4 ms·

Show HN: SSHTron – Play Tron/lightcycle over SSH

104 points by zachlatta 11y ago

zachlatta 11y ago
Hey everyone! My friend and I made this over the weekend. I'm sorry about all the issues with the freezing and disconnects – the response has been really overwhelming and the game certainly isn't optimized for less than ideal network situations. If you're continually getting kicked, it's probably just because the server is having trouble getting a solid connection to you. If it helps, the server is in SF right now (though I'm able to get a solid connection that's playable from NY).
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- lucb1e 11y ago
  > If it helps, the server is in SF right now (though I'm able to get a solid connection that's playable from NY). I don't think your audience is 99% silicon valley, or even 99% United States of American. Having multiple servers might be more advisable than moving it somewhere ;)
  - zachlatta 11y ago
    This is just a fun project we hacked together in the past day to share with our friends, who are primarily on the west coast. If we were designing it to scale, we'd certainly do that!
    - lucb1e 11y ago
      Certainly, and it's a really cool project and I love it. Just saying, HN community != (USA | Silicon Valley) :)
- ycmbntrthrwaway 11y ago
  Can you add Dvorak keybindings also? ",aoe" instead of "wasd". You see, they do not interfere with qwerty.
  - zachlatta 11y ago
    Sure! https://github.com/zachlatta/sshtron/issues/2 https://github.com/zachlatta/sshtron/issues/2 Will add.
- vmorgulis 11y ago
  Interesting but... Packet integrity error (4144 bytes remaining) at ../channels.c:2421 Disconnecting: Packet integrity error. There is another problem with Gnome Terminal. The page is flushed on each frame. I see the previous drawings if I scroll but I can't play. BTW I like that! A suggestion for next week-end: same stuff with pixels in VNC ;-)
gouggoug 11y ago
The usual warning sign here. Be careful when SSHing into hosts you do not know with an unpatched version of OpenSSH: http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2016-0777 http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2016-0777 edit: @Ao7bei3s comment below gives more information on how to protect yourself.
- sillysaurus3 11y ago
  Rather than post the equivalent of "Ignore this Show HN," you should post the steps people can take to protect themselves.
  - Ao7bei3s 11y ago
    ssh -o "PreferredAuthentications=password,keyboard-interactive" -o "UseRoaming=no" root@sshtron.zachlatta.com Explanation: Use a recent ssh version (if you've updated in February you're safe), or put in your .ssh/config file: # CVE-2016-0777 UseRoaming no Additionally, while you are at it, you can take care of some privacy problems. These are really not a big deal though. Don't hand your SSH public key to the server: # Makes SSH not try other keys than ~/.ssh/id_{dsa/ecdsa/rsa}. IdentitiesOnly yes # And move ~/.ssh/id_{dsa/ecdsa/rsa}{,.pub} somewhere else, # including it on a per host basis: Host *.example.com example.com IdentityFile ~/.ssh/my_id_rsa Or you could just disable pubkey authentication for this one connection with ssh -o "PreferredAuthentications=password,keyboard-interactive". Including root@ prevents leaking your local username. If in doubt, man ssh + man ssh_config (they contain other useful things like "CanonicalizeHostname yes / CanonicalDomains ycombinator.com" / example: ssh root@news). (I don't know what's wrong with the internet that we need "how to SSH" posts now, though. But here it is.)
  - gouggoug 11y ago
    I assume most people on HN, given the warning and the CVE, would easily find the information they need on google. But sure, if you read this and need information, please read @Ao7bei3s' comment.
131hn 11y ago
Putty keep crashing with weird errors, any reason for this ?
- zachlatta 11y ago
  Probably the UNIX escape codes we're using. SHHTron is currently only designed for Linux, OS X, and friends. If you'd like to change that, pull requests are welcome!
- ycmbntrthrwaway 11y ago
  Would be more helpful if you specify what these errors are.
- 0x0 11y ago
  Are you using the latest putty release? Some scary looking security fixes in the last few versions. http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/changes.html http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/changes.ht... and particularly http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/wishlist/vuln-ech-overflow.html http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/wishlist/v...
rdancer 11y ago
Do not redraw the whole display. Use termcap and ncurses to send terminal escapes. It's unplayable for me, probably because of latency. Good idea :-)
qrv3w 11y ago
Hey this is incredible, nice job! Any chance of sharing the source? Edit: Nevermind - I see it. https://github.com/zachlatta/sshtron https://github.com/zachlatta/sshtron I can't believe you made this in 20 hours, amazing!
- zachlatta 11y ago
  Linked on the website in the upper left corner! https://github.com/zachlatta/sshtron https://github.com/zachlatta/sshtron.
stevewillows 11y ago
Thanks for posting this! It's amazing how something so simple can be so much fun.
jcr 11y ago
I think this is a great idea, and it looks like a lot of fun, but unfortunately, it doesn't work for me. Though I'm sure tested this on "Linux" and "MacOS X" as you said, the real problem you face is most terminal emulators are not standards compliant (assuming there are standards for particular behaviors, and often there aren't any). This means, you got it working on some terminal emulators, but it won't work on others. The most standards compliant terminal emulator is actually the original 'xterm' [1] program included as part of X. The xterm FAQ [2] and ncurses FAQ [3] have lots of useful information. Though getting your code running in xterm itself will help portability, it won't be the end of your debugging due to the fact that other terminal emulators have bugs and of course, they often do things differently. The story about the color blue [4] in the xterm FAQ should give you an idea of the kinds of problems you'll face. [1] http://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.html http://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.html [2] http://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.faq.html http://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.faq.html [3] http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html [4] http://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.faq.html#dont_like_blue http://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.faq.html#dont_like_b...
plugnburn 11y ago
Great there still are some multiplayer network games for terminal-only systems. Nice work!

