Current plans are use an iPod Mini’s Hatachi 4GB Microdrive as the disk for a full install. New heatsink, 512MB RAM update, and making it quieter. I hope to do plenty of worthwhile modifications to this Firebox and share the experience.

Things learned thus far:

• A 1.2GHz Celeron left inside the Firebox with no working HSF will burn up. Really. Completely fry. Luckily the motherboard is fine and it boots with a PIII. New 1.4GHz Celeron on its way for $9. Probably would have updated this anyways.
• Don’t assume generic RAM you buy for the Firebox off Amazon is a double sided DIMM and will work in the Firebox (Non-Double Sided 512MB sticks show up as 256MB). I hope to make a list of high avaibilty sticks that work.
• The HSF on the firebox is crap, get a new heatsink and fan and also a fan speed controller. Even had my fan worked I would have gotten a new one, way too loud for such poor cooling.
• The rackmount ears hold the cover on the case also. Can’t keep them on for looks if you plan on opening the Firebox up often until you’re ready to put it into production.
• Physwritedisk doesn’t want to work on any Vista/7/Server2008 (32bit or 64bit) for me. I used Ubuntu. Worked like a charm.
• Make sure you’re using a Null Modem serial cable. You’ll kick yourself for assuming something else is wrong and wasting time.

The easiest way to build a file like this is creating a self-extracting .zip file. With this installation type, we can set it to load all the games files into the local users’ temporary folder and launch the game from there. This helps both slow flash drives and slow computers, and also making distribution and launching that much easier.

The utility itself

DOWNLOAD: ZIP 2 Secure EXE (900 KB)

This wonderful utility by chilkatsoft holds the key to creating self-extracting archives. Of course, the main part of that utility is the fact you can secure the executable, but it has many things that we can use to create a portable game launcher. (Heck, maybe you DO want to password protect the game.) Some things we can do is allow/disallow choosing where to extract the archive, set to default location or automatically extract to the users’ temporary directory, add/remove buttons and text (immediately start extract on starting the .exe or wait for Unzip to be clicked? Totally up to you.)

Once you package your portable game or application, archive it in a .zip file. Open it with this utility and set your settings accordingly. Some important things that you will want to set will be where to unzip the archive to, and ‘Run this “setup” file after extracting.’ The “setup file” is actually what you will want to point for whatever executable or shortcut link launches your game from inside the extracted directory.  Make sure this will extract to a common directory that everyone has if you disable the users’ ability to choose where it will be extracted to.

If you’re building something for being run on computer that will not have administrative rights for the local user, you’ll probably want to pick the temporary directory and launch it from there.

Hopefully, this helps some people get started on creating self-extracting, portable games. Feel free to try out any I have posted here or leave a comment.

Download here :  http://zzj.itf-inc.com/downloads/SProxy1003dPS1008e.zip

Don’t forget to donate to the developer himself if you like his work! Here is his Paypal link.

Directions:

1. Download PandoraSaver from above URL.
2. Extract the contents, run the SProxy executable.
3. Configure your browser to use SProxy. (Default settings are http://127.0.0.1:8888/ )

You can also use a firefox extention like FoxyProxy to create a whitelist filter of “*.pandora.com*” to use the SProxy IP/Port. If you want, you can also use the developers proxy script (http://zzj.itf-inc.com/BrowserPAC.js) in the “automatic proxy configuration url” setting in your prowser.

Put your iPhone in DFU mode:

1.) Sync your phone/back it up with iTunes one last time.
2.) Turn off the phone.
3.) Turn the phone on holding both the Power and Home button. Once it powers on, continue holding the Home button until you see the graphic that says you need to plug the phone into iTunes.
4.) Shift-Click Restore in iTunes for the iPhone, select the custom firmware that you downloaded.
5.) iTunes will guide you from there. Good Luck!