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  <title><![CDATA[Coconauts]]></title>
  <link href="http://coconauts.net/atom.xml" rel="self"/>
  <link href="http://coconauts.net/"/>
  <updated>2017-06-07T12:17:43+00:00</updated>
  <id>http://coconauts.net/</id>
  <author>
    <name><![CDATA[Coconauts]]></name>
    <email><![CDATA[admin@coconauts.net]]></email>
  </author>
  <generator uri="http://octopress.org/">Octopress</generator>

  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Bank Holiday Hackday: Escape Room on Unity3D]]></title>
    <link href="http://coconauts.net/blog/2017/05/29/bank-holiday-hackday-escape-room-on-unity3d/"/>
    <updated>2017-05-29T20:00:14+00:00</updated>
    <id>http://coconauts.net/blog/2017/05/29/bank-holiday-hackday-escape-room-on-unity3d</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>It&rsquo;s another bank holiday in England, and in Coconauts this means: hackday!</p>

<p>Last time we did an <a href="http://coconauts.net/blog/2017/05/01/infinify-an-infinite-discovery-mode-for-spotify/">infinite recommender for Spotify</a>,
and this time  we wanted to get started with a game concept that has been in our heads for a while: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_room">a escape room</a>.</p>

<p><img src="http://coconauts.net/images/posts/2017-05-29-escape-room/room.png" alt="Room" /></p>

<p>Our idea came after playing the <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/213460/unlock"><em>Unlock!</em> board game</a>,
which quite successfully recreates the experience of a scape room using just cards.
The only downside of the game is that after you&rsquo;ve solved each of the 3 rooms,
it looses the fun, as you already know the solution to the puzzles. So we though,
wouldn&rsquo;t it be cool to use this idea on a videogame, and have autogenerated puzzles
so that the fun never ends?</p>

<!-- more-->


<p>Lets not get overexcited though: we set as our first goal to design and implement a
static escape room puzzle, just to get familiar with the concept and the mechanics.
So that was the goal of today&rsquo;s hackday.</p>

<p>We started by brainstorming some ideas for items and fixtures in a possible
escape room. Then we started linking some of them together as dependencies,
following the <a href="http://grumpygamer.com/puzzle_dependency_charts">puzzle dependency graph technique</a>, that the good people at Lucasarts use to design their adventure games. It&rsquo;s surprisingly easy to start
doodling puzzles with this method!</p>

<p><img src="http://coconauts.net/images/posts/2017-05-29-escape-room/puzzle_whiteboard.png" alt="Puzzle whiteboarding" /></p>

<p>Then we got into implementing. We went for Unity3D, using fixed camera scenes for
the main room and each of the fixtures that we need to interact with. We
ended up having to dumb down a bit our original puzzle grahp design,
as otherwise we wouldn&rsquo;t have had time to implement it all in a day.</p>

<p>The end result is a short, but we hope that also clever escape room.
You can play right <a href="http://unity3d.coconauts.net/escaperoom/">here from your browser!</a></p>

<p><a href="http://unity3d.coconauts.net/escaperoom/"><img src="http://coconauts.net/images/posts/2017-05-29-escape-room/door.png"/></a></p>

<p>We are quite happy with the result. It&rsquo;s the first time we make a puzzler game
and it turns out it is very rewarding: usually physics is the most frustrating
part of game development, and you have none of that in here. Your mind can focus
on designing and thinking puzzles rather than on tricky implementations. And
the game is fun without having to spend a lot of time polishing the mechanics.</p>

<p>As stated, our MVP is linear (except for a couple of passwords which are
generated randomly), but we plan to pick this project again to try to turn
it into something generative next time. Stay tuned!</p>

<p><img src="http://coconauts.net/images/posts/2017-05-29-escape-room/tv.png" alt="TV" /></p>

