Download: iArcade System 1.0.0 Final

[saggsab]

Ok, maybe a dumb question - what about v32? (sorry, don't know the differences other than the number ! lol)

[Collin1000]

Ok, maybe a dumb question - what about v32? (sorry, don't know the differences other than the number ! lol)

v32 introduced a hashing system to prevent cheating that I have been unable to decode effectively on IPB3. So no, only v2 games. You can find thousands of them a ibpdownloads.com - they sort them by version.

[Amy T]

Now.... some new news.

Dont stone me to death, please, I am all ears and open for feedback. Thas why im posting this.

Im sure youve seen the direction that the modding community has been going recently. With both Calypso and Nuclear General pulling their free mods from the IPS Resources area, we have been looking into our distribution method.

A solution that I have talked over with Andy is going to be Ioncube encoding.

Now, before you all flip out, we will not be encoding the mod. All public parts of this mod will be un-encoded. I personally hate encoding, and never use encoded scripts, so it pains me to even think about a drastic move like this.

However, we are considering encoding the admin interface of the mod. The admin file, and a license.php file would be encoded and a callhome would be setup, much like Anthony has done for his Bouncy Radio mods. Based on the positive feedback he has received for this, we are considering moving into this direction.

Also, For those of you using v3arcade, I have learned that they require all members to generate a license key tied to their domain before downloading their free arcade mod.

I think that we could achieve the same result.

I welcome your feedback, comments and concerns on this issue.

The problem I had with the radio was if Anthony's site is down then so was mine. Heck even Andy's site was down a few weeks ago do to the radio as you can see by a comment on his profile by me.

[Collin1000]

The problem I had with the radio was if Anthony's site is down then so was mine. Heck even Andy's site was down a few weeks ago do to the radio as you can see by a comment on his profile by me.

Well, there are 2 responses to this.

Number 1 is we will not be encoding the public arcade.
Only the admin section will be encoded.
The reason for this is that we do not want to "encode our arcade" to keep people from stealing it, we simply want to manage installations and prevent warez from going crazy with the mod.

Number 2 is that Anthony is now using Local Keys I believe, so even if his site is down, your site should keep running. :thumbsup:

[Andy Rixon]

The problem I had with the radio was if Anthony's site is down then so was mine. Heck even Andy's site was down a few weeks ago do to the radio as you can see by a comment on his profile by me.

Anthony fixed this issue by changing licensing methods, so it wasn't my site or servers fault, my personal server has never actually gone down, due to only a few of my own websites being hosted on it, so all the licensing setups will be on my server so there should be no need to worry about any downtime to your site.

[.Ian]

I personally hate encoding, and never use encoded scripts, so it pains me to even think about a drastic move like this.

So why consider it for your users?

encoding is bad news. :(
will probably have to not use the arcade :(

[Andy Rixon]

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So why consider it for your users?

encoding is bad news. :(

will probably have to not use the arcade :(

Because we don't want someone stealing our code and saying its there own and putting it on warez site.

[Windwalker222]

Well, I hope no developers trhow any bricks, stones, small vehicles or other objects at me. I know that a lot of work goes into these mods and it is a shame that there are those out there that will pillage them and rip them. That is why I am so excited to see the two of you offering once again a radically nice Arcade for IPB 3.X.X

Since we have said goodbye to 2.3.6 and moved into the world of 3.X I have seen a sad move towards money making instead of community developement. Many have stopped converting some mods, and if they do they have come out with a "new and improved" version that now costs.

There are many that use hosting services that don't give ioncube. Most premium domains do. Mine does so it is not an issue for me.

I hate to see this come about but I do understand you not wanting your Arcade taken and just handed out, although I thought that was what would virtually be done when put in the public downloads to be used by IPB communities. Are we to look for a "fee" soon for the license and admin privs? If so let us know now. I surely don't mind a reasonable fee for a nice Arcade. Something as outrageous as the other developers (around $86 US) for just an arcade and a pack of 100 games is crazy. I know you guys would never go for that.

Sorry for the rant, but I am looking forward to a great arcade mod, and hoping that infighting among rippers and developers doesn't penalize all of us.

Just give us a ball park figure so that those of us on limited incomes can decide if we can do it or not. I have bypassed several nice mods lately because they are $30 bucks here, and $25 bucks there. It adds up pretty big before you know it. Pretty soon IPB will be a "professionals" forum software with only those with the bucks able to provide decent mods to members.

