PhpArcadeScript v3.0
(c) 2005-2006 by phpArcadeScript, Lewis Web Developments LLC, and Scott Lewis - contact@phparcadescript.com

Notes: 7/17/2005 - Finished v1.01
10/12/2005 - Finished v2.0
08/10/2006 - Finished v3.0 RC1
08/29/2006 - Finished v3.0 RC2
09/12/2006 - Finished v3.0 STABLE

If you run into any problems while trying to install and configure phpArcadeScript, help is always available. Please feel free to email phpArcadeScript at support@phparcadescript.com with any questions, comments or concerns you are having.

PhpArcadeScript License

phpArcadeScript licence grants you the right to run one instance (a single installation) of the Software on one web server and one web site for each licence purchased. Each licence may power one instance of the Software on one domain. For each installed instance of the Software, a separate licence is required.

You may not redistribute copies or modified copies of any of the files included in the phpArcadeScript distributions under any circumstances.

A phpArcadeScript License MAY NOT BE TRANSFERRED FROM ONE DOMAIN TO ANOTHER. Meaning, if you originally licensed domain1.com and you want to stop using it on domain1.com and start using it on domain2.com, you will have to purchase a new license for domain2.com.

phpArcadeScript may, at its discretion, allow you to transfer your license to another party, providing the license:
- has not already been transferred in the previous 12 months; and
- was purchased more than 30 days in the past.
- is an active owned license .

Visit http://www.phparcadescript.com for support and further information.

Installing phpArcadeScript

Follow the steps below to install your copy of phpArcadeScript

1. Upload all the files in the phpArcadeScript distribution to your web server in the directory you wish to run your arcade from. PLEASE MAKE SURE TO KEEP THE DIRECTORY STRUCTURE INTACT ... OTHERWISE YOUR ARCADE WILL NOT FUNCTION. You can run the script from any directory you wish on your web server, but the scripts directory structure must stay the same. (i.e. http://www.yourdomain.com/ or http://www.yourdomain.com/arcade/ or even http://www.yourdomain.com/arcadeland/arcade/)
2. Create a MySQL database on your site to use with phpArcadeScript.
3.EDIT the config.new located in the /includes directory with your database information (username, password and database name). Once you've done this, RENAME config.new to config.php
4. Run install.php via your web browser. This will create all the necessary tables needed to have your arcade running smoothly.
5. If the install process has worked, you should be able to login to your admin area at http://www.yoursite.com/admin/index.php using the username admin and password admin.
6. Now you will need to go into the Site Configuration portion of the control panel and make sure to enter in the base url for your site. Make sure to keep the trailing / after your domain name (i.e. http://www.yourdomain.com/)
7. If you plan on turning SE Friendly URLs ON (default is set to ON), make sure to move the htaccess from the /includes folder into your main arcade directory and rename it .htaccess

Congratulations! Your new arcade site is setup and ready to go!

Game Submission

phpArcadeScript has a built-in option that allows either guests or members (admin can select in control panel) to submit games to your arcade. By default, phpAS does not display this link on any of its page. To add the link to the game submission page to your arcade, add the following code into any template:

<a href="<? echo $base_url;?>index.php?action=submit">Submit Game</a>

You can manage submissions via your admin control panel. Once a game is submitted, then a link at the top of your admin menu will become active showing the number of submissions. If there aren't any submissions, the link will not be shown on your admin control panel.

Report Games

phpArcadeScript has a built-in option that allows visitors to your arcade to report a game that isn't working by clicking a button. You can manage the reported games via your admin control panel. Once a game is reported, then a link at the top of your admin menu will become active showing the number of reported games. If there aren't any reported games, the link will not be shown on your admin control panel. You can also set the number of reports a specific game can receive before becoming inactive via the Site Config.

Arcade Cache System

phpArcadeScript has a built-in session-based cache system to cut down you MySQL queries and server-load. Most smaller arcades won't see the difference right off the bat, but as they begin to grow, they will realize the server-load will be amazingly low which allows for a better gaming experience for their visitors.

