Flashpoint Datahub - User contributions [en]

Curation Format

2020-01-05T23:35:38Z

YuriNikolai: /* List of Metadata Fields */

This guide will walk you through everything you need to know about putting together a curation and submitting it to Flashpoint. If this is your first time contributing, be sure to follow our [[Curation Tutorial|step-by-step tutorial]].

==Before You Start==

===Checking the Master List===

Before curating, please check the [[Game Master List]] (and for animations, the [[Animation Master List]]) before possibly taking time out of your day to save something that's already been saved. '''Use CTRL+F to search the list of titles.'''

===Banned Games===

{{:Not Accepted Games}}

==What is a Curation?==

Flashpoint is not just a collection of files; it is a museum of playable web games. As in any other museum, each item needs to be curated before it can be put on display. Curating for Flashpoint is more than downloading an SWF, dropping it off in the Discord and expecting it to appear in the next update. Instead, you'll need to put together an archive file (ZIP, 7Z, etc) called a ''curation''.

To make a curation, first create a new folder with the name of the game you'd like to save. (Windows won't let you create a folder name with certain special characters; you'll need to remove them from the folder name if that happens.) Inside your curation folder, you'll add a ''screenshot'' and ''logo'', a ''text file'' containing metadata about the game, and a ''content'' folder containing all of the files required to run the game. The following sections will explain each of these required items in detail. Be sure to download our complete [http://bluemaxima.org/flashpoint/datahub/AlienHominid.zip example curation ZIP file] and follow along.

<gallery mode="traditional">

Image:FolderContents.png | A sample of what a completed curation folder looks like.

</gallery>

==Content==

All content must be placed inside a '''content''' folder, then arranged in the same way that they would be placed in Flashpoint proper from the htdocs folder - the best practice is to try and recreate the same structure that the game had on the internet. For example, if a game was hosted at <code>http://uploads.ungrounded.net/59000/59593_alien_booya202c.swf</code> you would do the folders in this example like the image below. If that is not working for some reason, a secondary format is acceptable - a domain folder, a folder with the game's name, then the game files, displayed as the second example.

You might notice that some games in Flashpoint use a domain called <code>localflash</code> instead of a website domain. This is a legacy practice, and it is '''not used anymore''' unless the source files come from a CD, ZIP file, or other offline location.

===Examples===

<gallery mode="traditional">

Image:Curate1.png | This is assuming you've already tested the game with Flashpoint Core. '''Don't forget the folder with the game's name!'''

</gallery>

==Logo==

Logos must be in PNG format, and have the entire title of a game, or something that is representative of the game. To be named <code>logo.png</code> in all cases.

Recommended tools include Snipping Tool and Paint, both included in Windows 10 by default. You're free to use other tools, just remember, always use PNG.

===Examples===

<gallery mode="traditional">

Image:Logo-bad.png | Bad example. Crop it down to just the logo.
Image:Logo-good3.png | Good example. Logo is sufficiently cropped.
Image:Logo-good.png | Good example. Can show off a bit of the artist's work, but no menu options or other things to get in the way.
Image:Logo-good2.PNG | Good example. If no title is available, a decent shot of the focal point of the game will do instead.

</gallery>

==Screenshot==

Screenshots must be in PNG format, and have a credible 'action shot' of the game (no menus or obvious tutorials). To be named <code>ss.png</code> in all cases.

Recommended tools include Snipping Tool and Paint, both included in Windows 10 by default. You're free to use other tools, just remember, always use PNG.

===Examples===

<gallery mode="traditional">

Image:Ss-bad1.png | Bad example. Don't show obvious tutorials.
Image:Ss-bad2.png | Bad example. Don't show menus, unless the entire point of the game is menus. Work your way to a battle in an RPG or strategy game.
Image:Ss-good.png | Good example. Shows some action. Dying is sometimes unavoidable - don't feel bad if the screenshot is otherwise good.
Image:Ss-good2.png | Great example. Shows a lot of action and what the game's big draw is.

</gallery>

==Metadata==

The metadata must be included in a file named '''meta.txt'''. The table below shows all of the fields that you can include in your meta.txt files. All fields should be included if they are applicable. Pay special attention to fields marked with * - they are required at least some of the time. If a field is not applicable and not required for your curation, either omit it or leave it blank.

Many fields allow multiple values. If they do, separate each value with a semicolon and a space. For example, <code>Value1; Value2</code>.

Some fields have a few possible values to choose from. If this is the case, they'll be shown in the table as a bulleted list, with the default value in ''italics''. If you omit this type of field, it will take on its default value automatically.

If you're not sure how to use a metadata field, be sure to check the [[#A Good meta.txt|example meta.txt]].

===List of Metadata Fields===

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Field !! Explanation
|-
| '''Title'''*
| '''Always required.''' The name of the game, in full. When in doubt, use the name indicated in the game's logo. Use the game's official title; don't add anything to it, such as a franchise or series name, if it doesn't exist in the game's title.
|-
| '''Alternate Titles'''
| Alternate titles that can be used to refer to the game. For example, an alternate name for Gateway II is Gateway 2. You also may use this to indicate the title of the game in other languages. Use <code>; </code> to separate multiple values.
|-
| '''Library'''*
| '''Required if you are curating for Flashpoint Theatre.''' Possible values:
* ''Arcade'': This is a game that should go in Flashpoint Arcade.
* Theatre: This is an animation that should go in Flashpoint Theatre.
|-
| '''Series'''
| The name of the specific-to-webgames series. As an example; a game based on The Fairly Odd Parents wouldn't have a series of The Fairly Odd Parents, but The Fancy Pants Adventure World 2 would have The Fancy Pants Adventure as its series.
|-
| '''Developer'''
| The name of the developer, or developers. Separate multiple developers with <code>; </code>. Make sure that each person or game studio actually developed the game; sponsorship does not count. Look for a Credits section! If one person has published games both under a username and under his real name, add the username first and the real name inside parentheses. Example: Kajenx (Lucas Paakh).
|-
| '''Publisher'''
| The site that published (sponsored/branded) the game. Look for a "More Games" link or prominent logo; it will probably lead to the Publisher's website.
|-
| '''Play Mode'''
| One of the following, but up to three per game is possible:
* ''Single Player'': A solo experience from start to finish.
* Cooperative: Like "Single Player", but with others being in the journey of finishing the game from start to finish.
* Multiplayer: Playing against someone else or multiple players in a session, competing to win.
|-
| '''Status'''*
|
* ''Playable'': Fully playable from beginning to end. Not hacked or modified.
* Partial: Game is only partially playable, whether because of missing files or features that Flashpoint cannot properly implement. You'll need to elaborate further in the Notes.
* Hacked: Game has been hacked or modified to work in Flashpoint. Use the Notes field to explain what has been modified. '''If you hack a game, you must also include the original, unhacked file(s) in your curation.'''
If a game is both Hacked and Partial, its status would be <code>Hacked; Partial</code>. The "Playable" status should not be used for Hacked or Partial games.
|-
| '''Release Date'''
| The date that the game was first released. Use YYYY-MM-DD format, with whatever precision is available. For example, if you knew a game was released in January 2010, you could say <code>2010-01</code>.
|-
| '''Version'''
| The version number of the game. This is for revisions of the same game, not games in series. Leave this field blank if the game's version number is not clearly shown somewhere.
|-
| '''Languages'''*
| '''Required if you are curating a game that supports languages other than English.'''
A list of all languages that the game supports. Use [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ISO_639-1_codes ISO 639-1 language codes] and separate each code with <code>; </code>. For example, if a game supports English and Spanish, you would say <code>en; es</code>.
|-
| '''Extreme'''*
| '''Required if you are curating something unsuitable for minors.''' Possible values:
* Yes: Indicates that a game is unsuitable for minors because of excessive violence, sexual content, or other mature content.
* ''No'': Indicates that a game is suitable for minors.
|-
| '''Tags'''*
| See [[Tags]]. Separate multiple tags with a semicolon and a space, for example: <code>Platformer; Puzzle</code>. The section headings (Action, Adventure, etc) may be used as tags as well. Pay special attention to the tags in the '''Content Warnings''' section, because these are '''required''' if they apply to the game you are curating.
|-
| '''Source'''*
| The URL of the webpage where you found the game. If you found the game on [https://web.archive.org/ Wayback Machine], follow this format: <code>Original URL (Via Wayback Machine)</code>. If you found the game somewhere other than a webpage, use whatever format you find appropriate to indicate the source.
|-
| '''Platform'''*
| The ''web game technology'' that the game uses. See the [[#Appendix I: Flashpoint Platforms|Appendix]] for a list of platforms supported.
If your curation omits this field, the Platform is assumed to be Flash. '''This field is required for all non-Flash curations.'''
|-
| '''Application Path'''*
| The path to the application to use to launch the game. This path is relative to the main Flashpoint folder. For example, the Application Path for most Flash games is <code>FPSoftware\Flash\flashplayer_32_sa.exe</code>.
If the Application Path is omitted, it will be automatically chosen based on the game's Platform. See the [[#Appendix I: Flashpoint Platforms|Appendix]] for a list of default Application Paths for each Platform. '''We recommend that you always use this field.'''
|-
| '''Launch Command'''*
| The location of your file inside the content folder, replicating an internet URL. This is case-sensitive. '''Never have https:// at the beginning of a URL, it will eventually break something. ALWAYS use http://. If a URL has https:// at the beginning, it's wrong, end of story.'''
'''This field is always required.''' If you're having trouble figuring out the correct launch command, see [[Curation Tutorial]].
|-
| '''Notes'''
| A message that will appear in the right panel of the launcher. Reserve this for important tidbits related to how the game works that should be known before playing. For multi-line Notes, use the pipe symbol: <code>Notes: <nowiki> | </nowiki></code>, then indent each line of the Notes. To see how to do this, be sure to check the [[#A Good meta.txt|example meta.txt]].
|-
| '''Original Description'''
| If a game's webpage contains a description of the game, you may copy and paste it into this field. For multi-line descriptions, use the pipe symbol: <code>Original Description: <nowiki> | </nowiki></code>, then indent each line.
|-
| '''Curation Notes'''
| Use this field to show a message to BlueMaxima if he needs to add your curation in a different way from usual. For multi-line Curation Notes, use the pipe symbol: <code>Curation Notes: <nowiki> | </nowiki></code>, then indent each line.
|-
| '''Additional Applications'''
| Use this section to add a message that pops up before a game runs, a link to an Extras folder, or an alternate version of a game. For more details, see the [[#Appendix II: Additional Applications|Appendix]].
|-
|}

