This is an advanced user guide and perfect for anybody who loves Anarchy Arcade and wants to take advantage of everything it has to offer.

This guide is a work-in-progress, but I figured I should make it public as I build it so Early Access players can benefit from the information it has to offer.

AArcade is powered by Valve's Source engine. Many of the tutorials that you can find on the internet about Half-Life 2 or other Source powered games also apply to AArcade. Many of the Half-Life 2 cheat codes and console commands also work in AArcade. Also many of the fixes to common engine-related issues from Half-Life 2 also work in AArcade.

The Source engine is very mod-friendly and you have the option to customize many aspects of the engine itself on your end by editing script files or simply overwriting engine assets. Most customizations will not break multiplayer compatibility. An example of these types of customizations is replacing the default player model with Bobba Fett, or changing your crosshair to be a different color.

Usually you won't have to manually edit the files in your AArcade folder, but it is very useful to understand what the folders contain if you want to install custom non-workshop maps or do other advanced customizations.

• Anarchy Arcade/bin

Contains the behind-the-scenes tools for modders, such as the Hammer level editor.

• Anarchy Arcade/aarcade

This is the main folder. It contains all of the files needed for AArcade to run, as well as all user created files & saves.

• Anarchy Arcade/aarcade/maps

Contains the map files (BSP extension) as well as the player-created save files for each map (SET files).

• Anarchy Arcade/aarcade/models

All of the 3D model assets available for use in your arcades.

• Anarchy Arcade/aarcade/materials

All of the texture images (VTF files) & materials (VMT files) available for use in your arcades.

• Anarchy Arcade/aarcade/sound

All of the sounds (MP3 files) that are used as ambient sounds in your maps.

• Anarchy Arcade/aarcade/library

Contains the shortcut info (ITM files) for every shortcut you create/import. May also contain cached artwork images (TBN files).

• Anarchy Arcade/aarcade/apps

Contains the script files which makes programs show up on the OpenWith list.

• Anarchy Arcade/aarcade/dlc

Contains a DLC file for every piece of downloadable content that you have claimed from the in-game Rewards menu. Removing a DLC file and re-starting AArcade allows you to re-download that DLC from the menu.

In addition to AArcade's automatic support for Steam Workshop addons, it also has a manual addon content system that lets you install and use maps, models, and materials that you get from 3rd parties.

The following is the suggested method for manually installing custom addons. You are actually able to install your custom addons to any of the folders that AArcade mounts, but doing it as described below will keep your addon content separate from stock AArcade content, which makes your addons easier to uninstall in the future.

1. Create the following folder: Anarchy Arcade/aarcade/custom/MyMods
   
2. Copy the following folders out of your 3rd party addon content into your MyMods directory: maps, models, materials, sounds
   
3. Launch Anarchy Arcade. New maps will be listed in your Start Arcade screen automatically. If you installed new prop models, you still need to use the following console command to tell AArcade to scan the models folder for new props: scanmodels

You can also acquire 3rd party addon content by joining multiplayer servers. In this case, all of the content acquired automatically goes into your Anarchy Arcade/aarcade/download folder. To make downloaded props appear in your Library Browser, you may need to use the scanmodels command.

The custom folder is special. Any sub-folders created in it are treated as if they were the main aarcade folder themselves. This means you don't have to cram everything into a single MyMods folder. You can create as many folders in the custom directory as you want, and each one will be mounted by the engine as if the files were in the main aarcade folder itself. Using many folders instead is a great way to keep your 3rd party content organized so you can easily uninstall specific content later by deleting its folder from the custom directory.

In addition to folders, you can also put VPK files directly into the custom directory and their content will be mounted in the same fashion. Note that when you mount VPK files like this, they go directly into the custom directory, they do NOT go into any subfolder. This is because VPKs contain their own folder structure.

You are able to mount content from over 30 supported Source engine games and use all of their maps and models in AArcade. The content is accessed directly from the other game's folder; no extra copy is made.

Only games that are installed and owned on your account can be mounted. Family sharing is not yet supported.

