For those looking for a bit more power and control, consider upgrading to Arcadem Pro 2.8, which has the following features:

Here’s some technical information about thumbnails. This information is applicable to Arcadem LE 2.x and Arcadem Pro 2.0 to 2.6. Arcadem Pro 2.7 and above still supports these details, but there will be a new thumbnail system implemented in 2.7 and above that will support large thumbnails.

Anyway, the following rules apply:

• Thumbnails only work when placed in the /arcade/img/ folder
• Thumbnails only work if they have the same name as the game
• The preferred image format is PNG, although JPG, GIF, and BMP have been shown to work.

Category Images

Category images are typically displayed using home.php, but this is not allows the case. If you copy the code from the AdvancedArcade script for home.php, the thumbnails for each category are pulled from /includes/images/

Files must be PNG, and they must exactly match the name of your category, including case. For example, if you had a category called SNES, the image would have to be /includes/images/SNES.png meaning that the following all would not work:

/includes/images/snes.png

/includes/images/SNES.jpg

/includes/images/SNES.gif

/arcade/img/SNES.png

What Is Cache?

Cache is a stored copy of data. In Arcadem Pro’s case, the cache stores commonly accessed data such as the configuration, home page, MySQL queries, and pages loaded by your users.

What Cache Methods Does Arcadem Pro Use?

Most arcade scripts do not have a cache, and even the few that do only implement a little caching. Arcadem Pro 2.8 and above implement several layers and methods of caching in order to make your arcade load as quick as possible. There are 2 methods of caching currently:

1. MySQL Cache - Queries are stored in the /cache/ folder each time they’re executed.  Then, when a query is executed again before the cache expires, the MySQL query is instead pulled form the cache instead of being filtered through MySQL.  This will definitely help mitigate the amount of resources needed for large volumes of traffic.  However, the side effect is that stats and other frequently updated material will not be updated until the cache expires, meaning some material on your site will appear slightly out of date.
2. Page Cache -Since 2.709-RC1 and above implement Smarty templates, you can optionally allow Smarty to cache the templates that are presented to the users.  This cuts down on the time it takes to render the web page, since it will not have to be parsed by PHP and Smarty.  However, the effects are noticable worse in terms of expired content.  This setting is only recommended for those on extremely high volume arcades that recieves upwards of 10 visitors a minute.

What Are the Pros & Cons of Cache?

PROS: In some cases, there is up to an 88% increase in performance over Arcadem Pro 2.50. In addition, using the cache frees up resources meaning you can scale up and have more users than before. Finally, this should slightly decrease your bandwidth usage.

CONS: Stats will not be updated as frequently, which can give your visitors the impression that your site doesn’t work properly. Additionally, there may be times when you will need to clear the cache in order for changes you make in the admin panel to appear to all users. Finally, cache requires additional disk space, and can take up several hundred megabytes on high traffic sites.

SEO friendly URLs take ugly PHP based web addresses, and attempt to make them not only look more appealing towards your users, but also to give the search engines relevant information in the URL to help increase your search engine rankings.

Here are some examples, first a regular Arcadem URL: http://arcadempro.com/demo/flash-arcade-game.php?gameid=712&gamename=Cannon%20Ball

With SEO friendly URLs turned on, this now becomes: http://arcadempro.com/demo/712-Cannon-Ball.html

The end result is a URL that is not only more readable by the search engines, but also looks more appealing to your visitors as well.

Common Problems

SEO friendly URLs are accomplished through the .htaccess file, which means that this feature is only supported on Apache servers, or IIS servers that have an .htaccess mod installed. In addition, if your ‘Path to Arcadem’ is set incorrectly you will experience 500 Internal Server Error error messages.

The path to Arcadem should allows be relative to your website’s root, and must contain both an opening and trailing forward slash. Let’s review several examples of the correct path to use in different circumstances.

Primary Domain:

• YOUR URL: http://www.example.com/
• SET PATH: /

Sub Domain:

• YOUR URL: http://subdomain.example.com/
• SET PATH: /

Installed to folder

• YOUR URL: http://www.example.com/arcadem/
• SET PATH: /arcadem/

Installed to folder on a subdomain

• YOUR URL: http://subdomain.example.com/arcadem/
• SET PATH: /arcadem/

Installed to a deep folder:

• YOUR URL: http://www.example.com/blah/2/646/testing/arcadem/
• SET PATH: /blah/2/646/testing/arcadem/

M.msi

M = The major version number, such as Arcadem Pro 1, Arcadem Pro 2, etc.

m = The minor version number, such as Arcadem Pro x.1, x.2, etc (where x is the major version)

s = The subversion number, such as Arcadem Pro x.x1. These are generally patches.

i = The incremental version number. Only used in rare cases when more than one patch exists for a given issue.

