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!

[joecool]

Yesterday at 11:23 PM v0id said this in Post #1148
futureal, do you know why after most games I get a "Thank you for playing (gamename here)" but in german? First time members noticed that was with the Ping Pong game addition from your other thread.

I will look into it as I have no time now, but I'd rather have someone with php knowledge tell me

pretty easy really, all thease last games have been ripped from that german game board (link has been added here before) it's not a vbb, and someone sad that they doesn't work on vbb (but they do) I tested 10 of them and 7 was working, that game was one of them and there have been several game added the last few days from that board (like kart racing, shooter and so on)

It doesn't have anything to do with the hack itself, it's the game that does that, someone needs to edit the fla file and change that. And for those of you who took them and didnt give the guy who really modify them SHAME!

I'm supprised i havent seen all of them here yet tho, there is still like 10 games out there that really works on vb arcade 2.0, and all of them work on vb 1.0

[EvilLS1]

Today at 12:26 AM joecool said this in Post #1151
pretty easy really, all thease last games have been ripped from that german game board (link has been added here before) it's not a vbb, and someone sad that they doesn't work on vbb (but they do) I tested 10 of them and 7 was working, that game was one of them and there have been several game added the last few days from that board (like kart racing, shooter and so on)

It doesn't have anything to do with the hack itself, it's the game that does that, someone needs to edit the fla file and change that. And for those of you who took them and didnt give the guy who really modify them SHAME!

I'm supprised i havent seen all of them here yet tho, there is still like 10 games out there that really works on vb arcade 2.0, and all of them work on vb 1.0

Um, excuse me? I think you need to get your facts straight before making accusations. I got Kart Racer (and all other games I posted) from this site:
http://www.flashkit.com/movies/Games/Full_Game_Source/

All games that I released were modified by ME, not that site you mentioned.

[joecool]

My misstake then, it did look to me that this was happening tho
1. a german board have them
2. someone ask why he get german comments

but if you really did modify them yourself then i'm sorry.

[EvilLS1]

1. Lots of boards have working games that they got from that same place (flashkit.com) and they just haven't released them for whatever reason. The only difference between me and them is that I decided to share them with everyone while they choose to keep them for themselves.

2. If a game has german comments its because its written into the game itself, not the code added to make it work with vBulletin proarcade.

I can assure you, all games that I released were modified by me. Also, the shooter game that "The Wedge" released came from flashkit.com aswell. I saw it there when I was looking for games to modify.

Its very easy to modify games to work with vB, so there's really no need for anyone to "rip" pre-modded games from other sites.

[auz1111]

04-07-03 at 04:13 PM auz1111 said this in Post #1142
this problem is still killing the arcade on my boards. I have uploaded a new proarcade.php, but it still persist. Does anybody know why it would redirect to: http://proarcade.php/ after playing a game instead of letting the user input a comment?

any advice would help. does anybody hav an idea why this is happening?

[joecool]

Today at 08:03 PM EvilLS1 said this in Post #1154
1. Lots of boards have working games that they got from that same place (flashkit.com) and they just haven't released them for whatever reason. The only difference between me and them is that I decided to share them with everyone while they choose to keep them for themselves.

2. If a game has german comments its because its written into the game itself, not the code added to make it work with vBulletin proarcade.

I can assure you, all games that I released were modified by me. Also, the shooter game that "The Wedge" released came from flashkit.com aswell. I saw it there when I was looking for games to modify.

Its very easy to modify games to work with vB, so there's really no need for anyone to "rip" pre-modded games from other sites.

1. I know, most of them comes from those german game boards from the start (they uses a modify version of this arcade hack) and the guy who have modify those games dont have a vbb, so he doesn't come here (thats why they cant be found here) and other vbb has them too, but i guess they dont wanna release somthing they dont have done themself here (or they dont get permission from the guy who did)

2. I know, thats what i was trying to say "someone" have modify it so there is german text insted of "No Comment" (if you dont type any comments. And that only happend with "some" games, the same games that those german boards have modify.

But like i sad, sorry if i was wrong abot you're game, i know 100% that the pinball game that was submitted comes from a german board tho, the guy who submitted it still had that guys name in it (who modify it)

Sorry! no need to keep this up, right? i'm sorry and it was all my fault, and this is why i never types anything :P

[ryancooper]

Is there a way to prune low scores so they don't take up space in the database? I would onlylike to keep the top 10 scores. . .

[Tigga]

Why are people so concerned about the scores taking up too much space in the database? I currently have almost 4,000 scores recorded and it only takes up 366 KB of space. My entire database is 334 MB, so that means the scores are taking up about 0.001% of the entire database.

[PixelFx]

Has there been any talk about making a vbProArcade addon for the store hack? so that we could charge 25 points a game or what ever the site admin chooses? if they have this hack and the store hack installed?

[Erwin]

Today at 09:36 AM PixelFx said this in Post #1159
Has there been any talk about making a vbProArcade addon for the store hack? so that we could charge 25 points a game or what ever the site admin chooses? if they have this hack and the store hack installed?

That's not hard to do. I have mine integrated with my own custom points system. If you like I can put a Store version up if no one has done so (I'm surprised no one has).