Support Pack Tutorial

This page is a basic tutorial on how Flashpoint works and how to curate support packs for addition to Flashpoint. Support packs are packs focusing on adding or adding to technologies.

Setting Up Our Software

To download technology files from the Internet, you'll need a modern browser such as Chrome or Firefox, which can be used to find and grab the technology files, mostly found within installer EXEs or MSIs.

Download Flashpoint, extract it to an internal or external drive, run it via its shortcut in the extracted folder, and make sure that the included games play properly before you continue.

Finding the Source of a Technology

Be sure to check the Technologies to Add and Platforms pages before settling on a technology! Otherwise, it might be a waste of time and effort to save a technology that's already been saved.

As a tutorial, we'll start by curating the simplest type of technology: an NPAPI plugin only requiring one DLL that works offline, specifically LiveMath Plugin. LiveMath Plugin may need to be enabled in a browser to get it to play (this tutorial won't work with another player such as the LiveMath Viewer). Note that some technologies may be implemented as standalone players, Netscape plugins, or ActiveX controls; the process for adding each of these types of technologies is different from the process explained below.

Adding Technologies

1. Find and download the technology. In some cases, this involves going to the Wayback Machine, especially if the technology is from the 1990s or early 2000s. LiveMath Plugin is available here.
2. If the technology is built into an program, such as a EXE or MSI (Windows), a DMG, PKG or ZIP (Mac) or a TAR.GZ or RUN (Linux) file, open the installer in a program such as 7-Zip that can look inside the files, then locate the technology files.
3. Create a folder of the name of the technology in FPSoftware\BrowserPlugins, located in the Flashpoint folder, in the following style: LiveMathPlugin. Move or copy the technology files to it.
4. Go to FPSoftware\fpnavigator-portable, then open FPNavigator.ini in a text editor. Go to ;(plugins path), then add the plugin directory to the path via a variable called FP_(plugin)_PATH, again, using a short version of the technology name instead of (plugin), fully in uppercase and without spaces. For LiveMath Plugin, this would be FP_LIVEMATH_PATH=%FP_BROWSER_PLUGINS%\LiveMathPlugin. Go to MOZ_PLUGIN_PATH and also add the variable name to the end of that line. Surround the variable name with with the percent % symbol and place a semicolon ; at the end. For example, with all parts, it would be %FP_LIVEMATH_PATH%; for LiveMath Plugin. Save the file. The text editor can be closed.
5. Create at least one curation in the technology to test. Go to Curation Tutorial if you don't know how to make one. If the technology does not work, a special .bat file may need to be created for it. To do so, create a file in FPSoftware, and name it in the following style: startLiveMathPlugin.bat (please note LiveMath Plugin does not require a .bat file). A short example is below.
6. Once done, find an picture for the technology to use as the icon for the technology, or related to the technology, such as the company or the most prominent program if you can't find one. This may require some image editing, which is out of scope for this article. Export it to Data\Logos.
7. Create the directories Data\Logos and FPSoftware\BrowserPlugins separately, and the final picture and the technology files into them respectively. Place these directories into an empty 7Z file, preferably named after the technology, such as "LiveMath Plugin support pack" for LiveMath.
8. Submit the support pack to #plugins on our Discord. Give a description on how to add the support pack. For instance, "LiveMath Plugin support pack - Add FP_LIVEMATH_PATH=%FP_BROWSER_PLUGINS%\LiveMathPlugin to ;(plugins path) and %FP_LIVEMATH_PATH%; to MOZ_PLUGIN_PATH in FPSoftware\fpnavigator-portable\FPNavigator.ini".
9. Submit the .7z file here if it is 1GB or less. Otherwise, a Flashpoint staff member will provide you with access to another upload location upon request. Once the file has been uploaded, add the link to your message.
10. Upload the curations you have made in the technology the same way as usual. Include links to the curations in your support pack message.

Congratulations! Your submitted support pack and curations will appear in the next version of Flashpoint.

Example Batch File

   @ECHO OFF
   PUSHD %~dp0
   FlashpointSecurePlayer burster "%~1"
   
   IF %ERRORLEVEL% EQU -2 (
       ECHO MsgBox "You cannot run multiple instances of Flashpoint Secure Player." > %TMP%\TMP.VBS
       WSCRIPT /nologo %TMP%\TMP.VBS
       DEL %TMP%\TMP.VBS
   )
   POPD