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ISO or pre-patched/pre-installed visual novels: which version do you think is better?


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.ISO or pre-patched/pre-installed?  

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  1. 1. Do you prefer .ISO or pre-patched/pre-installed visual novels?

    • I like to get the .ISO version, the Pre-installed version just doesn't like me!
    • .ISO is such a drag, give me the disk-cracked pre-installed verson!
    • I don't really care which I get.
    • I don't even know the difference.
    • I don't like to play Visual Novels (Wait, what the heck are you doing here then?!?!)

This poll is closed to new votes


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Okay, so I’ve noticed that, in a lot of sites, people are asking which is better: .ISO or pre-patched/pre-installed visual novels? Well, I'm here to tell you that question cannot be answered definitively. "Why do you assert this, Naomi?" you may ask. My reasoning is simple: because both have their own pros and cons and each works better for different people. Personally, I prefer the .ISO versions of Visual novels, but I really don't care if I have to go with the other. Instead of writing about why I "think" .ISO is better--albeit slightly--, I'll just outline what is has to offer and why it blows from time to time from the most non-biased perspective as possible (NOT!)

.ISO

Typically seen as a "real pain in the ass" because many people don't really feel like installing these things--they prefer the quick version (pre-installed). However, I would like to shoot down this viewpoint with several wonderful things about the .ISO versions of VNs. First of all, the .ISO games feel more like a real part of your computer and more of a genuine game--I mean dayum, you even get that cool shortcut on your screen; how nifty?!?! Unlike with the pre-installed version, you have the ability to "try again" when you mess up with the game setup (I know it's really hard to screw up the install, but still, you have a much simpler out)--just go back, and try to reinstall it, whereas with the pre-installed version, if you seriously mess up with a fix-up...well, you're just screwed--gotta delete and redownload that sucker, what a drag! Another thing, it's much more easy to access once installed; having to enter your torrent client and go into the file and click on that .exe is more time consuming; that shortcut helps now doesn't it? That 15 extra minutes spent installing could save 15% or more in accessing time! A decent trade, methinks. Finally, in my own experience, the .ISO version doesn't totally hate on your computer like the Pre-patched version does and act like a butt to get working. The Pre-patched/Pre-installed version is set up by people who aren't exactly professionals and they can be quite difficult to make work properly--I've never has a single issue with making an .ISO VN work properly after it's been correctly installed, but I've had a lot of troubles getting my computer to like a pre-patched/pre-installed version and run it.

Now of course, the .ISO version has some seriously annoying things about it. First of all, with these Japanese games, the installer is sometimes written in Kanji--I just hate that, good thing I'm really familiar with the format of these installers and therefore know which button does what, or I'd be stuck pressing random buttons for awhile like some newbies do--kinda like how they do that stupid spray-and-pray in those first-person shooter games, hoping they'll get lucky and get a hit; what a pain... >.<' Another con: They take a bit more effort to get rid of, since they're more firmly rooted into your computer--but that's just a "no duh", isn't it? Finally, the game takes a bit longer to initially play, since you have to go through the trouble of actually installing it.

Now that all is said from my opinion, what do you think? Which is better?

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Useful tip for your future prepatched VNs... You can manually create a shortcut to any kind of file. Including that .exe in your torrent folder.

Other than that, I'd say as long as it works anything's fine. The fact is, prepatched games sometimes will require you to mess up with registry entries and stuff to get it to work, which is a pain in the ass. Whereas a .iso makes a clean install.

Also, most games offer an 'uninstall' option that makes it easy to clean up your install.

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How is it even possible to mess up your install?

I have about 400 VNs in my digital collection, and never managed to fsck up installation even when doing hacking/tl'ing/exctraction (because "backup everything" is first skill you should learn as software engineer and esp. reverse-engineer).

Accessing VN's from desktop icon or torrent is weird way to do it. Just keep them properly sorted on the drive and there will be no problems. I actually delete all shortcuts from desktop that these annoying installers create.

I like prepatched more for two things — they take less space (no need to keep both iso and installed game) and they stay on my physical drive instead VM image (sure its possible to move it after installing, but its additional PITA).

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How is it even possible to mess up your install?

