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!

[futureal]

On the vB3 version:

Currently working on re-coding the admin panel to match the vB3 style. I had previously made my own style, so this ended up being more work than I wanted it to be.

Sorry for the delays, I spent the past weekend doing event photography work for a magazine.

Hang in there...

[*arie]

wow photography? hope you had fun.

can't wait for the release.

[AndrewZ]

Originally Posted by AndrewZ

Thanks

One final thing.

The thing to get the icons and game name of the games the user is champion isnt working for me. Its not showing up at all... Here is a section of my postbit.

PHP Code:


<td bgcolor="$post[backcolor]" width="175" valign="top" nowrap>
    <a name="post$post[postid]"></a>
    $post[firstnewinsert]
    <normalfont><b>$storeextraglow</b></normalfont><br>
    <smallfont>$post[usertitle]</smallfont><br>
    $post[avatar]<p>
    <smallfont>Registered: $post[joindate]<br>
    Location: $post[field2]<br>
    Posts: $post[posts]<br>$pointname: $store_sign$post[storep] $donate<br>$vpachampicon$vpachamptext</smallfont></td> 


Any help on my problem?

[str8ballin]

Ok I was Searshing for awhile and thought it would be easyer to ask the question.

Is theyre a way to have it so the amount of posts a user has determines wether or not a user is allowed to play in the arcade?

Ie.. Can I set up something that only allows access to the arcade if you have atleast 20 posts?

I keep getting people sign up not posting but playing the arcade games, its quite annoying as the arcade is a bonus feature for my dedicatyed members not just anyone who wants to run my bandwidth up.

[Wolfy.2k]

hi, i have installed proarcade and i thought it went with no problems...

until i went on the arcade page and all of the images have a little x sign and also the games dont load up and cant be found

i uploaded both the /games/ and /graphics/ to my forums folder, but it aint working?

please help!!

cheers

ahh, i have 2.3.4, wud that be the problem?

[futureal]

AndrewZ: If everything is installed correctly, you may just need to go the General Options setting in your vB Admin Control Panel and re-submit, this should cause it to update the global settings. I'm not 100% sure if that will help or not but it is all I can think of at the moment.

str8ballin: If you know a little bit about PHP coding, this shouldn't be too hard. There is a variable stored in the $bbuserinfo array that has a user's post count (I don't recall the name) so you could just write a simpme check in proarcade.php to determine whether or not a user has enough posts to play. The caveat is that you may end up with people posting junk in order to be able to play. A better and more complex method would be to check the user's activity level in the forum, but that's much more complicated.

Wolfy.2k: In the Arcade Admin Panel, change the "/games/" location to "games/" and it should probably work. Let me know if it doesn't. The hack works fine with 2.3.4.

[futureal]

The vB3 port should be coming very soon now. I think that instead of releasing a "Beta 2.1" for vB2 I will actually make it an official release and finally move it out of beta. Most of the known problems in this version have been corrected, assuming my Mozilla testers report success.

vbProArcade v1.x will be the current vB2 beta version
vbProArcade v2.x will be the vB2 version
vbProArcade v3.x will be the vB3 version

This way the version numbers will line up with the vBulletin version numbers. Hope that makes sense.

[Gutspiller]

Originally Posted by Gutspiller

OK, I got to the spot in my host admin CP where I am adding the query to my forum MySQL database, but I got the error: "You have to choose at least one Column to display" What does that mean and what column is it talking about? Can somebody please help me? I really want to add this hack to my forumz.

Thanks for any help.

No more talking in this thread until I am helped. :nervous:

[str8ballin]

Originally Posted by futureal

str8ballin: If you know a little bit about PHP coding, this shouldn't be too hard. There is a variable stored in the $bbuserinfo array that has a user's post count (I don't recall the name) so you could just write a simpme check in proarcade.php to determine whether or not a user has enough posts to play. The caveat is that you may end up with people posting junk in order to be able to play. A better and more complex method would be to check the user's activity level in the forum, but that's much more complicated.

thanks for the reply, but im not good with php, I can follow instructions id say pretty well but Im not really a 'coder'. Can you find some time to help me maybe with a detailed 'how to' on this subject.

I know this might sound stupid but isnt theyre a way to just implement some code that only allows certain users with certain 'user titles' to play in the arcade? Im sure a few people would like this option as its easiest in my opinion to group who your real dedicated members are going by 'user title'.

Im baffled right now all I know is I have a string of unknown people playing in the arcade and its obvious they just signed up to play the games, so the arcade is being abused by outsiders quite annoying!

[KuraFire]

Originally Posted by futureal

The vB3 port should be coming very soon now. [...]

Would you expect "very soon" to be < 1 week / 1-2 weeks / 3-4 weeks / more ? :squareeyed: