Aurora v5.54 Full Installation

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

PLEASE CAREFULLY READ EVERYTHING IN THIS POST BEFORE INSTALLING

Below is a complete new installation for Aurora v5.54. This will replace all previous installations and any future patches will be based on this version.

Full Install for v5.54 (80MB)

Important! Make sure you read these instructions carefully and follow them exactly. Aurora is written in an old language and therefore uses an installation program from the late 1990s. If you don't follow the instructions  you will end up with a series of errors, usually 3061 then 3265 then a series of 91s. If that happens, uninstall and re-install and follow the instructions carefully.

1) Download AuroraInstall554.zip and unzip it. You will have four files called Aurora.CAB, Setup.exe, Setup.LST and AuroraUpdate554.zip
2) Run Setup.exe. This will run a standard (but old) Microsoft install program, installing to the default C:\Program Files\Aurora directory. Important: If you are asked about overwriting any existing files with older files, make sure you KEEP the existing files. Note: For Windows Vista, 7, 8, it is better to install to C:\aurora instead of C:\program files\aurora or C:\program files (x86) in 64 bit as the program files folders are protected by the system kernel.
3) Unzip AuroraUpdate554.zip into the same directory and answer yes to overwriting Aurora.exe and Stevefire.mdb.

AuroraInstall554.zip

Important: If you live in a country where the decimal separator is a comma, please change your regional settings to either UK or US (where the decimal separator is a period) when playing Aurora. If you don't change this, you will get a LOT of errors.

N.B. If you are trying to play and all you get is:

"Error 3061 was generated by DAO Database
Too few Parameters. Expected 1"

Followed by:
"Error 3265 reported by DAO.Fields
Item not found in this collection"

Followed by a series of error 91s.

Either you didn't follow the installation instructions or you didn't change the decimal separator. If you have been playing for a while with no problems and this error sequence appears then it may be something else and you can report it in the bugs thread.

Note: This was originally the thread for the v4.75 and v4.91 full installations. I have edited it with the v5.54 information but left the thread in place as it contains useful information

Steve

[Beersatron]

I'd like to add a note that probably only affects a few people, those who periodically save the DB so they can roll back if they make a big mistake or run into a bug.

In Windows 7 (and possibly Vista although I have never used it) even though the majority of people will be logging in as 'Administrator' to your machine this account is not like the old XP account. Win7 administrator is a pseudo admin and when Aurora installs to the default location the folder and files get some really weird permissions settings. Afaik this is true for everything, not just Aurora.

The short of it is, that the game runs fine. But, you can run into a problem with copying an old save into the folder, Win7 will just ignore the old file even though it asks for confirmation on overwriting the current save.

It can be rather frustrating ....  

There are two ways I got around it:

1. installing Aurora on a partition that was created back when I was using WinXP (this is a non-OS partition).
2. If you only have the one partition and install it normally then: I can't remember exactly what it is called, but in Win7 there is a way to view all the backups for a particular folder (it is an option in File Explorer). What I found to work was pasting the old save into this folder and then copy/paste from that folder into the installation folder, you might have to rename the files.


In saying all that, don't be scared of installing!!

[alanwebber]

For Vista I think I got round this problem by NOT installing the program into the "Program Files" directory. Set up a directory called Aurora in the downloads directory and then run the set up to that one. I found I could not overwrite the database with a new version when installed in the Program Files directory.

Alan

[LPJD]

Sorry, but I appear to be a complete idiot when it comes to this stuff.  Downloaded the file, but can't seem to figure out where the "download" folder is or how to get it set up.  Tried putting it in programs and get nothing but errors.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  Running on Vista

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Sorry, but I appear to be a complete idiot when it comes to this stuff.  Downloaded the file, but can't seem to figure out where the "download" folder is or how to get it set up.  Tried putting it in programs and get nothing but errors.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  Running on Vista

Just to clarify, do you mean you downloaded normally, unzipped the file and followed the installation instructions and then got errors during installation. Or did you get errors when running the program?

Also, what is the text of the errors you saw?

Steve

[LPJD]

Downloaded to desktop as suggested.  No problems.  Suggestion with Vista was to unzip to the "download" section, but I have no idea where that is.  When trying to install the game, the only option I seem to have are the drives and not the desktop as suggested.  When I try to install, I get several messages saying a file I'm trying to put in is older than my current file.

[Beersatron]

You can download it to anywhere, on all my PCs I have a folder simply called 'downloads' on my C drive and then within that I will have sub folders depending on the content I am downloading. In this instance it is 'c:/downloads/software/games/aurora'.

When installing for the first time it should automatically try to install to somewhere like 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Aurora'.

Still using the core aurora zip file you then copy and paste the extra content into this folder.

You then need to overwrite the aurora.exe and/or the stevefire.mdb files in the above folder with the most recent patch - just get the latest number which is v4.77 if I recall correctly. This is a separate download and will contain only one or both of the files mentioned.