I have about 400 VNs in my digital collection, and never managed to fsck up installation even when doing hacking/tl'ing/exctraction (because "backup everything" is first skill you should learn as software engineer and esp. reverse-engineer).

I couldn't agree more, but there are some newbies who don't know what they're doing and can actually manage to mess up the installations--this article was written mainly for them.

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People would be doing other people a favour by not just assuming, oh I can do it, so why are people too lazy to do it themselves?

There are plenty of people out there that like VNs, but have little to no knowledge of how they would go about installing and patching files, or should I just be having a go at everyone that doesn't understand command line, cause you know its a walk in the park for me?

/Rant over.

note: this rant is not in reference to the creation of this thread.

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People would be doing other people a favour by not just assuming, oh I can do it, so why are people too lazy to do it themselves?

There are plenty of people out there that like VNs, but have little to no knowledge of how they would go about installing and patching files, or should I just be having a go at everyone that doesn't understand command line, cause you know its a walk in the park for me?

/Rant over.

note: this rant is not in reference to the creation of this thread.

Your pain is understood by all people like you here, Kendjin.

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I don't have any troubles installing VNs (or with computer/bat/command line) but all my VNs will end up being sent on my external HDD as prepatched games so i can run them anytime anywhere that's why having pre-patched versions will make me gain some time on all the installs.

Also we have here a great community wich has found fixes for all pre-patched issues very quickly (i for example did it for rewrite), so even in the case some issues do appear we'll find how to fix it.

It's also great for people who have little PC knowledge

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It's also great for people who have little PC knowledge

Indeed, so far as I can see, Fuwa's the only site that has successfully pulled the pre-patched/pre-installed game off with such little issues. It's an intriguing thing, really, and is very newbie-friendly. However, there is still a lot of potential issues with pre-installed VNs. (Since Fuwa is this type of provider, it's only natural that everybody here would be all for this type of game--hence why I took the .ISO game's side of the debate; else this would just be a flame thread of everybody hating on .ISO ^^)

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I really don't hate ISO at all, i use them all the tme for new eroge releases and stuff but since most of my games will wander around on some external drive it's worth taking the prepatched version of the game.

And i don't really know how you can hate ISO, running alcohool, deamon tools or power iso is very easy and most translation group make easy to install patches

I think pre-patched games only really work if the community is going to be behind it and willing to fix any issues that pops around and we surprisingly have done that very well. I'm very pleased with this side of the community as well as it being very nice and friendly :)

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I think pre-patched games only really work if the community is going to be behind it and willing to fix any issues that pops around and we surprisingly have done that very well. I'm very pleased with this side of the community as well as it being very nice and friendly :)/>/>

Indeed, that is why I chose to join this site after watching the forums and activity for nearly half a year--my sites aren't quite as kind. Quite a beautiful thing: watching motivated VN players reaching out to the new guys, sharing the games that we so strongly love and treasure; couldn't ask for a better site to be a part of :3

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I think a way to do it better might be to package everything patched into an installer anyways?

That way it would be able to create shortcuts and run anything that needs to be run in the registry. Games that need Japanese Locales could probably have that checked during the install.

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I don't really care with either one I get. In my experience I have had less issues and faster "installs" with pre-patched. Most problems are kinda connected to what game you try to install; Some doesn't like that you put them in a custom folder, others need a certain font to work (If you don't have it you have to download it).

I have installed like 40+ vn's by now tho, so I know the deal. Tho when I first started out playing Vn's I was really unsure how to do it and worried about messing up something. That is why I am for pre-patched, it helps new people get into VN's.

Also I was very nervous because I was installing a HENTAI game. The horror! I know right? xD

Regardless of the market, ease of use and accessibility is very important.

Personally why I have no problem agianst using ISO's is the anticipation when looking at the installing screen. Going through the installing wizard and thinking about how the game will be. And ofc the game is awesome, I choose my Vn's carefully XD

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I was a bit surprised by the concept of "hating on iso" as it's really the easiest thing in the world and usually doesn't take much time. Plus I prefer the clean install/uninstall of an iso release.

I do however understand that there are people who aren't especially PC savvy, for them a pre-installed version works fine. There's something for everyone I guess.

