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!

[futureal]

Another Beta 2 update:

I am not going to have the hack in a vbhacker format this time around, because I expect frequent changes/updates to the Beta as people test it. I know that makes it harder on people, but I don't have much of a choice, since setting up a larger hack for vbhacker distribution is rather unwieldy.

I am still working on a couple of things, namely the User Detail pages and a Scoreboard Reset feature. Everything else is already done.

[Intex]

I'm getting the following error messages from some of the users when trying to play the games:

>>

You do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:
You do not have permission to access the page that you were trying to. Are you trying to edit someone else's post or trying to access administrative features? Check that you are allowed to perform this action in the Forum Rules.
If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation. "

<<

All the games run fine for me (local admin) but also with one of my test accounts, but all the other users get that message.

Any ideas ?

[Intex]

I've now figured out that this problem occurs only for people in certain user groups.

My test user was in the 'Registered' user group and this was fine. I have also created my own groups in vBulletin, one of which is called 'Full Member', which most people are a part of. I changed somebody that was having the problem from 'Full Member' to 'Registered' and it worked perfectly, so it must be to do with the user group permissions. I'm just not sure where to change this.

[Floris]

Originally posted by futureal
I know that there are still lingering problems with safe mode, although if a server is configured properly, it should work, since I use the exact same method that vBulletin uses for attachments. If attachment uploading works, then I don't see why the arcade uploading wouldn't work.

As far as the other problem, that was an error in the installation instructions. The place that should be modified is the second occurance of that code in showthread.php.

As soon as I finish getting Beta 2 out the door, I will revisit the safe mode problem...

Thank you for your reply :bunny:

I was wondering though - I set it to the first instance, since below that was the postbit stuff that needed changing, and everything now runs fine.

What might not work now, or works incorrectly because I put it at the first instance?

Do you maybe have an alternative way of letting me use those images?

Normal attachment uploading goes fine with vbulletin, just not this.

[futureal]

Originally posted by Intex
I've now figured out that this problem occurs only for people in certain user groups.

My test user was in the 'Registered' user group and this was fine. I have also created my own groups in vBulletin, one of which is called 'Full Member', which most people are a part of. I changed somebody that was having the problem from 'Full Member' to 'Registered' and it worked perfectly, so it must be to do with the user group permissions. I'm just not sure where to change this.

Near the top of proarcade.php, find this code:

PHP Code:

  case "gameover":
    if (($bbuserinfo[usergroupid] != 2) and
        ($bbuserinfo[usergroupid] != 5) and
        ($bbuserinfo[usergroupid] != 6) and
        ($bbuserinfo[usergroupid] != 7)) {
      show_nopermission();
    }
    break; 


To add additional usergroups, just add a corresponding line for that usergroupid. For example, if you wanted to add the usergroup with id 20, your code would end up looking like:

PHP Code:

  case "gameover":
    if (($bbuserinfo[usergroupid] != 2) and
        ($bbuserinfo[usergroupid] != 5) and
        ($bbuserinfo[usergroupid] != 6) and
        ($bbuserinfo[usergroupid] != 20) and
        ($bbuserinfo[usergroupid] != 7)) {
      show_nopermission();
    }
    break; 


To figure out which group belongs to which ID, when you move the mouse over a group name in the Admin CP, look in your browser's status bar for where it says "...&usergroupid=##" and the ## will be your ID.

[futureal]

Originally posted by xiphoid
I was wondering though - I set it to the first instance, since below that was the postbit stuff that needed changing, and everything now runs fine.

What might not work now, or works incorrectly because I put it at the first instance?

Do you maybe have an alternative way of letting me use those images?

Normal attachment uploading goes fine with vbulletin, just not this.

The postbit stuff will just affect where (if anywhere) the champion text is displayed. The champion stuff really does not work correctly in the 1.03 version, and has been significantly changed for Beta 2. I am reluctant to tell people to mess with the postbit code for 1.03 since it has already been changed. My best advice is to sit tight.

For the images, once again a few things have changed and I hope that Beta 2 can fix those problems. If it doesn't, I will revisit the problem in my testing to see what I can do.

[TheSonic]

I always do changes manually, so i dont have problems if there is no vbHack-Version.

But i really hope to see Beta 2 coming up very soon, my users love this hack.

If i should test something for you, let me know.
My Board is not a big one, backups are available all the time and my users play arcade all night long

[Intex]

Thx. futureal. I've done that now and it works a treat.

The only thing thats not working is the user titles, i.e. when someone has been awarded the crown for 1st position it should show below their user titles, but at the moment it doesn't. Any ideas?

Idea for Improvement - maybe a screen where you can see the 1st, 2nd, 3rd places for each game on the same page?

[Floris]

The users indeedio love the hack, but netscape and mozilla users are complaining ;/ why can't it save the scores?

[futureal]

TheSonic: It is coming very soon. Hopefully within the next few days. I am down to the very last few things I need to get done.

Intex: Beta 2 already has such a screen. The Top 5 scores for each game are displayed on the main arcade page (although this can be toggled off to save queries if that is an issue). The user titles (champions stuff) has also been fixed in Beta 2.

xiphoid: Netscape/Mozilla do not handle POST data correctly with Flash games. This is, as far as I know, a limitation of the browser and there is not much we can do to get around it. I am planning on exploring other options for it in the future, though. There has got to be a way.