Stable Branch

The stable branch represents code that has undergone extensive beta testing and is proven stable code. These all have even minor version numbers, such as x.2x, x.4x, x.6x, etc Examples of stable releases: 2.2, 2.24, 2.6, 2.8, 3.0

Development Branch

The development branch represents code that has been freshly written and may contain issues that need resolved. These all have odd minor version numbers, such as x.5x, x.7x, x.9x, etc Each release in this branch will be classified as either as an Alpha, Beta, or Release Candidate (RC) version. Examples of experimental releases: 2.5, 2.701, 2.9, 3.1

If after reviewing this manual, you’re still in need of assistance, please search through our support forums:

http://forums.agaresmedia.com/

Before making a new topic, please insure that the question you’ve asked hasn’t already been addressed. If after searching through the topics you still cannot find a resolution, then create a new post detailing your question with specific information that will help us resolve your issue.

To download your 500 free games, simply point your browser to: http://www.agaresmedia.com/downloads/Arcadem400DefaultGames.zip

The file is over 500MB in size. Once you’ve downloaded the file, extract the contents to your hard drive. Next, using your favorite FTP program, upload the files to your Arcadem installation, into the /arcade/ folder. And example would be if you installed Arcadem at /public_html/arcadem/ you would upload the individual Flash games to /public_html/arcadem/arcade/ Be careful not to upload a second arcade folder into the resources directory (for example, if your end result is something like /public_html/arcadem/arcade/arcade/ you’ve done it wrong. There should only be one folder called arcade)

If you’d like to add more games to your installation, we have three separate game packs available with another 3,000 games. You can purchase additional games at this URL: http://store.agaresmedia.com/

Supported Formats

Arcadem Pro 2.8 and above support AVArcade 3.x, GameSiteScript, phpArcadeScript, IBProArcade 2.x, 3.x, MochiAds feed, and Arcadem Pro 2.6x/LE 2.6x format games and game packs.

• Default 500 pack - The free 500 games that ship with Arcadem. Total games: 500
• 1500 game pack - This game pack has 1500 games, the 500 from the ‘Default 500 pack’ plus an addition 1000. Total games: 1500
• 2500 game pack - This game pack has 2500 games, the 500 from the ‘Default 500 pack’, the 1000 from the ‘1500 game pack’, plus an addition 1000. Total games: 2500
• 3500 game pack - This game pack has 3458 games, including all the previous game packs, plus an addition 1000. Total games: 3458

Additional game packs can be downloaded here: https://secure.agaresmedia.com/

Downloading and Unzipping

Each of the game packs comes in a single zip file, and range from 500MB to almost 2GB in size. For that reason, use of a download manager is recommended in case your connection breaks for any reason. A good, free download manager for Windows can be downloaded here: http://www.download.com/Free-Download-Manager/3000-2071_4-10301621.html

There have been some users who have had difficulty unzipping the resulting file. In these cases we recommend using the free and open source archiver 7-zip to unzip the pack successfully. 7-zip handles both zip and rar files and can be downloaded here: http://www.7-zip.org/

Uploading a Game Pack

Before uploading a game pack, you should unzip the contents to your hard drive. All the game files will need to be uploaded to the /arcade/ folder in your Arcadem installation. All thumbnails should be in the /arcade/img/ folder.

Uploading this large amount of files will take a long time even on a broadband connection. We recommend uploading the files when you will be away from the computer for a long time. An example would be to upload them before going to work, school, or to bed.

We recommend using FileZilla FTP client. It’s 100% free and open source and can be downloaded here: http://filezilla-project.org/download.php?type=client The best part about it, is if your upload stops or is disconnected, you just right click on it and select ‘resume’ and it picks up where it stopped.

Game SQL

To make the games visible on your site, goto phpMyAdmin, select your Arcadem Pro database, drop the ‘games’ table, and then import the SQL file (the SQL file is included with your game pack, and ends with the extension .sql)

1. First, upload all the files onto your web host using your favorite FTP client (Agares Media recommends the open source FTP client, FileZilla)
2. Next, using your favorite web browser (Arcadem is optimized for FireFox 2) goto http://www.yourdomain.com/install/ where “www.yourdomain.com” represents the domain you’ve uploaded the files to. If you’ve uploaded them to a sub-directory, such as /public_html/arcadem/ then make sure you’re point the browser to the correct location
3. Follow the on screen instructions. You will need an empty MySQL database setup, along with a user who has full read/write permissions to the database. This can be done using phpMyAdmin or another database administration tool. If you’re unsure of how to do this, consult your web hosting company for instructions.
4. Once you’re done, delete the /install/ directory
5. Next, you will want to upload your Game Packs. Game files go in the /arcade/ directory and images go in /arcade/img/  You will have to log into your admin panel through browser at the /admin/ directory, the goto the Games menu and select Gamepack Wizard.  It will step you through the process of uploading and installing your game pack.