Re: [VANILLA-LIST:3019] technical question

["Carlos Y. Villalpando" <unbelver@us.netrek.org>]

Quoting Chawla, Jay <jchawla@cooley.com>:

> The patent claims (claim 1 in the patent) a group message server, a
> bunch of hosts connected to the server through the internet, the
> ability to form groups among the hosts, and the ability of a host in
> a group to send a message to the server, that the server then
> forwards out to everyone in the group.  Furthermore, the group
> message server must be able to aggregate messages, i.e. if the
> server receives a bunch of messages addressed to a group, it can
> concatenate them and send them out in a single packet.

If its plain text messaging, you're describing 'irc,' or Internet Relay
Chat, that has been around for quite some time.

I did a quick read of the patent, and it looks like its for
aggregating packets from a peer-to-peer type game where each computer
talks to every other computer. Instead of talking to each other, the
peers will talk to a server, which will then aggregate the packets and
send them to the peers. I'll read it more carefully after work. I wish
I could see the figures.

Netrek follows the client-server type model, and not the peer to
peer model.  There is a game server where all the game mechanics are
calculated.  Hosts talk to the game server, game server updates the
universe and send the updates to the host.  If multiple events happen
per update, the events are concatenated into one update packet.  There
are multiple 'groups' in a game (the teams) and data hiding is done by
the server.  Updates (messages) not meant for members of the team are
not sent to the team.


> My basic question is: does Netrek do all of this stuff and how can I prove
> it?

Um, Yes, I believe.  How to prove it?  Who's got netrek_acm.pdf?
There's a published paper.  When was it published?  I've got it at
home, not here.  And that C|Net article. It states that netrek's
release date was 1989 on the page.

http://www.gamecenter.com/Features/Exclusives/Top40games/ is the head and,
http://www.gamecenter.com/Features/Exclusives/Top40games/ss07.html is
where netrek is.

And there's all our documentation at www.netrek.org

> Jay Chawla, Patent Agent	*Voice: 703-262-8141
> Cooley Godward LLP			*Voice (temporary): 703-456-0360

Patent agent? Are they trying to enforce the patent?  And do we get a
donation for helping? *grin*

--Carlos V.