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Installation Under Windows

Installation Under Windows

ENiGMA½ will run on both 32bit and 64bit Windows. If you want to run 16bit doors natively then you should use a 32bit Windows.

Prerequisites

Node.js

Download and install Node.js from nodejs.org. Use the current LTS release — non-LTS/bleeding-edge versions are not tested and may cause issues.

Visual Studio Build Tools

ENiGMA½ includes native modules (node-pty and sqlite3) that must be compiled during installation. This requires Visual Studio Build Tools:

  1. Download Visual Studio Build Tools 2022
  2. Run the installer and select the “Desktop development with C++” workload
  3. Ensure the following are included (selected by default with the workload):
    • MSVC build tools
    • Windows SDK
    • C++ CMake tools

Note: Visual Studio Build Tools 2017 or newer is required. Older versions will not be detected by node-gyp.

Git

Install Git and optionally TortoiseGit.

7-Zip

Install 7-Zip and add it to your PATH:

  1. Right click This PC and select Properties
  2. Go to the Advanced tab and click Environment Variables
  3. Select Path under System Variables and click Edit
  4. Click New and paste the path to 7-Zip (e.g. C:\Program Files\7-Zip)
  5. Close and reopen your console — type 7z to verify it works

(See Archivers for additional archive utilities.)

Installation

  1. Clone ENiGMA½ — browse to the directory you want and run: 
     git clone "https://github.com/NuSkooler/enigma-bbs.git"

    Optionally use TortoiseGit by right clicking the directory and selecting Git Clone.

  2. Install ENiGMA½: 
     cd enigma-bbs
 npm install
  3. Generate your initial configuration: 
     node .\oputil.js config new

  4. Edit your configuration files in enigma-bbs\config with Notepad++ or Visual Studio Code.

  5. Run ENiGMA½: 
     node .\main.js

See Production Installation when you are ready to go live.

Troubleshooting: node-gyp / Visual Studio Not Found

If npm install fails with an error like “could not find a version of Visual Studio” or “unknown version found”, node-gyp is not detecting your VS Build Tools installation. Try:

npm config set msvs_version 2022
npm install

If problems persist, see the node-gyp Windows installation guide for further troubleshooting steps.

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