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!

[Prophet2002]

i removed that entry from in proarcade.php works perfect now, go figure

[Prophet2002]

Originally posted by Link14716

Out of courisity, are you using Nutscrape or Murtzilla?

no i'm using IE 5.0

[SHoeSTeR]

I keep getting this error please help.

Database error in vBulletin 2.2.7:

Invalid SQL: SELECT * FROM arcadescores WHERE game='tetris' ORDER BY score DESC LIMIT 1
mysql error: Table 'mtgshoe_mtgshoevbb.arcadescores' doesn't exist

mysql error number: 1146

Date: Friday 13th of September 2002 10:36:42 PM
Script: http://www.mtgshoebox.com/forums//fo...ay&game=tetris
Referer: http://www.mtgshoebox.com/forums/index.php?

[futureal]

Originally posted by Prophet2002
i believe it is related to this hack. The error never occured before installing this hack, and it occures when i'm clickin on one of the game links.. I'll try reinstalling, maybe i did someting wrong, i'll post back w/ results


Update:

found this in proarcade.php...looks like it is trying to grab info from that table

edit: I stand corrected. Since I no longer had a fresh copy of the old proarcade.php, I used the same version that I had been testing with on somebody else's site. Apparently, that individual had modified the code and I was unaware of it. I will have to update the zip again.

Sorry for the troubles; I hadn't anticipated on having to do a re-zip of the old version, and since all of the stuff on my hard drive is now Beta 2, things got mixed up. I thought I had caught everything, but apparently not.

edit again: The zip is now updated (again). Just re-download it and replace your proarcade.php with the one from the zip. Thanks.

[futureal]

Originally posted by SHoeSTeR
I keep getting this error please help.

Database error in vBulletin 2.2.7:

Invalid SQL: SELECT * FROM arcadescores WHERE game='tetris' ORDER BY score DESC LIMIT 1
mysql error: Table 'mtgshoe_mtgshoevbb.arcadescores' doesn't exist

mysql error number: 1146

Date: Friday 13th of September 2002 10:36:42 PM
Script: http://www.mtgshoebox.com/forums//fo...ay&game=tetris
Referer: http://www.mtgshoebox.com/forums/index.php?

You must have downloaded the zipfile last night or earlier today before I fixed it. Please see this post for more info: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...616#post298616

Then, re-download the zipfile in the first message and replace your proarcade.php with the copy from that file.

Thanks!

[eckels2]

Originally posted by Link14716

Out of courisity, are you using Nutscrape or Murtzilla?

I'm using IE 5.50 and the user that has the same problem is using IE 6.0.26.

[Prophet2002]

edit again: The zip is now updated (again). Just re-download it and replace your proarcade.php with the one from the zip. Thanks. [/B]

you da man!

[eckels2]

futureal...

Ok check it out, I tried playing games from another computer, and It recorded my scores fine. So it's got to be something local on my PC.

I've seen a lot of members on different sites with the same problem I'm having, so there's some kind of requirement that I don't think everyone knows about, or something...

The only think i can think of is that it's somehow related to my flash plugin. does anyone know of a way to uninstall a flash browser plugin? I'm already updated to the most recent version, but I wonder if a clean install of the plugin would work better than this....

Other than that, i'm completely stumped.

Maybe if admins could gather the user info (browser, version, etc..) for the members that are having this same problem and post it here, we could figure out what the exact problem is?

[Audionuts]

hay futureal, i have been experiencing a small bug with my Arcade, it seams aa couple of the usergroups that i added to the forum, are not getting permission to play...what i mean is my "Rgistered" users are fine but i have a "VIP Members" group, and they cant access the games...
any ideas? thanks in advanced

[chad777]

Audio,

that was fixed here

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...244#post294244