If not, anyone care to lend a hand?

Try Easy Sockets by Justin Fletcher.

I've just had a look for this on the Web and can't find it.
It doesn't seem to be on what appears to be his main website, or any others I've found.
I've found several references to it using Google, but they all seem to point to removed/deleted pages.
Before I email him, what does this program do exactly?

Thanks for the tip, anyway.
Yours,
Tony

A direct dial should be possible - at the end of the day you'll just be talking an IP based protocol (either TCP or UDP) down the phone line. The trick is the direct dial bit - it's not something that modules like Easy Sockets deal with because they assume the IP network is already in place and ready to use.

You can get Easy Sockets from

http://www.acornsearch.com/catalog/freenet.barnet.ac.uk/pub/Acorn/freenet/j.fletcher/modules/

Note however that even with a direct dial connection you're likely to run into latency problems. Even on a high speed LAN the time it takes to transmit a packet is significantly more than the time it takes your computer to react to, say, a keyboard press. Obviously if your game updates at a relatively slow speed then the problem will reduce.

There are many articles around about network programming in games. A good place to start is www.flipcode.com

I can't remember if it returns proper socket handles or not when you create sockets. If it does you'll be able to call the more powerful socket SWIs to do anything EasySockets doesn't.

If you use Easy Sockets just bear in mind that with the version I've got the license doesn't allow free use of it in a commercial game. It might be worth checking your requirements with Justin first - he's usually pretty helpful.

A direct dial should be possible - at the end of the day you'll just be talking an IP based protocol (either TCP or UDP) down the phone line. The trick is the direct dial bit - it's not something that modules like Easy Sockets deal with because they assume the IP network is already in place and ready to use.

Thanks for the pointer, I've downloaded it.

Note however that even with a direct dial connection you're likely to run into latency problems. Even on a high speed LAN the time it takes to transmit a packet is significantly more than the time it takes your computer to react to, say, a keyboard press. Obviously if your game updates at a relatively slow speed then the problem will reduce.

There are many articles around about network programming in games. A good place to start is www.flipcode.com

I have been reading flipcode for some time but I don't remember any on network programming from there. I'll have a poke around. I just can't resist this opportunity to mention that I got an image of the day on flipcode. IIRC it was 12th Dec 2001.

One last thing, if you go for direct dialled connections you'll be limited to two player games because obviously your phone line can only talk to one other phone line at any one time.

Thanks.
Yours,
Tony

Connecting then would be a problem.
It would be commercial, although perhaps not *very* commercial. I was thinking of perhaps a shareware release (Of course I probably won't get that far.)

Like I said, contact Justin. It wouldn't hurt to ask.

This then is problematical.

Not really, that's what software like Dialup and Socketeer are for. Personally I think you should just go for a straight Internet based connection - it works for something like Quake (admittedly that's got a hardcore custom network protocol and hardcore client side prediction). One thing you do need is a way for players to swap IP addresses and to start a session. This is easy on a LAN - you just use UDP broadcast. On the Internet you need some way for people to "meet".

From a games-scene point of view I think a module which would do the dirty work for this would be dead handy, and lead to a proliferation of network (or phone-line) games. Ideally it should be use-unrestricted and open source, with a code-maintainer

There are plenty of libraries out there that do this. None of them work on RISC OS because we lack any form of multi-threading.

I am at least aware of latency issues. I think at least a moderate latency could be acceptable in my case. What is not is the occasional very long drop-out you can get with TCPIP.

That's probably due to TCPs congestion backoff mechanisms, without which the Internet simply wouldn't work. If this is a huge problem then EasySockets won't help because it's TCP based. What you'll be after is a custom UDP based protocol. UDP has it's own problems though like firewalls simply blocking it because it can be used to open security holes. Also building a protocol on UDP that doesn't backoff when it encounters congestion can be self defeating.

I have been reading flipcode for some time but I don't remember any on network programming from there. I'll have a poke around. I just can't resist this opportunity to mention that I got an image of the day on flipcode. IIRC it was 12th Dec 2001.

IIRC there was a link a while ago to a bomberman clone which discussed how the author overcame some of the problems you encounter in writing network games. I remember your image of the day - I was gobsmacked to see one from RISC OS

Heh, no, I'll be limited to two computers, so in
theory I could have 6 or 8 players
In reality keyboard clash would probably limit it,
although.. 2*4 buttons each + a mouse based player might be acceptable.

Or add joystick support.

In reality keyboard clash would probably limit it

*Wishes someone would invent a decent keyboard*