Kamishibai FAQ

All of the stories available for download from Otaku World are stored in self-extracting archives. That is, you download the file and then you run it to extract the contents. When you download the story file, you have to put it into the Kamishibai folder (the folder that holds the shibai.exe file) before you run it. When you do run the downloaded story file, just click on the Extract button. The archive automatically creates the stories folder (if it doesn't already exist), the folder that contains the specific story, and all the folders required for the resources for that story.

To download a story, click on the download link on the page that displays the story you want. The browser automatically starts to download the file. You are asked where to download the file to. Just select a suitable location on your hard drive. If you want, you can download directly into the Kamishibai folder, allowing you to skip step 2.

There are several ways to copy a file in Windows. The easiest way is to open Windows Explorer (available from the Start button). Once you have opened Windows Explorer, find the folder in which you downloaded the story archive (this is the folder you selected in the browser to download the file to). Do this by opening up the listing as shown on the left side of Windows Explorer (click on the little plus sign to the left of the folder name to expand its contents). Click on the folder name itself to show the contents of the folder in the right-hand side of Windows Explorer.

Once you have found the folder and you can see the archive file on the right-hand side of Windows Explorer, carefully expand the folder tree on the left-hand side to expose the Kamishibai folder. Make sure you do this part with only the little plus signs, otherwise you could temporarily lose the story archive on the right-hand side. If you do happen click on a folder name and lose the story archive, scroll the left-hand side of Windows Explorer to where you can see the download folder and click on it.

Now that you have the Kamishibai folder visible in the left-hand side, click on the story archive on the right-hand side to select it. Now, hold the control key (CTRL) down and click-and-drag the story archive from the right-hand side onto the Kamishibai folder on the left-hand side (it should highlight as you hold the dragged name over it) and release the button. The file is copied. You can verify this by clicking on the Kamishibai folder and see its contents on the right-hand side.

It sounds complicated but the copying actions are very straightforward and after a couple of tries, it becomes very easy to accomplish. Just remember to hold the control key down before you start dragging, otherwise you will move the file instead of copying it.

If you have forgotten where Kamishibai is and you didn't install it to the default location of C:\Program Files\Accursed Toys\Kamishibai, then you have to find it. Click on the Start button and under the Find menu, select "Files or Folders". You are presented with a dialog that asks for the name of a file or folder to be typed in. Type in "shibai.exe" (without the quotes) and press Enter. Shortly, the full path name to "shibai.exe" is shown in the lower part of the find dialog. If you have trouble reading the path, right-click on the shibai.exe name in the list and select Properties from the menu that appears. A dialog is presented which shows you, among other things, the Location of the file. That is were Kamishibai is.

There are several ways to run a program under Windows. Since a story archive is self-extracting, it is a program so the same rules as running programs apply. Here are two methods:

There are times when you want to free up disk space and you need to delete some files. For example, you have downloaded a story archive and copied it to the Kamishibai folder for extraction. Now you want to get rid of the story archive file from the Kamishibai folder (you have the story and the archive someplace else, so you don't need it in the Kamishibai folder). The easiest way to delete the archive is to open Windows Explorer and expand the folders on the left to get to the folder containing the archive you want to delete. Click on the folder name in the left-hand side to show its contents on the right-hand side, and then click on the story archive to delete. Then press the delete key (DEL) or right-click on the filename and select Delete from the menu that appears. Or select Delete from the File menu at the top of the Explorer window. You are asked to confirm the deletion, especially since it is an executable. Just say OK or Yes to the deletion. The archive is moved to the Recycle or Trash can (where you can get it back if you made a mistake and deleted the wrong thing).