Sorry it just seems everyone is jumping on the bandwagon of "I got to make money" or "encoding" because so and so over at the other place stole my code. You may never charge for yours, but it just scares me that we are moving to a "pay to play" or "got to have a secret decoder ring" to build our forums and communities.

Thanks Andy and Collin you guys are doing a really super job on this mod. You are also two of the few that have stepped up to the plate for the good of the communities. I just hope it stays fun and friendly.

Ron

[Amy T]

Because we don't want someone stealing our code and saying its there own and putting it on warez site.

I think you have that backwards. You are more likely to see it on wares sites if you encode it do to people not liking it encoded. That and if you were to start charging for it the likeliness of it showing up on wares sites goes up even higher.
If it is free and unencodded to begin with the likeliness of it being on a wares site is low to none.

[Collin1000]

Windalker, thanks for the post. I have replied in-line in bold.

Well, I hope no developers trhow any bricks, stones, small vehicles or other objects at me. I know that a lot of work goes into these mods and it is a shame that there are those out there that will pillage them and rip them. That is why I am so excited to see the two of you offering once again a radically nice Arcade for IPB 3.X.X

Since we have said goodbye to 2.3.6 and moved into the world of 3.X I have seen a sad move towards money making instead of community developement. Many have stopped converting some mods, and if they do they have come out with a "new and improved" version that now costs.

I call it the "ecosystem" of a product. Software for a Mac generally costs more money than it would on Windows, because a Mac costs more money to start with. They charge as much as they can get away with. phpBB generally has free mods, because it is a free product. People are not willing to pay.

There are many that use hosting services that don't give ioncube. Most premium domains do. Mine does so it is not an issue for me.

Ioncube has loaders on their site that you can use in the event your host does not support it.

I hate to see this come about but I do understand you not wanting your Arcade taken and just handed out, although I thought that was what would virtually be done when put in the public downloads to be used by IPB communities. Are we to look for a "fee" soon for the license and admin privs? If so let us know now. I surely don't mind a reasonable fee for a nice Arcade. Something as outrageous as the other developers (around $86 US) for just an arcade and a pack of 100 games is crazy. I know you guys would never go for that.

iArcade will never cost money, or have a charge for a "premium feature", although down the line we may offer a game installation service for $10.

Sorry for the rant, but I am looking forward to a great arcade mod, and hoping that infighting among rippers and developers doesn't penalize all of us.

It isnt that. We are not trying to stop "rippers" from getting our code and ripping it off. I am confident of the users. As you may not be aware, Both Calypso and Nuclear General are pulling their free mods from IPS because people are taking the free mods from here and actually SELLING them on warez boards. What happens is the warez board owners cannot download from IPS resources, so they are conned into buying the mod off someone who abuses their IPB license. They are selling off free mods that others do not have access to. I consider this a crime and will not tolerate it. Using a license system is, in my eyes, an effective solution to this.

Just give us a ball park figure so that those of us on limited incomes can decide if we can do it or not. I have bypassed several nice mods lately because they are $30 bucks here, and $25 bucks there. It adds up pretty big before you know it. Pretty soon IPB will be a "professionals" forum software with only those with the bucks able to provide decent mods to members.

As I said before and will say again - iArcade is and will remain free. Forever. The day someone says it will become a paid mod is the day I will stop developing it.

Sorry it just seems everyone is jumping on the bandwagon of "I got to make money" or "encoding" because so and so over at the other place stole my code. You may never charge for yours, but it just scares me that we are moving to a "pay to play" or "got to have a secret decoder ring" to build our forums and communities.

I have posted about this before. I agree with you. It really is an "ecosystem" of modding.

Thanks Andy and Collin you guys are doing a really super job on this mod. You are also two of the few that have stepped up to the plate for the good of the communities. I just hope it stays fun and friendly.

I want it to stay fun and friendly too - that is why we want to halt illegal reselling and redistribution.

Ron

[Collin1000]

I think you have that backwards. You are more likely to see it on wares sites if you encode it do to people not liking it encoded. That and if you were to start charging for it the likeliness of it showing up on wares sites goes up even higher.

If it is free and unencodded to begin with the likeliness of it being on a wares site is low to none.

