Hey, I made a Pong game, first program I have ever made in VB.net (a free awesome program to get started with programming).
http://www.microsoft.com/Express/VB/
Check it out plz:
http://www.4shared.com/file/65582175/31f0bed3/Pong.html
sorry about 4shared, I’ll have to change it later. Here is a screenshot:
Please tell me what I need to do to make it better! 
-Rozzy
I cant get it to install in vista or debug in vb
this is the install error
Component .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 has failed to install with the following error message:
"Incorrect function. "
The following components failed to install:
- .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
you must be using vb 6, I used vb 2008 express, aka VB.net (which is free). Besides, you shouldn’t need any VB to run it, click on “Pong.Application” and it will run.
I downloaded and tried to run your file. I have all the latest .NET components installed (3.5 SP1), Visual Express C# 2008 and C++ 2008. (But not any version of VB.) I got the following error when I ran setup:
Unable to install or run the application. The application requires that assembly Microsoft.VisualBasic.PowerPacks.Vs Version 9.0.0.0 be installed in the Global Assembly Cache (GAC) first.
All .NET programs require the .NET framework or at least the relevant runtimes to run. This is exactly why I’ve been learning how to make native or statically linked win32 apps (in VC++).
There should be a way to target an earlier version of .NET, like 2.0, although you might lose or have to change some of your functions.
I don’t know much more about it, since I’m just starting out myself, but you can find out more about the user requirements to run .NET programs by searching or looking at the MS developer forums.
I think if you went back to the old version of VB (non-.NET, non-free), you could compile native apps and include the .dlls.
. I’m still a total newb at VB… :mad:
Well, frankly, Microsoft doesn’t make it easy for you to run Visual Express .NET programs on a machine other than the one it was developed on. Good for learning, but not so good for sharing programs.
I’m still trying to figure out the best way to do this myself, to ensure someone can install and run a program with the least extra runtime download requirements and the least amount of compatibility errors.
Here’s some reading to get you started:
Deploying Applications That Reference Visual Basic Power Packs
How to: Install Prerequisites in Windows Installer Deployment
How to: Install Prerequisites with a ClickOnce Application
Good work, that looks like a nice game, Rozzy!
Well, frankly, Microsoft doesn’t make it easy for you to run Visual Express .NET programs on a machine other than the one it was developed on. Good for learning, but not so good for sharing programs
. Funny how they did that. I can’t even get one of the template programs compiled on one of my machines to install properly on another ( both have working vb.net express ) That said its not a bad way to learn some programing their are a ton of tutorials and programing examples out there, the challenge is overcoming the problems mentioned above. Congrats on Pong.
EDIT - The way the installer downloads dependences reminds me of installing programs in linux, Your pong game is prompting my vista to reboot I let it. Thats probably more trouble than most people want to go through to play pong. keep at it. I tried to deploy a customized weather app to members of my family I had all kinds of problems.
I’m sorry to hear you had troubles as well. For someone just starting out with with Visual Studio, the process of getting the program to install on other systems can be more difficult and time-consuming than writing the program in the first place.
I wish there was something out there for creating simple standalone programs, like the old VB6 or Delphi. Actually, I found this Delphi clone project: Lazarus Pascal, but I’m not sure what kind of graphics capabilities it has. Another option would be to use Python, pygame and maybe py2exe.
Right now, I’m looking at using VC++ Express for Win32 apps with a third-party GUI library. Supposedly, that will make a standalone (or at least more portable app), but using an external GUI system takes away much of the benefit of using Visual Studio Express in the first place.