Pandora Live!

[parag0n]

I'm just brainstorming here, and wondering how possible it would be to come up with a system similar to Xbox Live! for the pandora.

Basically, i'm thinking of a standard system for taking care of internet and local (wifi) mutliplayer games.

It could include a friends system, so you can see what games your friends have been / are playing, send them messages, join their multiplayer game, and possibly even grab the game from the repositories!

Alongside the friends system there could be an open gaming lobby, which would allow people to meet u over the internet and play games against each other.

The comms (messaging, game invites etc) could take place over jabber, as this is a nice open protocol, and be supplemented by http information from the server.

What do people think of this idea?

 

[Peter R]

Who would pay for the development and maintenance of such a systems operation?

 

[Mr B]

Development could probably be paid by adding a few bucks to the prize, sale of software on there, commercial banners, or a monthly fee. The later is a bad idea, but still, an idea. With the money for developing, and maintenance taken care of, a host could be this forum, and i doubt the running cost added by such a service would be big. However, i see a lot of issues regarding making emulators work with IP hookups for multiplayer, announcing games on the community server, and so on. It's a cool idea, but even at its best, i would mostly play old NES / SNES & PSX single player titles on the Panda, so to me, its probably a pure waste, and i wouldn't want to pay 5 bucks extra for the service when i buy the unit.
B!

 

[parag0n]

On the funding side of things, it could intially be funded by donations, but in the future there could be a small percentage from commercial games sold through it, or it could be ad supported as you mentioned.

I'd be happy to do some of the development on it, but would need to work closely with game developers to get support for it implemented, and work out how they are going to code for the pandora. (linux or using the bare hardware, X11 or framebuffers, game hosted on pandora or external server)

Basically i see it as a standardised way of adding multiplayer to a game without having to recode all the boring stuff such as game browsing etc.

I have been thinking that a better way of working it may be to use XML over regular HTTP protocol. That way people would still be able to use the game browser when stuck behind a nasty firewall.

 

[Fishbong]

If i´d want an Xbox, i´d buy an Xbox. And the Pandora will be expensive enough as it is.
I´m sure it will be easy to port some instant messenger clients for it.

 

[Ayla]

You know, 12€ a year (1€ monthly) * 5,000 people = 60,000€ a year...
I'm up to pay 1€ per month to play online, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

 

[Alex.]

Online multiplayer homebrew == heaven in my hands

I don't think there's a need for a very complex system. Just a nice standard interface all programmers could use to send and receive data, and a server to host everything. No friends lists or chat rooms would be necessary, maybe just a nick/password.

 

[Chip]

I think this is kind of a silly idea, but there's nothing wrong with being silly once in a while.

As long as you don't need it to be super fancy, then it shouldn't cost anybody anything. No server needed.

Simply take one of the many IRC clients and make a frontend for it that integrates into the GUI. The client logs you into a pre-defined IRC channel whenever you're online. You tell the frontend who your friends are (just like xbox live). Whenever the client sees a familiar nick log in, it alerts you. Sending messages back and forth to one or many of your friends is obviously easy.

That's the simple version, but I'm sure you can think of more bells and whistles to add to it given a little imagination. You wouldn't play multiplayer games over IRC, but the IRC connection could be used to swap IP numbers for P2P gaming. There's no need for a centralized server for multiplayer games on this level. This is assuming that developers take the time to build multiplayer over IP into their games.


Not my cup of tea, but if enough people are interested, maybe somebody will set it up.

 

[sparr]

I think youre missing the fact that pandora is *A COMPUTER*. When I want online multiplayer games, I will play them against other computer users, whether they are using a desktop or a pandora or whatever.

 

[magicman5421]

this seems like a good idea, I would like a friends system and a lobby where you could chat with people, but (and this seems pretty unlikely but i'm just putting it out there) NO FRIEND CODES FOR ANY GAME WRITTEN EVER! I have a wii and it bugs the hell out of me to have to get friend codes.
And sparr, I think your idea for multiplayer on computers and pandoras is a little far fetched. but that's just my opinion.

