So I have the XF Arcade. Where can I get games?

Whenever there's an arcade, this question is asked. Frequently. On the developer's page at vBulletin.org it's asked a hundred times. So I thought I'd get started here letting people know where they can get games, what hoops they have to jump through at these sites to get the games, etc.

There are 3 main types of supported games for XFArcade. They are Mochi, v3 Arcade, and IBPgames.

Mochi Games

Mochi Games are ad driven and can monetize your arcade to a small extent. Basically you sign up, have to add a code to your site (I assume there will be a spot for this in the AdminCP for XFArcade) and choose which games you want to have there. The best part of this is that the game developers get a cut!

Benefits

• Site owners can make some money off of users playing games.
• Game devs make money!
• When you get the games you know they are not stolen or nulled in any way.
• Large pool of games from which to choose.

Not As Good

• Some of the games are of lesser quality.
• Some devs use code that prevents high scores from being recorded.

Summary: Mochi Games are a good way to get your arcade started. Even if the games aren't all total winners, you have content and your arcade won't look empty for lurkers or potential users.

v3 Arcade & ibPro Arcade Games

If you've had a vBulletin board in the past, these next two will be very familiar. v3 Arcade and ibPro Arcade are essentially the same thing with different looks and feels. Some prefer v3, some prefer IBP. But in the end, both play the games from the other one and they have similar interfaces. Because of this, the following will be a list of sites where you can download both IBP & v3 games. I will be sure to mark which is which.

Next Level Arcade - This place has a bunch of games that are free to download. The only caveat is that you have to make a post there each day when you want to download a game. Maximum of 15 per day. What I'm not sure about is the legality of some of the games. With such titles as Angry Birds and Bejeweled Blitz it's hard to think the games are 100% legal for use. So beware.

v3 Arcade - (v3 games) The main site that makes the v3 Arcade software has a few games (47) that are free for download. These are of varying quality and as I'm a member I can't remember exactly what I had to do to gain access to these. I'll update when I find out more. Again, these games are very low to middle quality but they are free and you know they are legal. UPDATE: These 47 games? Yeah, you can't just download them. You have to integrate them right in to your existing v3 Arcade. So they do us no good at this point.

ibpArcade - (IBP games) The main site of the ibPro Arcade has over 1500 games for download. As with most sites, these are of dubious to HOLY MOLY! quality, and includes more "adult" fare. There are some really great finds here! You are limited in your downloads, but they are not super restrictive. Just by being a member you can download 5 games per day. Pay a fee and that goes up to as much as 50. In my opinion it's worth a small cost. It helps them out & you get great games. I did not see any games of questionable legality but as always it's a good idea to be careful.

Wolfpack Arcade - (IBP games) Whatever you do, do NOT go to just wolfpackarcade.com!! It looks like an old Geocities site and even plays music for you! Terrible design. The forum is bad enough and confusing as hell but that front page. Oi. Their arcade, though, has 8,000+ games available for download. To be able to download you need to become a member and post 5 quality posts (it actually doesn't say quality posts, but be nice about it, ya leeches!). This allows you to download 40 games a day. VIP access is 80 games a day but I can't find out how to become a VIP. Unlimited downloads can be had for $10 so that's a real deal there. Now for the bad news. Games are suspect. Quality varies wildly and I know for a fact that some of their games are illegal. I have a user as a game designer and some of his stuff is there. So as always, even though this is a great place to get games, you may be taking a bit of a risk.

FlashGameDistribution - (Unknown) I'm not sure how to take these games, for more than a few reasons. One thing I'll note before I say anything else: this is more like Mochi games than anything. Developers can use this to make money. Having said that, this site is really confusing! It keeps asking you to log in but to do so you have to go to another site, where you can make an account as either a tester, developer or sponsor. I did a tester and this does not let you download any games, merely test and rate them. I wanted to do sponsor, but the wording made it look like it might cost a little bit of cash - but I can't be sure as I didn't even try it. Really the only way I found to download games was to stay not logged in. Not sure what format they are in yet, or if it'll even work with the Arcade. Stay tuned for information on this.

ChatArcade - () This was one of the ones suggested by user Gemma but I'm just not sure. To do anything on the site you have to register (even to view the forum!) and when you do it says that downloading is disabled. I clicked a link to a donation to see what you'd have to pay but it told me that I had no rights to view that page. Really? So I sent the Admin a note and we'll see what happens. The arcade seems to be pretty standard and they love their Mahjong games, but what can you do? I'll post more about game quality and stuff when I find it.

Solo-Games - () Another site suggested by Gemma and I must say I'm so not impressed with this one. To view anything (even the forum) you have to register. To view the arcade you have to pay money. Sure it's only $5 (at the least but it can be more!) but pay to even check it out? Huh. No sir, I don't like it.

Gametic Games - (IBPArcade) I like a lot of things about this site. The games are a lot of time original, but from what I can tell you have to pay for VIP access to get the newer ones. I played a few of them and they were pretty cool. This site is worth a look or two.

ibpDownloads - (IBPArcade) Here is another great site for getting games, although to download a lot you'll need to pony up a bit of cash. They have currently on the site 17,000+ games of various quality. If you decide to go here you can buy one of three levels of downloads (silver, gold, platinum) that allows you to download a various amount per day (50, 100, unlimited respectively). Please note that I do not have the costs at this time. I already have an account so it doesn't show me what the total is, merely what I would owe if I got that level. Also note that there are some games there of dubious legality. My friend the game designer has a couple there and since he has his own site I know that this was nulled. Doesn't mean they all are, but watch carefully.

That's all for now. If you know of sites let me know and I'll update the main list.

September 14: Added FlashGameDistribution.com

Thanks! I'll add those as well! Once the arcade gets done, each of these sites will be included with detailed instructions on how to get the games in the arcade.

Thanks again, Gemma! This is the kind of feedback the vB versions never had!

I got more work to do, don't I? Thanks again!

Even better than the Mochi ACP install in v3A? Working with v3A one of the things that we tried doing was working with a 'white room' mentality which meant checking out other arcade systems in detail wasn't something done a whole lot.

September 17: Added ChatAcade, Solo-Gamers and Gametic Games.

THANK YOU!!! I have so many of these links I totally forgot about this place! I even have a login and got games from there. Hell, for a time I advertised there! I will update the thread soon.

September 28: Added ibpDownloads.com

Thanks to Edrondol for putting so much time into researching this!

No worries. When I had the ibpArcade from vB this was asked several hundreds of times in the forum. All were summarily shot down as not being the appropriate place to ask. I wish this thread had been there.

Can you break that up? Are they all legal games? I have the bandwidth to host them on my site but I don't want to get sued.

Jesus Christ! 33 files of 100MB each?!?

And there's no way I'm filling out surveys or "completing these deals" to download.