Cybercafe Pro FREE?!?!

[Deeds]

Apparently recently Cybercafe pro has become a free product.  I've personally never used it, I always used smartlaunch.  Apparently with CCP the management software is free but addon for printing reports that is web based is an addon purchase

This is the type business model I enjoy seeing these days.  Give great value for free and make your money through addon purchases.

I'm definitely considering setting up a dummy setup to see how this works.  If its acceptable I might sell off my smartlaunch licenses.

Anyone have any indepth knowledge with CCP and give us a PRO/CON shout out on it?  Is it comparable to Smartlaunch?  Is the license management easier or harder then smartlaunch (Not that smartlaunch license management is all that easy).

I mean a program that is free to Gamcenters to manage their equipment and is support is an awesome thing and can really help with some intial costs.  But is it worth it is my question.


-deeds

[GCD]

Cybercafe is similar to Smartlaunch with features, after all they were part of the same company for awhile.  There are some limitations to CCP such as you will need to learn how to make batch files to use some of the more complicated CD key management but I would put it on PAR with Smartlaunch for PC control.  They limit you on the PCs to 4 categories and the skins are a lot harder to make.  The part where CCP has the least useful features is in the POS portion of the software, but I could say the same for Smartlaunch.  CCP reporting was always worse than Smartlaunch but now they have this add-on the reports I think are superior to Smartlaunch. 

[Deeds]

I'm going to setup a demo environment when I get a chance and see what's what.  It appears the Free CCP has ads in it and I really wanna see how obtrusive that really is.

You had to batch files for Some the more difficult games with Smartlaunch.  COD4 comes to mind.  But I don't think COD played well with either management software from what I remember.

-deeds

[rkrol]

I have research CCP & one main draw back for many people is you can only have about 325 products to sell through it. This would be fine with me, but might not be for others. I too will test this once I get my betbook fixed.

[GCD]

Well I have been working with the NEW CCP and I would not recommed it to anyone for any type of center.  The reporting is nice if you want to pay for it, but it is still lacking some needed tracking.  My biggest issues is they actually stripped some of the functions from CCP that are needed if you want to actually use it for your POS.  If there was any program that should not have lost functions it was this one.  It is Free, but I dont think that offsets the day to day issues that you will have if you use the NEW CCP. 

[Deeds]

Yeah I've been browsing their support forums also and it look like it is seriously lacking and some big bugs have been arising on alot of this stuff.

-deeds

[rkrol]

I guess, that is what you get when the price tag reads "FREE"!

[Deeds]

I guess, that is what you get when the price tag reads "FREE"!

Definitely Like GCD said they have removed some features.. It was never really on par with Smartlaunch.. Now its definitely not.  But Smartlaunch is crap too imo its had some bugs in it that have persisted 2+ years. And they've stopped development ont he next release.  Smartlaunch is just the most "Polished" piece of crap game Centers have available to them.

If I had the time and the Funds I would develop from scratch a lan center solution.  Cause honestly all our options at the moment are sub-par

-deeds

[mythlogic]

If I had the time and the Funds I would develop from scratch a lan center solution

HERE HERE!! We totally agree, we have even ran it by a few programmers and the responses ranged from "yeah I could easily do that" and then never heard from them again all the way to "this is really how you should have it done and it will cost you a zillions dollas!" then to have them bow out because they didn't want to deal with POS functionality =) One day the game center owners, programmers and LAN party organizers can all get together and create an alternative. (we hope)

[RsteeleAUG]

They're working on getting a fix for this new port blocking/no network bug.

Their forums are active, customer support answers within a day, and the forum members seem to want to help and offer fixes for problems when they can.

[MrFurious]

Given the current pricing options.  I would probably start a new center with CCP, once they lock down the port problem.

[RsteeleAUG]

They have the port problem fixed. My understanding is that the developers stripped out the part of the process that made the program check with servers before launching.

I also found a nifty guide to adding steam into the license management tool in CCP.
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3787-AHLC-1547
I don't like that they can download games at least they can't delete them.

Since this program is just now working I'm going through the paths and executable files tomorrow first thing. It doesn't appear that difficult I'll know more tomorrow afternoon. So far this program seems the easiest for me in relation to what I was already doing with smartlaunch.

FREE is the coolest part. And we can do banners to advertise any specials or up coming events that we have here just by placing it in the "banner" section on the admin and/or client.

[RsteeleAUG]

Windows 7 64bit operating system with Cyber Cafe Pro 6

I can get most programs and games to launch without too much of a problem. I've read the steam guide to launching games and it's similar to what we have been using.
The Clients and server PC can all recognize each other on our network. The issue is when the client is active on the PC there is no internet connection.

I've double checked the server and client IP addresses and the ports.
Once I can get the client to recognize the internet I should be good to go. Any advice or insight would be appreciated.

I posted this on their forums a few minutes ago. Hopefully it's something simple that I have over looked.

The program isn't any harder to use than Smartlaunch. If I can get past this initial bump in the road I'll feel better about it.

EDIT: To be honest CCP seems to launch programs, games, and the internet browser faster than Smartlaunch. However if I can't figure out the how to make the client connect to the internet I'm just spinning my wheels.

EDIT 2: For whatever reason CCP was defaulted to run on a public network. I had to go into windows firewall and change it.

[RsteeleAUG]

So I know what the problem is I just don't know how to fix it.

CCP forces windows to use a unidentified public network instead of our WORK network we already have set up. I went in to the windows firewall and checked the correct boxes and no luck CCP still forces it to use the public network.

Anyone got any ideas?

[Smokey1913]

I took this from the Client users manual:   http://www.cybercafepro.com/downloads/eng/OneRoof_CyberCafePro_MCS_Server_Manual.pdf  - Page 2.


Windows 7 Users Only: Windows 7 users need their ‘Network Location’ to
be set up as a ‘Home’ or ‘Work’ Network (and not as a ‘Public Network’).You
can change this setting in Windows 7 by following these steps for both the
CCP Clients and MCS (Server) PCs:

a. Click the Windows Start button, and go to Control Panel and select
Network and Sharing Center.

b. In the Network and Sharing Center window that opens, look at the
hyperlink under your Internet NIC adapter. Make sure it does not say
‘Public Network’. If it does say ‘Public Network’, click the ‘Public Network’
hyperlink to change it. 

c. Then click ‘Home network’ or ‘Work network’. The network setting will then
be updated and the OneRoof CyberCafePro Client software will then be
able to communicate with the OneRoof CyberCafePro Main Control
Station (“Server”) software