The Files In Your Arcade Script

After you have saved the script file to your computer, (most likely named ‘PhparcadeScript_V4.zip’), navigate to that location and unzip the file.

Tip: ‘If you are unfamiliar with how to unzip a file you can Google ‘how to unzip a file’ and you will find many resources.‘

Inside the unzipped folder you may find another folder with a generic name similar to ‘jksd392ikaleisjhes-script’. Open this folder and you will see the file contents of your script as shown in Figure 2-10.

Figure 2-10 PHP Arcade Script files

In the image shown above I have copied my arcade files to a new folder called ‘PHP Arcade Script V4’. I just wanted to make that apparent as to avoid any confusion.

Inside this directory you will find 11 other directories which are listed and explained below:

• admin – This directory contains files that perform administrative duties such as adding/editing/deleting games, configuring ads on your site, sending out newsletters to arcade members, and many other administrative tasks.
• cache – This is a folder that contains files that are commonly used by the arcade. They are placed in this cache folder for quicker access.
• games – This is the location where all your game files will be stored. In this directory are two additional directories titled ‘files’ and ‘images’. The ‘files’ folder will contain the game data and the ‘images’ folder will contain the game thumbnail images.
• images – This folder contains some general images for the PHP Arcade Script site such as language images, user message images, default avatar thumbnail, and a couple other general images.
• includes – This folder contains the code files that will run your arcade. These code files are the functioning portion of your arcade. Without these files your arcade would not know what to do.
• install – This folder contains the files that we will be using in the next hour. These files will create and install the information into your arcade database.
• js – The js folder contains more code files that are used to perform various operations in the web arcade.
• mochi – This folder contains files that will allow us to easily add games into specific categories in our arcade.
• staff – As the administrator of your arcade you can grant specific users to be staff. The staff group has privileges which will allow them to perform certain admin duties. This folder contains files that the staff will see when they want to perform tasks such as adding games, categories, users, etc.
• templates – This folder contains arcade templates. The templates are the way your arcade will be laid out, the color, the text, and all the other features that give your arcade its uniqueness. There are already several templates in this folder. You can change the way your arcade will look by simply changing the current theme of your arcade.  We will show you how to change and modify themes in Hour 6.
• useruploads – This folder will contain game files that your arcade members upload. In your arcade configuration you can select whether you would like your arcade users to be able to upload games to your arcade. If this feature is enabled and users upload games to your arcade they will be stored in this folder.

 The only other file that we will talk about is the index.php. This is the file that will be called by default when your web URL is typed in the address bar. As we discussed in Hour 1 the default files that will be displayed in a URL folder directory will be index.html, default.html, and all other files resembling these names. So when your arcade has been setup and your URL is typed in the address the file that will be loaded is the index.php file. The index.php will then call/load corresponding files in your arcade and your web arcade will be displayed. There is not much else you need to know about the other files in this directory; and if you have any trouble understanding the functionality of the arcade files, don’t worry because everything will become apparent in time.

We now have our arcade script, host computer, and our domain name. The next thing we need to do is to copy our arcade files to our host computer; in the next hour we will accomplish this.

Alright, well hour 2 is in the books. Make sure to give yourself a little break before beginning hour 3. Get a little snack, search the internet for other web arcades to get ideas and inspiration, and feel free to play a few games!