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Show HN: Multiplayer NES Server in 77 Lines of Go

• andrewliebchen 11y ago
  It might be simple, but it's certainly not simplistic :)
• SpaceManNabs 11y ago
  Is there any documentation around? I have no idea how any of this code works, and it doesn't seem to similar to the web apps that I have seen before. Haven't worked with melody before either...
  • ola 11y ago
    The server works by using HTML5 Websockets (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/WebSockets https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/WebSockets) which allows browsers to do full duplex communication with the servers (they can push and receive messages without having to poll). The implementation of the multiplayer itself is very simple and consists of these steps: * Pair up players using a map from one session to another. * Start an instance of https://github.com/bfirsh/jsnes https://github.com/bfirsh/jsnes on Player 1 * Screenshot the canvas of JSNES using toDataUrl. * Send the screenshot to Player 2 and render it into a canvas. * Send Player 2's keyup and keydown event's to Player 1. The communication over the WebSocket is very fast, the screenshot is being sent at 30 frames per second. Melody is just a small framework to make WebSockets easier to work with.
    • edc117 11y ago
      That's really neat - forgive my ignorance on the subject, but how possible is something like this for local multiplayer games in general (outside of NES)? With all the streaming options we've seen recently, I'm surprised something like this hasn't been developed.
    • SpaceManNabs 11y ago
      Thanks for explanation.
• sschueller 11y ago
  mmm, not sure if doing this counts as using 77 lines of code: import ( "github.com/gin-gonic/gin" "github.com/gorilla/websocket" "github.com/olahol/melody" "net/http" "sync" ) But still impressive.
  • mrweasel 11y ago
    Also the NES emulation is done in Javascript, making the 77 lines a little less impressive. It's "just" server for handling multiplayer part.
    • vog 11y ago
      Indeed, the title is a bit misleading.
      • reedlaw 11y ago
        I didn't expect anything but a multiplayer proxy. If it was truly an emulator in 77 lines it must be horribly obfuscated.
  • shultays 11y ago
    import ( github.com/olahol/melody-jsnes )
• mappu 11y ago
  What's the best solution in Go to support graceful degradation for browsers without websockets / networks that disallow it?
  • jkarneges 11y ago
    Something using the SockJS protocol. A quick google search for "sockjs go" brings up multiple options.
  • rvrv 11y ago
    Maybe socket.io and go-socket.io. Socket.io support multiple transports.
• deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
• eynix_ 11y ago
  I don't get the difference between github.com/gorilla/websocket & github.com/olahol/melody. Does someone have a clue ?
  • ola 11y ago
    It's a higher level framework built on top of github.com/gorilla/websocket . Some features include * Clear and easy interface similar to net/http or Gin with event handlers. * A simple way to broadcast to all or selected connected sessions. * Message buffers making concurrent writing safe. * Automatic handling of ping/pong and session timeouts.
• tokenrove 11y ago
  It would be nice to see state-synchronization using rewinding like GGPO, instead of just sending the inputs which introduces a lot of latency.
  • ola 11y ago
    I think that would be a beyond the scope of this project which is to demo Go websockets, I wanted to keep it as simple as possible and not hack the JSNES source code. Although it would be a cool thing to make a production ready web hosted multiplayer NES.
• geff82 11y ago
  So how many stories "X in Go" or "Y in Rust" a day will we have in future? Its a bit much currently...
• oknoorap 11y ago
  well done, impressive.