19 replies to this topic

[sigtau]

If someone were to make a .qst to .exe converter (sorry, Linux and OS X users) that took the ZC engine for the version the quest is compatible with, inserts it into an EXE along with the quest data (while linking 'em together somehow) and presto, you'd have your own Zelda game that you can send to your friends without having them download the player.

Why hasn't this been done yet? Sure the games would be large, but most .exe files of games these days are usually greater than 24 megabytes, no?

I'll leave the community to discuss this. ZC Devs, take a look into this when you're not distracted by brawl. My account at AGN is trash, so hopefully someone can pass this along.

[Eddard McHorn Van-Schnuder]

I'm sure there's a reason they have'nt done this... Though, I would really like it...
But I'm sure this has been discussed alot of times...

[Shoelace]

Well first I do think a full 2.5 release would have to happen if this will happen. But I actually would love this idea as most of my friends are just too lazy to find the ZC versions so that is why they won't play my game. If it was one straight download it could be different. I don't know if it will happen, but I am not going to lie, it sounds like a great idea.

[CastChaos]

I don't like the sound of it. An universal player in which any .qst file can be inserted is much better than having an .exe file (with its file size) for ALL games I download. Think about it. A ZC player's size for every ZC game instead of the usual .qst file size. PLUS if you play a quest through the ZC player, you can copy your save, which is very good if the quest has more endings. And how would saving solved? EXEs aren't usually standalone files, they need a heap of support files... .sav, .dat, .log, etc... If everything would be in an .exe, then it's size would soar and all games be with this size, with onlyone save slot? It's not ZC! And who is lazy to download a program that doesn't require setup, should burn in a house... and would most probably die upon setting up a program like ePSXe...

[Eddard McHorn Van-Schnuder]

I think of ZC as a video game console... Like Wii or 360...
Though, I STILL think this is a good idea...
ZC console shouldn't be ''deleted''... But using EXE's should be an option, for those who wants to.

[Twilight Knight]

ZC console shouldn't be ''deleted''... But using EXE's should be an option, for those who wants to.

True point, I'm sure lots of people will make use of it then, me for example. Most of my friends don't want to play it because they don't want to download ZC. Why, Castchaos? Because they only want to play 1 game!
But I agree to Shoelace, first 2.5, that's more important.

[Peteo]

But I agree to Shoelace, first 2.5, that's more important.

When will this 2.5 happen, anyone got any idea? LOL...

[Joe123]

Wouldn't it be a good idea to make 'proposals to the developers' at their forum?

[Link1]

Wouldn't it be a good idea to make 'proposals to the developers' at their forum?

Or not, given there's a supposed "feature freeze"?

Edited by Link1, 29 March 2008 - 09:37 AM.

[Beefster]

I've thought of this before. You could set the title screen and stuff. All it would do is package it up into one file plus config and save files. You would still be able to have 3-15 save files, except custom quests other than your own would be disabled. It's really more of a convenience toward people who won't download the engine.

[Captain Magenta]

Executable files for ZC quests are not the greatest idea to me since due to the inherent size of the file with everything being packed into that said executable file, it would likely still deter people from downloading the quest when they have a twenty plus megabyte file to download. Besides that, if the questmaker has concerns about people not wanting to play due to not wanting to download the player, the questmaker could easily bundle the player into the zipfile with the quest which would produce a similar filesize to an executable file anyway and would also keep people from having to hunt for the proper build of ZC since it would be included. In either case, the file would also realistically be too large to be hosted by most free services and public sites like PureZC would likely not be too enthused about the possibility of hosting multiple twenty MB plus quest files simply for the convenience of not having to download the ZC software. I think the current system has worked well since you only download what you need to have and once we have a stable and complete build of ZC available that everyone can use without fear of bugs, that will eliminate the need to have to figure out what build a quest uses since everyone will be using that new and complete ZC build for quest creation. If the filesize of these quests and the player is daunting to you anyway as is, then your internet connnection is unfortunately obsolete (Dialup) and really not ideal for downloading material of this size anyway; I know about the frustration of dialup since I only have it for the most part in my apartment but I do find wireless access elsewhere to compensate for this issue so it's not a huge problem for me at the moment. I would say keep things as they are for now and push for the completion of the 2.5 Build so that everyone will be on the same page with the build they use to create and play quests and when everyone has that one time download for the newest, most stable, and complete ZC build, then only quests which inherently are smaller files anyway will need to be downloaded and will allievate the need to have either a bundled in ZC player or an executable conversion, both of which are huge files that are difficult to host.....

[Alestance]

The reason why this isn't done is because, if you do it for one OS, the users of the other 2 will complain to no end. The QST to EXE conversion IN Zquest would dramaticly increase the size of Zelda Classic. Multiply the increase by three, since, I won't let the devs hear the end of it until I get QST -> Linux executable, and I will complain to everyone to make Linux executables so I can play them to.

Basicly: *I'M* the reason

[Shoelace]

Well the thing is a lot of people are saying that it isn't a good idea because of the size of the file. But this is what I think:

I think .qst files should stay. True that. Because I wouldn't want to download that large of files for every game that I play. However, that is just for us ZC players.

I think this is a good idea for the non ZC people. My family and friends won't play my game HoD because, they have to download the program and learn to you use everything before playing it. However, if you were able to make it a exe file. You can just click on it and HoD will be played. Easy as that. That is why I think it is a good idea.

ZC people = .qst files
New Players that will most likely only play one game = .exe file

Great idea to get people playing your games in my opinion. I am just saying it would be a nice option to make both .qst files and .exe files of it.

[sigtau]

That's actually what I meant the whole time: An optional program that inserts your ZC engine into an EXE with your specified .qst file. It's not required though, and not a replacement at all for any .qst file.

[Nicholas Steel]

Linux users can use wine, mac can use intel cpu and bootcamp. i do not like exe file idea though.