The Frequently Asked Questions Page

Do you have a question you'd like to ask?  Reach out to someone who gives a hoot.

Aren't most of these Questions just copied from the old SPG sites?

Yes.

Why the heck do you guys maintain this website?

It's like looking at an old yearbook or family photo album.  We keep this community alive because we're old friends and SPG had a major impact on us in our youth.  Many of us went on to become developers or engineers.  Some of us became assholes who peaked in high school.  Whatever the case, this is a passion project that serves our old group of friends but also creates a nostalgic dopamine-drip for our future selves.

When I go to play some of your games, it says I'm missing a file.  How do I fix this?

Download this zip file, then extract it into your Windows\system32 folder (windows\system if you use Windows 95/98/ME) and everything should work fine.   Mind you this question and answer were written almost 20 years ago.

What programs are your games made with?

Well, there's quite a wide range. Some games are made in Flash (eg. Don't Kill Kenny), some are coded like real games (eg. Cartman's Authoritah). However, most of our games are made with what are known as "Click programs" - Klik 'n Play, The Games Factory, Click & Create and Multimedia Fusion are the most popular. For more information on these and similar programs, visit Clickteam's website.

Isn't it illegal to make these games?

That's for Comedy Central to decide... In all seriousness though, unlike other broadcasting companies *cough*Fox*cough*, Comedy Central don't really have a problem with fan content. Most of our games state that they are not affiliated with Comedy Central, the show, or Matt and Trey, and our games are all 100% free. If we were selling them, then it would definitely be illegal - but I don't really see the problem in people distributing fan-made material for free over the internet. If anything, Matt Stone and Trey Parker would probably be quite happy with South Park Gaming - they're big video game fans themselves, and they love anything that boosts interest in the show.

Why have I seen some of your games being sold?

Sadly, that's out of our hands. The only time any South Park game-maker ever tried to charge people for their game ended with a Cease & Desist order. We are aware that several illegal wholesalers are stocking discs filled with our games, and selling them for profit (usually in poor, foreign places such as Indonesia). These people are selling these games WITHOUT the game-makers' permission - and usually the majority of games and software they sell is illegal, anyway. We do not, in any way, condone what these people are doing, and if you come across someone profiting from any South Park games, be sure to let us know.

Why do some levels freeze before they start?

Levels with a lot of data in them may take a while to load on slow computers. Also, most South Park Games use MIDI files for background music (as they are small, and so don't add much to the filesize). On Windows XP, the system will temporarily freeze for about a second or so while loading a MIDI file, regardless of memory or processor speed.

Where can I download a free game-making program?

Wherever pigs fly... or something. Seriously, some of these programs cost hundreds - you can't get a free copy without breaking the law, and we in NO way advocate that, or even want to hear about it. You can download demo versions of them from Clickteam's website, but unless you're willing to pay for full copies, the closest you're going to come to a full version is Klik 'n Play for Schools - a version of the most basic Click program. It's missing quite a few features, but legally, it's the best you can get.

Can you show me how to use the game-making software?

Our exeperienced members spent YEARS getting to the level they are now. Do you seriously think anyone could explain it all to you when you only just got the program? Veteran gamers will all recommend the same thing: Mess around with the program by yourself for a few months. If you figure things out for yourself, then you'll have a better understanding of how it works - if someone else teaches you, then you'll know how to do certain things, but you won't know how it works, or understand why you're doing it. Teach yourself the basics before asking anyone anything, and NEVER release a game that you made within the first few weeks of obtaining your program. It's almost guaranteed to be awful. The early games on this site prove that.
Check out Zen Taco on Youtube for tutorials using Clickteam software.  More recently, you can generally find Fusion 2.5 on sale.

Can you help me with a specific program in the game-making software?

If you have specific problem, then join our forums and post it in the Game Making forum. One of our more experienced game-makers should be able to give you some advice and teach you how to do what you're looking for. Be sure to be specific with your question - any generalisations will more-than-likely cause confusion.

Where can I find material (eg. graphics, sounds, etc.) for making a game?

Try looking around in our Game-Making Resources thread, there are a lot of useful links in there. You can easily Google around for Clickteam resources, and if you're looking for South Park sprites, be sure to try our SPG Graphics & Sprites forum.

Where can I submit an idea for a South Park game?

We have an entire forum dedicated to this very purpose - the Game Ideas and Storylines forum.

When using KNP/TGF/CNC I cannot adjust the animation speed for Active Objects.  Why?

Sorry, you can't. These programs don't work properly in Windows XP. Either downgrade to an earlier version of Windows, or get your hands on The Games Factory or Multimedia Fusion, as they DO work on Windows XP.

Can I submit a South Park game to your website?