===A Good meta.txt===

<nowiki>
Title: Alien Hominid
Series:
Developer: The Behemoth
Publisher: Newgrounds.com
Play Mode: Single Player
Status: Playable
Release Date: 2002-08-07
Version:
Extreme: No
Tags: Shooter
Source: https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/59593
Platform: Flash
Application Path: FPSoftware\Flash\flashplayer_32_sa.exe
Launch Command: http://uploads.ungrounded.net/59000/59593_alien_booya202c.swf
Notes: |
This is our sample curation in Flashpoint Core.
Multiple lines in notes and descriptions are cool.
Curation Notes: Thanks for your work!</nowiki>

===Blank meta.txt===

<nowiki>
Title:
Alternate Titles:
Library:
Series:
Developer:
Publisher:
Play Mode:
Status:
Release Date:
Version:
Languages:
Extreme:
Tags:
Source:
Platform:
Application Path:
Launch Command:
Notes:
Original Description:
Curation Notes:
Additional Applications: </nowiki>

===Using YAML===

In addition to our custom <code>meta.txt</code> format, Flashpoint curations also support metadata written in YAML format. To use YAML, create a <code>meta.yml</code> or <code>meta.yaml</code> file instead of a <code>meta.txt</code> file. Then, follow the instructions in our [[YAML Format]] article.

==Testing==

You'll need [https://bluemaxima.org/flashpoint/downloads/ Flashpoint Core] to test your games in a lightweight copy of Flashpoint you can afford to break.

Place the files from inside your content folder within the '''Server\htdocs\''' directory. Once you've done this, open the Core launcher, click the "New Game" button in the bottom right and mirror the info from your Meta.txt into the right panel. Click the checkmark and open your curation - if everything goes well, your game should open in a new window! If it doesn't, make sure you're copying the contents of your content folder and not the folder itself.