<p>UPDATE: now <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.coconauts.escaperoomhack">also ported to Android!</a></p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Control Energenie With NodeMCU]]></title>
    <link href="http://coconauts.net/blog/2017/05/16/control-energenie-with-nodemcu/"/>
    <updated>2017-05-16T08:53:19+00:00</updated>
    <id>http://coconauts.net/blog/2017/05/16/control-energenie-with-nodemcu</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>You might have noticed, we like the concept of Smart Homes, and physical devices you can control remotely from an API using your local Wifi network. Specifically, we&rsquo;re talking about Energenie sockets, a brand of electrical sockets controlled by radio. We&rsquo;ve introduced previously these sockets in <a href="http://coconauts.net/blog/tags/energenie/">posts</a> like <a href="http://coconauts.net/blog/2017/03/10/control-energenie-with-esp8266/">Control Energenie with ESP8266</a>, <a href="http://coconauts.net/blog/2017/02/15/control-energenie-with-pebble/">Control energenie with Pebble</a> or <a href="http://coconauts.net/blog/2016/04/15/energinie-and-raspberry-pi-setup/">Raspberry Pi and Energenie</a> but this time, we&rsquo;re going to show you how we built the same Energenie radio controller with a NodeMCU web server.</p>

<p><img src="http://coconauts.net/images/posts/2017-05-16-energenie-nodemcu/board.jpg" alt="board" /></p>

<!-- more-->


<h2>NodeMCU</h2>

<p>NodeMCU is an open source IoT platform. It includes firmware which runs on the ESP8266 Wi-Fi SoC from Espressif Systems, and hardware which is based on the ESP-12 module. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NodeMCU">Source</a></p>

<p>The concept behind this is the same as our <a href="http://coconauts.net/blog/2017/03/10/control-energenie-with-esp8266/">ESP8266</a> implementation. But, there are a few advantages of using NodeMCU instead.</p>

<ul>
<li>Easier development</li>
<li>Lua scripting (easier than C++)</li>
<li>Standard 5V microusb power input</li>
<li>More stability (ESP8266 was constantly restarting (memory leak on C++?))</li>
<li>Easier wiring (No need for reset button or PIN0 hack)</li>
<li>More pins available than our previous <a href="http://www.esp8266.com/wiki/doku.php?id=esp8266-module-family">ESP-01</a> module (this is ESP-12)</li>
<li>Fully dedicated SDK (ESPlorer)</li>
</ul>


<p><img src="http://coconauts.net/images/posts/2017-05-16-energenie-nodemcu/esplorer.png" alt="esplorer" /></p>

<h2>Lua examples on NodeMCU</h2>

<p>Lua scripting is very simple and easy to learn. Similar to python at first, but without the alignment restriction; you use <code>end</code> tags to mark the end of a statement. These are a few examples</p>

<h3>LED blink</h3>

<figure class='code'><div class="highlight"><table><tr><td class="gutter"><pre class="line-numbers"><span class='line-number'>1</span>
<span class='line-number'>2</span>
<span class='line-number'>3</span>
<span class='line-number'>4</span>
<span class='line-number'>5</span>
<span class='line-number'>6</span>
<span class='line-number'>7</span>
<span class='line-number'>8</span>
<span class='line-number'>9</span>
<span class='line-number'>10</span>
</pre></td><td class='code'><pre><code class=''><span class='line'>LED_PIN = 4 -- Use pin 4
</span><span class='line'>gpio.mode(LED_PIN, gpio.OUTPUT)
</span><span class='line'>
</span><span class='line'>while true do
</span><span class='line'>   gpio.write(LED_PIN, gpio.HIGH)
</span><span class='line'>   tmr.delay(500 * 1000)
</span><span class='line'>
</span><span class='line'>   gpio.write(LED_PIN, gpio.LOW)
</span><span class='line'>   tmr.delay(500 * 1000)
</span><span class='line'>end</span></code></pre></td></tr></table></div></figure>


