====== Plug-in games: PBBlocks, PBDraw and StreetKing ======

Three games written for ProBoard v4 ship as plug-ins (''.P3X'' files). They run inside ProBoard, so they need no drop file, no work folder and no door program, and they draw in ANSI (80x24) or, for callers whose terminal reports RIP, as RIPscrip graphics from the same screen. All three are new games with original rules and artwork.

^ Game ^ What it is ^ Players ^
| **PBBlocks** | A falling-blocks game. **Marathon** is a solo game that gets faster every ten lines; **Versus** seats two to four callers at one table, every line cleared sends "noise" lines to somebody else, and the last one standing wins. | 1, or 2 to 4 in Versus (three tables) |
| **PBDraw** | Five-card draw poker, fixed limit, three tables with different stakes. Computer players fill the seats when fewer than four people are at the table. Every caller keeps a bankroll between visits and there is a standings list. | up to 6 per table |
| **StreetKing** | A "buy low, sell high" trading game: thirty days in a city of eight districts, a loan to repay and trouble to dodge. The best scores go on a board every node shares. | 1 (shared score board) |

===== Putting a game on a menu =====

  - Put the ''.P3X'' file in your ''PEX'' folder (PBInstall does this).
  - In the **Menu Editor** add a menu item with function **60** (run a plug-in) and the game as its data:

<code>
/I PBBLOCKS
/I PBDRAW
/I STREETKING
</code>

Options follow the name. A few examples:

^ Item data ^ Does ^
| ''/I PBBLOCKS marathon'' | goes straight to a solo game (also ''versus'' and ''scores''), ''level=3'' starts at level 3, ''fps=20'' sets the screen rate. |
| ''/I STREETKING days=30'' | length of a game in days (10 to 90). ''plays=3'' limits new games per caller per day, ''scores'' shows the high scores and returns. |

You can make several menu items from the same game, for example one for ''marathon'', one for ''versus'' and one for ''scores''.

You can also list a game in the door list for callers: add a ''type p3x'' block to ''DOORS.PRO''. See [[v4:doors:groups|Door list and door groups]].

===== Where the games keep their files =====

Each game makes its own data folder inside your **PEX folder**: ''PEX\PBBLOCKS'', ''PEX\PBDRAW'' and ''PEX\STREETKING''. The folder is created the first time the game runs. If a folder of the same name was made in the ProBoard folder itself by an earlier build, the game moves it into ''PEX'' the first time it runs.

^ File ^ Holds ^
| ''PEX\PBBLOCKS\PBBLOCKS.SCR'' | The marathon top 20, a text file with one line per score. |
| ''PEX\PBBLOCKS\PBBLOCKS.WIN'' | Versus wins. |
| ''PEX\PBDRAW\BANK.DAT'' | Every caller's bankroll. |
| ''PEX\STREETKING\STREETKING.SCR'' | The top 20 scores. |
| ''PEX\STREETKING\U<n>.SAV'' | A caller's game in progress (''<n>'' is the user record number). Written after every move, so a dropped line loses nothing. |

The score and bankroll files are text and you can edit them. To reset a list, delete the file. Writes go through a temporary file and a lock, so two nodes finishing at the same moment cannot lose each other's result.

See also [[v4:doors:overview|Doors]], [[v4:sdk:overview|Plug-ins]] and the full game guides in the ''docs'' folder (''PBBlocks.txt'', ''PBDraw.txt'', ''PBStreetKing.txt'').