PULSE

Java Programs

Palm Programs

Source Code

About us

Postcards

Contact us

Other TwinFeats
sponsored sites:

Sydney Ariana

Gecko Gameworks

MyKidworks

Omaha Martial Arts

Nebraska Chess League

West Omaha Piano

Blog

• Stronghold now online! 3-10-98
• 1/7/97 IMPORTANT NEWS! My cable modem provider has picked up the neighborhood I'm moving to, so PortalNet will remain afterall! Thanks to everyone for their support. :) PortalNet will be down on 1/13 and 1/14 for the move, should hopefully be up sometime on 1/14 or 1/15.
• Automated Leagues are coming to PortalNet!  In conjunction with the tournament code I"m still finishing up, PortalNet will offer free league play.  A DCI-style rating system will be featured for league games and all league statistics will be maintained automatically by the server.  League matches will be best of 3 and the initial League will be Standard Type 2 (5th Edition, Mirage, Visisons, Weatherlight, Tempest).  There will be an official league night, but league games may be played at any time.  Look for leagues to start near the end of November.
• VACATION  I'm taking my family on vacation from 11-3 thru 11-10, so PortalNet will be unattended during that time.  I will have someone stop by every night to make sure the cable modem hasn't lost synch so the system should be up and available while I'm gone.  :)
• 10/21/97 Save/Restore game should hopefully be working again. :)
• 10/19/97 New Tournament News, check it out below!  Entry special:  If you refer 2 new PortalNet users to the tournament your entry is free!  Users must be new users as of 10/19/97.
• 10/19/97 Restore game is currently working only sporadically.  PortalNet currently uses Java's object serialization/deserialization to perform game save/restore, it would seem to have a bug somewhere.  I am rewriting the game save/restore using my own code so this sporadic problem can be avoided.  Hope to have it in place by 10/21/97.
• 10/18/97 The disconnect problem some users have been experiencing is still under investigation.
• The Startup mechanism for PortalNet is very important reading!  Be sure to check the Startup help for details!
• All screen resolutions 1024x768 and below now supported (still working on resolutions higher than 1024x768)!

Tournament news!

1st prize is approximately $150 in Mirage/Visions/Weatherlight rares and uncommons (about 70% rares, 30% uncommons), 2nd prize will be approximately $75 of the same.  Entry fee is $10 and should be received prior to 11/13/97, submitted to:

Kent Smotherman
2525 N. 117th Ave.
Omaha, NE  68134

Code version history

12-31-97 (4:45 pm CDT) Fixed a few minor bugs:

1. Change password works again
2. Finally added an explicit Remove Card from Deck button in the deck builder
3. Fixed library counts for Draw X
4. Sped up the card load process.  IMPORTANT NOTE!  Duplicate cards have been removed.  A card will only show up as a member of the latest card set that includes it.
5. More League code included, testing will be underway during this release.

11-15-97 (12:02 pm CST) New PortalNet 2.8 available

1. PMail (PortalNet Mail) now online - pmail other PortalNet users securely without giving up your regular email address!

1. Deck sorting
2. Tournament support on both client and server
3. Minor bug fixes

1. Finished rewrite of save/restore game to not use object serialization/deserialization.
2. Added some new speedy options on the game screen.
3. Bug fixes in Watch

1. Found a memory leak in java.io.BufferedReader, problem has been resolved
2. Fixed the chat displays resizing partial line problem

1. Restructured the startup mechanism to avoid some problems on some platforms.  Be sure to check the new Startup instructions!
2. Restructured the auto code download to avoid a couple of problems in the Java Virtual Machine on some platforms with updating jar files dynamically.
3. Fixed various minor bugs including:  Mulligan, Set Aside.
4. Added ability to mark yourself as Away
5. Added some missing notifications to the game chat log for some card actions.
6. Fixed Menu bar bug for Watch
7. MAYBE fixed the disconnect problem.  Found a huge bug in Java Virtual Machine for Windows/95 (what the server runs on) involving successive writes, but I can up with a work around that seems to function in my limited ability to test and recreate this problem on demand.  Let's hope! :)

1. Auto code updates now enabled, be sure to check your startup files!  More info in help.html included in the portalnet.zip file.

1. Fix for the set aside problem

1. Fixed End Game when multiple games being played
2. Fixed exception that happened sometimes on OS/2 during mouse moves
3. Cleaned up some card drawing when running below 1024x768

1. All screen resolutions now supported!
2. Fixed the shuffle/concede bug

1. Added new option in deck builder to only show cards eligible for the 11-15-97 PortalNet tournament
2. Added total deck cost display to deck builder

1. Added an integrated web browser.  Currently the browser doesn't support the ability to get the zips from the PortalNet web site (or any other file save actions), but I'm working on it!
2. Various minor bug fixes as reported by users, thanks!

1. Fix for game restore when the challenged player goes first and is on-turn
2. Work around  in WrappingCanvas (Game chat) to avoid a Java scrollbar bug.

1. Ability to disconnect and reconnect without restarting the client program
2. Automatic server save game upon disconnect. To restore a game once both players are online select your opponent in the People Online list and hit Restore
3. >>>IMPORTANT NOTE<<< The card database was missing some cards so it has been rebuilt.  I have also upgraded my compiler which has resulted in some other changes.  The symantec subdirectory has been replaced by a single file, symbeans.jar  - the new portalnet.zip contains a new sample portalnet.bat file to illustrate the new startup syntax.  When you get the new zip please be sure to delete the entire symantec subdirectory on your machine, it is no longer needed.  You  need to update your mechanism for starting your PortalNet client (i.e. portalnet.zip or whatever you have named it) to no longer reference the symantec subdirectory and to instead use the symbeans.jar file as in my included sample portalnet.bat file.

