The FujiNet Game System (FGS) has been out for a while now and provided many hours of entertainment for Atari users who want to join and play in real-time multiplayer games from all over the world. It currently serves two games: Five Card Stud Poker and Othello (also called Reversi) for Atari clients. Lobby provides a central entry point via an application loaded into the Atari. Lobby provides an update list of all available servers to host games, the number of players (both human and bot) on the servers and even a simple chat room for oob discussion of games. I’m adding another element to this system: Alerts.
I find playing the games fun to do- but knowing when to play is an issue. I can’t keep an Atari running all the time with the lobby server loaded up just to see when someone drops by. But I would like to get some sort of notification when someone starts a game so that I could potentially join in. My day job deals with SMS and 2 way messaging and so clearly almost any problem we have can be solved by efficient use of SMS messages… and so.
I’m currently working on the FGS Alerting System. You will be able to enroll via message or web using any US phone number or any global WhatsApp number. Once verified you can enable messages (opt-in) and see previous events (games) that have been started. Once opted in, when new games start you will receive a simple notification. There will be options to limit the notifications to one ever 24 window or every single one. This way when games start up people can be notified and join in for more fun.
Right now it’s just Atari users- but the Apple2 and Commodore 64 Five card stud clients are very close to being done- and those releases I hope will bring a new round of players into FGS and hopefully the Alert System will help keep everyone informed when new games start up.
Update:
I have Discord events working! We’ll see if we can’t roll a new release of Lobby and get this into prod for at least Discord alerts while I wait for Twilio to approve messaging stuff for me.
SMS Alerts:
Discord Alerts:
