Pinball 2000 Live Score Pages
NOTE: This is a mirror of the live site, not the real thing.
This is on a server farm that's much stronger than my measly connection.
The real thing is elsewhere.
The pages at the link below are the product of geek + pinball machines.
They are dynamically generated pages using data from my Revenge From
Mars and Star Wars: Episode One games.
Both machines are on my local network, and every 30 minutes, this
machine (where the pages are) checks to see if the games are on. If
they are, it updates the web pages with new data from the games via
telnet.
Geeky, ain't it?
Notes:
Originally, I was just going to put the games internal httpd server
online, but:
A) It wouldn't be available all the time.
B) It wouldn't have anywhere near this amount of infrmation.
C) Even when on, they don't hold up very well to many hits.
D) I'm a geek.
You can tell by the time on the "Game Information" when the last
update was.
This script is in perl, and uses the IO::Socket module for connecting
to the pin.
(The notes below were added in reaction to the site being posted on
slasdot.org -- some of the questions/comments feedback generated)
Re: "Why?"
Because it was fun, and for those who actually get to come over & play,
it's neat to be able to check the high scores & stuff. There is no real
greater purpose, it's entirely recreational.
Re: "That's not a hack", "It was built for that" , etc.
The first line of the article I submitted (which got cut off) was something
like "I've built a cool little toy I thought slashdot readers might find
interesting" (I don't remember the exact wording). Taco called it a hack,
not me. I very carefully avoided that.
To say that it's not a hack isn't 100% accurate either though. Sure, it
came with the capability to do ethernet; but a tivo comes with the
'ability' to have more HD space. There's still something to it that you
have to do to GET it. And, I did have to 'hack' together the perl script
that collects the data & makes the web page -- that certainly didn't
ship with the game, heh.
Re: Controlling the game remotely
The XINA shell that you telnet in to actually can control most of the
functions of the game, and in theory you could probably play a game
via those controls with some kind of front-end, but pinball is such
a quick reaction game that it'd be rather silly.
Re: "Where are the stats for (something not shown)"
The game can dump all kinds of extra information on earnings and
adjustments that I didn't add to the page at this time, and there
are a number of other stats that just didn't seem interesting enough
to include. Over time, I'll probably flesh out the pages more. I think
the first add-in will be to have a sub page with the adjustment listings
to show how the game is currently configured (rule wise).
Update: Since the posting on slashdot, many of the adjustments and such
have been added to the RFM page that were not originally present.
