vbProArcade Beta 2

vbProArcade Beta 2

1/5/03: Beta 2 released
9/12/02: Beta 1.03 zip updated to include safe mode fix
9/3/02: Beta 1.03 released -- small bug fixes, see below
9/1/02: Beta 1 of vbProArcade has been posted. Please see below for installation instructions.


Background Information

vbProArcade is a fully-customizable Flash arcade add-on for vBulletin, complete with game-by-game scoreboards, forum integration, a "champions" system, statistics, and more.

This is an extensive hack that is still in BETA form, and I don't recommend installing it if you are not willing to work through potential issues and future updates/upgrades! I am working on making the installation instructions as easy as possible, but it will probably be some time before it is perfect.

Watch this post for updates as they happen, and check out screenshots from the list below. If you would like to see the hack in action, you may visit my Shadows of Namek forums. You will need to register to play, but you can view the scoreboards and the arcade itself as a guest.


Credits

This hack materialized thanks to work and help from a number of people and forums. Here they are:

• Original vbTetris Hack by Erwin Loh
• Original vbTetris Leaderboard Hack by John Warwick (john.eovie)
• One of my users, Simon Steel, for work on Flash coding/recoding
• The users of one of my forums, Shadows of Namek, for their extensive testing of the system
• And The Kryptonian for pre-release and release candidate installation testing.

Games

So far, there are FIVE GAMES that work correctly with this hack. They are:

Breakout
Pacman
Snake
Space Invaders
Tetris

All five .SWF files are included in the release archive.

There is now a Flash Games Development Thread for the purpose of modifying existing games to work with vbProArcade, or for creating new games to be compatible with vbProArcade. If you have a game that you wish to see modified but don't know how, post the .FLA source in that thread and hopefully somebody can assist you.


Installation Instructions

Download the file attached to this post, unzip it and familiarize yourself with the contents BEFORE doing anything.

There are TWO separate files worth reading, the Documentation and the Installation Instructions. I recommend that you read both BEFORE doing anything else.

Once you have done this, the instructions to be followed are contained in vbproarcade-install.txt. Follow them as precisely as possible. If you encounter an error somewhere, it is likely that you missed a step or made a small error. Please double-check your work BEFORE posting about problems here.

And it cannot be said enough: read that file before you do anything, and if you are unsure of something, please post your question(s) before attempting to install the hack.


Problems and Fixes/Workarounds (as of 1/5)

• None

Known Bugs/Limitations

Here is the list of stuff that I know does not work. I will be working towards correcting these bugs BEFORE adding new features for the next release.

• Netscape will allow you to play the games but not record scores
• If a user uses the "Back" button to go to the game screen, and does not refresh before playing, the score will result in a Security Violation. This is by design.

Screen Shots for Beta 2

Here is the list of posts from this thread that contain screen shots for the new version. Check them out!

• Main Arcade Screen: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...106#post292106
• Game Screen: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...107#post292107
• Game Over Screen: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...109#post292109
• Scoreboard: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...110#post292110
• Top Score Board: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...111#post292111
• Admin Modify Game: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...112#post292112
• Who's Online Display: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...113#post292113
• User Detail Screen: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...811#post337811
• Admin Score Editor: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...736#post338736
• Champ System in Postbit: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...745#post338745
• Modify Games in Admin CP (contracted): https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...858#post389858
• Modify Games in Admin CP (expanded): https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...859#post389859

Upcoming Features

This is the stuff that is in progress for future release:

• Complete Admin Panel Scoreboard Editor
• Additional integration with vB
• Even better Who's Online screen

Some have emailed or PM'd me asking if I would accept donations for my work on this hack, and yes, I certainly will, and any and all support is greatly appreciated. With over 2,000 lines of original PHP code, in addition to HTML and Flash work, I have spent a great deal of time developing and debugging the source for this, and it is a great feeling to have people like it so much that they want to give something back.

All donations received go directly back into supporting my websites and my design activities. You may click here to donate via Paypal. Note that donations are by no means required, and not donating does not mean you won't get support for the hack.

Last but not least, thanks for checking this out!

[aibon]

Originally posted by desi
well as suggested i've checked everything .... all the games work fine for admins only ...

but when i try to activate the game... i just doesn't do it ..
cheers [/B]

make sure you activate EACH game in the game options. that's the only thing that will be checked in the code for your issue. use phpmyadmin and look in the table and set the corrosponding field manually to 1, if you cant get it to work.