104 points by zachlatta 11y ago

Hey everyone! My friend and I made this over the weekend. I'm sorry about all the issues with the freezing and disconnects – the response has been really overwhelming and the game certainly isn't optimized for less than ideal network situations. If you're continually getting kicked, it's probably just because the server is having trouble getting a solid connection to you. If it helps, the server is in SF right now (though I'm able to get a solid connection that's playable from NY).

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
lucb1e 11y ago
> If it helps, the server is in SF right now (though I'm able to get a solid connection that's playable from NY). I don't think your audience is 99% silicon valley, or even 99% United States of American. Having multiple servers might be more advisable than moving it somewhere ;)
- zachlatta 11y ago
  This is just a fun project we hacked together in the past day to share with our friends, who are primarily on the west coast. If we were designing it to scale, we'd certainly do that!
  - lucb1e 11y ago
    Certainly, and it's a really cool project and I love it. Just saying, HN community != (USA | Silicon Valley) :)
ycmbntrthrwaway 11y ago
Can you add Dvorak keybindings also? ",aoe" instead of "wasd". You see, they do not interfere with qwerty.
- zachlatta 11y ago
  Sure! https://github.com/zachlatta/sshtron/issues/2 https://github.com/zachlatta/sshtron/issues/2 Will add.
vmorgulis 11y ago
Interesting but... Packet integrity error (4144 bytes remaining) at ../channels.c:2421 Disconnecting: Packet integrity error. There is another problem with Gnome Terminal. The page is flushed on each frame. I see the previous drawings if I scroll but I can't play. BTW I like that! A suggestion for next week-end: same stuff with pixels in VNC ;-)

gouggoug 11y ago

The usual warning sign here. Be careful when SSHing into hosts you do not know with an unpatched version of OpenSSH: http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2016-0777 http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2016-0777 edit: @Ao7bei3s comment below gives more information on how to protect yourself.

sillysaurus3 11y ago
Rather than post the equivalent of "Ignore this Show HN," you should post the steps people can take to protect themselves.
- Ao7bei3s 11y ago
  ssh -o "PreferredAuthentications=password,keyboard-interactive" -o "UseRoaming=no" root@sshtron.zachlatta.com Explanation: Use a recent ssh version (if you've updated in February you're safe), or put in your .ssh/config file: # CVE-2016-0777 UseRoaming no Additionally, while you are at it, you can take care of some privacy problems. These are really not a big deal though. Don't hand your SSH public key to the server: # Makes SSH not try other keys than ~/.ssh/id_{dsa/ecdsa/rsa}. IdentitiesOnly yes # And move ~/.ssh/id_{dsa/ecdsa/rsa}{,.pub} somewhere else, # including it on a per host basis: Host *.example.com example.com IdentityFile ~/.ssh/my_id_rsa Or you could just disable pubkey authentication for this one connection with ssh -o "PreferredAuthentications=password,keyboard-interactive". Including root@ prevents leaking your local username. If in doubt, man ssh + man ssh_config (they contain other useful things like "CanonicalizeHostname yes / CanonicalDomains ycombinator.com" / example: ssh root@news). (I don't know what's wrong with the internet that we need "how to SSH" posts now, though. But here it is.)
- gouggoug 11y ago
  I assume most people on HN, given the warning and the CVE, would easily find the information they need on google. But sure, if you read this and need information, please read @Ao7bei3s' comment.

131hn 11y ago

Putty keep crashing with weird errors, any reason for this ?

zachlatta 11y ago
Probably the UNIX escape codes we're using. SHHTron is currently only designed for Linux, OS X, and friends. If you'd like to change that, pull requests are welcome!
ycmbntrthrwaway 11y ago
Would be more helpful if you specify what these errors are.
0x0 11y ago
Are you using the latest putty release? Some scary looking security fixes in the last few versions. http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/changes.html http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/changes.ht... and particularly http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/wishlist/vuln-ech-overflow.html http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/wishlist/v...

rdancer 11y ago

Do not redraw the whole display. Use termcap and ncurses to send terminal escapes. It's unplayable for me, probably because of latency. Good idea :-)

qrv3w 11y ago

Hey this is incredible, nice job! Any chance of sharing the source? Edit: Nevermind - I see it. https://github.com/zachlatta/sshtron https://github.com/zachlatta/sshtron I can't believe you made this in 20 hours, amazing!

zachlatta 11y ago
Linked on the website in the upper left corner! https://github.com/zachlatta/sshtron https://github.com/zachlatta/sshtron.

stevewillows 11y ago

Thanks for posting this! It's amazing how something so simple can be so much fun.

jcr 11y ago

I think this is a great idea, and it looks like a lot of fun, but unfortunately, it doesn't work for me. Though I'm sure tested this on "Linux" and "MacOS X" as you said, the real problem you face is most terminal emulators are not standards compliant (assuming there are standards for particular behaviors, and often there aren't any). This means, you got it working on some terminal emulators, but it won't work on others. The most standards compliant terminal emulator is actually the original 'xterm' [1] program included as part of X. The xterm FAQ [2] and ncurses FAQ [3] have lots of useful information. Though getting your code running in xterm itself will help portability, it won't be the end of your debugging due to the fact that other terminal emulators have bugs and of course, they often do things differently. The story about the color blue [4] in the xterm FAQ should give you an idea of the kinds of problems you'll face. [1] http://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.html http://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.html [2] http://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.faq.html http://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.faq.html [3] http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html [4] http://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.faq.html#dont_like_blue http://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.faq.html#dont_like_b...

plugnburn 11y ago

Great there still are some multiplayer network games for terminal-only systems. Nice work!