[xmorpher]

ADDING GAME CATEGORIES

just some ideas & suggestions to adding categories to v3 arcade

i know programming but i have not worked with PHP or Mysql
so i just post the ideas,.. if anybody can make an addon or finds these
ideas usefull.... great

You may add a third arcade table to database called: "game_categories"
which stores:
category_id (an unique number)
category_name (to Customize Category titles)
category_description (idem)
category_logo (category's thumbnail or logo)
category_split (number of games to show per page before split in sepparated pages)
category_showmode ( Expanded , Normal, Compact Mode) *i'll explain this later
category_active (true/false)
category_extra (in case you need it in the future)

i noticed one field in the database table "games" called " gamesettings
that is set to "29" in all games...

i don't know if this Var is really used,
but if not,.... maybe it can store a "category_id" like: Sports, Classics, General, etc
then the arcade.php can filter games by "category_id"
using the "game_categories" data
(showing only the games where category_id are equal to "Sports" etc)

In the arcade main page, if no "category_id" is parsed,
you can use a template to show all the categories availables,
showing: Category_Name, description, logo,
and show the first 5/10/x game thumbnails & link of each category....

I hope this ideas are usefull to somebody

* about the category_showmode ... if the game list keeps growing,
maybe well need to save space... and we can use a "show_mode":
Expanded: the actual mode of display games.
Normal: Display the Description of the game in the "ALT" tag of the image
to save some space...
Compact: show the Little thumbnails (game_name2.gif) with description in the "ALT" tag