600-Player Pong at FITC San Francisco

on tuesday august 17 at fitc san francisco, i'll be unveiling MegaPong, a realtime, massively multiplayer version of the classic video-game, Pong. the expected audience of 600 will be split into two 300-person teams. players will use their cell phones as game controllers to collectively control their team's Pong paddle.

this will be the first time in history an audience of this size will play Pong collaboratively using cell phones, so we'll try out a few modes and see how it feels.

the next day, on wednesday august 18, the same audience will compete for prizes in a 600-player game of trivia. both MegaPong and trivia are powered by MegaPhone and Union, which i'll be discussing in my presentation at the conference.

to give credit where it's due, as long ago as 1991, at SIGGRAPH loren carpenter also presented massively multiplayer pong to an audience of 5000 using an object-recognition system called cinematrix. the audience used painted wooden sticks as controllers.

beyond the specific example of Pong, what really excites us about the upcoming FITC demo is:

1) MegaPhone, the software that runs MegaPong, is available as an SDK that any Flash developer can use to make crowd games. the SDK uses just a few simple events to send aggregated inputs from thousands of phones to the Flash .swf running on the big screen. the screen can then use that data to generate any custom game or crowd experience.

2) by using a cell phone as a controller, the audience can supply very rich inputs, including accelerometer and custom touch interfaces on smart phones. and, of course, everyone shows up with their controller already in their pocket.

fitc san francisco looks like it's going to be an incredible event. there's something special about the list of old and new flash community talent gathering where it all started a decade ago. if you're thinking of attending, i'd pick up a ticket soon...it's a small venue, so seating is limited to only 600 attendees (use the code 'moock' for an extra 10% off ticket prices).

hope to see you there!

Union Free 1000-User Licence Announced

we recently announced a free 1000-user licence for Union.

also, this week, we posted an online multiplayer pong game tutorial and a multiuser fridge magnets tutorial.

happy (multiuser) coding!

Flash Builder 4 Now Shipping

Earlier this week, Adobe released Flash Builder 4, the successor to Flex Builder 3. The new version includes a ground-up overhaul of the Flex SDK component set and significant enhancements to both the ActionScript development environment and the MXML design environment. Anyone using Flex Builder 3 today should definitely upgrade. The improvements in Flash Builder 4 are extensive and wide-ranging, and well worth the investment.

In particular, the rewritten component set introduced by Flex SDK 4.0 is very welcome, and demonstrates that Adobe has a deep commitment to Flash-platform application development. Much as ActionScript 3.0 transformed Flash programming when it replaced ActionScript 2.0, Flex 4.0 is a rebirth of the Flex framework. Adobe clearly learned much from Flex 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0, and has responded with a coherent, evolved architecture that provides a solid foundation for a long-term, stable growth strategy. Flex 4 redefines Flash application-development with a new paradigm that's here to stay.

Developers new to the Flex framework should proceed directly to version 4.0, and skip 3.0. Developers already using Flex 3.0 should migrate to 4.0 when possible, but need not fear that 3.0 has been abandoned; Adobe will continue to maintain 3.0 while the community transitions to 4.0. Flash-authoring-tool users who write timeline scripts and don't use object oriented programming can skip Flash Builder 4.0 altogether, but might want to give Flash Catalyst a look.

Flash Builder 4.0 and the Flex 4 SDK, however, still have room to grow--despite all the good work done and advancements made in the latest release.

The Flex 4 SDK, for example, does not include all the components that were available in the Flex 3 SDK. Notably absent are DataGrid, Tree, and DateChooser. Full component parity is planned for the future (Flex 5, hopefully), but until then developers must in some cases mix older Flex 3 components into their Flex 4 applications. Not ideal, but a reasonable price to pay for the benefit of working with the new Flex 4 architecture today.

Likewise, Flash Builder 4's code editor is still missing some of the trademark "coding comforts" available in FDT, a competing ActionScript IDE. For example, FDT's impressive range of "Quick Fixes" are sorely missed in Flash Builder 4. A few aspects of Flash Builder could also use more polish. For example, Flash Builder's "Rename" and "Find references" are a little flaky, even in the 4.0 release build. A couple times a week, "Rename" and "Find references" seem to miss a few references in my 10,000-line code base. I've become accustomed to hunting down oversights via compiler errors and "Find in Files", which is an unpleasant feeling. I also really feel that Flash Builder needs easier Flash Player selection, and needs to finally rid itself of debugger-connection failures that cause hard-to-diagnose messages such as "Flash Builder cannot locate the required debugger version of Flash Player." (Vote for improvements here.)

Nevertheless, Flash Builder 4.0 is a very large step in the right direction. It is unquestionably superior to Flex Builder 3.0, and lays an important foundation for the work that remains to be done in Flash Builder 5.0 and 6.0. Judging by the dedication and professionalism I've seen demonstrated by Flash Builder's engineering and product teams, the coming versions are bound to be impressive.

For more info on Flash Builder 4, see:

>> What's new in Flex 4
>> What's new in Flash Builder 4

Students and faculty of academic institutions can get a free copy of Flash Builder 4.0 here:

>> Download Flash Builder for Education

If you are part of a community user group, you can support your group by purchasing your copy of Flash Builder through affiliate links. If your group isn't already part of Adobe's affiliate program, it can apply to join here. If you wish to support moock.org, you can order via the affiliate links below.

The premium version and standard version of Flash Builder share most features in common, but premium comes with a memory and performance profiler, and a network monitor. For more details on the difference between standard and premium, see the version comparison chart.

Order Flash Builder in North America
>> Adobe Flash Builder 4 Premium Edition
>> Adobe Flash Builder 4 Standard Edition

Order Flash Builder in the UK
>> Adobe Flash Builder 4 Premium Edition
>> Adobe Flash Builder 4 Standard Edition

Order Flash Builder in France
>> Adobe Flash Builder 4 Premium Edition
>> Adobe Flash Builder 4 Standard Edition

Order Flash Builder in Germany
>> Adobe Flash Builder 4 Premium Edition
>> Adobe Flash Builder 4 Standard Edition

Happy coding!

ActionScript 3.0 Bootcamp: Hands-on OOP workshop May 7/8, 2010

On May 7/8 I'm doing a hands-on workshop on the fundamentals of object-oriented programming ("OOP") in ActionScript 3.0.

The course covers all OOP basics, including:

• Classes, objects, and packages
• Methods and variables
• Inheritance
• Encapsulation
• Datatypes and error handling
• Garbage collection and memory management
• Application structure and design principles

And also the following core areas of Flash coding:

• Graphics loading and display
• Interactivity
• Model/View/Controller architecture
• State management
• Event dispatch and event handling
• Text output

Attendees will code along on laptops, and learn how to install and use Flash Builder (formerly Flex Builder) to create Flash applications, increase code productivity, debug errors, and track down performance issues.

Full details here...