how to build a GOG style installer application, but not actually playing Carmageddon on a modern system without the CD with the CD music intact.
That's an entirely different and much more complex issue.
With Carmageddon being old enough, one solution isn't too hard to do - as it was a game with both DOS and Windows code on the same disc, you can make an image of the CD, and make a Dosbox setup that will auto-mount the CD image to let you install and play the game with the music as if you had the CD in the drive. For Windows programs that is much harder to do - Daemon Tools does exist, which allow you to mount CD images in Windows, but if you have that installed it could conflict with a lot of modern DRM-heavy games, which check for Daemon Tools and other popular virtual disc programs and won't run unless those programs are uninstalled, even though you own a legal copy of the game and don't run the disc through virtualisation.
GOG games that use CD images in Windows use proprietary programs for that, probably a combination of changing the actual game, and using GOGWrapper or some other part of the GOG game install to handle the virtualisation. I do not know which program they use for that, if they even use something that isn't in-house.

For Carmageddon your best bet is to just use DOSBox, the setup would be one time only, then you can just copy the folder around - make a bin/cue image of your Carmageddon disc, set up your preferred directory structure (make an empty folder with an easy name and path to use as the root hard drive for Dosbox, make a subfolder named CD or something like that and copy the CD image there. Start DOSBox and mount the root folder as C (i.e. mount c C:\DOSBOX), and write imgmount d "carmageddon.bin" -t iso -fs iso, then go to the D:\ drive, write INSTALL or what the DOS install command for Carmageddon was, install the game as you would using the game's default path, to DOSBoxes virtual hard drive, and there you have the base install done.
Next you open the dosbox.conf file that came with your Dosbox install, and at the end of the file (below the [autoexec] line) you put the commands that will be issued at the moment you launch Dosbox, something like:
[i]mount c C:\DOSBOX
imgmount d "carmageddon.bin" -t iso -fs iso
C:
cd CARMA
carma.exe (or what the name of the DOS executable was, I don't remember it right now)
exit[/i]

These lines will automatically mount your virtual hard disc and carmageddon CD, and start Carmageddon, and then close Dosbox when you exit the game, pretty much the way GOG does it. You can then copy the Dosbox folder anywhere you want and run the game automatically from that folder.

GREAT SCOTT! :D

I did think that expecting someone to build a complete guide to the game itself was kinda wanting too much, so double kudos to you for doing that. :D

Now I must find me some time to try it.

Once again: THANK YOU!

Some edits are needed to have that be really "gogified" and accept different install locations, but for the intended purpose that may be overkill.

I don't think any of GOG's Windows games use disc images.

Also, though it's mostly redundant by fisk0's post, I wrote this up earlier but didn't get around to posting it:

For shits and giggles I went ahead and created a pretty nicely set up Carmageddon installer using InnoSetup. Not going to post the installer itself for obvious reasons, but I can give a complete walkthrough. I don't know how much you already know how to do, so instead of going through every single step, I'll outline it and then you can ask for clarification.

* Make a "complete package" folder which everything goes into
* Make bin/cue image of the game
* Install DOSBox
* Install game in DOSbox
* Create DOSBox config file to automatically mount the package folder, cuesheet and launch the game (using paths relative to the package folder, enabling easy installation to different locations)
* Create installer from the contents of the package folder, editing the script so that all shortcuts and paths are set up correctly.

Games Explorer integration is a complete different subject, and one I'm not stepping into today (I need to learn more about it first).

You need to download DirectX SDK. By installing it, you'll get a tool to create Game Definition Files (.gdf) that contain all the information about the game, like publishers, developers, release date, version, launch commands, support links and similar stuff.

To integrate that info in the Games Explorer via an installer, you'll either need Windows SDK and Orca (if you use a MSI) or a script like the one here (if you use InstallShield, InnoSetup and similar stuff): http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee419047%28VS.85%29.aspx#ID4EKC

Note that you won't be able to add ratings, as that requires a digital signature (unless you have one).

I know about the DX SDK, and probably have that link stored somewhere. I just haven't gotten into trying to use the tools. Thanks though.