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 (80×24) 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
.P3Xfile in yourPEXfolder (PBInstall does this). - In the Menu Editor add a menu item with function 60 (run a plug-in) and the game as its data:
/I PBBLOCKS /I PBDRAW /I STREETKING
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 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 Doors, Plug-ins and the full game guides in the docs folder (PBBlocks.txt, PBDraw.txt, PBStreetKing.txt).