AS3 Loading multiple external SWFs and them closing them - actionscript-3

Question

I am trying to load multiple external SWFs in one main SWF.
I start with the main swf. Now I need to link 4 games to it.
I have created 4 different loaders and I make it load each game into a different frame for each game. Ie when I go to frame 1 for example it will load game1. The code I am using for each game frame is:
public function LoadGame1(evt:MouseEvent):void {
trace("load game1");
this.gotoAndPlay("Game1");
var url:URLRequest = new URLRequest("game1.swf");
game1Loader.load(url);
addChild(game1Loader);
}
game 2 is the same with the exception of game1 it will be game2 etc.
Now my issue is when I close each game and go to another it does not work. I can not load another game or reload it. When I go back to the menu I use:
public function backFunc(evt:MouseEvent):void {
trace("menu");
myLoader.unload();
game1Loader.unload();
game2Loader.unload();
game3Loader.unload();
game4Loader.unload();
this.gotoAndPlay("Menu");
}
I'm assuming it has something to do with the unloading - it unloads it all and closes the loader. Ive tried removeChild(game1Loader) etc but it doesn't work? The game will close and it will go back to the menu but then I will not be able to get back into the game or load another one?
Please help :(

Answer 1

Flash timelines are kind of like a static state machine; moving from frame-to-frame will run all of the document code at that frame (every time). It also resets the value of the content to the state it was in during design time (so, frame = design + code). Because of the headaches this model can cause, I highly recommend you do all of your design & code in a single frame.
The way you've written your sample code, it seems to imply that you're writing custom functions for each of your game loaders. You can unify that by driving all the btn events through the same function and depending on some differentiating property (like their names), load the appropriate game.
Finally, I suspect the reason your loaders stop working is because you've unloaded and removed them from the stage. That stuff gets garbage collected. Rather than making the loader a global object, feel free to create a new one each time you make your loadGame() call.
// We'll store our buttons in an array to make it easier to register for events.
var btns:Array = [
btn_Load1,
btn_Load2,
btn_Load3
]
// Now cycle over them in bind to our listener
for each (var btn:MovieClip in btns) {
btn.addEventListener("mouseUp", btnEvents);
}
function btnEvents(e:MouseEvent):void {
// With one event listener, we can sort out each condition
switch (e.currentTarget.name) {
case "btn_Load1":
loadGame("game1.swf")
break;
case "btn_Load2":
loadGame("game2.swf")
break;
case "btn_Load3":
loadGame("game3.swf")
break;
}
}
function loadGame(url:String):void {
// Now we only have to write our loader code once (for all buttons)
trace("Loading " + url);
// Because we're unloading our swfs (and unloaded assets get garbage collected),
// we'll want to make a new loader each time we call a load op
var loader:Loader = new Loader();
loader.name = "current_game";
loader.load(new URLRequest(url));
addChild(loader);
}
function backFunc(evt:MouseEvent):void {
// Dynamically find our current game, and unload it.
trace("menu");
getChildByName("current_game").unload();
}