As I explained above, what has started to happen is someone will come along to a warez mod and sell free mods to the warez board.

Because people with a warez board cannot download from IPS resources, they are willing to pay $3 or $5 for some of these "free" mods to get access to them. It is a disturbing trend.

We are NOT ENCODING THE PUBLIC IARCADE FILES! The mod itself has no encoded source. Only the admin file would be encoded - something few people would need to change anyway. :thumbsup:

[Amy T]

As I explained above, what has started to happen is someone will come along to a warez mod and sell free mods to the warez board.

Because people with a warez board cannot download from IPS resources, they are willing to pay $3 or $5 for some of these "free" mods to get access to them. It is a disturbing trend.

We are NOT ENCODING THE PUBLIC IARCADE FILES! The mod itself has no encoded source. Only the admin file would be encoded - something few people would need to change anyway. :thumbsup:

Ah I have been a customer of IPB so long I had no idea none customers could not get to the mods.
So ya it makes sense it would show up on a wares site then. I do not mind the idea of submitting a url when downloading. The inferno rpg did that and each url had a key that needed to be entered on the script to work. If you changed domains you needed a new key other wise it would not work. Each download how ever was connected to each key. Not sure how it worked exactly but when you download it the key was encodded in the download but you still had to manually enter it in the admin cp for verification. But that was a paid mod too. I regret buying that as the modder who made it stopped making mods a few months after I got it.

[.Ian]

I think you have that backwards. You are more likely to see it on wares sites if you encode it do to people not liking it encoded. That and if you were to start charging for it the likeliness of it showing up on wares sites goes up even higher.

If it is free and unencodded to begin with the likeliness of it being on a wares site is low to none.

Agree - the warez site will only clean the script anyway. They see it as a challenge.


I know of a few fully encoded scripts - it has not stopped any of them from being on warez sites.

As you may realise I am not a fan of encoding - that is why I like IPB as it is not encoded.

Mind you I always pay for everything that I use and never pass it on and actually would be more than willing to make a donation to help prevent the encoding.

[.Ian]

As I explained above, what has started to happen is someone will come along to a warez mod and sell free mods to the warez board.

Because people with a warez board cannot download from IPS resources, they are willing to pay $3 or $5 for some of these "free" mods to get access to them. It is a disturbing trend.

Was not even aware of that. Guess I do not visit the sites - have no need to.

[Amy T]

Oh also an issue I had with software that only runs on one domain is getting a nasty email from them for having the script being able to be gotten to from 2 domains.
Example:

domain.com - where the script was at.
domain2.com/gallery - also took you to the script above.

I had to explain to them this is the way cpanel works, after I finally got through to them that it was one install I was told I could keep using it. How ever I stopped using it and will never go back as they pissed me off.

[Collin1000]

Ah I have been a customer of IPB so long I had no idea none customers could not get to the mods.

So ya it makes sense it would show up on a wares site then. I do not mind the idea of submitting a url when downloading. The inferno rpg did that and each url had a key that needed to be entered on the script to work. If you changed domains you needed a new key other wise it would not work. Each download how ever was connected to each key. Not sure how it worked exactly but when you download it the key was encodded in the download but you still had to manually enter it in the admin cp for verification. But that was a paid mod too. I regret buying that as the modder who made it stopped making mods a few months after I got it.

That is exactly how v3arcade works, except theirs is free.
We plan to do the same thing. You simply enter a board URL when downloading and you get a license key tied to that URL.
It would not work on any other URL.

Agree - the warez site will only clean the script anyway. They see it as a challenge.

I know of a few fully encoded scripts - it has not stopped any of them from being on warez sites.

As you may realise I am not a fan of encoding - that is why I like IPB as it is not encoded.

Mind you I always pay for everything that I use and never pass it on and actually would be more than willing to make a donation to help prevent the encoding.

IPB encodes all their beta and RC releases to control deployment.
If encoding proves to be a major flop, we will stop once we go final.

Keep in mind we are not encoding any of the features or actual code of the mod. The mod itself is a viewable source. Just the admin interface.

[Amy T]

Agree - the warez site will only clean the script anyway. They see it as a challenge.

I know of a few fully encoded scripts - it has not stopped any of them from being on warez sites.

As you may realise I am not a fan of encoding - that is why I like IPB as it is not encoded.