[LPJD]

Okay, lets try this from the beginning since I'm not that smart when it comes to this stuff apparently.  I download the file.  Unzip, it contains four items:  Setup, Setup.lst, Aurora.cab, and updated475.zip.  I run the setup, it installs the program.  While installing, I get several messages telling me a file on my computer is better than the one from the install and I should keep it.  Then, the program is now in C:Progams(x86) or whatever.  Next step is to then copy and paste the .cab and setup.lst into the new Aurora folder?  Then run the update?   Thanks for the help.  I hope the game is less frustrating for me than my apparent ineptitude getting it installed.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Okay, lets try this from the beginning since I'm not that smart when it comes to this stuff apparently.  I download the file.  Unzip, it contains four items:  Setup, Setup.lst, Aurora.cab, and updated475.zip.  I run the setup, it installs the program.  While installing, I get several messages telling me a file on my computer is better than the one from the install and I should keep it.  Then, the program is now in C:Progams(x86) or whatever.  Next step is to then copy and paste the .cab and setup.lst into the new Aurora folder?  Then run the update?   Thanks for the help.  I hope the game is less frustrating for me than my apparent ineptitude getting it installed.

Here are the three steps in the installation instructions.

1) Download AuroraInstall and unzip it. You will have four files called Aurora.CAB, Setup.exe, Setup.LST and AuroraUpdate475.zip
2) Run Setup.exe. This should run a standard Microsoft install program, installing to the default C:\Program Files\Aurora directory

It looks like you have done these 2 so you just need to do the third one.

3) Unzip AuroraUpdate475.zip into the same directory and answer yes to overwriting two files.

Don't bother with the Aurora.CAB and Setup.LST as they are used by Setup.exe. The only thing you need to do after running the Setup.exe is unzip AuroraUpdate475.zip into the same directory into which you installed Aurora and answer yes to overwriting two files.

Once that is done you should be running v4.75. Then we can look at the patch to v4.77.

Steve

[LPJD]

Well I must be doing something wrong because when I unzip the update I get a ton of "access denied" files streaming down the side, it overwrites the two files you stated, and when I try to run the game I keep getting "Error 3265 was generated by DAO.Fields, Item not found in this collection".  Any ideas?

[LPJD]

Sorry, think I figured out my problem.  Wouldn't let me unzip into the directory, so I just unzipped on desktop and copied the files in manually.  Seems to be working now.  Sorry for the bother. Now the taks of learning how to start the game,  

[sloanjh]

2) Run Setup.exe. This should run a standard Microsoft install program, installing to the default C:\Program Files\Aurora directory

Hi Steve,

  I was just wondering how much Aurora depends on Setup.exe being run.  I take my work laptop on vacation with me, and have a policy on it of not running any installers on it for personal stuff for fear of corrupting something.  OTOH, if I could just unzip things into a directory then I'd be able to play on the laptop.  I remember that SA allowed one to change the location of the DB - I assume that that was going into the registry.  Is there anything else going on that requires setup?

Thanks,
John

PS - Happy New Year!!

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

2) Run Setup.exe. This should run a standard Microsoft install program, installing to the default C:\Program Files\Aurora directory

Hi Steve,

  I was just wondering how much Aurora depends on Setup.exe being run.  I take my work laptop on vacation with me, and have a policy on it of not running any installers on it for personal stuff for fear of corrupting something.  OTOH, if I could just unzip things into a directory then I'd be able to play on the laptop.  I remember that SA allowed one to change the location of the DB - I assume that that was going into the registry.  Is there anything else going on that requires setup?

The setup.exe program is the standard Microsoft installer that comes with Visual Studio. As well as installing the program it installs a lot of DLLs, although these were selected by Microsoft's installer, presumably on the basis they were needed for whatever settings I had in VB6. The full install actually installs a very early version and the AuroraUpdate file patches it to the latest version. This way, to update the main install I only have to modify the AuroraUpdate file. Therefore I would guess you do need to run the Setup.exe. I guess you could manually copy the required DLLs and OCX files by looking in the Setup.LST file and seeing what they were but I think running the setup.exe would actually be safer.

Steve

[sloanjh]

Thanks.  Good point about the DLLs - hadn't thought of that.  Guess I'll just resist the urge to take Aurora on vacation

John

[RetSpline]

Hi everyone, I'm having a bit of trouble getting this game to work, so I'll just post what I've tried to do so far, and everyone can jump in and tell me where I made some giant, glaring error that should have been obvious to anyone with a functioning brain stem  

I found the game, went to this post, downloaded the file, and ran setup.exe, making sure to click "yes" to keep my existing files. I extracted Auroraupdate491.zip into the installation direcetory (C:\Program Files\Aurora) using 7zip (the Windows extractor continually froze). I started the game with no error messages, and started going through the tutorial on the wiki.

At this point I played around for a few hours, getting used to everything and trying to figure stuff out. It was lots of fun, and definitely seems like my kind of game. There was something that bothered me though. Every time I moved time forward I got a cryptic "Error 91". Looking through the forums, I found this this post and figured I might as well update to 5.10.

I went here, downloaded the .zip, and extracted it to C:\Program Files\Aurora. When I started up the game, though, I got 4 "Error 3265"s in a row, and the New Game dialog box didn't show up. I started over, uninstalling the game, rebooting my computer, and installing everything again up to 5.10, getting the same errors when I tried again.

I looked around the forums a bit more, and decided that I might as well update to 5.14, hoping that would fix my problems. After unzipping it and running the game, I had the exact same errors. I selected the game and went to the Game menu, but there was no "v5.14 Data Update". I was getting frustrated at this point, and kept uninstalling and re-installing, trying new things and basically fiddling around with it to get it to work.

Eventually, I decided that I would just re-install 4.91 and deal with that small error as it wasn't really game-breaking or anything. This gets me the same problem as before, now: 4 "Error 3265"s, and the New Game Dialog showing up.

I'm running Windows 7 and have administrator privileges, if that matters.

Someone please help me with this, I just want it to work.