IBGS - The Internet Board Game Server

  • News
  • About
  • Server
  • Client
  • Plugins
  • Status
  • We need help!
  • Links
    •

    Welcome to the project site of IBGS.
    Please select an item from the menu on the left.

    You will find contact information on the bottom of the page.

    News

    Release of IBGS 0.2.
    		(August, 22., 2003)
    IBGS 0.2 has a lot of new features and tons of bug fixes. Highlights are
    • new SQL backends for postgresql and sqlite
    • Integration of the game database in the server
    • a rating system (thank you, towa!)
    • an improved IBGS Client (check it out!)
    • a lot of more. Look in the NEWS file.
    Download it from here ibgs-0.2.tar.bz2. Our test server is up to date.
    Second release of IBGS.
    		(May, 28., 2003)
    The new Release contains an updated IBGS Client. You can get it here: ibgs-0.1.tar.bz2.

    Screenshot of IBGS Client added.
    		(May, 19., 2003)
    The shown piece set (here called "Chess Leipzig") will be selectable. It's just a true type font set. BTW, resizing works fine by now.

    IBGS-0.0 released
    		(May, 19., 2003)
    First release of IBGS is here: ibgs-0.0.tar.bz2.

    New Project Page
    		(May, 16., 2003)
    It's time to explain goals of my little project. So I wrote this page.

    Unfortunately, my English skills are rather poor. Is there anyone, who wants to take this job?

    About

    IBGS is a game server for board games like chess, go, checkers, nine mens morris, and so on.

    There are some chess (GICS or FICS) and go servers (IGS), but IBGS will have some features beyond these servers.

    • IBGS is Open Source. It is released under the GPL license.
    • New game rules can be implemented as a new plugin.

      Most servers are limited to one game type. Everyone can contribute a rule plugin for his favorite game.

      Later I'll write a tutorial how to create a plugin.

    • IBGS uses an SQL Database to store all informations about players and games. So IBGS inherits all advantages of databases like reliability, ad-hoc queries, multi user operations (concurrency statistics or manually fixes of the database), simplicity and data independence.

      Maybe it is possible to create a distributed game server (local games/global datas) through a distributed database.

      The test server uses postgresql.

    • Protocol is mostly compatible to the protocol of FICS. Interfaces for FICS like xboard or winboard should work without any adaption.

    Server

    You can download the sources from sourceforge.net. Check out the module ibgs through cvs server. Detailed description can be found on sourcefouge web page. The source contains an INSTALL file. If you use the server, please write a bug reports!

    A test server is running at chess.unix-ag.uni-kl.de on port 5050. Look at the next section to learn how to use it. Please support this server.

    Client

    A client is in preparation. Until the first release of this client, you can use xboard or winboard.

    Instructions for xboard
    Download and install xboard. Type the following command (single line) in a xterm window:

    xboard -size small -ics -icshost 131.246.89.4 -icsport 5050 -icslogon ~/.ibgsrc

    DON'T USE TIMESEAL!

    Choose a login name. If it is unused you don't need a password.

    To get a real account, use the command "register handle email fullname".

    Anyway, here is a first screenshot of the IBGS client:

    Plugins

    At the moment there is just a plugin for standard chess. But I will write a tutorial, how to add a plugin on the example of TicTacToe. Then you can write a plugin by yourself to support your favorite board game.

    Project Status

    The server is under heavy development. Please check the test server.

    We need help!

    We need players, administrators and coders. Furthermore donations and hardware are welcome :-)

    Links

    Christoph Bauer