Mono

The first release of the Free Internet Morabaraba Server (FIMS) has been completed. You can connect to the server by using:

telnet fims.morabaraba.org 5000 

Details on how to use it, as well as the source code, are available from the FIMS web site.

My next priority is to get a graphical client working for Windows and Linux, after which I can start making improvements to the server.

The first Morabaraba game has been played on FIMS, the Free Internet Morabaraba Server! It was a pretty poor game, with me playing against myself (I lost...), and so I haven't recorded the game (well, FIMS has it in the database but I'll be cleaning out the database pretty soon. There is a bit of testing and tying off of loose ends to be done, but the server is up and running and should be launched very soon! Of course, not many people will be comfortable with the Telnet interface, so it will probably only be when a client is available that things really take off. I hope to have a (Windows|Linux) client released not too long after the server's first release.

FIMS will provide a place where players from all around the world can find an opponent and play a game. The server also provides rudimentary chat facilities, which will be expanded in future versions. By design, it should scale to very large groups of users (although that hasn't been tested), so I hope to see it become the definitive place for online Morabaraba (which currently has no online place).

If you're interested in beta testing or contributing to the project (it's in C# on Mono, runs happily on Windows and Linux) please contact me . If you just want to play, keep checking out http://www.morabaraba.org , where details will be posted when it goes live.

The first release of the Free Internet Morabaraba Server is nearing completion. The telnet server has been running continuously on a server for a few days without problems, so the network code seems to be stable. A lot more functionality is in, too, including online registration with email based confirmation. The code which understands Morabaraba positions and validates moves for legality is finished and tested (I've written a small test suite to exercise the code, though there may still be lurking bugs). The actual gameplay mechanisms are next, followed by a little bit of documentation and packaging for GPL v3 release!

I haven't done any scalability testing, but the design of the code and supporting database should scale to (at least) thousands of users on reasonably modest hardware.

Anyway, after the first server release, I aim to follow up quickly with a GUI client as well as an interface to allow my Morabaraba-playing program to join the fray (that way a willing opponent will always be online). After that, a number of "nice-to-have" features (ideas borrowed mostly from FICS) will be added to the server. The server design is such that it could be genericised relatively easily, allowing one server to support Morabaraba, SesothoMorabaraba and many other turn-oriented board games (draughts? mancala games? anything else?)

If you're a programmer (preferably C#) with an interest in Morabaraba, and you'd like to help work on FIMS, now is a good time to contact me (adam@oellermann.com) and get involved!

I've spent some time today moving the Free Internet Morabaraba Server forward. I have abandoned the PHP-based telnet server (though it was cute), and implemented a .NET based server. I'm doing the development in C# using MonoDevelop on Linux, which I haven't touched for ages. I'm very impressed with how it's come along - MonoDevelop is stable and capable, and Mono is much, much easier to set up than it used to be (it was a doddle on Ubuntu).

Anyway, I have the basic telnet handler set up, backed by a MySQL database for user registrations and so forth. Simple communications between logged in users are done, and the next step is to automate registration and implement the gameplay features. The protocol is inspired by FICS, though much, much simpler - but in time I should be able to add ratings etc. The server design should be quite scalable, and, because it's Mono-based, it will be cross-platform. Another day or two's work would probably see a first version in place, although unfortunately I suspect it may be another week or two before I get to do said other day or two of work!

After that, I will need to create a client - but given the Lazarus GUI stuff I already have for Morabaraba, I may just do the first version quickly in Lazarus.