Hello!  I'd originally planned to make my game in Sphere 1.5's included editor, but after noticing there are now more advanced editors available, I thought I'd give one a try.  The problem is that Sphere Studio 1.1.7.0 will not run on any of my computers.  On my Windows 7 desktop, it immediately crashes with an error message.  On my Windows 8 notebook, it runs but appears to do nothing -- the circle symbol appears to show the machine is working, but no window opens.  Is there anything I could try to diagnose this problem?  And aside form Sphere Studio, are there other editors that might be good to use?

I had a very similar problem for a long time. Try this:

Unzip Sphere Studio. Then, select the folder and create a new zip file from it. Then unzip the new zip file and try the Sphere Studio in the new folder.

That strips the filesystem attributes. Since you downloaded the original zip from the internet, .NET doesn't want to load plugins from it. Creating a new zip file and then unzipping the new zip file removes this metadata.

Just tried it on my notebook, and it runs fine.  Thanks for the help!

Edit:  Okay, it runs, but new problem:

Whenever I try to make a new file, or open a file in the case of the game.sgm and main.js that were made with my new project automatically, I get the message, "Sphere Studio doesn't know how to open that type of file."  This also happens when I try to load the helpfile.

Whenever I try to make a new file, or open a file in the case of the game.sgm and main.js that were made with my new project automatically, I get the message, "Sphere Studio doesn't know how to open that type of file."  This also happens when I try to load the helpfile.

That's usually expected when you start the editor for the first time. You can go into the settings area and turn on the plugins one by one. Maybe I should turn them all on by default. The editor is not very user friendly since only sphere-savvy people have been using it.

The idea was Sphere Studio does not support any filetype out of the bag, but by adding user created plugins, you can extend the editor. This is useful in case we pivot Sphere and demand new features.

That's odd that it wouldn't open scripts either though... I thought I had set it up so it falls back on a standard edit control if there were no script plugin.  Unless that was only for embedded script controls, e.g. in the map editor...

It would be nice if the helpfile at least would open, so that sounds like a good idea, Lord English.  Since the helpfile is a txt, I mean.  Well, it looks like it's mostly written for programmers anyhow, but in the long run some sort of plain-language explanation would probably be helpful as well.  (It's not a complaint and I know this is all done by volunteers -- just a suggestion.)

As long as I've got you here, is there anything different I need to enable as far as plugins, depending on whether Im making this for miniSphere or for Sphere 1.X?

Thanks to everyone for your advice.

For the purposes of new projects, minisphere can be considered fully compatible with Sphere; the file formats and such are all the same.  I'd recommend just enabling all the plugins and use the Paths tab to set the location of the engine you're using.