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!

[Tigga]

Oh, a couple of my members have complained too that in Breakout, after the ball gets so fast, it starts to skip tiles making it impossible to win. I know you didn't do the flash code for the games, but I just thought I'd let you know.

[QiQme]

Hi all,

I installed this hack but when i played a game it goes from http://www.url.com/forum/proarcade.php to http://www.url.com/proarcade.php.

I searched this whole thread for a solution but couldn't find it.

What do i have to change ?

Regards Michel

[Scrooge]

I need a little help please

Part of the hack replaces this code in showthread.php:

PHP Code:

if (!$getperms['cangetattachment']) {
    $viewattachedimages=0;
} 


I don't see this code anywhere. It is probably because I'm still on 2.2.2. Where should I place the replacement code?

[Craigr]

One of my users got 1,701,203 in Tetris! They must have been playing for ages!

Craig

[Ian]

All these games can be easily hacked by memory editing. I don't know how to fix this, just pointing it out.

[Tigga]

Got a quick question for ya Futureal... How exactly is the time for the games recorded? I'm guessing it pulls the time from the server since it seems to be about 2 hours off from the message board. Does it keep a record of the time from the server and record that, or would all the times change if the server time changed?

[futureal]

Originally posted by Ian
All these games can be easily hacked by memory editing. I don't know how to fix this, just pointing it out.

As far as I know, any Flash movie can be edited in this manner. Flash security is very, very limited. There are ongoing discussions and "challenges" on FlashKit (www.flashkit.com) regarding security.

The only thing I can think of that word be worth doing to prevent cheating is recording a user's "time of entry" onto the game page and then his/her "time of entry" onto the score page. Using the scoreboard editor, an adiministrator could easily see when a user is fooling the system -- e.g. a score of 1+ million in Tetris requires, what, 30 minutes of playing?

Really though, there is no foolproof method here. Anybody who knows how to hexedit can probably find a way to beat the system, but I am not too worried about it. I watch for things like new accounts immediately getting the highest score, and users having played once or twice and getting the highest score.

As always, I am open to suggestions on this matter if anybody has them. Security is a big issue here, but unfortunately Flash/PHP interaction is inherently insecure.

edit: This also addresses PlurPlanet's problem/question. I think that after reading this stuff, I may work on implementing my idea above. It would add yet another table and a few extra queries but it sounds like it would be worth it. In general terms, here is how this would work:

• When a user goes to a "Play" page, an entry is recorded in the security table showing the user's ID, the game's ID, and the current server time.
• When a user goes to a "Game Over" page, the security table is checked for the user's most recent open entry for that game, and the entry is "closed" by updating the record with the gameover time.
• Each time a user goes to a "Play" page, the database checks to see if there is an "open" entry for that user and game; if there is, it is replaced, otherwise a new one is created

This would add 2-3 queries to the play page (the DELETE would not always occur) and 2 queries to the gameover page, as well as a fifth table to the arcade. The advantage is that it is completely server-side, so a user will not be able to fool it. The disadvantage is that a clever user could still fool the system if he/she knows how it works. However, it should make it a lot easier to spot.

[futureal]

Originally posted by PlurPlanet
Got a quick question for ya Futureal... How exactly is the time for the games recorded? I'm guessing it pulls the time from the server since it seems to be about 2 hours off from the message board. Does it keep a record of the time from the server and record that, or would all the times change if the server time changed?

The time is (right now) pulled off of the server and stored in the database in server time. I have not yet added the code to adjust for user's timezones, although that will be rather easy to do.

Also, see my previous post for discussion of your other problem. Thanks.

[futureal]

Originally posted by Scrooge
I don't see this code anywhere. It is probably because I'm still on 2.2.2. Where should I place the replacement code?

See if you can find the line:

PHP Code:

$postbits = ''; 


And add it right above that.

[futureal]

Originally posted by QiQme
I installed this hack but when i played a game it goes from http://www.url.com/forum/proarcade.php to http://www.url.com/proarcade.php.

I searched this whole thread for a solution but couldn't find it.

What do i have to change ?

This sounds like a bug that has already been fixed. Make sure you download the latest version of the zipfile from the first message and replace your proarcade.php and proarcadeadmin.php with the ones from the file.