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Multiplayer Games

One of FujiNet's most remarkable achievements is cross-platform online multiplayer — a player on an Atari can play against a player on an Apple II or Commodore 64, in real time, over the internet. This was science fiction for vintage computer owners until FujiNet.

How cross-platform multiplayer works

sequenceDiagram
    participant A as Atari Player
    participant S as Game Server
    participant C as C64 Player

    A->>S: Connect via N: device (TCP)
    C->>S: Connect via N: device (TCP)
    S->>A: Game state update
    S->>C: Game state update
    A->>S: Player move
    S->>C: Opponent's move
    C->>S: Player move
    S->>A: Opponent's move

The game server mediates between all players. Each platform sends moves in a common wire format; the server relays them to all other players. The native game client on each platform handles the platform-specific display and controls.

Available multiplayer games

Five Card Stud Poker

The original FujiNet multiplayer game. Play Texas Hold'em-style five-card stud poker against up to five other players, on any FujiNet-supported platform.

Detail Info
Players 2–6
Platforms Atari 8-bit · Apple II · Commodore 64 · CoCo · Coleco ADAM
Type Turn-based card game
Server game.fujinet.online (auto-configured)

How to play: 1. Load the Five Card Stud disk image from tnfs.fujinet.online/games/poker/ 2. Launch the game — it connects automatically to the game server 3. Wait in the lobby for other players, or start a private table with friends 4. Play poker! The game handles all dealing, betting, and hand evaluation.

Fujitzee

A Yahtzee-style dice game, playable cross-platform against other FujiNet users.

Detail Info
Players 2–4
Platforms Atari 8-bit · Apple II · Commodore 64 · CoCo · Coleco ADAM
Type Turn-based dice game
Server game.fujinet.online (auto-configured)

How to play: 1. Load the Fujitzee disk image from tnfs.fujinet.online/games/fujitzee/ 2. Launch the game and join or create a room 3. Roll dice, choose scoring categories, and try to beat your opponents over 13 rounds

Playing with friends

Both games support private rooms — you create a room with a password and share it with friends so you can play together without joining a random public game.

Finding players

Join the #gaming channel in the FujiNet Discord to find other players to game with and organize sessions.

Developing a new multiplayer game

Interested in writing a new cross-platform multiplayer game? The pattern is well-established:

flowchart LR
    subgraph Game Client on Vintage Computer
        GC[Game Logic] --> ND[N: device\nTCP socket]
    end
    ND -->|JSON or binary protocol| GS[Game Server\nAny language · runs on modern PC/VPS]
    GS --> OC[Other players'\nN: devices]
  1. Write a lightweight server in Python, Go, or any language
  2. On the vintage side, open a TCP connection to the server via N:TCP://server:port
  3. Exchange game state as simple text or binary messages
  4. Implement the game client natively for each platform

The FujiNet community welcomes new game contributions — see Contributing for how to get involved.