Welcome to my Gamepage

You may have noticed that this page has not been updated in quite a while. My entire department at work is about to be dismantled, so I've been rather distracted. See my homepage for details. In the meanwhile, I am still interested in programming games to be played live on the net. If you have any suggestions or comments, please drop me a line. If you have visited this site regularly, you may have noticed a certain lack of progress. I have had some difficulty getting computer time lately, due to the influx of undergrads here at BU.

Sample Games

Games & Tools Overview
GAME TITLE	HTML	FORMS	JAVA	CGI	IMAGEMAP
Choose Your Own Registration	X	.	.	.	.
Madwebs	.	X	.	.	.
Steve's Tic-Tac-Toe	.	.	X	.	.
Lights Puzzle - mcurtis	.	.	.	X	.
Bob the Smiley	.	.	.	.	X

Click on the name of the game to go play that game.
(Click on the programming tool for a little more information about it.)

Programming Tools

HTML (Hyper-Text Markup Language)
HTML has been covered too thoroughly in too many other places for me to go into it here. I would advise http://www.links.net/webpub/ for starters. HTML will be the backdrop of almost any game, and the heart of many. With HTML you can provide links for another person to follow. This is interactivity. The user can decide which link, but you decide where it goes. Interactive stories, treasure hunts, all these and more can be done with nothing more than HTML.
CGI (Common Gateway Interface)
This seems to be the most common and powerful method of writing interactive games. Unfortunately, it depends on your server's willingness to open access to the CGI-BIN directory. Don't hold your breath: this poses a potential security risk. A CGI program can be written in any language. What makes it special is that it takes input from the World Wide Web, and returns output to the browser. The lights puzzle, for example, takes as input the current layout of the board and bulb on which you click. It returns the new layout of the board, which is redrawn by the browser. You can actually see the information being handed back and forth by looking at the URL. See how it changes? Those four numbers are a hexadecimal/binary description of the board. Pretty clever, Mike!
Java
This is something I need to learn much more about. Java is a complete object oriented programming language. Some browsers, such as Netscape, are designed to read compiled Java programs from a web page and execute them right before your eyes. Rather handy, that. Sadly, I have not been able to squeeze the Java Developers Kit into my limited memory space here at BU. I expect to make more progress on this front once I have moved to a new ISP sometime this fall.
Forms
Well worth exploring, though again tied in to the CGI-BIN directory unless you use Mailto, in which case you receive the information, but have no immediate way to respond to the person who submitted the form. You could write a program which you could run every day which would take your e-mail as input and react to the content. Since it will be coming in through the form, the input should be very predictable.
Imagemap
Requires graphics of course, and support from the server (though some of the new browsers support client side imagemaps). A good interface tool if your audience is willing and able to wait for the graphics to load. Capable on its own of certain types of games, such as labyrinths and smiley faces.

Favorite Games

You tell me. Fill out the survey below. Remember to include the URL of your favorite games that can be played on the Web, so I can add a link to them from this page.

How did they do that?

I'm not sure yet. I'll let you know.

Choose Your Own Registration
Couldn't be simpler. It's just HTML. There is a separate HTML document for each piece of the story. The options at the bottom of each page link you to another piece of the story. Through this, you can navigate through the story. This is what HTML is all about. To create something similar, all you need to do is get a text editor, view the source code from any page of the story, and get imaginative!

Sample Games | Programming Tools | Favorite Games | How did they do that? | More Games | Survey

More Games
- BU's Interactive WWW Games
- Interactive games on the Web
- Zarf's List of Interactive Games on the Web
- Yahoo! Search
- You may also be interested in Real Time Games
Sample Games | Programming Tools | Favorite Games | How did they do that? | More Games | Survey

Please complete this survey
I've been getting may more hits than I ever would have expected, so first off I am just dying to know how you got here:
If you want to send me an e-mail, I'd like the details on how you happened by my page, and what you were looking for.
Name:
e-mail
What is the best game you have ever played on the World Wide Web?

What is its URL?

How often do you play games on the internet?

Never before

Rarely

A few times a month

A few times a week

Daily

How would you rate the following games? (1=Boring to 5=Fun)
- Madwebs
  No opinion 1 2 3 4 5
- Bob the Smiley
  No opinion 1 2 3 4 5
- Tic-Tac-Toe
  No opinion 1 2 3 4 5
- Lights
  No opinion 1 2 3 4 5
Which section of this page should I work on next?
If you have any additional comments, ideas or suggestions, please send me an e-mail at yojimbo@hotmail.com
If you have e-mailed me in the past, and I did not respond, I probably did not receive your message. Geocities mail has been having a little trouble. Please write again at my new address, and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

Sample Games | Programming Tools | Favorite Games | How did they do that? | More Games | Survey

If you enjoyed this page, you may also wish to visit my homepage.

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Welcome to my Gamepage

Sample Games

Programming Tools

Favorite Games

How did they do that?

More Games

Please complete this survey