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!

[NTLDR]

Thanks futureal, this is an exelent hack and if this is only Beta 1 then the final version is going to be very spectacular. Thanks for all the hard work you put into this, its a great addon for my board

[Apok2002]

Fixed.

Here is what I did for those (if any) have the same issue that I did above (which will probably be very few lol).

I manually installed the games via admin cp. Did NOT reference ANY icons whatsoever because of the safemode issue. I did not get any install errors.

I also changed the default dir from /games/ to /forums/games/ in the General Options for ProArcade. I believe this was addressed above already.

That fixed it all. Works like a charm, no errors thus far. I'm testing now...

[Apok2002]

Breakout: The song is good, but there is too much of a space (silence) between the end and start during the loop. Anyway to fix that?

Also, the paddle is way too dark for the black background.

Also, which template is it, that allows me to type in the comments for a score? I need to edit the coloring on one of my themes, it's just way too dark, we can't see what we are typing, WHILE we are typing. It shows up just fine after we enter it, and we view the scoreboard.

*edit*

For the Who's Online...

Is there a way to show WHICH game the members are playing? Right now, they show the link w/ an ungodly length. It'd be nice to just say:

Playing Tetris
Viewing Tetris Scoreboard
Playing Breakout

etc...

[futureal]

Originally posted by Apok2002
Breakout: The song is good, but there is too much of a space (silence) between the end and start during the loop. Anyway to fix that?

Also, the paddle is way too dark for the black background.

I am going to compile a new version of Breakout with some changes. I'd like to make the game harder -- right now it seems pretty boring to me.

Also, which template is it, that allows me to type in the comments for a score? I need to edit the coloring on one of my themes, it's just way too dark, we can't see what we are typing, WHILE we are typing. It shows up just fine after we enter it, and we view the scoreboard.

You want vbproarcade_gameover_comment. The colors are hardcoded into the template right now, left over from the original vbTetris hack. I need to incorporate those into the Admin Panel.

For the Who's Online...

Is there a way to show WHICH game the members are playing? Right now, they show the link w/ an ungodly length. It'd be nice to just say:

Playing Tetris
Viewing Tetris Scoreboard
Playing Breakout

This is exactly how it should work, and is how it works on mine. If you could take a screenshot of what problem you are having, that would be helpful. Thanks.

[Ian]

The hack seems to be working great but I have one problem. When I upload images for the games it adds /forum/ to the image name when there should be nothing. This is in the admin panel only, the images work fine elsewhere. Causing the images to be broken.

[chad777]

Ok found something else.

As Admin I can play all games etc..

As user or Mod you get a "you do not have permission to access this page"
You are trying to access admin features etc...

How do you set permissions on games ?

Admins are fine

everyone else is permission denied

[Ian]

If someone is palying a game in the arcade and I go in the in who's online page I get this error:

Fatal error: Call to a member function on a non-object in /home/hsphere/local/home/zforcene/forums.zforcenetwork.com/online.php on line 642

Line 642 in the online.php file reads:

PHP Code:

    $game_q = $DB_site->query_first("SELECT title FROM arcadegames WHERE name='$userinfo[gamename]'"); 


I also have one other problem. I have turned the champion thing on so if your #1 in a game it'll put red text under your name. This seems to be working for three games, despite me having the crown in all the games. Breakout, Space Invaders, and Snake all seem to work but the other don't. The URL of my board is http://forums.zforcenetwork.com/ BTW.

[futureal]

Originally posted by Ian
If someone is palying a game in the arcade and I go in the in who's online page I get this error:Line 642 in the online.php file reads:

Ah, thanks for pointing that out for me. I missed a line in the hack. Right before that line, add:

PHP Code:

global $DB_site; 


That will fix that error.

I also have one other problem. I have turned the champion thing on so if your #1 in a game it'll put red text under your name. This seems to be working for three games, despite me having the crown in all the games. Breakout, Space Invaders, and Snake all seem to work but the other don't. The URL of my board is http://forums.zforcenetwork.com/ BTW.

I will have to take a closer look at your forum and get back to you on that. Thanks for the link.

edit: I just looked at your site and it looks like the Champions System is working fine. I see Champion titles on users for all five games. I think your users stole two of your crowns from you without you realizing it.

[Apok2002]

How many scores will be recorded? The hack has been installed for only about 4 hours or so, and in the Snake scoreboard, I have 190 rankings (scores recorded).

If there is a limit, what is it? And how do we edit that to suit our own boards needs? And if there is no limit, won't that cause the db to get pretty large?

We really don't need anything more than the top 100 scores on the scoreboard.

[futureal]

Originally posted by chad777
As Admin I can play all games etc..

As user or Mod you get a "you do not have permission to access this page"
You are trying to access admin features etc...

How do you set permissions on games ?

It sounds like you are not using the default vBulletin usergroupid system, which is what vbProArcade is set up to handle in this Beta. The defaults are:

usergroup 2 -- Registered
usergroup 5 -- Super Moderator
usergroup 6 -- Admin
usergroup 7 -- Moderator

If you need to change the groups, open up proarcade.php and look at the first switch(...) statement. It is pretty easy to figure out what to change.

Also, make sure you have the games set to "Active" in the admin panel! Inactive games will only work for administrators (usergroup 6).

A complete access-control system will appear in Beta 2 of this hack.