The Shining Source

OK. I'm curious if it will work on your laptop, too, if you install the .Net 2.0 servicepack 1 as I mentioned in my private message to you. If it works, then I'll update the readme.txt so that it will mention the three files and hope that these three files will make it work for everybody.

I'm planning to include every function of the game, save & quit too. My dream is to make a complete remake of Shining Force 2 except the scenes in between the battles (instead I will probably just include textual summaries of the storyline, similar to Shining Force Gaiden/CD). I'll do this in my sparetime in the next months/years if God wills. What you can currently see took me about half a year of programming.

I also have several ideas how Shining Force could be improved - if somebody could help me with the graphics and music, I'd like to create a completely new game based on my code.

Nope, no go on the laptop.
Have installed both of the files you suggested with no luck.  Haven't tried the ones you posted in the forum here yet.

That's bad news. I'll continue asking in the creators.xna.com forum, maybe one day we will ultimately find out what is missing. In any case, it's a big disadvantage of XNA that it's not simply possible to download the game, unpack and run it. Maybe I'll try to recode the game without XNA. The advantages of XNA are that synchronization is very easy to achieve and it has powerful routines for sprite handling and other essential things. But it's possible to code these things oneself, it's just more difficult.

At http://forums.xna.com/forums/t/1988.aspx they write that the following files must be installed in order to be able to run XNA based games:

Elvenfyre: Is DirectX 9.0c installed on your laptop?

Shining Force 2 Remake
Demo version 0.1.1

Requirements:
The game is programmed using XNA Game Studio, so you need to download and install some additional files to run it.

If you use Windows XP, these files are:
DirectX 9.0c: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2da43d38-db71-4c1b-bc6a-9b6652cd92a3&DisplayLang=en
.NET Framework 2.0 Redistributable: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=76064
.NET 2.0 Servicepack 1: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=15fb9169-4a25-4dca-bf40-9c497568f102&displaylang=en
XNA Framework Redistributable: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=78244

If you use Windows Vista, these files are:
DirectX 9.0c: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2da43d38-db71-4c1b-bc6a-9b6652cd92a3&DisplayLang=en
.NET Framework 3.5: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=333325fd-ae52-4e35-b531-508d977d32a6&DisplayLang=en
XNA Framework Redistributable: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=78244

--

These are the recommendations I got from the people at creators.xna.com. Please try if it leads to success.

I've found out that the following file is essential for running the game on my PC:

Microsoft Games for Windows - LIVE Redistributable v1.2
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=d6a69b9f-2aef-4125-b162-edf0ae922caf&DisplayLang=en

If everything previously said fails, then I recommend trying to download and install this file.

Works for me now - very impressive too!

All I had to install were DirectX9.0, and the XNA redistibutable (I already had .NET 2.0 & 3.5 installed). Not having DX9 seemed to be what was causing the trouble.

That's great news. I was told that the problem often lies with DirectX 9.0c because it's possible that only some parts of it are installed on the PC, and then the user thinks it's installed completely and so doesn't even try the download links.

Oh bother I forgot to try the direct x level on my laptop again.  I'll be sure to do it soon.

Also, wouldn't mind waxing philosophical with you on your future project ideas sometime.

I've talked to Aaron Stebner, one of the developers of XNA Game Studio, and we came to the conclusion that the following files should be sufficient to get Shining Force 2 Remake to run:

Windows XP:
DirectX 9.0c: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2da43d38-db71-4c1b-bc6a-9b6652cd92a3&DisplayLang=en
.NET 2.0 Servicepack 1: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=15fb9169-4a25-4dca-bf40-9c497568f102&displaylang=en
XNA Framework 2.0 Redistributable: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=78244

Windows Vista:
DirectX 9.0c: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2da43d38-db71-4c1b-bc6a-9b6652cd92a3&DisplayLang=en
.NET Framework 3.5: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=333325fd-ae52-4e35-b531-508d977d32a6&DisplayLang=en
XNA Framework 2.0 Redistributable: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=78244

What would interest me: Is the game displayed in a window or in full-screen mode on your PC? On mine, it's in windowed mode, but it happened once that after switching tasks, it suddenly became full-screen.

Windowed on mine, and stays that way even after an alt-tab.

OK. I've not decided yet if I will make the final game windowed or full-screen.