Uploading / Adding Games to Your Arcade

To add games to your arcade you need to manually upload the games into the games directory. The flash file (.swf) goes into the games/files directory and the game's icon goes into the games/images directory.

Tip:
- To keep the site look consistent, you may wish to edit each game's icon to be a maximum of 70 pixels in width.

Hopefully that wasn't too confusing.

ADMINISTRATION CONTROL PANEL

We have designed our administration control panel to be as self-explanatory as possible. Each section of the control panel has descriptions on what the options mean. However, we will highlight some of the features.

Game Management (Game Admin)

From the Game Admin portion of the control panel you can add, edit and delete games in your arcade.

Deleting a game will only remove it from the database. To physically remove the flash file and icon from your server you will have to do it manually.

PhpArcadeScript also has the option of playing either LOCAL (games on your server) or LINKED (games housed on other servers that your have the URL to) games.

For the game to be displayed you need to know what width and height the flash files needs to be viewed at. Most flash files you download will come with a .html that will include the default width and height for the game. You may also specify your own if you wish, however the game may not appear correctly.

We have found that if you keep the maximum width of a flash game to 600 the quality is much, much better. So if you find a game that has a default width of over 600, your best bet is to input the width into your arcade as 600 and ... this is where math will come in ... find out the percentage difference between the original width and 600 and then multiply that by the height to get the new height. I know that sounds confusing, but here's an example:
You want to add a game that has a width of 800 and height of 600. However you want to display the game with a width of 600. So enter into phpArcadeScript the 600 width for the game and then we do the math. There is a 200-pixel difference between 800 and 600 which is a 25% difference. Therefore subtract 25% of 600 to your new height ... this would equal 450. So your new width is 600 and height is 450.

Category Management (Category Admin)

From the Category Admin aspect of the control panel you can add, edit and delete game categories. You can also click on the LIST GAMES option and see all the games for that specific category and manage them as well.

Comments Management (Manage Comments)

If you have decided to turn the ability for guests and/or members to leave comments for games, you can edit and delete them from here. To find a specific comment you have two options:

- Select comments from a specific game
- Search the text of comments for results

User Management (Manage Users)

PhpArcadeScript has a built-in user manager that, if you choose to activate, will allow members to join your arcade and:

- Keep track of how many games they've played
- Earn points for playing games or leaving comments
- Have their own personal profile with avatar picture, quote, etc.
- See the last 5 games they've played at your arcade
- Be able to pick a game as their favorite game

You can activate the user aspect of your arcade from the site configuration option from the control panel. From here you can also decide if you wish to require member's to confirm their email address before they are validated. If you choose this option, members will be emailed a link with a unique validation code that they must click on to validate their account. Being un-validated means that their profile and comments will not be seen be other users or guests to your arcade nor will they show up on the Top Players list.

Private Message Management (Manage Messages)

If you have decided to turn the ability for members to leave comments private messages for each other, you can edit and delete them from here. To find a specific message you have two options:

- Select messages to/from a specific user
- Search the text of messages for results

Who's Online Portion of the Statistics Box

In the statistics box that you can display for your arcade, there is a section that counts how many users online. You may always remove that aspect from the statistics box by editing the stats.html file in the /templates directory.

Site Design

As you have probably already noticed, phpArcadeScript v3.0 comes with its own OUT-OF-THE-BOX design that allows you to have your arcade setup within minutes. To allow you to customize the look of your arcade, in v3.0 we have added a template system. Inside the /templates directory are all the HTML pages that you will need to edit to get your own unique look. We are hoping within the next couple of months we will have many designs for you to choose from at www.phparcadescript.com! If you wish for a more customized look and are having trouble with creating it, please feel free to contact us at support@phparcadescript.com and we will be more than happy to create a design for you for a fee.

Support

Support for phpArcadeScript can be found at either www.phparcadescript.com or via email at support@phparcadescript.com. All future updates of phpArcadeScript are included FREE OF CHARGE with your license. Please make sure to sign-up for your Support Forum username at http://www.phparcadescript.com/forums.