@milkmycow:
sounds like the flashmovies arent found. i couldnt check your forum, didnt want to register. look in the sourcecode of your html-page with the flashmovie and check what path is set therer for the movie.

[Sebastian]

I am getting a blank page as well, the page loads but not the game... the flash hangs and never loads.

[milkmycow]

how can we fix it?

[aibon]

Originally posted by milkmycow
how can we fix it?

like i said, check what url is in the flash object-tag. you have to enter the right directory in the global options (for testing leave this blank and put all your movies in the /forum dir). if you cant get it to work, pm me the url to your forum and a login i can use and ill take a look.

btw. i fixed a little bug with the querystring, the querystring to the movie has to be urlencoded, because there are specialchars in it (/) which can't be transfered in the url. some versions of internet explorer fix this itself, but netscape dont.

in the flash object tag for netscape, the querystring was missing, so that was probably the problem why the scoreboard etc. didint work in netscape.

with that 2 fixes, i was able to get all working with netscape7. no problem with the scoreboard and posting, runs fine. i dont know if there are problems with other netscape versions. if so, post the the netscape version and error message here, ill take a look.

here are the 2 fixes:

in proarcade.php find this:

PHP Code:

  // get the relative URL of the forum
  $vpa_bburl = reduceurl($bburl); 


replace it with:

PHP Code:

  // get the relative URL of the forum
  $vpa_bburl = urlencode(reduceurl($bburl)); 


in template vbproarcade_playgame_flashcode

replace

PHP Code:

<embed src="$vpa_filename" $vpa_eparams width="$vpa_width" height="$vpa_height"> 


with

PHP Code:

<embed src="$vpa_filename?$vpa_qstring" $vpa_eparams width="$vpa_width" height="$vpa_height"> 


thats it... have fun.

and thx to futurereal for this nice hack...

if any1 got some more flashgames, go ahead and post the fla.files here...

[Sebastian]

Milkmycow, (that sounds funny) .. I figured out the problem, in admin cp click on vbproarcade general options and change the path to games from /games/ to games/

[Sebastian]

Anyone having trouble uploading the images for each game? I upload the images but it doens't get displayed on the arcade index .. odd, I was able to upload the score board and crown images without a problem.

[Hubsi]

first i have to say, that this is a great hack

but now i have a question i think was often there: "Is there a way to get more games for this hack?"

[Sebastian]

futureal, can you explain how come I am getting 3 extra queries on forum home? There isn't anything vbproarcade related on forum home, how come an increase in queries on main page? How do I at least turn 3 queries into 1?

Query: SELECT * FROM arcadegames ORDER BY title ASC
Time before: 0.32712602615356
Time after: 0.3318430185318

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Query: SELECT template FROM template WHERE title='vbproarcade_gamelinkbit' AND (templatesetid=-1 OR templatesetid=4) ORDER BY templatesetid DESC LIMIT 1
Time before: 0.33376896381378
Time after: 0.33636605739594

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Query: SELECT template FROM template WHERE title='vbproarcade_gamelinks' AND (templatesetid=-1 OR templatesetid=4) ORDER BY templatesetid DESC LIMIT 1
Time before: 0.34161496162415
Time after: 0.3439689874649

[aibon]

Originally posted by Sebastian
futureal, can you explain how come I am getting 3 extra queries on forum home? There isn't anything vbproarcade related on forum home, how come an increase in queries on main page? How do I at least turn 3 queries into 1?

im not futureal, but here you go: all i can say is rtfm.... read da ++++ing manual.

in index.php there's code inserted so that you can put some links to the games on your forumhomepage template . that's explained in the manual.txt. just revert your index.php to your orignal code if you dont need it.

[Mijae]

in proarcade.php I replace the default permissions with:

PHP Code:

if
(
(
($bbuserinfo[usergroupid] != 2) and
($bbuserinfo[usergroupid] != 5) and
($bbuserinfo[usergroupid] != 6) and
($bbuserinfo[usergroupid] != 7) and
($bbuserinfo[usergroupid] != 8)

) and
(
($bbuserinfo[posts] < 2)
)
)
{
show_error_nopermission();
}

break; 


How can I make a user with no requierments go to a new template with the text saying Y"ou need 2 posts to play in the arcade"?