Developing Games in Java™

Chapter 6. Multi-Player Games

By Bret Barker

KEY TOPICS

• The Revolution in Java's I/O Libraries

• ChatterBox, A Basic Multi-Player Application

• Multi-Player Game Server Framework

• A Sample Game: RPS (Rock, Paper, Scissors)

• Complete the Look: Building on the Framework

• Server Administration

• Advanced Topics

• Summary

Multi-player computer games have been around for decades. Long ago, in the distant computing world of the 1970s, hackers wrote primitive network games on DEC VAXs and other minicomputers running early versions of UNIX, VMS, and other operating systems. By the 1980s, multi-user dungeons (MUDs) were gaining popularity, and every major online service of the time (CompuServe, Prodigy, and GEnie) had its own offering of online games.

In those days before the ...