guide to getting "advanced" levels to work -- with

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[EDIT: seems like janetgalle has posted a set of steps which are much shorter than my steps. So I recommend trying it her way first, and if that doesn't work you can try it my way. See http://pcpuzzle.com/forum/viewtopic.php ... ght=#12176 (that's a link, click on it to go there) for her instructions.]

This is a step-by-step walkthrough, with pictures of how to download and unzip the custom models that come with advanced levels. It assumes you have Windows XP. It's not as complicated as it looks once you get the hang of it. It might not be the fastest way to do this, but it's what I've been doing and it has worked very well for me. I'm being very explicit in the steps, since it's better for me to err on the explicit side rather than leaving something out and confusing someone as a result.

Unfortunately everyone's computer is slightly different, so what works for me might or might not work for you. What you see on your screen doesn't have to match exactly what you see here, but if it looks totally different, just PM me or make a post and we'll see what we can do.

I'll use janetgalle's "movie night" advanced level in the walkthrough. The level and its associated custom models and custom houses can be found under http://www.pcpuzzle.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1371.

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STEP 1

Below's a screenshot of the post where you can download everything you need for janetgalle's advanced level "movie night". In general, for most advanced levels, the zip files for the custom stuff would be posted alongside the level itself. The guide here assumes this.

Anyway, as you can see, there are 3 attachments in that post. The first one is the level itself. From the description, you see that the second one contains the custom models, and the third one the custom houses.

The only difference between extracting custom models and custom houses is which folder they end up in. For custom models, as I've circled in the screenshot, they go in the folder CustomModels (note no spaces) which is under your DRTW folder. The custom houses instead go into CustomHouses (again, no spaces). That's the only difference; other than that they share the same steps for extracting.

The guide here will cover just doing the custom models, leaving the custom houses as an exercise.

Anyway, click the "download" link as I've circled to begin the process of setting up the custom models for this level.

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STEP 2

After you clicked "download" in step 1, the window shown in the screenshot here will pop up. Click on the "Open" button to download the stuff into your computer.

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STEP 3

Your computer will start downloading stuff, and after a moment (anywhere from instantaneous to maybe half a minute, depending on the size of the models and your Internet connection), the following window will show up, showing you the contents of the zip file you just downloaded and opened.

As you can see, the zip file contains a folder. If you examine the folder you've find the files for the custom models are inside that folder. But no need to examine the folder for our purposes.

Now begins the process of extracting the folder and its files into DRTW. First click on the circled item.

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STEP 4

A new window will pop up, which steps you thru the process of extracting the custom models from your zip file.

The first thing to do is to tell your computer where you want the stuff extracted to. Since the folder is already there in the zip file, all you need to do is to extract the folder itself and have it placed under the "CustomModels" folder in DRTW.

To tell the computer where to extract to, click on the "Browse" button as circled.

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STEP 5

Yet another window will show up. This is where Windows XP gets a little ugly. The computer is so stupid that you have to actually walk it through the maze of folders and subfolders yourself, until you get the computer to the CustomModels folder in the game. Fortunately the folders always stay in the same place so the following steps will do the trick every time.

Start by clicking on the "+" sign next to "My Computer".

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STEP 6

After you click as described above, you should see that a new list of stuff will drop down right under "My Computer". What you did is to expand the outline tree to show all the stuff underneath the location "My Computer". The next step therefore is to direct your computer's attention to your hard disk which is most probably where you've installed DRTW. So click on the "+" sign next to "Local Disk (C:)" to continue.

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STEP 7

Don't worry, we're about halfway thru. The only reason there are so many steps is because you have to walk Windows XP thru the maze of stuff to get to CustomModels.

Again, after you click in the previous step, a new list of stuff will drop down under "Local Disk". The next item we're looking for is the Return of Wonderland Deluxe folder. Unfortunately, if your computer is like mine, there are a whole bunch of other stuff in your hard disk, and so the folder is somewhere way down there in the list. So if you can already see the item called "Return to Wonderland Deluxe" at this point, just skip to step 8.

Otherwise, click repeatedly on that arrow pointing down (as circled) to scroll the list down item by item, until you finally get to the "Return to Wonderland Deluxe" item.

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STEP 8

Ah ha! Finally, after an eternity of clicking , we've finally scrolled down to the Return To Wonderland Deluxe folder! As before, click on the "+" sign. We're almost there, I promise...

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STEP 9

Yet another list of stuff will drop down under "Return to Wonderland Deluxe". Ah ha! Finally, after a whole minute, we've taught the computer where DRTW's "CustomModels" folder is! Too bad the computer is so stupid, you have to re-educate it every time you download a new custom level!

Oh well. Anyway, since we've found the exact place where we want to extract the folder inside the zip file, instead of clicking on the "+" sign to go further down, this time just click on the item name itself (as circled). So click on where you see the text "CustomModels".

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STEP 10

We're really close now, just a few more steps!

As you can see below, the item "CustomModels" have been highlighted after you clicked on it. This means you've just told the computer you want the folder inside the zip file to be placed in CustomModels.

This is what we want, so time to confirm this by clicking the "OK" button.

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STEP 11

After clicking on OK, you've dismissed the window we've been working at for the last 6 steps or so. You're back to the "Extraction Wizard" window.

As you can see, the box above the Browse button now has the correct location (CustomModels) where we want to extract the folder we've seen in the zip file back in step 3.

So click on the "Next" button to finally have your computer extract the stuff.

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STEP 12

After about half a second or so, the unzipping is done. The window will change to look like the screenshot below.

Notice there's a checkmark next to "Show extracted files". But we don't really need to do that. If you're like most people, you're downloading the custom models so they show up when you play the level. You're not downloading them to just look at them directly.

So click on the checkmark to clear it.

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STEP 13

As you can see below, the checkmark is cleared.

We're truly done now, so click on the "Finish" button to dismiss the Extraction Wizard.

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STEP 14

The Extraction Wizard window closes, and you're now sent back to the window that shows you what's in the zip file. Well, since we did what we needed with the zip file, we no longer care about it, so click on the "X" button at the upper right corner to close that window.

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After step 14, you should be back at your web browser, and so you would see the screen in step 1 again.

Now's a good time to practice what we just did, by going thru the same 14 steps to extract the custom houses. The only changes is to download the 3rd attachment rather than the 2nd in step 1, and in step 9, you click on "CustomHouses" rather than "CustomModels".

After that it's game time! Play the custom level "Movie Night" in DRTW. If all went well, you should be able to see some models of cars, a model of a movie screen, and a few custom houses including a rest room and a concession stand.

Well, that's it. I hope this is of help to someone.

[Kaboom!]

WOW! That's a great tutorial. I think Patrick should post that as a Sticky, that way everybody would see it!