The following table shows how much of each content type the various mountable games have to offer:

Games must appear on your public Steam Community Profile for AArcade to detect them. Only games that you have played are listed there. So if you know you have a game that isn't showing up on your Mount Content menu, try playing it for 5 or 10 minutes to make it appear on your profile, then use the command mentioned below to scan your profile for new games.

Anarchy Arcade only checks your Steam Community Profile for new games every couple weeks. You can use the following console command to force AArcade to check your profile for new games right now: getmysteamgames 1

After you have mounted a game and restarted AArcade, all of that game's compatible maps will automatically be listed in your Start Arcade menu. If you would like to make all of the models from the game appear in your Library Browser as spawnable props, you need to use the following console command: scanmodels 1

Warning: Using this console command will result in THOUSANDS of new items being added to your library. It will make every model from all mounted games show up in your Library Browser.

When a game is mounted, all of the content from its download and custom folders are mounted as well. Folders will be mounted in the order that they are listed in your Anarchy Arcade/aarcade/gameinfo.txt file. Folders listed in gameinfo.txt are always mounted to the bottom of the priority hierarchy.

Addons from the workshop, on the other hand, are always mounted at the top of the priority hierarchy, usually in the order that you subscribed to them, but if a workshop item needs to download an update it won't be mounted until later, at which time it will be mounted at the top of the priority hierarchy. Because workshop content is mounted on-the-fly like this, you are never guaranteed a specific mounting order of workshop content; only that it will be mounted with a higher priority than non-workshop content. Note that the workshop is getting revamped and this mount priority might change in the near future.

I have not yet researched or documented the mount priority of folders and VPK files from the custom folders of AArcade and mounted games. However, they are most likely mounted alphabetically and appended to the bottom of the priority hierarchy at the time they are mounted.

Warning: The mouse & joypad controls are "hard-coded" and will be reset to their default bindings repeatedly during gameplay.

One of the main "objectives" of Anarchy Arcade is to build up your collection of shortcuts to spawn. Shortcuts that you import into Anarchy Arcade are saved into your Media Library. Your Media Library starts off completely empty, but the first time you launch AArcade it will automatically import shortcuts to all of the Steam games that you own.

After that, it is up to the player to expand their Media Library by importing shortcuts to their non-Steam games, websites, videos, programs, and/or files. Anything that Windows can create a shortcut to can be imported into your Media Library.

AArcade's Media Library is extremely versatile. It contains shortcuts to an infinite variety of media/file types and is also mutliplayer-friendly so that media items can be easily shared with friends (without violating copyright laws).

Note: AArcade's Media Library is a passive collection of shortcuts. It will never modify anything on your system or change any of your files. It is merely a 3D interface for organizing and accessing the stuff on your PC without actually modifying your PC in any way.

Note 2: Aside from checking your public Steam profile and looking for game folders in your SteamApps directory, AArcade will never scan your computer looking for compatible games or media. You have to manually add shortcuts to your Media Library.

Your Media Library is simply a collection of items. Items themselves are a lot like regular Windows shortcuts. An item could be a shortcut to any file on your PC, a file on your local network, anything on the internet, or the Steam AppID of a Steam game. What ever the library item is a shortcut to is called the filelocation. The filelocation attribute is just one of many attributes that every library item has. All of the attributes of an item work together to create the shortcut's presence in Anarchy Arcade's virtual multiplayer world.

Before I list all of the attributes of an Anarchy Arcade library item, it would be helpful to understand a few basics about library items in general.

First is that library items do not have a physical appearance themselves. It's not until you spawn an instance of the item as an object in the virtual world that a physical representation of it is generated.

Second is that the attribute values of a library item are what the physical representations are generated from. For example, if the filelocation is an image file, the image is automatically displayed on the dynamic screen surfaces of the cabinet model that will represent the shortcut in the virtual world.

And finally, changes that you make to a library item are automatically applied to ALL instances of the item. For example, if you change the screen image on an instance of an item, then it will be changed on all other instances as well.

Required attributes are marked an asterisks (*)

When a regular item with no Open With value is launched, Windows gets to decide how to open the file. This means that by default your shortcuts will open exactly as if you had double clicked on a desktop shortcut.

Sometimes, for advanced users, this behavior does not give enough control over how the shortcut is launched. Emulators, for example, require that an Open With program be used with special launch parameters to make it load the game file automatically. Simply double clicking on a shortcut to an emulator game is not enough; nor is double clicking on a shortcut to the emulator itself.

