How To: Play FTL from a Flash Drive using PortableSaves

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mcpower
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Oct 01, 2012 6:05 am

How To: Play FTL from a Flash Drive using PortableSaves

Postby mcpower » Mon Oct 01, 2012 6:26 am

Hey there! This is my first post, so I may be posting this in the wrong section, but...

Backstory (you can skip this)
A while ago (maybe a week?) I created a small AutoHotkey script to allow games to be portable from a USB. It was designed specifically for FTL, but I realized that it can work with other games as well. I then posted it on /r/ftlgame, but the spam filter deleted it so no-one knew about it.

What PortableSaves Does
All PortableSaves does is make a backup of the existing save files on the computer, moves the saves on your USB to the computer, runs the program then moves everything back afterwards (as well as creating some backups on the way). It's configured via an INI, but I've already put in a premade INI for FTL (and VVVVVV).

How to configure the INI
The options are stored in PortableSaves.ini with the header "Options".
The values read by the script are:
SaveLocation - where saves are normally kept for the game (where you want the portable saves to be when the game is running)
PortableSaveLocation - where the saves are stored (it's recommended not to change this)
GameBinary - the file to run as the game (normally the .exe)

There are certain variables you can use when using these:
%A_ScriptDir% - where the script is located
%A_MyDocuments% - the My Documents folder
%A_AppData% - the AppData folder.

The Guide
  1. Download PortableSaves from below.
  2. Find your FTL game directory (should be in C:\Program Files\FTL or something like that) and copy it to a USB
  3. From the PortableSaves.zip, find PortableSaves.exe and the PortableSaves.ini inside the Example INI Files/FTL folder and put them in the same folder as FTL on the USB. (Make sure the .exe and the .ini are in the same folder!)
  4. Done! When you want to run FTL from your USB, just run PortableSaves.exe.
  5. Optional: Create a folder called "PortableSaves" in the folder you put everything in and copy in your existing save files if you want to use them

Download
Version 1.0 (I doubt I'll have more versions)

-mcpower
Amphouse
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Oct 21, 2012 11:07 pm

Re: How To: Play FTL from a Flash Drive using PortableSaves

Postby Amphouse » Sun Oct 21, 2012 11:21 pm

This is also my first post, and I just wanted to say that I tried your program and it works fine! I had to fiddle with file locations a bit,(everything actually has to go inside the FTL folder, along with all the junk already in there) but it certainly works. Thanks for including a preset for VVVVVV as well, now I have two games I can play on the go.

By the way, your Readme mentions that I should compile the script myself, and I'd like too, having taken programming classes and being genuinely curious, but I..er..don't know how I would do that, exactly. Could you help me out?