'''All games should be tested in Flashpoint, if not Core then at least the full version. Just opening the game in a projector or browser is not enough of a test.'''

==Packing it up==

You've finished your first curation! All of these files should now be packed into a single .ZIP or .7Z file and submitted to our #curator-lounge on the Discord. If your curation is up to snuff, you'll be given Trial Curator status, which will let you submit curations through the curation channels. You can use Discord's own upload feature for files under 8MB, or one of our file upload locations for bigger files. See [[Submitting a Curation]] for up-to-date submission links for each type of curation. The page also provides more detailed instructions if you have further questions.

[http://bluemaxima.org/flashpoint/datahub/AlienHominid.zip Here is the full example ZIP file.]
(This was also linked earlier, in the Overview section).

==After Submitting==

===Editing Your Curations===

If you notice a mistake with your curation shortly after you've submitted it (and it hasn't been added to Flashpoint yet), just delete it and resubmit. (If you used our upload service, you might have to ask a Curator to delete your file for you.)

If your curation has already been added to Flashpoint, read our article on [[Metadata Edits]] and head over to the #pending-fixes channel in our Discord so you can make necessary changes. If you're wondering whether your curation has been added to Flashpoint yet, look for a <code>:Tools:</code> emoji reaction anywhere below your post in the Curations channel.

===Having Problems?===

Because we can't remind you enough already: [https://discord.gg/S9uJ794 Join our Discord] and ask away in the #curator-lounge channel.

==Appendix I: Flashpoint Platforms==

{{:Platforms}}

==Appendix II: Additional Applications==

The ''Additional Applications'' metadata field can be used to add Messages, Extras, or Alternates to a curation. Each of these items is explained in detail below.

===Messages===

Use the Message sub-field to add a short, one-line message that pops up before a game runs. If there's something that Flashpoint users need to know before playing a game, use this field.

For example, here is the Additional Applications field of a game that starts in fullscreen and is difficult to close:
<nowiki>
Additional Applications:
Message: This game starts in fullscreen. To exit, alt-tab and close the window in the taskbar.</nowiki>

===Extras===

Extras allow you to include a folder of bonus materials with your curation. If you would like to include files related to a game that are not required to play it, such as source code or unlockable items, this is how you can do it:
# Inside your curation's folder, next to the <code>content</code> folder, create a folder called <code>Extras</code>.
# Place all of the bonus materials you would like to include inside of the Extras folder.
# In the Notes field of your <code>meta.txt</code>, add a short explanation of what's included in the Extras folder.
# In the Additional Applications field of your <code>meta.txt</code>, add an Extras sub-field like this: <code>Extras: gamename</code>.

For example, here is the Additional Applications field of a game called ''Tokyo Guinea Pop''. The curation's Extras folder contains unlockable items from the game's original website.
<nowiki>
Additional Applications:
Extras: tokyoguineapop</nowiki>

===Alternates===

Alternates allow you to add alternate versions of a game. This is commonly used to add older versions of a game, alternate languages of a game, or hacked versions from sites like Arcade Prehacks. Note that all of the files required to run an Alternate should be included in the <code>content</code> folder of your curation, along with the files for the main version.

To add an alternate to the Additional Applications field, include a Heading, with an Application Path and Launch Command indented under it.

For example, the curation of a game called ''Drop 3'' includes a hacked version. Here is the Additional Applications field of this curation:
<nowiki>
Additional Applications:
Play Hacked Version:
Application Path: FPSoftware\Flash\flashplayer_32_sa.exe
Launch Command: http://www.irregulargames.com/drop3/drop3-hacked.swf</nowiki>

Curation Tutorial

2020-01-05T23:08:36Z

YuriNikolai: Info about missing htdoc folder if Core was never executed before trying to curate

The following page is an introductory tutorial on how Flashpoint works, and how to curate games.

For more advanced platform-specific tutorials, see [[Platforms]].

For more details on the how to package a curation, see [[Curation Format]].

== How Flashpoint Works ==

{{:How Flashpoint Works}}

== Setting Up Our Software ==

To actually rip games from the internet, we are gonna need some software. This guide will be purely curating Flash games; if you want to curate something a little more complicated, it'll need more than this guide. This is just meant to show you how Flashpoint works at a base level; you can build on this knowledge later if you need to on other tutorials.

