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SpindleyQ's picture

MarMOTS update #4

So, I just wanted to talk about MarMOTS a little bit. I'm still working on MarMOTS every so often in my spare time. I had two goals that I wanted to achieve before I put it back online.

Goal #1: User authentication.
This works; you can now login to MarMOTS using your Glorious Trainwrecks username and password.

Goal #2: Saving.
Not explicitly stated, but required for Vision #2 of my 8-step vision, I want to make sure that if I bring the server down, I can bring it back up without everything being lost forever.

This has been trickier than I'd anticipated. I thought I would just chuck everything into an object database, and the de-facto object database for Python would appear to be ZODB. What I didn't count on was that ZODB was not even remotely designed to process the huge volume of changes I would be throwing at i; the way that it saves is to append the new data to the end of a file. In my original plan, this file would quickly be filled up with changes in the cursor blinking status if I saved it all the time.

Of course, then I realized that saving it all the time is infeasable anyway, because that would mean WRITING THE SCREEN TO DISK in addition to sending it over the network. No good.

So I guess I'll implement regular checkpointing, which may mean brief pauses every half hour or something. I'm keeping my eye on POD, but that project is young enough that it makes me nervous about depending on it. I think at this point the simplest thing is to just dump the whole thing to a pickle file and be done with it; I'm pretty sure I'll be able to migrate to a more complicated scheme later.

Maybe goal #3: Dedicated hosting.
MarMOTS has a deliberately inefficient design; I burn lots and lots of CPU so that I don't have to think about cache invalidation. I share the server that Glorious Trainwrecks runs on with lots of other people; the CPU time is not really mine to burn. So I'm thinking the only reasonable solution is to move to my own (virtual) server, where I don't have to care that people drawing ASCII dongs is slowing down other peoples' websites. Of course, I'd want to minimize the time I was spending $20/month solely to host MarMOTS by moving all my shit to the new server, but that's not a project I really want to undertake QUITE yet.

So, yeah, if you guys are excited to play with MarMOTS some more, make some noise in the comments!

commodore's picture

ZZTV, A ZZT Community Magazine

From ages past our small (smaller by the day) community has come together to craft a collaborative collection of worlds combined into one known as ZZTV. Recently I resurrected this tradition (after having killed it) and released the tenth installment. Now many do not have the time to craft entire worlds in ZZT, but ZZTV gives users the opportunity to do a little or as much as they want of whatever they want. Submissions run the gambit of genres: Games, Art, Stories, Poetry, Rants, Religious proselyting, Engine ideas, Interviews, and Trainwrecks. All submissions are welcome, from single boards to massive worlds. These worlds are linked together in a central hub that ties the whole thing together.

The GT group has been sympathetic to our cause before, so I am hoping to generate some interest from your fine community. Your submission should be named like an IRC channel, i.e. #YourChannelName

submit zipped channels to jddgames[at]yahoo[.]com

View the latest greatest just released ZZTV here: http://zzt.org/upload//zztvX.zip

The official thread on Z2:

And take a look at ones from the halls of time:
http://zzt.org/zgames/z/zztv9.zip
http://zzt.org/zgames/z/zztv8.zip
http://zzt.org/zgames/z/zztv7.zip
http://zzt.org/zgames/z/zztv6.zip
http://zzt.org/zgames/z/zztv-5.zip
http://zzt.org/zgames/z/zztv4.zip
http://zzt.org/zgames/z/zztv3.zip
http://zzt.org/zgames/z/zztv2.zip
http://zzt.org/zgames/z/zztv-1.zip

Thanks for your time, now back to your regularly scheduled trainwrecks.

Noyb's picture

Noyb

Noyb has been using Klik & Play since the age of 12, and is grateful for this monthly dose of nostalgia. His other games include a Mario fangame where you fight a giant poop monster, an artgame where pachinko is used as a Freudian metaphor for awkward sexual tension, an adventure game where Admiral Horatio Nelson holds long conversations with thinly disguised videogame heroes, and a business sim about a company which sells no products.

bio_picture: 
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Made For: 
Pirate Kart 2

Indie Game Dev - The Experience

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Experience the thrilling life of being an indie game developer!
No programming skill required!

(made in 4 hours, using Construct, featuring Konjak)

Author: 
William David
Made For: 
An event

Insert the Key

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Game File: 

Insert the key. Pretty basic.

Made For: 
Pirate Kart 2
Smedis2's picture

AmazePong

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Game File: 

YOU THINK PONG IS TOO EASY?
WELL TRY THIS AND ALL OF YOUR PROBLEMS WILL BE SOLVED.

EVERY 50 BALLS MISSED THE TIMER RESETS AND PUSHES THE BALLS BACK AND YOU HAVE TO HIT THEM ALL

Event Created For: 
Made For: 
An event
Smedis2's picture

Cereal Guy Simulator

UBOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.gif

OH GOD I JUST MADE A CONSTRUCT GAME AND IT'S F**ING SHORT AND INSANE.
NO SCREENSHOT CAN DO IT JUSTICE.

Author: 
Smedis2
Made For: 
An event

leave it untitled

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in this game, you must explore a three screened game based on a nightmare i once had.

full description :
"I once had a nightmare that looked pretty much like this. Pearl from Steven Universe was throwing snot at me, and I wanted to sleep. I was also in a small, wooden like cabin in this little dream.

It’ s probably a thing I transcribed into a game. or a game transcribed into a thing."

Made For: 
An event
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