Mind you I always pay for everything that I use and never pass it on and actually would be more than willing to make a donation to help prevent the encoding.

Indeed I pay for every thing as well. I also do not pass it on. I even paid to the ip.content recently, even though it did not do what I wanted.

I paid for mods as well. Like inferno rpg, a gallery software (not the one made by ipb but a different one that cost), and I have even donated to mods I like. Although the donation thing I have not done for a while do to being low on money but I did donate to Micheal.

[Collin1000]

Indeed I pay for every thing as well. I also do not pass it on. I even paid to the ip.content recently, even though it did not do what I wanted.

I paid for mods as well. Like inferno rpg, a gallery software (not the one made by ipb but a different one that cost), and I have even donated to mods I like. Although the donation thing I have not done for a while do to being low on money but I did donate to Micheal.

This is not about money, guys. This is about controlling the distribution of our mod.

If encoding the admin file causes more trouble than it is worth with the RC release, we will take it out for the final.

[Windwalker222]

That is exactly how v3arcade works, except theirs is free.

We plan to do the same thing. You simply enter a board URL when downloading and you get a license key tied to that URL.

It would not work on any other URL.

That is something I agree wholeheartedly with, tie it to the site so it only works there.

[.Ian]

That is exactly how v3arcade works, except theirs is free.

We plan to do the same thing. You simply enter a board URL when downloading and you get a license key tied to that URL.

It would not work on any other URL.

IPB encodes all their beta and RC releases to control deployment.

If encoding proves to be a major flop, we will stop once we go final.

Keep in mind we are not encoding any of the features or actual code of the mod. The mod itself is a viewable source. Just the admin interface.

I use multiple URL's.


How would this work?

[Amy T]

I use multiple URL's.

How would this work?

Is it more then one install of ipb?
I have more then one url as well.
I have otakuplayground.com, .net and .org, all running the same site.

That gallery script I talked about above had an issue with that and they did want me to pay for every domain.

[Collin1000]

That is something I agree wholeheartedly with, tie it to the site so it only works there.

Thats all we plan to do. Simply to control distribution.
The mod itself will not be encoded. Only the admin file, license.php

I use multiple URL's.

How would this work?

Server IP, perhaps? I am still looking into the best way to do the licensing.
Or if you have different sites, just generate a different license key for each site.

[Lewis P]

I don't see any advantages to encoding this really. It defeats the purpose of it being a free, open application. I see 5 problems, 0 advantages:

1) Some users cannot use ioncube on their servers. This means you're missing out on a huge market share of users.
2) Some users who refuse to use encoded scripts will want your head, because they want this app. They'll probably pay someone to crack it.
3) It'll make the warez community even more determined to crack this, possibly just by unencoding the file, or even recoding the admin area to bypass.
4) You won't be able to upload it to IPS Resources if you do this license-key crap because there is no way to distribute them.
5) Your idea for license-per-server IP won't work. If you move server, you're stuffed.

Seriously, don't encode, and just accept that warez happens. You're never going to be able to stop it.

[Collin1000]

I don't see any advantages to encoding this really. It defeats the purpose of it being a free, open application. I see 5 problems, 0 advantages:

1) Some users cannot use ioncube on their servers. This means you're missing out on a huge market share of users.

2) Some users who refuse to use encoded scripts will want your head, because they want this app. They'll probably pay someone to crack it.

3) It'll make the warez community even more determined to crack this, possibly just by unencoding the file, or even recoding the admin area to bypass.

4) You won't be able to upload it to IPS Resources if you do this license-key crap because there is no way to distribute them.

5) Your idea for license-per-server IP won't work. If you move server, you're stuffed.

Seriously, don't encode, and just accept that warez happens. You're never going to be able to stop it.

Thanks for your feedback, Lewis. As a community dev, I value your input. :P

v3arcade does have this system in use for their distribution of the mod, and it works very well for them. I figured we would give it a shot.

Nothing is set in stone, and I am reviewing all the feedback that has been posted.

Keep in mind that IPS encodes their beta and RC versions to control distribution. If anything, we will try it out for our RC release.

[the-leash]

Although I will run encoded scripts I personally think they are a waste of time. Those that want something badly enough will have it.

I realise how annoying it must be for a modder to see a free script being sold but the irony of a nulled board owner having to pay for free mods does make me chuckle.