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!

[-Sidekick-]

Today at 05:15 PM PixelFx said this in Post #1200
Probably when futureal has replaced his fingers, and had enough sleep this stuff takes time to review, fix and update. If you want to help speed up the process, make a list of any bugs or errors you find.

Then go through this thread to see if any of your bugs have been addressed, if not post them, for futureal to review. This will help speed up the process.

Although I personally don't know what sleep is, I've heard it does wonders for helping get stable releases out

I'm not talking about bugs. I have no problems with the arcade except the optimization of it and Futureal has already addressed that a more optimized version was in the works.

I'm asking when it's coming out.

[PixelFx]

I can't speak for him so no clue .. hoping soon,

I'm trying to seperate the games page and the high score page and make it look pretty at the moment

[eoc_Jason]

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned before in the 81 pages of this thread, but it would be nice on the page where you add a comment if a person had a choice not to submit their score... Sometimes it just doesn't make sense if the game ends right away and they have a score of 1... lol..

[ahbao]

once we add more games the list is pretty long, it might be good to have a drop down menu to select which game to modify instead of list the games out directly

thanks!

[DigitalDesktops]

Heres this little mini-hack I made.
It makes all of the Vbproarcade templates into one category.

[Xyphen]

04-22-03 at 08:08 PM AViO 07 said this in Post #1197
Can someone help me? Why doesn't my score get saved? It never forwards me to the Comments Page, this only goes for me, all my other members can Play Fine, their scores get saved... is something wrong with my pc's setting? please help..

I am using PC, Windows 98, IE 6, Macromedia Flash Player 6.

can't anyone answer this?? :banana:

[Zelda-King]

Try using Internet Explorer (assuming you aren't doing). All cases I've heard with this problem are using Opera, or maybe Netscape, and frankly Netscape is SAID in the details for this hack to not be very compatible with ProArcade.

[futureal]

Yesterday at 10:43 PM DigitalDesktops said this in Post #1205
Heres this little mini-hack I made.
It makes all of the Vbproarcade templates into one category.

That's cool, I meant to get around to that sometime but never had a chance. If you don't mind, I'd like to toss that into Beta 2.1 as an optional step.

[DigitalDesktops]

sure, i don't mind

[GaleForce]

This is weird... Whenever a custom usergroup on my forums trys to access the arcade, they get a "You do not have permission to access this page" message. Any ideas as to how I can fix this?