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!

[Littlebit]

futureal, thanks for having it on your list for your next release. I can play the games fine in latest IE and Netscape for Mac's OS X (well, sometimes flash is buggy with netscapes browser, but unrelated to your hack). It's just that same thing...the game ends and it goes to the wrong page...so hopefully removing the game hash security will fix it...crossing fingers.

[Reno]

Ok. Something is not working right. Good thing I installed it on a testboard. Anyways, when I goto proarcade.php, click on a game to try, the game won't show. Is it because it's downloading the file or...?

[gwhooooey]

One of my posters posted this on my site

Ok I saw that Nighteth t'Mare had high scores in like 7 different things...and also noticed that he had these high scores after only playing once AND that his game duration was a very long time compared to others.....so I went to his stats page:


Here you will see things like:

Breakout Statistics
Times Played: 1
Time Spent Playing: 199 Minutes, 23 Seconds
Average Game Duration: 0 Minutes, 11 Seconds
Most Recent Game: 02-05-2003 um 15:52
Highest Score: 50,150
Lowest Score: 50,150
Average Score: 50,150
Unique Comments: 1
Random Comment: No Comment

1 game...lasts 199 minutes, yet his average game duration is 11 seconds? Ok...

Pacman Statistics
Times Played: 1
Time Spent Playing: 44 Minutes, 26 Seconds
Average Game Duration: 0 Minutes, 2 Seconds
Most Recent Game: 02-05-2003 um 19:03
Highest Score: 163,230
Lowest Score: 163,230
Average Score: 163,230
Unique Comments: 1
Random Comment: No Comment

Etc...so yeah, good ol' Detective BoJney hath found your evil plans.....you've found some game cheaty sorta thingy that gets past the arcade's cheat detection whatsit, any defense?

And I've also checked other peoples and their's is fine, it's just yours

Is there a way to cheat, or is something messed up or whatever? I'm kind of confused

[MindTrix]

Hey my games just never seem to load. I tried wut was said in a couple of posts up about changin games too forum/games/ but still dont work, but if i link directly to the file it works ok, Ne ideas?

[engquist]

hi this works great! I'm trying to do this though:

Another thing you'll want to do is modify your postbit to include $vpachampicon and/or $vpachamptext.

and I simply put in $vpachamptext in the postbit template file's HTML underneath where it says the number of posts...but nothing displays and here's what it looks like in that area:

original:

PHP Code:

    $post[avatar]<p>
    <smallfont>Registered: $post[joindate]<br>
    Location: $post[field2]<br>
    Posts: $post[posts]</smallfont></td> 


how I edited it (just to see if it works):

PHP Code:

    $post[avatar]<p>
    <smallfont>Registered: $post[joindate]<br>
    Location: $post[field2]<br>
    Posts: $post[posts]<br>
                $vpachamptext </smallfont></td> 


so all I changed was adding a <br> after $post[posts] and then putting in $vpachamptext

is $vpachamptext an array or hash? If so, what's it's index I want to choose? Thank you for your time!

[WEForums]

Today at 07:16 PM MindTrix said this in Post #1304
Hey my games just never seem to load. I tried wut was said in a couple of posts up about changin games too forum/games/ but still dont work, but if i link directly to the file it works ok, Ne ideas?

Your forum link is:

VB/upload/index.php

on your server. So, depending on where you placed games, it would be something like...

VB/upload/games/

or

VB/games/

[MindTrix]

Yesterday at 10:20 PM WEForums said this in Post #1306
Your forum link is:

VB/upload/index.php

on your server. So, depending on where you placed games, it would be something like...

VB/upload/games/

or

VB/games/

Thank for that but i guess i miss lead ya kinda. Obviously u went to my site which is closed, and im buildin a new board at the moment which isnt VB/upload/ its forum/

So for my games they were put as forum/games/

so in the admin i changed it too forum/games but its still loadin major slow unless i link str8 to the file

[WEForums]

/forums/games/ is what mine is. Try that.

[MindTrix]

errrrmm that wouldnt help cause mines forum not forums, thanks ne wayz 4 tryin :>

[WEForums]

/forum/games/ ........