A Tribute to the Install Program

Ah, installers. When they weren't hassling us with connecting to the Internet to authenticate, downloading data that should have been on the disc to begin with, some installers have really been a treat to watch, to help us get past the fact that we're wasting several minutes of our lives just copying files from a disc to a hard drive. This video showcases some DOS-era favorites.

Uses a Creative Commons sound source:
46076__HerbertBoland__Doorslam.mp3 from Freesound.org, under Creative Commons license

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• games
• installers
• install.exe
• setup.exe
• sound test
• warcraft
• command & conquer
• command and conquer
• command
• conquer
• tribute
• red alert
• terminal velocity
• wallace music
• rob wallace
• privateer 2
• heavy rain
• metal gear solid 4
• mgs4
• yakuza
• game experience
• copying
• last rites

[BaronLez]

Actually SC2 had an interesting install process as well, not as good as some of these but it went out of it's way to tell the back story.

[wildweasel486]

@BaronLez Are you talking about Star Control 2? I've never actually seen that one, since I've only ever played it via the open-source Ur-Quan Masters implementation.

[pilifx]

Don't forget Nox (Voiced-over background story) and Broken Sword (play breakout while it was installing)

[MGMan37]

@wildweasel486 He meant StarCraft 2, there's a slideshow (like the old days!) and a voiceover explaining what happened in the first game

[InvisibleSandwichTM]

That DIGIPAK Sound Driver Setup showed up in a few shareware/freeware games of the mid '90s for whatever reason.

[leileilol]

C&C Renegade was the final Westwood game with a fancy installer which even required Direct3D to run

[acolytetojippity]

my favorite was c&c: red alert 2 (and yuri's revenge)

it'd send marines to kill you if you didn't put the cdKey in fast enough

[GrandDracolich]

The most recent game I can think of that did stuff like this was Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries, which gave you some backstory and relevant information and played music during the installation.

[BlooditeDrakan]

I never knew such games had fun installation screens. We sure have, in a dull manner, come a long way.

[Tsukiyomaru0]

In the past, a first person game was so good you could play over and over without getting sick of it. Nowadays, they only last a day.