With that said, you will need some extra software:

* Flashpoint Core. This is a version of Flashpoint that only has a handful of games; it's mainly meant for adding, testing and just generally playing around with the platform. You can usually find a link to it [http://bluemaxima.org/flashpoint/downloads/ at the bottom of the Downloads page]. You can use another Flashpoint distribution, like Infinity, but it can be annoyingly easy to break Flashpoint in the middle of this; at least Core can be used as a disposable platform that you can just re-extract if something goes wrong.
* If you're doing simple, one file SWF games, you can make do with a modern browser like Chrome or Firefox. These browsers have a built in network monitor that we can use to find and grab individual SWFs, and sometimes multi-asset titles with low amounts of resources.

There are more tools that you can use, but since we're not dealing with multi-asset games yet, we're just gonna work with these two for now. Download Flashpoint Core, extract it to your hard drive, run it via the usual shortcut, and make sure that the included Flash game plays properly before you continue.

== Grabbing Our First Game From The Internet ==

We're going to start really simple; we're going to curate a game that's a single SWF file, has no sitelock, and is just easy to get along with.

[https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/218014 Here's the link]. Yep, it's Interactive Buddy. We already have it (and you should always check the [[Game Master List]] before you curate something) but it works well as a tutorial. You might need to enable Flash to get it to play (just clicking on the middle of the screen and clicking 'Enable Flash' in the top left should be enough. It's worth noting that you can't do this tutorial if you have the Newgrounds Player enabled.)

Now, if you're using Chrome or Firefox, press F12, and don't panic at the overwhelming panel that just showed up on one side of the screen. We only need to focus on a couple of things going on with this. You should see a tab called "Network"; click it. This panel lets us see what is loading on the page in real time as it loads. It should be on 'All' by default, which *might* work, but thankfully, the browser makes this easy for us by letting us filter files that are 'abnormal' by clicking the "Other" tab in the row next to the "Filter" box. Once you have the Network tab open and Other highlighted, click the Refresh button on your browser.

You'll probably see a fair few weird entries there, but if you hover your mouse over each entry on the list, you'll get a full URL of each file as a small tooltip. There's one in particular you're looking for: here's a clue, the URL will have "swf" somewhere close to the end. You can also look at the "Size" column if this is your first time loading the file; it'll probably be a lot bigger than most other things on the page. Once you have this file, right click on it, and click "Open in New Tab". You should be prompted to save the SWF somewhere, but if not, just press Ctrl-S and save the file somewhere you'll remember.

== Moving Our Game Into Flashpoint ==

Congrats, you just downloaded your first SWF. There's more to it than this though, don't celebrate yet. Go to where you saved that file, and copy it (right-click in Windows, hopefully you know this by now). Navigate to where you extracted Flashpoint Core, and go into the Server folder, then the htdocs folder. If there is no htdocs folder, make sure you opened Flashpoint Core at least once after downloading it.

Time for a bit of an explanation. This 'htdocs' folder is the root of our fake internet, the very peak of it, and the folders that go down are fake 'websites' that are hosted in Flashpoint when it launches, and for our software to talk to. We need to keep an eye where we paste any files into this folder, so that we can efficiently put our game into Flashpoint later on. With that said, you should already have an 'uploads.ungrounded.net' folder in the htdocs folder. For now, let's go into that folder, then paste the SWF we just downloaded straight in there.

Now we can go back up two directories and launch Flashpoint Core. In Flashpoint Core, you should see, in the bottom left, a "New Game" button that you can click, and get a list of things on the right. There are four things we need to pay attention to at this very moment:

* The title. We need to be able to tell it apart. Name it "Interactive Buddy" or "Test Game" or anything you like, it doesn't matter at this point.
* The Platform. This determines what XML this goes into (our database is split into different platforms - Flash, Unity, etc.). For the purpose of using Core for testing purposes, this isn't massively important, but you need to select one for this to work, so just select Flash.
* The Application Path. This determines what piece of software is used to start up the file we specify. In this case we're using a single, simple SWF, so we want to pick out the Flash Player Projector; in the current version of Core, this is listed as "FPSoftware\Flash\flashplayer_32_sa.exe", so pick that.
* The Launch Command.

