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!

[base]

mine is the same except domain.net/forums

after game over it looks for proarcade.php in the domain.net/
directory.

[GaleForce]

Originally posted by Link14716

This problem is fixed some 90 posts back.....

Post #404

That only allows them to play, there is still a DB error when they get a Game Over.

[Tigga]

Originally posted by BluSmurf
how do i find out usergroupid for each user groups?

In your admin pages under User Groups, click on Modify. That will show you each of your usergroups. When you put your mouse over the [edit] link you will be able to see the number in the status bar of your browser.

[Tigga]

Oh, I think I may have found a slight problem with the Champions system. One of my users has the top score in 4 of the games and another user has the top score in one of the games. It works fine for the user that has the high score in one game, but doesn't show anything for the user that has the high score in the other 4. The only difference I see in their accounts is the one it works for has a custom user title and the other doesn't. It's not really a big deal for me, but I thought I'd let you know.

[mewgood]

Originally posted by mewgood
how to reset the score?

anyone can please answer my question?

[BluSmurf]

thanx mate

[futureal]

mewgood: You need to empty the data from the arcade table. Run a query something like:

DELETE FROM arcade WHERE game='game'

That should do it.

[futureal]

Originally posted by PlurPlanet
Oh, I think I may have found a slight problem with the Champions system. One of my users has the top score in 4 of the games and another user has the top score in one of the games. It works fine for the user that has the high score in one game, but doesn't show anything for the user that has the high score in the other 4. The only difference I see in their accounts is the one it works for has a custom user title and the other doesn't. It's not really a big deal for me, but I thought I'd let you know.

I am redoing the Champions system for the next Beta, which should fix most of those problems. I pretty much just schlocked it together 'cause I was trying to get Beta 1 out in a hurry, which turned out to be a big mistake.

[futureal]

As for the problems with the game going to the wrong directory, this is actually a client-side problem related to Flash and its handling of POST variables. The way the script works is like this:

script gets "play" request from user
script sends game, user, highscore, and location of forums to a flash game
flash game plays
flash game ends, and sends game, user, score to the page defined in location
script takes that data and keeps going

So basically, what's happening is that Flash is not correctly sending the location back to the script via POST.

Because of the problems with this, one option is to change the script to use GET. This means that the URL bar would look something like this:

http://www.yoursite.com/forum/proarcade.php?action=gameover&game=tetris&score=45 6000&whatever

Obviously this creates a problem in that people can see how the score is being passed and just enter it manually. So I'm thinking that we'd need to put an MD5 hash on it before transmission, and I'm not sure that Flash's ActionScript can do that. So I'm kind of stumped as where to go from here.

I will keep working on a solution...

[mewgood]

As well, a member in my board played the game and in the top 10 and it should be in the scoreboard, but it doesn't show up.
HELP PELASE