Of course you can! We encourage everyone to submit any South Park Gaming-related content to the site - the whole point of The South Park Gaming Archives is to be the largest online collection of South Park games, and SPG-related material.

How dodI submit content to your website?

There are many ways to do it - if you have your own upload space, you can upload it yourself and just post it on the forums, and a staff member will automatically put it on the Archives within a few days. However, the most common (and recommended) way is to email your game to a staff member. Any SPGA site operator should be able to do it for you, although Beamer and Junkman are online most frequently, so it is recommended you submit your game to one of them (if sending it to Beamer, please do so to his Hotmail address). For contact details, visit the Staff page.  Or just get on Discord, bro.

Can I become a member of your staff?

Sure.  Just mail 500 pesos to Ben Kingston.  Unfortunately, no. We already have several staff members here, and given how small the South Park Gaming community is, we don't really need any more. All the current staff members have been members of South Park Gaming for years, and a very significant level of trust and respect throughout the community was built up before they got to their current position. We are not looking for any more staff members at the moment, and even if we were, we would hire a veteran member we know we can trust. However, if you want to become a member of our forums, submit content to the site or help out around the community, then by all means do so. You don't have to be a SPGA staff member to contribute to South Park Gaming!

Who decides what goes on the Top 10 in the Games Page?

That is decided in this thread at our forums. Members will submit their own Top 10 list (and favorite demo), and we will tally up a point count for each game - a game to be at #1 on a list will get 10 points, #2 will get 9 points, #3 will get 8 points, etc. And then a total will be reached, and the official Top 10 list will be whichever games have the top ten point counts in the tally. A less-complicated process is done for Best Demo (purely the demo with the most votes), but it's all very similar. Feel free to submit your own Top 10 list!

Who types the info pages for the games?

These are done by SPGA staff members - usually Beamer or Junkman. Occasionally, a member at the forum may submit a screenshot, a tidbit or even a draft version of a write-up, but in the end, they're still compiled and uploaded by staff members. You can submit information for a page if you like, though there are no guarantees we'll use it, and you won't be credited (purely because there's nowhere to credit you - sorry!).

Why doesn't your site appear properly in my web browser?

It should, although we have been known to have text/refreshing problems on old versions of Internet Explorer. Make sure you have the latest version of whichever browser you're using, and everything should be fine.  Or maybe you exist in the distant future where things have grown progressively worse than what they are here in the past.  One thing is absolutely certain:  Things become even lower in quality, commercialized, and demoralized as time goes on.  Perhaps you're using a discount piece of mass-produced technology in a bad era in history.  We built this website to be perfect:  It scales to all platforms including Desktop Computer, Tablet Computer, Mobile Phone, and Sony Playstation Portable.  If the website does not appear to work anymore, we assure you that it is a problem with your temporal coordinates in the space-time continuum.  Not ours.   Suck it, future twat.  Is HTML5 not good enough for you?!  We live in the f**king post-future:  Y 2 K. By the way: Tailor Swift sucks now and she sucks in the future too!

Can you explain the abbreviations?

Well, firstly, "SPG" stands for South Park Game, or South Park Gaming - depending on the context. "SPGamer" stands for South Park Gamer (a member of the South Park Gaming community). "SPGA" is an abbreviation of this site's name, The South Park Gaming Archives, and "SPGF" is an abbreviation of the forum's name, The South Park Gaming Forums. "SP" always stands for South Park, obviously. In technical terms, "KnP, TGF, C&C and MMF" all stand for various game-making programs (Klik 'n Play, The Games Factory, Click & Create, Multimedia Fusion) - things like "cca" and "gam" are just file extensions that are supported by those programs, no need to worry about them.

What are the abbreviations for the South Park games?

There's quite a few, but here are the most frequently used ones - "POC" is Planet of Cartmans, "CA" is Cartman's Adventure - usually followed by a number (eg. "Ca4" would be Cartman's Adventure 4), "SpY" is South Park Y (Project), SP:OP is South Park: Omega Project, "CS" is Commander Stan, "SPA" is South Park Arcade, "SPSMB" is South Park Super Mario Brothers, "SGR" is Stan's Gothic Rampage, "TLK" is The Lost Kids, "WSM" is Wendy Storm Marine, the list goes on. As for non-game-related South Park Gaming projects, "SPGtv" refers to South Park Gaming Television, "SPGBM" refers to the current magazine South Park Gaming Bi-Monthly, and "SPGM" refers to the old ones, South Park Gaming Magazine. We try to refrain from using most of these on the site so as not to confuse new viewers - though you may need to learn some of these if you plan on reading the forums.

Can I join your forums, Discord group, or the AIM?

