Ahw, aren''t you forgetting the c64?

I was including C64 when I said Amiga (it''s a name thing, Commodore /Amiga are the same).

Though I really wonder what you people are talking about. What is a cracker ?

I like crackers with some cream cheese and sprouts! It is really cool to install those babys!

Matthew Fitzgerald (Maketty),
Knightvision Games

Eheheh but if you install too many you have to make a serious download! That stinks up the bathroom though

Matthew Fitzgerald (Maketty),
Knightvision Games

Guys is it really needed to flame him?
He didnt ask for a warez site etc, he asked a question about software development.

Quite a valid one too, because those installers do look very slick. Whether its a front end for a warez installer, or the frontend of a legit app, has nothing to do with how they are made....

I myself would like to know a few tricks like non rectangular windows etc...

Cel

Well, I almost become a hacker wanna be. But when I write my own installer, patcher, I get to know all the hard work that people went through to develop software. I was lucky enough not to release anything bad. Yeah, i can write " Buy if you like it" in the .NFO ( hacker version of .TXT ) But nobody going to listen to it anyway. So now I going to be a good programmer who program for good. Since game is cool, I enjoy game programming.
Speaking of installer, things is getting lamer. Long time ago groups will release warez along with demo intro. Now with cool installer. And currently, since Myth Elite formed ( Origin + Paradigm ) Their installer getting lamer. All they have to change is rename a passworded zip ( .ZIP ) to ( .DAT ). Well, they can''t fool me. ( Thier .ZIP for Worms Armageddon are not passworded, so I can listen to music.mod without having to load their only scroller installer ).

Thier installer for Tomb 2 Gold isn''t not a real one exe app ( so does current installer ), actually is a compressed program who link .dll and uncompress it into Windows\Temp . So I can get the SAE.mod from there :-) Nowdays, the real one exe app standalone is 64K Intro of demo scene.

How to write one? You can create a dialog based app, and you can use bitmap resource for buttons. There is tutorials at www.codeguru.com on how to do this. The rest is Win32 programming.

You can also write from scratch a 30 frame per second Win 32 app so you can create moving grraphcis and still use Win32 programming ( Game prog for dummies / tricks of the win game prog theach how to do this ).

If you want it to be cooler, you can create a windowed DirectDraw/ Direct3D app. But your user must have Dx already installed. If the installer is used to install DX, this is not good.

You can use FastGraph www.fastgraph.com to build a static link win32 app that has fast graphics that require no driver on user part.

To play .XM ( almost all trakkers format can be converted such as .MOD, .S3M ... to .XM ) you can use MiniFMOD for free from www.fmod.org.

To put your install data into .ZIP ( which can be renamed to .DAT to fool anyone lamer enough) you can use ZLIB.

To make your installer smaller you can use UPX. ( Almost all 64k intro use UPX ).

If you want to create cool graphics, you can use OpenGL too. Most PC has OpenGL driver.

Cool graphics can be learn from www.cfxweb.net or anywhere related to game programming / graphics programming.

Now be happy and create *cool* installer . Don''t be a lamer by doing an installer that only play .XM and switch game graphics. Create installer that have cool real time graphics.

Want to know me? Go to http://surf.to/mwgames

Remember, I not a hacker. I''m a fan of demoscene. Old days warez cames with demo and I *only* get the demo ( not the warez ) Nowdays the installer getting lamer ( but CLASS still create cool installer, unlike Myth Elite ).

Currently, If I want to get cool graphics, just download 64K intro at www.cfxweb.net

By the way, look 64K intro called please the cookie thing and 7th heaven. See what can be done using 64k of app. Now you can create cool installer.

Hope this answer your question.

I was a demoscener some years ago.
I left the scene 2 yeras ago, and now I''m into game development.

The history of crackers/hackers and sceners has been the same until some year in the late 80''s.
Hacking groups were made up by people hacking apps AND writing cool intros.
When intros became too much complex, sceners and hackers divided.
In general the cool effect you see in warez intros aren''t as cool as demosceners'' ones.

Just for saying if you want to write a good-looking loader it''s not the same thing as writing demos.

Altough the scene has changed a lot in the last years, if you wanna do some REAL democoding, start from 4kb intros 100% asm.

I started there.

If you want to make something more, I suggest you to code a 64kb using the old but good mxm player for playing xm''s. Use pmode (don''t remember what''s the last version, sorry) as extender and start with some technical paper about vga and vesa.

As for 3d, real democoding isn''t made with OpenGL or DirectX... use your own asm software renderer! Some years ago there were software renderers which supported a lot of features we see in today''s graphics accelerators (perspective texture mapping+fake phong shading/env mapping+bump mapping)!

You can start looking for an asm tutorial and then look for old intros with sources (i personally found inconexia demo from iguana (a spanish group) a great source of inspiration and knowledge. Other cool demos/intros with sources are Giant! (a good 4kb featuring a mars-style voxel rendering) and others I can''t remember.).
If you take the sources and learn from them (not rip them), don''t consider yourself a lamer. Lamerz are those ripping sources stating it''s their own code, not those looking at other sources for understanding the algo!

If you want, I can have a look at my old demostuff folder in my home PC and post tomorrow some reference to good intros with sources.