Site Upgrade Notice

A major issue with the Cribbage Ladder has been resolved which was causing new players to not be inserted and therefore not updated. Thanks to all of you who helped track this down and your patience and while we resolved this issue.

Cribbage 0.2.1 Released

Version 0.2.1 of Cribbage has been released. Changes include:

• Changed default connection string to use SQL express.
• Added conditional insert of new player on game start event.
• Extended inactivity timeout to one hour.
• Cleaned up website project.
• Modified test login to use UserId.

Please note that this is an alpha release. Functionality is currently limited to single player online play versus a computer opponent. Future releases will add offline play and online multiplayer support.

QuadLink 0.2.0 Released

Version 0.2.0 of QuadLink has been released. Changes include:

• Changed license to GNU Affero General Public License.
• Upgraded projects to Silverlight 4.
• Updated projects to Visual Studio 2010.
• Added new game dialog.
• Added difficulty levels.
• Added help text.
• Added human/computer player selection.
• Added check for draws.
• Added sound effects.
• Fixed problem with robots refusing to make final move.

Please note that this is an alpha release. Functionality is currently limited to single player versus a computer opponent. Future releases will add online multiplayer support.

Checkers 0.2.0 Released

Version 0.2.0 of Checkers has been released. Changes include:

• Changed license to GNU Affero General Public License.
• Upgraded projects to Silverlight 4.
• Updated projects to Visual Studio 2010.
• Added sound effects.
• Added help text.
• Added jukebox.

Please note that this is an alpha release. Functionality is currently limited to single player versus a simple computer opponent and two player "hot seat" mode. Future releases will add better computer opponents and online multiplayer support.

Site Upgrade Notice

The site has been upgraded to use the latest Silverlight 4 runtime. If you have't done so already, you should be asked to install the latest when you access any of the silverlight applications. We have also migrated the site to an new server with ASP.NET 4.0 support. Please notify us if you have any problems.

Cribbage 0.2.0 Released

Version 0.2.0 of Cribbage has been released. Changes include:

• Changed license to GNU Affero General Public License.
• Upgraded projects to Silverlight 4.
• Updated projects to Visual Studio 2010.
• Code cleanup and refactoring.
• Automated localhost endpoint assignment.
• Added weighted play selection for robot.
• Added rate limiting to new game requests.
• Fixed problem with leading into 15s and 31s.
• Improved robot discards and pegging.

Please note that this is an alpha release. Functionality is currently limited to single player online play versus a computer opponent. Future releases will add offline play and online multiplayer support.

Chat Tutorial - Part 1: Creating the Project

Okay, this is probably a little out of scope but I wanted to cover everything from the ground up. I will be assuming that you have Visual Studio 2010 and Silverlight 4 Tools installed and that you are somewhat familiar with C# and fundemental Silverlight programming.

First, open Visual Studio 2010 and select "New Project..." from the start page. Select "Visual C# - Silverlight" under the "Installed Templates", select "Silverlight Application" and enter "Chat" for a project name. Click "OK" to continue.

Accept the defaults in the "New Silverlight Application" and click "OK" to create the project. I don't necessarily care for the default project naming but it is useful to look at what is generated. I will be trying to use defaults where possible throughout the tutorial.

We now have a default solution containing two projects. The "Chat" project is where we will be developing the Silverlight chat client and the "Chat.Web" project will contain the WCF chat service.

In the next part of the tutorial, I will do some housekeeping on the project files and get everything set up for releasing the project under the GNU Affero General Public License.