Hey,

Mindoku Team has been working on a completely new game client for the past few months and today we are releasing the first beta version of it. Beta means that it should work nicely but might still have a few bugs.

Our first game room that the new client supports is Othello:

As you can see the new client looks and behaves similarly to the old Java applet version but has a few very important differences/improvements over the old version:

• It utilizes modern web standards (HTML5, Web Sockets, Canvas, etc) which are supported by modern browsers and therefore does not require any external plugins to work. It is very lightweight and starts instantly when you open up a game room. No more waiting until the browser launches the heavy Java Runtime Environment which is needed by the old game client.
• Soon you’ll be able to play in Mindoku with your tablet or a smartphone. Browsers for the mobile operating systems (iOS, Android, etc) do not support Java applets but they support new web standards and that makes it possible to use the new client on regular computers and also on mobile devices.
• The development is much simpler with the new client which means new features or changes can happen faster.

What are the modern browsers that support our new game client you ask? There are currently three of them:

• Mozilla Firefox version 11 and up
• Chromium version 16 and up (Google Chrome, SRWare Iron, etc)
• Safari version 6 and up

Currently only Othello gameroom supports the new client but we will be gradually adding support for other games too. The current game client that is built using the Java technology will be slowly phased out. You’ll still be able to use the Java applet client for some time but we won’t be adding new features to it.

We encourage you to try out the new client and let us know if you encounter any bugs. You can also tell us which game would you like implemented next with the new technology!

Cheers,

Mindoku Team

UPDATE: Opera has now released the version 12.10 which means that IE is the only major browser that has yet to implement support for previously mentioned web standards.

Hey,

We added a possibility to play Gomoku and Renju and Othello against a computer. To challenge a computer, just go to the gameroom and invite a user named “Computer” to play. There are two computer users in both gamerooms.

The reasons why we created this possibility are as follows:

• To create an option for beginners to try the games out without a risk of losing rating points.
• Possibility for advanced players to spend time when there is nobody else in the gameroom. You can also challenge yourself to find out how many moves you need to win the computer or if you could fill the whole gametable with buttons

There are only two computer players in those gamerooms because we prefer human players to play with each other (if there are 3 or more users) rather than with computers.

In the near future we’ll add this possibility also to:

• Entropy
• Lines of Action

Cheers,

Mindoku Team

Hey,

Now that the summer is slowly coming to an end, we will start rolling out updates and new features in a faster pace. The first one after two months of leisure time is sudoku records!

Here is a little piece of the new page:

It shows Mindoku’s fastest sudoku solvers and some interesting statistics. This example above are 9×9 easy sudoku records. In addition to the above visible columns, you’ll also be able to see the average solving time, when the record was achieved, how many sudokus has the user solved and the solving percentage (solved vs started sudokus).

Go ahead and check it out: sudoku records! (you’ll see the link to the records page on the games index page and in sudoku gameroom)

Cheers,

Mindoku Team

Hey,

We’ve just uploaded a few updates to Mindoku!

As you know, you can watch replays of all the played games (except Sudoku and Podkidnoi obviously). From today you can add comments to played games. You’ll find comments and a form to add a new one under the replay applet.

You can navigate to replays from several places:

• user profile view: click on “Games”, select an opponent and click “View games” and you’ll see replay links there;
• from game search: just click here and it will list all the played games in Mindoku including the replay link.

Cheers,

Mindoku Team

Hey,

In addition to the Daily sudoku TOP table, we now have a monthly standings table.

To monthly summary is calculated by summing up all the daily points. So, if you want to rank in the top, we recommend solving all the daily sudokus

Head on to the Sudoku room, to view the current standings!

Cheers,

Mindoku Team

Good news for Sudoku solvers!

We have added a new feature to the sudoku room – summary of solved daily sudokus. This table shows today’s fastest sudoku solvers. Each solved daily sudoku gives you points which are calculated using the formula: 

(fastest time)*100/(your time)

So, the maximum points for each type of sudoku is 100 and the overall is 900 since there are 9 types of sudokus. The table also shows how many 1st, 2nd and 3rd places you have that day.

See you in the sudoku room!

Cheers,

Mindoku Team

In addition to regular game standings (eg. chess standings or othello standings) we now have the “Mindgame TOP“. In short it reflects the best mindgame players in Mindoku.

It is calculated based on weighted ratings in five games: English Checkers, Chess, Gomoku, Othello and Sudoku. The weight of each rating is relative to the amount of players in specific game standings.

The formula of calculating the rating is as follows:

Rating = ((r1*num1) + (r2*num2) + … + (rN*numN)) / (num1 + num2 + … + numN)

Where:

• r1, r2, …, rN – User’s rating in a specific game
• num1, num2, …, numN – The amount of users in a specific game standings

How to get a mindgame rating?

Simple – you have to have a rating in each of the five games. If you haven’t already have a rating in each of the five games, go ahead and get it!

Cheers,

Mindoku Team