That's where apps come in. In Anarchy Arcade, an app is a program that accepts special launch parameters that enable it to load your shortcut automatically.

It is important to understand the difference between an "Open With" app and just a shortcut to an executable. Normally when you double click on a desktop shortcut to an executable, the program launches and you're ready to go. This works great for PC games or regular Windows applications.

However, some programs don't do anything after you launch them. They just load up an empty program window and you still have to click something like File > Open to actually choose what you want to play.

Setting up said program as an "Open With" app will allow Anarchy Arcade to automate this step. It will allow you to spawn shortcuts to the actual games and set them to "Open With" your emulator executable using the required launch options. This means you'll be able to launch even your emulator games with a single click of the mouse!

You need to understand some general information about command-line options in Windows itself before I can explain how launch options are used in AArcade. If you are already familiar with command-line options (sometimes called "switches"), then you can safely skip this section.

To begin with, let's look at the properties of a standard Windows shortcut (specifically the "Target" attribute) to an emulator executable located at: C:\ZSNES\zsnesw.exe



When launched, this shortcut will simply execute the file at C:\ZSNES\zsnesw.exe which will do nothing but open up a blank new ZSNES window where you will still have to manually click File >Load Game and choose your ROM file in order to actually start playing a game.

Having to do all that every time you want to play a game is no good. We want to make a shortcut that launches ZSNES and automatically loads your game as soon as you launch the shortcut.

This is only possible if the emulator, ZSNES, has a launch option to automatically load a ROM file. So we get on the internet, Google up "ZSNES launch options" and find that the ZSNES programmers did indeed include a launch option to automatically load a ROM file. The syntax for this ZSNES launch option couldn't be simpler. You just have to add the name of the ROM file, in quotes, immediately after the executable location in the shortcut's "Target" attribute.

Assuming that your ROM file is located at C:\roms\TailSpin.zip, the properties of your desktop shortcut to ZSNES would have to be modified as follows:



We're finished. When this new shortcut is launched, it will open up ZSNES then automatically load your ROM file so you can immediately start playing your game without having to click anything else.

Anarchy Arcade uses "Open With" apps to automatically generate these types of shortcuts for you when you click the PLAY button on an in-game 3D shortcut. You never have to manually create them like we did in this section of the guide.

It is important to remember both of the following notes when dealing with "Open With" apps in Anarchy Arcade:

1. Usually you do not need to use an "Open With" app.
   
2. Each program has its own unique command-line options (or none at all).

If a program requires special launch options in order to actually load a specific file and begin playback, then said program should be setup as an "Open With" app and shortcuts to the actual game files should be spawned instead. The game file shortcuts should be configured to use said program as their "Open With" app so that the emulator can be launched and the game automatically loaded with a single click.

For example, you would spawn a shortcut to C:\roms\TailSpin.zip and set the shortcut's "Open With" attribute to the ZSNES Emulator Profile. This would tell AArcade that every time this shortcut is launched, it actually needs to launch the ZSNES executable instead with special launch options to load the game file automatically.

The location of the ZSNES executable, the special launch options needed for it, and other important information is all stored inside of the ZSNES Emulator Profile.

Only programs with Emulator Profiles show up in the Open With drop-down box when importing new shortcuts.

Note that Emulator Profiles can be created for any executable that accepts command-line options. It doesn't have to be an actual emulator; however, in AArcade they are all called Emulator Profiles to avoid confusion with regular shortcuts.

By default, AArcade only comes packaged with two Emulator Profiles: Windows Standalone, and Steam. Additional pre-made Emulator Profiles can be easily downloaded and installed through the in-game Collect Rewards menu. After an Emulator Profile is installed, it will appear on the Open With drop-down list when importing new shortcuts or editing existing shortcuts.

If the emulator you want to use is not listed in the Collect Rewards menu, you can manually install APP files that you create yourself or obtained from a 3rd party. Just drop the APP file into your Anarchy Arcade/apps directory and restart AArcade.

Eventually I will get to useful tips & tricks, like how to use the gravity gun or noclip mode to place objects.