Winrar archiver

[desimaui]

Hello, the question I have is regarding games that are rar files. I know I need the
Winrar archiver to play these games, but do I have to pay for it? Or is there another way to play these type of games. I have windows 7 and I have no trouble opening up zip files as most of the games on AGS are zip files. But when I try to open up an rar file I get: "windows can't open this file." Any suggestions?

[Calin Leafshade]

Winrar is not free (although it will work forever, just with a nag screen)

a free alternative would be 7zip which works quite nicely and opens practically every archive type

[RickJ]

http://www.7-zip.org/

[desimaui]

Thanks Rick, you are too kind. I thought there might be a program out there and some fabulous gamer at AGS would have the answer. If there is anything I can do for you let me know.
Aloha!

[Calin Leafshade]

Yeah thanks rick

[desimaui]

O oh...What do I need to do now that I downloaded the 7zip? When I double click to open the file on my desk top there are a lot of files. When I open the one titled 7zFM. I get the 7zip file manager. What do I need to do there to play a rar game?

[Mr Flibble]

I remember back when I had no idea what the hell, playing Night of the Hermit, which came in an .ace file. Due to the ignorance of my youth and partially WinAce's weird design, I ended up accidentally always playing the game from a temporary folder which got deleted as soon as I closed the game. And I wondered why my saves never worked...

[RickJ]

The file you downloaded should be either a .exe or a .msi file.  If you have a 32-bit processor you need the exe file and if you have the 64-bit processor you need the MSI file.   Double clicking on the file you have downloaded should start an intsall program that installs 7zip on you system.   

After 7zip is installed then you can use it from the MS file manager.  You can activate 7zip by right-clicking on almost any kind of compressed file.  The RAR game file you have downloaded is such a compressed file.   Many games, applications, and other types of downloads consist of multiple files.   To make these easier to download these files are first reduced in size or compressed and then combined into a single file. 

It sounds like you have managed to open the 7Zip file manager which is showing you the files contained in your RAR file.  To play the game you will need to uncompress the RAR  or in other words extract the original files and store them in a game folder.  Create a new folder where ever you install games on your computer and extract/uncompress the files tio this directory.

Then to play your game you just need to double click on it's executable file, which ought to be one of the ones you extracted.

Hope this helps. 
 

[Jim Reed]

Here, imagine the "example.rar" is your .rar-ed game you downloaded. Right-click on the .rar file, and extract it to a folder.
Then you just open that folder and find the right icon to start the game.

[Wonkyth]

7zip works exactly the same way.
Just install and right-click on the .rar file.

[Jim Reed]

Aye, just like 7zip.
Now don't tell me you didn't notice my XP EC edition I bought from FSi? =P

[Wonkyth]

LOL!