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you have to recognize that video game pirates like us have certain 'skills'. most of the Anime viewing audience do not have to understand how to mount .ISO

I think walking through the jungle of codecs you need to decipher h264 10bit FLAC whatever videos is about as difficult as mounting an .iso. Which is to say, not a lot.

Having the game portable is a convenience, but it doesn't solve what can actually be a problem for VNs that's not on the degree zero, like japanese locale. I don't think we ever had someone in the technical help section that failed to mount an .iso or install a game, yet we had countless japanese locale issues.

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As a long time member of pirates of Atlantic ocean, robbing Americans shipping to Europe, I had to do various stuff to get my games cracked. And not only cracke games, even if I want to play the game I bought as soon as it is actually release and not to have to wait for European release, I also had to do various stuff.

Mounting ISO or running exe from preinstalled version is nothing.

Its true that for some VNs I also had to do incredible stuff, for example to run Maiden Breeder 1 on windows 7.

But I know lot of people here are too casual for most of that so having the games preinstalled, only requiring them to like install a font or change locale is the best way in my opinion.

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I like the pre-patched pre-installed ones but ill get what i can take, as a on-campus student i cant torrent without losing my internet.

i end up with a 21 part download for a zipped iso and another download for a patch

although im home right now so i should take advantage of that.

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I like the pre-patched pre-installed ones but ill get what i can take, as a on-campus student i cant torrent without losing my internet.

i end up with a 21 part download for a zipped iso and another download for a patch

although im home right now so i should take advantage of that.

Have you considered a seedbox?

I should see if there's a way to upload the files to Mega or something from my seedbox.

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I could open up all my VNs to public access, but the problem is that they are loose files, so you'd have to download them all in pieces. If there are any ones you really really want, let me know, I can rar up the file and send you a link.

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Any hows, it really depends on you.

If you feel like taking the long way, which is good and laborous, go .ISO.

If you want a shortcut or you have probs. with the long way, go Pre-patched.

IN THE END, you can still play THE GAME! And That's the most important part.

Though, I would want to do all my games in .ISO.

I need to save time. So either way will work, since some games don't have a pre-patched/pre-installed version.

And I CAN'T BE PICKY ABOUT IT.

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Any hows, it really depends on you.

If you feel like taking the long way, which is good and laborous, go .ISO.

If you want a shortcut or you have probs. with the long way, go Pre-patched.

IN THE END, you can still play THE GAME! And That's the most important part.

Though, I would want to do all my games in .ISO.

I need to save time. So either way will work, since some games don't have a pre-patched/pre-installed version.

And I CAN'T BE PICKY ABOUT IT.

I couldn't agree more with your logic. But it is fun to hear people's opinions on such subjects. *Sits down with popcorn as more people add their own opinions*

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Sorry but the last option was so interesting xD

If I have to chose between ISO or pre-installed, I'd get pre-installed. The savedata is in the same folder than the exe (but not for Kamidori or Lonely Yuri) and I can move them from pc to pc without worrying about installing.

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If you want a shortcut or you have probs. with the long way, go Pre-patched.

TBH, you can just right click on the game.exe and click on Create Shortcut, then move the shortcut to wherever. The desktop, start menu, wherever. So doesn't really matter if you use a ISO or pre-installed for that matter.

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Im grateful for all the pre-patched/pre-installed VNs Fuwanovel has since I only know how to turn on my computer, but if there is no other choice, then of course Im gonna go trough the trouble of messing with the ISO thingy, you cant be picky in this world, it happened with Muv-Luv Alternative, wich wasnt that great of a install since Im not comfortable messing with stuff i have little to no knowledge about, but with just alil help from the community and google I got it working, yet, avoiding all that is still the best way to go for me.

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I think walking through the jungle of codecs you need to decipher h264 10bit FLAC whatever videos is about as difficult as mounting an .iso. Which is to say, not a lot.

Having the game portable is a convenience, but it doesn't solve what can actually be a problem for VNs that's not on the degree zero, like japanese locale. I don't think we ever had someone in the technical help section that failed to mount an .iso or install a game, yet we had countless japanese locale issues.

well they download CCCP and that solves most of their problems

you'd be surprised at the kind of questions i get from people on facebook. some of them are utterly clueless!

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