Download & Install

The latest official version of Aurora can be found on the Aurora Installation Forum, released by Steve Walmsley, the developer. Even though Aurora can be an amazing gaming experience, installing it can be tricky. This guide should be enough for most people to get the game working smoothly.

## Contents

* 1 Installing
	+ 1.1 Manual Install
	+ 1.2 Using Portable Aurora
* 2 System Requirements
* 3 See Also

## Installing

There are two methods a player can use to install Aurora: manually downloading and installing the latest version yourself, or more simpler, use one of the available Portable Aurora packages. If you are having problems running or installing the game, the best place to ask is at the forums.

You should generally look for the latest versions, unless a "Legacy" version is required for some reason.

### Manual Install

2) Go to the Aurora Installation Forum. Download the latest patch, and save the file to your desktop or another easily accessed area of your computer.
3) To apply the patch, unpack the patch file and copy the files into the game folder as follow:

a) Stevefire.mdb and Aurora.exe into the installation directory, overwriting the existing files with the same names
b) a11.jpg, b20.jpg and M24.jpg into the Planetjpeg sub-directory

1) Download AuroraInstall554.zip and save the file to your desktop or another easily accessed area of your computer. Extract the .zip file you just downloaded, you should get four files called `Aurora.CAB`, `Setup.exe`, `Setup.LST` and `AuroraUpdate554.zip`.
2) Install Aurora, by running `Setup.exe`. This will launch a standard (but old) Microsoft install program, follow the on-screen instructions as you would when installing any other program.

**Note:** The installation folder is, by default, in `C:\Program Files\Aurora`. Change the installation path to another easily accessed area of your computer, such as `C:\games\Aurora` or `C:\Users\yourUsername\Desktop\Aurora`.
**Important:** if asked about overwriting any existing files with older files, make sure you KEEP the existing files. This will happen about 10 times during the install.
3) Update the game, by unziping `AuroraUpdate554.zip` into the game directory you choose, and answer yes to overwriting Aurora.exe and Stevefire.mdb.

**Note** If you live in a country where the decimal separator is a comma e.g. 1,200, see System Requirements section bellow.
4) (**OPTIONAL**) Download UpdatedRaces.zip (29MB) and overwrite the races in the Race directory. This updates the racial pictures and prevents errors when viewing the sample game Steve included.
5) You will need to install the program from this website to safely get some missing .dlls that you will need. You can uninstall the program immediately after if you want.
6) If you've followed all these steps, you're done and ready for your first game! Check the Tutorial section on the wiki for help getting started or visit the official Aurora4x forums.

### Using Portable Aurora

Portable Aurora, is a third-party package that make it easier to install and run the game. It includes the game and a wrapper that automate some technical aspects of running it, and several graphics sets.

Portable Aurora use no installer for the game. Simply extract the archive file to a folder somewhere and run the game from within the folder. You can download it from the Portable Aurora sub-forum.

## System Requirements

**Number format**: If you are living in a country which uses the comma (,) for decimal separator, then while playing Aurora you have to switch the Regional Settings of your computer over to US or UK or another country that uses the period (.) as the decimal separator. This is done automatically when using the Portable Aurora package.

**Minimum resolution**: The minimum resolution required is 1280x1024. A higher resolution or multiple monitors will allow you to see more windows at once. If your display doesn't support this, there are ways around it, provided your video card supports a higher resolution than your monitor/display. You can also play with slightly 'reduced height windows' (see main game menu).

* Scrolling desktop. A program that extends the desktop beyond your screen can be found at http://360desktop.com/
* In XP, something similar is already built in but it does carry a warning from Microsoft so you will have to decide if this is worth trying. Go to the screen where you set your resolution. Select the Advanced button and then select the Monitor tab. There is a checkbox which reads "Hide modes that this monitor cannot display". If you uncheck this box, you can set resolution to anything your graphics card can handle. If this resolution is higher than what your monitor can display, whenever your mouse pointer reaches the edge of your screen, the whole screen will scroll in that direction.

## See Also

* Aurora Installation Forum latest files and support.
* Portable Aurora all-In-One installer.
* Quickstart for Beginners tutorial.