9-26-97 (11:00 pm CDT) New PortalNet 2.2 available

1. Still trying to fix that disconnect problem, this is the latest attempt. :)
2. Smartened up some of the card logic to take care of some misplaced card problems.

1. Still trying to fix that disconnect problem, this is the latest attempt. :)

9-25-97 (6:15 pm CDT) New PortalNet 2.1 available - fixed the zips! Sorry!

9-25-97 (6:00 pm CDT) New PortalNet 2.1 available

9-23-97 (8:30 pm CDT) New PortalNet 2.0 available

1. Fixed a bug where spells played were buried on the opponent's side in his graveyard.
2. Added some missing notifications in the game chat display for various actions.

1. Fixed a minor bug with Poison

1. Fixed a pretty major bug in the Watch code
2. Added some more OS/2 work arounds

9-20-97 Magic is now online! All cards from The Dark through Weatherlight are now available! I'll be updating the help and faq files very soon.

9-15-97 The Magic version of PortalNet is nearly complete! All Magic cards from The Dark through Weatherlight will be available. All decks from PortalNet will still be preserved and compatible with the new version.
I currently have the entire card database built as well as implemented support for all types of enchantments, control magic, and poison. PortalNet will make the jump to magic in just a few days, so stay tuned!

9-6-97 New PortalNet 1.51 now available

1. I think I've finally nailed down my sporadic comm bug, the one that ends in unanswered Pings that pretty much kills your client.

1. Fixed some newly sprung holes in the version control logic. Previos versions were not being reported by the server as old and the result was 60 second auto-disconnect.
2. Recoded some of the core socket communication code to try and avoid some of the synchronization problems some users have seen.

1. Changed the threaded socket engine to eliminate sleep delays.
2. Added auto-server disconnect of users whose clients are not answering pings within 60 seconds.

9-5-97 New PortalNet 1.4 now available

1. Added ability to upload decks to the PortalNet server
2. Added ability to download decks from the PortalNet Server
9-1-97 New PortalNet 1.4 now available
1. Combined the Decks and Library displays, deck building should now be easier and more intuitive.
2. Fixed the deck builder for multiple owners.
3. Put in a work around for some ocassional duplicated actions when using the right-click popup.
8-30-97 New PortalNet 1.4 now available
1. Put in a fix for a sporadic popup bug.
2. Fixed a problem that happened sometimes when a user was disconnected in the middle of a game.
3. Made the font in the game chat display bigger.
4. Added ability to scroll the card text.
8-28-97 New PortalNet 1.4 now available
1. PortalNet 1.4 should be operational again. SMTP bugs resolved.
2. Added security.
3. Added some extra tracing to help track down a bug I can't seem to find
8-26-97 New PortalNet 1.3 now available
1. Added the Bulletin Board for announcements. It's pretty simple right now, but I have enabled the Bulletin Board for user postings. Please try to place any posting on the appropriate sheet and only as a last resort use the Add button to create a new sheet.
8-25-97 New PortalNet 1.3 now available
1. Added user tracking
2. Shrank cards to make room for chat display on game screen
8-24-97 New PortalNet 1.2 now available
1. Fixed a nasty but sporadic bug introduced by the card title hilight code.
2. Fixed some minor problems in the Deck screen.
8-23-97 New PortalNet 1.2 now available
1. Rearranged the Magic screen to cut down on some of the mouse movements
2. Added a Turn indicator on the Magic screen
3. Added a card title hilight when the mouse moves over a card title and the display is cascaded. Help ensure which card you are about to click on.
4. Hopefully fixes some font issues on OS/2 and Unix platforms.
8-21-97 New PortalNet 1.2 now available
1. Changed all modal dialogs to non-modal to avoid a rare but lethal bug. If you were closing a window right when a modal window was coming up, the Java VM locked up.
2. Greatly sped up the card drawing for cascaded card displays!
8-20-97 New PortalNet 1.2 now available
1. Fixed 3 bugs in the Watch code
2. Cleaned up some possible issues with multiple cross challenges
3. Greatly sped up the card drawing
4. Added an Interrupt! button to quickly let your opponent know you think he/she is making a mistake
5. Got rid of the scrollbar in the right mouse click pop up card action menu
6. Put in some error checking for the deck builder
8-19-97
1. I need to clear up a glaring omission from the help file: You need to be able to run at 1024x768 for PortalNet to function properly. If this ends up being a big concern I will try to correct it for 800x600 users, but that change will be rather substantial so I appreciate your patience.
2. A big thanks to everyone who was been connecting and helping me work out the bugs in PortalNet. So far about 20 games have been played successfully while two users have not been able to get a game to start at all. Hopefully PortalNet 1.1 has addressed this.
3. Always check back here for updates to the portalnet.zip file, I'm trying to provide a new .zip as soon as bugs have been found and fixed.
4. Thanks for bearing with me and helping to make PortalNet, and within two weeks hopefully MagicNet, possible!
8-17-97
1. The Watch function is now functional! Tired of being the odd man out? Now you can watch a game while you wait for an opponent!
2. Try the lunch league...connect bewteen 11:30-1:00 pm central time and take a break from work!
3. PLEASE read the help.html file! Most of the basic functions like how to build a deck are in there!
Questions? Comments? Suggestions?
Kent L. Smothermankent@twinfeats.com