 

[yannv]

I have a DS, and I'll agree that the friend codes are annoying beyond belief. Especially since they went ahead and region limited them! Since I bought FF3 from USA before it was released in Europe (another annoyance), I can't connect to other europeans.
I've no idea what xbox live looks like, but if it's about the lobby sort of thing, this job can be well covered by existing systems like GGZ Gaming Zone. And playing others not running pandoras isn't far-fetched at all. Having played BZFlag with a Playstation controller, I can confidently state that game will rock on a device like the Pandora.

 

[parag0n]

Simply take one of the many IRC clients and make a frontend for it that integrates into the GUI. The client logs you into a pre-defined IRC channel whenever you're online. You tell the frontend who your friends are (just like xbox live). Whenever the client sees a familiar nick log in, it alerts you. Sending messages back and forth to one or many of your friends is obviously easy.

That's the simple version, but I'm sure you can think of more bells and whistles to add to it given a little imagination. You wouldn't play multiplayer games over IRC, but the IRC connection could be used to swap IP numbers for P2P gaming. There's no need for a centralized server for multiplayer games on this level. This is assuming that developers take the time to build multiplayer over IP into their games.

This is basically the idea i had, except i was planning on using jabber or http to do the transfers.

this seems like a good idea, I would like a friends system and a lobby where you could chat with people, but (and this seems pretty unlikely but i'm just putting it out there) NO FRIEND CODES FOR ANY GAME WRITTEN EVER! I have a wii and it bugs the hell out of me to have to get friend codes.

I definitely agree with this, friend codes are probably the worst invention ever.

 

[slygamer]

GGZ seems to be great for... err... card and board games. I'm not even sure it's still active. The one and only post on their community forum was one year ago, and their last source release was one year ago.

Having recently written a game that uses Xbox LIVE, I am familiar with how it works for matchmaking, friends, rich presence, invitations, etc. It would be an interesting task to try to come up with a similar concept on a smaller scale for a device such as Pandora.

 

[yannv]

GGZ seems to be great for... err... card and board games. I'm not even sure it's still active. The one and only post on their community forum was one year ago, and their last source release was one year ago.
Last commit to SVN appears to be four days ago, and several new clients are mentioned on the front page. Only a few arcade games are listed but that's not a limitation of the architecture. Do you have another project that's more suited to suggest?

 

[NickLoTurco]

You're not allowed to say 'brainstorm' anymore, it's politically incorrect.......it's 'thought shower' in 2008!

Good idea though.

 

[moz]

get google to back it

 

[parag0n]

You're not allowed to say 'brainstorm' anymore, it's politically incorrect.......it's 'thought shower' in 2008!

Good idea though.

But a brainstorm is more accurate, because of the AWESOME POWER of my brain.

Once, i thought really hard, and sunk atlantis

 

[Perky_Goth]

You wouldn't play multiplayer games over IRC, but the IRC connection could be used to swap IP numbers for P2P gaming.

That wouldn't work, Pandora's will be connected to a router and have an internal IP, and not everyone will know how to configure the router, or be able to if they're on someone else's network.

 

[parag0n]

I wasnt planning on having it do anything more than the matchmaking, once the game is actually running it was going to switch to a low-visibility mode, only sending info on what is oging on to the server every few minutes.

 

[Chip]

You wouldn't play multiplayer games over IRC, but the IRC connection could be used to swap IP numbers for P2P gaming.

That wouldn't work, Pandora's will be connected to a router and have an internal IP, and not everyone will know how to configure the router, or be able to if they're on someone else's network.


I'm connected through a router and I know my external IP is 68.46.91.231. My computer knows this, and any computer I connect to certainly knows this. It is not an act of wizardry for two devices (behind a firewall or not) to exchange IP info.

There is no need for router configuration either.