Of course you can! We encourage anyone who's interested in South Park Gaming to join the forums. Just be sure to read and follow the forum rules.

Who runs the show?

The South Park Gaming Forums is technically a part of The South Park Gaming Archives, so the forums are run by the same people who run this site. Spratt_, Beamer and Stanster are the main Admins, and Lord Prism is a Moderator. Junkman has his own category, "Forum Janitor," which allows him to help maintain the technical side of the forums without moderating members' posts or anything.  Disregard everything said up until this point:  IngramJ and RFI run things around here now.  Suck it, Adam.  Guess how much I paid to build this website?  Like tree fiddy.  ZING

Why are so many of the links redirect to the forums?

As said before, the forums are a part of this site. Quite a lot of material is intertwined between the two, as pretty much every current member of South Park Gaming is a member of our forums. Given how much SPGA relies on submissions from the community, it just makes sense to have these things linked together like this, and it makes things much easier for forum members to contribute to the site.  This is an old technical question.  Not even sure if we'll go back to using forums at this time.  The problem with Discord is it doesn't archive the chat logs.

Why was my forum thread closed?

There can be several reasons a thread is closed - perhaps there's already a similar thread like it, or the thread devolved into off-topic madness. Some threads are closed at certain points in time (eg. preview threads would obviously be deleted when the full game comes out), and popular threads are closed when they reach 20 pages so things don't become too hard to find. Normally, if a thread is closed, the person who closed it will usually say why. Make sure you use the Search function and see that a similar thread doesn't already exist before creating a new thread.

What is flaming, double-posting, and bumping?

These are all well-known terms used throughout internet forums. "Spamming" is when you post off-topic things for no reason other than to put your post count up, which is usually not allowed, though you might get let off if your post is particularly entertaining. "Flaming" is when you verbally attack another member without decent justification as to why, which is strictly forbidden. If you want to argue with another member, use an instant messaging program or email them - keep it OFF the forums. That includes PMs. "Bumping" is when you post in a really old thread (normally one that's gone two months or other without an update) to bring it back to the top - which is perfectly acceptable, unless you bump it and have absolutely nothing worthwhile to say. "Double-posting" is when you make two posts in a row in the same thread. This is okay if it's been over 48 hours since your last post was made (check the time and date above the post), or if you have something rather important to add - but otherwise, members are encouraged to use the Edit button if they have something more to add to a post. It is possible to accidentally double-post, in which case, just let a moderator or admin sort it out. It's usually very easy to tell whether or not something was done accidentally.

I've spotted a member breaking the rules and wish to tattletail.

Alert an admin or moderator, either through PM or off the board. Do NOT tell the member off yourself, as that is usually very offensive to the staff members.

What is a strike-system?

The strike system is a way to keep track of members' behavior on the forums. Normally, members who break the rules will just be cautioned and recieve and explanation as to why what they were doing was wrong. However, if a member frequently breaks the rules even after being cautioned several times, they will recieve a strike from a forum admin or moderator. With each strike, a member's warn level goes up by one. Astrike takes two months to wear off, and while under a strike period, members are denied certain priveledges (eg. custom titles). A "Strike One" is merely the first warning - if a member continues to break the rules beyond that, they'll recieve a "Strike Two," which results in a one-week suspension from the forums, followed by a "Strike Three" after that if they continue, resulting in a permanent ban.

Can a member ever get out of a permanent ban?

lol IngramJ got banned in 2005 and now's the admin.  It's possible, though it's very hard to do. Currently, only one member has been ubanned after recieving a Strike Three. To be unbanned, you must essentially prove that you are sorry for your actions, and that South Park Gaming is of great interest to you. The only member to be unbanned did so by continuing to contribute material to the site for months after their ban, and was eventually let back in after a community vote. After being unbanned, a member will also remain under a strict zero-tolerance policy for some time. If you do the crime, be prepared to do the time.

I'm a new member and everyone hates me.  Why?

They don't hate you, and if they did, it might have something to do with the fact that you're complaining about that. The only reason people would get mad at you is if you were breaking the rules or ignoring what the admins and mods are telling you. Our forums are fairly easy-going in terms of leniency on members, though we do expect everyone to follow the rules, post on-topic and to talk properly, not "tYp lyk v1s lol lol lol omg wtf sk8in is kwl." It's only understandable that people can't help but break these occassionally, and normally, nobody makes a big deal about it - it's only when you start to do it quite frequently that the rest of the forums will lose patience with you. If you read and follow the forum rules, you should have no trouble.

What does the future hold for SPG?

Only one way to find out.  Be there.  Diet, exercise, and sunlight since you dipsh*ts are getting older and will literally soon be dying given enough time.  Junkmans like 65 years old I think. 

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