Running angband from usb stick

[timtek]

I'd like to be able to play angband at work, I was thinking of installing it on my usb stick. It's a 1gig. I also don't want to leave files on the computer I will be plugging into. Is this possible? I would think it is, but is there anything I should be aware of? Any advice would be appreciated.

[zaimoni]

This is technically possible.

If the target system is Vista or higher, you may find the startup time positively slothful. The Windows port relies on *.ini files. Even with the SendMessage |-> PostMessage fix (V3.1.1 and later, maybe 3.1.0, definitely not 3.0.9), reports are that flash drives do not start quickly because the OS *.ini file functions have been severely pessimized on Vista and higher.

If you are running a *band without the SendMessage |-> PostMessage fix, even one hung driver will prevent the *band from starting.

[ewert]

I run Angband even at home from my usb stick, Vista 64bit home basic. Ran it from usb stick back in '04 too, so could play on work computer (Win XP). Since Angband doesn't "install" itself, there's no problems with it being run from anywhere just as long as no errors happen (never had any myself, but guess those that zaimoni mentioned exist atleast).

[Magnate]

I'd like to be able to play angband at work, I was thinking of installing it on my usb stick. It's a 1gig. I also don't want to leave files on the computer I will be plugging into. Is this possible? I would think it is, but is there anything I should be aware of? Any advice would be appreciated.

As the others have said, this works fine. I run multiple *bands from my USB stick (V, S, O, NPP, Un) and they all work fine. Just don't use any "installer" - download the archive (zip or whatever) and extract it into a folder/directory on the stick - all the pathnames are relative, so it won't touch any files on the PC.

Let us know if you have any problems. Unless you're using Vista.

CC

[timtek]

Awesome thanks for the info everyone. I tested it out and everything is working great. I dl'd the 3.1.1 zip and just moved the extracted folder onto the usb like was mentioned.

[pav]

Pfft.

I used to run Vanilla Angband from a single 3.5" floppy on a Windows 95 machine. Even had a space for one savefile on it...

That was back in my military days. One evening, during my little gaming session, an alarm call came and the whole bunch of us, soldiers, went fast-track to help with a crashed 'copter hundred miles away from the base. Of course, I haven't had a chance to shut down the computer. Luckily my superiors haven't got into the computer room, because I left with the only key to it. In my pocket...

[Nick]

I used to run Vanilla Angband from a single 3.5" floppy on a Windows 95 machine. Even had a space for one savefile on it...

And there's always JnuxBand...

[ewert]

Okay okay, I confess I ran Moria from a 3.5" disk back in god knows when on MS-DOS version god remembers what ...

Actually, probably from 5.25" at first.

Oh and Larn too, man I've totally forgot about that roguelike for like ... decades. And Rogue itself ... .... yeah ... okay nostalgy-trip done.

[Ghen]

Pfft.

I used to run Vanilla Angband from a single 3.5" floppy on a Windows 95 machine. Even had a space for one savefile on it...

That was back in my military days. One evening, during my little gaming session, an alarm call came and the whole bunch of us, soldiers, went fast-track to help with a crashed 'copter hundred miles away from the base. Of course, I haven't had a chance to shut down the computer. Luckily my superiors haven't got into the computer room, because I left with the only key to it. In my pocket...

I ran Angband from a floppy as well but then we got graphics and storage mediums didn't catch up until USB memory *sigh*.. Anyway, that floppy was in my pocket and I brought it to wherever we went as a family (I was like 13-15 I think) and would surreptitiously play realllyyy slowllyyyy in a computer room in the basement or whatever while everyone else was "socializing" :P

[dhegler]

Okay okay, I confess I ran Moria from a 3.5" disk back in god knows when on MS-DOS version god remembers what ...

Actually, probably from 5.25" at first.

Oh and Larn too, man I've totally forgot about that roguelike for like ... decades. And Rogue itself ... .... yeah ... okay nostalgy-trip done.

You think Moria from a 3.5 is bad? I used to play "Hack" when I was a kid off a 5.25" floppy when Shareware disks sold for $5 per disk with games on it in the old 286 days! If you are wondering what I mean by the "286" comment, you probably grew up after modems were in vogue. Games were so much easier back then, and just as enjoyable...

[ewert]

286 eh? Well, we had a 4 colour Apple as first "pc", then of course went 8086, 286, 386, 486 ...

But C64 was much more fun for games anyways in those days really. No Amiga 500 sadly for me though, since we already had the 64, and money didn't grow on trees ...

Anyways, since I already mentioned 5.25", and you know, since these games are called "roguelike", it is kinda obvious Rogue is an earlier game than Hack ... Never assume.

Though I don't remember what kind of computer the one at my father's workplace was pre-home computer era, I did play battleships on it which I reckon someone at work had programmed for it. =P

[Magnate]

286 eh? Well, we had a 4 colour Apple as first "pc", then of course went 8086, 286, 386, 486 ...

But C64 was much more fun for games anyways in those days really. No Amiga 500 sadly for me though, since we already had the 64, and money didn't grow on trees ...

Anyways, since I already mentioned 5.25", and you know, since these games are called "roguelike", it is kinda obvious Rogue is an earlier game than Hack ... Never assume.

Though I don't remember what kind of computer the one at my father's workplace was pre-home computer era, I did play battleships on it which I reckon someone at work had programmed for it. =P

Sounds like a PDP-11, my first gaming rig ... though come to think of it I can't remember whether Battleships was on the PDP-11 or something later. It definitely had pong and spacewar though. Those were the days ...