There's the big one. We need to talk about URLs now. On the normal internet, a URL, for example, will look like this:

https://uploads.ungrounded.net/218000/218014_DAbuddy_latest.swf?123

This URL is split into a few sections.

* "https://" < this is what determines what protocol is used. For those of you who don't want an internet lesson, this will pretty much always be a variation of http:// or https://
* "uploads.ungrounded.net" < this is a domain; basically a folder that determines where something is on the internet.
* "/218000/218014_DAbuddy_latest.swf?123" < this is the rest of the domain; folders leading down to the file, which will load.

We need to create a URL inside our fake internet for our Flashpoint Core to load in the same way, so let's put one together, piece by piece.

The first part is the "https://", however, I need to say this here. Due to a lack of technology capable of doing the job, using a "https://" in the Launch Command will always, '''always''' load files from the real internet instead of from the fake one. This cannot be avoided, this is an easy mistake to make, and it sucks, but it must be noted and checked for. We can end up accidentally loading a game from the internet, seeing it 'working' in Flashpoint, and then have a surprised Pikachu face six months later when the site goes down and suddenly the game doesn't work. To summarize, '''always use http:// at the beginning of a launch command, NO EXCEPTIONS.'''

http://

The second part is our domain. On the real internet, this is almost impossible to visualize; top level domains are talked to via DNS, which redirects you to the correct server. Thanks to the way Flashpoint works, though? It's a lot more simple than that. Our domains are all contained in the first folder of htdocs; all of those folders you saw earlier are domains. In our case, we moved our SWF into the 'uploads.ungrounded.net' folder; so that'll be the next part of our URL.

http://uploads.ungrounded.net

The third part and beyond are the subfolders inside the domain, and the file on the end. Every time you go into a folder, whether it be the domain or any subfolders in said domain, you should add a slash onto the end, like so:

http://uploads.ungrounded.net/

This tells our fake internet to look inside the uploads.ungrounded.net folder in the htdocs folder for where it needs to go next. If we wanted to go into another folder, we would need to add the folder name on the end of the URL, followed by another slash. For example, if I wanted to go into the "59000" folder? It would look something like this:

http://uploads.ungrounded.net/59000/

In our case, at this moment? We don't want to do that; our SWF that we downloaded and copied in the previous steps is just in uploads.ungrounded.net. When we're in the folder we need to be in to get to our SWF, all that's left is to put the file name on the end of the launch command. So our launch command, assuming you didn't rename the SWF you downloaded before (good behaviour, you'll see why in a bit), your launch command should look like the line below.

http://uploads.ungrounded.net/218014_DAbuddy_latest.swf

Once you have your full launch command, paste it into the Launch Command box. Once you have a title, platform, application path and launch command filled in, click the tick in the top right of the edit dialog, and the box containing the title should appear in the games list, in which case you should be able to just double click said box to launch the game. If you do so and see Interactive Buddy after a couple of seconds? Congrats, you did it.

== Sitelocks ==

That's your first game working in Flashpoint. Now to do something that's a little more...how do we put it, '''locked'''. See, Flash games were well known back in the day for being 'sitelocked'; a process in which the game would check what domain the game was being hosted on, on startup. If it wasn't on a domain that it would like, it would fail, and usually prevent you from playing the game. While this did help things like revenue shares, at least to some point, sitelocks would eventually come back to bite Flash preservation in the butt in more than one way. A lot of Flash games would, if downloaded to the hard drive, still run off the same sitelock, and since Flash can also detect whether it's being run via local files, the sitelocks would trigger and you couldn't play the game.

There is also a second case though, which is much rarer, and 110% more hilarious. See, sometimes website designs can change, and this can result in certain games sitelocks being specific enough that even the little changes they made are enough to set off the sitelock. Allow me to show you an example, which we're going to download and curate. Open this URL in your browser, and try to play the game in question: http://andkon.com/arcade/adventureaction/monsterslayers/

Yup, it actually sitelocks, and not only that, it tells you to '''go to Andkon Arcade, where you already are, to play the game'''. I'll let you get over the fit of the giggles this absolute nonsense brings about, and let you grab the SWF the normal way. Once you have it, we're going to put it exactly where it is on the real internet, then load it via Flashpoint, to show you that this isn't a fluke, this is actually the sitelock in action.

