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]

First, Kura, you're not the God of PHP that you think you are. You need a serious ego-check. If you're not going to say anything positive, please stay out of this thread.

Second, I won't be commenting on this "arcade war" because it is ludicrous. IMO, the Admins should be reprimanding those who choose to come in here with the sole purpose of trash-talking about a hack.

Third, the Mozilla error was something dumb that I never caught and I take full responsibility for it. If you are running the vB2 version of the arcade, try editing one of your game code sections in the admin panel so that both the OBJECT and the EMBED tags contain the full query string (with all of the variables, especially location). This may fix the problem.

Fourth, I just got back from Florida -- wow it was a long week -- and am getting back into the swing of things. I'll keep people posted.

Thanks!

[Zelda-King]

Just so you know I've always looked forward to your vB3 update, even after the other arcade came out. Damn, I might even use both. It'd kind of match the domain name.

[cjmacd]

Great hack have the games up and running

the only problem is when a game finished instead of going to the comment section

it goes to

http://proarcade.php/

i've looked everywhere for the source of the problem and haven't been able to find it yet

I have the 5 default games and the hash offsets are all 5 (which was default)

and i'm running vB ver. 2.3.2

thanks

[futureal]

What browser are you running?

I really need to get the vB2 fix out, it has the Mozilla fixes and all that other stuff.

[cjmacd]

Originally Posted by futureal

What browser are you running?

I really need to get the vB2 fix out, it has the Mozilla fixes and all that other stuff.

IE 6.0

[cjmacd]

I don't think it's a browser error
and i've been over the code and templates many times.

if you want to see what I'm talking about it's as soon as a game ends

http://www.daltech.ca/proarcade.php

user: gameplayer | pass: 123456


which part of the program causes the comment / submit page to open up?

I've looked for admin settings. and there is now configurable URL


http://proarcade.php/ is what it opens.

I know many people have installed and used this hack just fine. has anyone seen an error like this?

[futureal]

Check the "Forum URL" variable in your vBulletin Options in the Admin CP, and if there is a trailing slash, remove it. I think that might your problem. If you look at the various URL links around your site, they all have a double slash ("//") in them...

[cjmacd]

Originally Posted by futureal

Check the "Forum URL" variable in your vBulletin Options in the Admin CP, and if there is a trailing slash, remove it. I think that might your problem. If you look at the various URL links around your site, they all have a double slash ("//") in them...

The problems fixed Thank

I don't know why I didn't think to look at that

Excellent Hack man keep up the good work

now I gotta go make sure I hit installed

[RISKS]

any news about vbproarcade v3?

[futureal]

Still working on it...

The alpha should head out soon.

[pmay68]

How can I make a seperate page so that all the game scores show on that page rather than under the games lists..

A scores page sorta speak that hold all the different games scores so I can make a link to just an overall scores page.. Am i making sence here, now im confused haha anyone?

[trunks_26753]

Hi, i just installed it on a vB 2.3.4 Everything works fine except for the posts in a thread are being shown twice.

How do i fix this?

[futureal]

It is showing all posts in a thread twice? It sounds like you messed up the file modifications for showthread.php. Try going back over the installation instructions to double-check that everything is OK.

Good luck!

[Warlord]

cjmacd... that skin on your site is bad@$$.

futureal.... awesome hack man, I'm going to try the install now...

[Warlord]

Ok, I installed it and it works great, one small problem though...

When you finish a game and type something in the comments box, the font is the same color of the background... how do I fix that? (I think the sumbit button is also the same color as the backgroung too)