So here's the URL of the SWF in question.

http://andkon.com/arcade/adventureaction/monsterslayers/monsterslayers.swf

Let's break it apart into individual folders.

http:// andkon.com / arcade / adventureaction / monsterslayers / monsterslayers.swf

If you've been paying attention you know exactly what to do here, but if you don't, we're gonna make this exact path in Flashpoint Core. To do so, we're gonna go to Server/htdocs again, and we're gonna make an 'andkon.com' folder, then we're gonna go into that and make an 'arcade' folder, then 'adventureaction', then 'monsterslayers', then we're gonna paste that SWF in there. The upside of this approach of placing the URL exactly where it is on the real internet, is that we can copy this URL, and use it as our Launch Command, exactly as is!

''NOTE: ''remember that some URLs can still use https:// at the beginning, so doing a copy-paste of that into the Launch Command will not work right if you forget to make it http instead of https.

So you can either make a new game entry like before, or click on the one we already made, click the Edit button (it's a pencil in the top right on the right sidebar) and change the launch command there, then click the tick. Either way, do that, then try to launch the game, and you'll see the sitelock there, clear as day, just as it was in the browser. Now, as for determining what exactly this kind of sitelock wants...well, that's a tutorial for another time, but since this version of the game is already in Flashpoint, we already know how this sitelock works, and can fix it right away.

See, the way Andkon used to be structured is that it used to run on the domain "arcade.andkon.com" and not just "andkon.com", and the sitelock on this particular game was designed to check that it was running on "(something).andkon.com" and not just "andkon.com" because of that. When Andkon updated at some point in the past, it broke this sitelock code, and the game wouldn't run properly. Thankfully, we have a fake internet we can bend to our will, so this can easily be fixed.

With that said, I'm going to put on the Jeopardy music, and let you see if you can figure this one out. The file is in the domain "andkon.com" at the moment, and we need it to be on "(something).andkon.com" for it to work right. How would we accomplish that, and what two things would we need to change to make it work?

...

If you answered "the domain folder in htdocs" and "the Launch Command of the game" you're correct!

* We need to change the name of the 'andkon.com' folder in order to fool the sitelock. So if we go back up into htdocs and rename this folder, we can make it work. (In this very specific case, we can use anything as a substitute for the (something) in '(something).andkon.com'. For my example here, I'm going to rename the folder to "bumfluff.andkon.com", because seriously, in this ''one case'' that works.)
* But once we've done that, our Launch Command becomes invalid. See, it'll still try to load 'andkon.com', and it will probably fail. At least, it will absolutely fail on a fresh hard drive. In order to compensate for this, we also need to go and edit the Launch Command in the game's entry in the launcher to match up with the domain's new folder name.

Once you've done that, and you can launch the game again, you've successfully bypassed a sitelock. Congratulations, again.

I want to end this section off with a note about sitelocks; in most cases, sitelocks are still working as intended on most Flash portals, so grabbing them, loosely throwing them into Flashpoint and playing them just won't work, which is why recreating the exact structure of where the game was on the website, like we did with Monster Slayers up there, is always good practice; not only do you ensure that a loose SWF floating around in the master copy doesn't overwrite any other files, any sitelocks that might come up will be headed off at the pass, because you already put them in the right place on our fake internet to fool the sitelock to begin with. Two birds, one stone. There's also the third benefit of keeping the files like this being historically accurate, which is good for a preservation project. So basically, always have the game in the right place.

== Multi-Asset Games ==

Multi-asset games can be a lot trickier to deal with. When we say multi-asset, we refer to a game that loads more than the initial SWF when you play it. See, Interactive Buddy and Monster Slayers were all self contained in one file, no fuss, no problems, load them and go. But remember that we were dealing with games that were likely to be loaded on dial-up connections, so for some titles, every kilobyte you could save on loading games would work - giving someone on dial-up a 2MB game to download at first to let them play a little, instead of forcing a 20MB download that would leave it unplayable for them, was considered a good thing in some circles.

This also leaves things like Flash games in a really tough spot when you try to back them up. Sometimes these games are programmed well, and will load the resource from the folder the actual file is next to. Sometimes they'll just talk to an absolute, direct web address, leaving it unplayable once that file goes down. It's almost impossible to tell that this might be a thing sometimes. With that said, we're gonna back up a multi-asset game, and hopefully give you a tool or two to help with these games, although it's never a guarantee.

The game we're going to be using is adventure title Gateway II, hosted on the developer's site here: http://cockroach.se/gateway_2/ Before you allow Flash Player through though, make sure you hit F12, Network tab, Other highlighted. Then once you start to play the game, you'll notice that instead of one SWF, it loads a relative ton of them, and also some XML files. In the case of Gateway II, you need *all* of these files to actually finish the game. As an experiment, feel free to download gateway_2.swf, then try and play it, just by itself, in Core, using the methods we've gone over. You'll get to the language select, then you'll stop dead once you pick one.

Now, the hard way is to download all of these files manually, make sure they're in the right spots, and that will basically do it. If you scroll over the list of URLs, you'll notice that they're all in different directories in relation to eachother, so it'll actually be a lot of manual groundwork to get this done right. You can do this, and I recommend you do it at least once, to get used to the idea of making sure everything lines up nice and neatly; when one file ends up out of place or forgotten, you'll either not be able to play the game, or you'll submit it, only to end up having someone complain later.

Thankfully, we do have a tool to help expedite this process; it's called [https://bluepload.unstable.life/curlsdownloaderv54.zip cURLsDownloader], and we can make it work for us pretty easily. So when you have all the resources loaded in Gateway II's case, you can right click on one of the files, and click Copy > Copy all as cURL (cmd), paste that into a text file, save it into the same folder as that cURLsDownloader.bat (make sure you extracted it) and enter the text file name into the prompt you get when you run said batch file, and it'll download all the links for you.

This isn't to say you shouldn't be cautious, though. There are certain games out there that only load these resources when you need them. One example is a few Nitrome games; they will only load the XMLs that contain their level data once you get to them; therefore, you need to play the entire game, end-to-end, before you can safely copy the cURLs into a text file and download them. Sometimes, and only sometimes, you can take apart the SWF with a decompiler and check for all the files you need, but this is never a guarantee (and that goes beyond the scope of this tutorial). There are others as well, including some games that will only have an ending loaded from external files. You can never be 100% sure, without playing through an entire game, whether or not this is the case.

With that said, it is easy to miss this kind of thing when you're working on games, which is why the golden rule is ''to always, ALWAYS test in Flashpoint Core before you go submitting a game''. Preferably with your internet cut off and your internet cache files wiped (there is a convienient option to do this in the Redirector's File menu, you should do this every time you curate a new multi-asset game). If you have the launch command set to HTTP and the game itself doesn't try to talk over HTTPS, you'll find it easy to notice when things don't load in multiple ways; the game will stop dead, or the Redirector window will throw up "404 NOT FOUND" messages next to certain file names, which you should always try to grab (if you did the smart thing of reconstructing the exact same file structure on the fake internet as the real one, you might be able to just copy and paste straight from the redirector to the real internet to grab the file in question). If the game, whether by you leaving a HTTPS in the launch command or by the game itself trying to, ends up trying to talk over HTTPS, you'll see something along the lines of this following line in the Redirector:

(404 Not Found) GET http://ocsp.comodoca.com/MFIwUDBOMEwwSjAJBgUrDgMCGgUABBR64T7ooMQqLLQoy+emBUYZQOKh6QQUkK9qOpRaC9iQ6hJWc99DtDoo2ucCEQC66MA/sMbTbAk54Fmbn6wF

Basically though, there's no "end all be all" solution to the multi-asset problem that isn't constant vigilance. If it makes you feel better, in the absolute majority of cases since this project has started that we've observed, if a game lets you get through more than one level without loading another asset, you'll ''generally'' be okay to assume that there's no more assets to be found, but again, this is never a guarantee, and you should always test as much as you can.

== Wrapping It Up ==

Now that we have it all working as expected, its time to send our game into the proper curation channels. [[CurationFormat|This page here]] tells you everything you need to know about our curation format, and how we use it to pack up and send in games for adding into the master copy. Once you have a proper curation ready, follow these steps to make sure it gets added to Flashpoint:

{{:Submitting a Curation}}