<p></p>

<h3>Web server</h3>

<figure class='code'><div class="highlight"><table><tr><td class="gutter"><pre class="line-numbers"><span class='line-number'>1</span>
<span class='line-number'>2</span>
<span class='line-number'>3</span>
<span class='line-number'>4</span>
<span class='line-number'>5</span>
<span class='line-number'>6</span>
<span class='line-number'>7</span>
<span class='line-number'>8</span>
<span class='line-number'>9</span>
<span class='line-number'>10</span>
<span class='line-number'>11</span>
<span class='line-number'>12</span>
<span class='line-number'>13</span>
<span class='line-number'>14</span>
<span class='line-number'>15</span>
<span class='line-number'>16</span>
<span class='line-number'>17</span>
<span class='line-number'>18</span>
<span class='line-number'>19</span>
<span class='line-number'>20</span>
<span class='line-number'>21</span>
<span class='line-number'>22</span>
<span class='line-number'>23</span>
<span class='line-number'>24</span>
<span class='line-number'>25</span>
<span class='line-number'>26</span>
<span class='line-number'>27</span>
<span class='line-number'>28</span>
<span class='line-number'>29</span>
<span class='line-number'>30</span>
<span class='line-number'>31</span>
<span class='line-number'>32</span>
<span class='line-number'>33</span>
<span class='line-number'>34</span>
<span class='line-number'>35</span>
<span class='line-number'>36</span>
<span class='line-number'>37</span>
<span class='line-number'>38</span>
<span class='line-number'>39</span>
</pre></td><td class='code'><pre><code class=''><span class='line'>wifi.setmode(wifi.STATION)
</span><span class='line'>wifi.sta.config("Marphus","fafafafafa")
</span><span class='line'>
</span><span class='line'>function check_wifi()
</span><span class='line'> local ip = wifi.sta.getip()
</span><span class='line'>
</span><span class='line'> if(ip==nil) then
</span><span class='line'>   print("Connecting...")
</span><span class='line'> else
</span><span class='line'>  tmr.stop(0)
</span><span class='line'>  print("Connected to AP!")
</span><span class='line'>  print(ip)  
</span><span class='line'> end
</span><span class='line'>end
</span><span class='line'>tmr.alarm(0,1000,1,check_wifi)
</span><span class='line'>
</span><span class='line'>srv=net.createServer(net.TCP)
</span><span class='line'>srv:listen(80,function(conn)
</span><span class='line'>    conn:on("receive", function(client,request)
</span><span class='line'>        local buf = "";
</span><span class='line'>        local _, _, method, path, vars = string.find(request, "([A-Z]+) (.+)?(.+) HTTP");
</span><span class='line'>        if(method == nil)then
</span><span class='line'>            _, _, method, path = string.find(request, "([A-Z]+) (.+) HTTP");
</span><span class='line'>        end
</span><span class='line'>        -- Store all the GET parameters in a table
</span><span class='line'>        local _GET = {}
</span><span class='line'>        if (vars ~= nil)then
</span><span class='line'>            for k, v in string.gmatch(vars, "(%w+)=(%w+)&*") do
</span><span class='line'>                _GET[k] = v
</span><span class='line'>            end
</span><span class='line'>        end
</span><span class='line'>
</span><span class='line'>        buf = buf.."&lt;h1&gt; ESP8266 Web Server&lt;/h1&gt;";
</span><span class='line'>       
</span><span class='line'>        client:send(buf);
</span><span class='line'>        client:close();
</span><span class='line'>        collectgarbage();
</span><span class='line'>    end)
</span><span class='line'>end)</span></code></pre></td></tr></table></div></figure>


<p>More examples are available on their <a href="http://nodemcu.com/index_en.html">official website</a></p>

<h2>Control radio energenie via web server</h2>

<p>In this script we will combine the previous web server with a simple function to send radio signals.</p>

<figure class='code'><div class="highlight"><table><tr><td class="gutter"><pre class="line-numbers"><span class='line-number'>1</span>
<span class='line-number'>2</span>
<span class='line-number'>3</span>
<span class='line-number'>4</span>
<span class='line-number'>5</span>
<span class='line-number'>6</span>
<span class='line-number'>7</span>
<span class='line-number'>8</span>
<span class='line-number'>9</span>
<span class='line-number'>10</span>
<span class='line-number'>11</span>
<span class='line-number'>12</span>
<span class='line-number'>13</span>
<span class='line-number'>14</span>
<span class='line-number'>15</span>
<span class='line-number'>16</span>
<span class='line-number'>17</span>
<span class='line-number'>18</span>
<span class='line-number'>19</span>
<span class='line-number'>20</span>
<span class='line-number'>21</span>
<span class='line-number'>22</span>
<span class='line-number'>23</span>
<span class='line-number'>24</span>
<span class='line-number'>25</span>
<span class='line-number'>26</span>
<span class='line-number'>27</span>
<span class='line-number'>28</span>
<span class='line-number'>29</span>
<span class='line-number'>30</span>
<span class='line-number'>31</span>
<span class='line-number'>32</span>
<span class='line-number'>33</span>
<span class='line-number'>34</span>
<span class='line-number'>35</span>
<span class='line-number'>36</span>
<span class='line-number'>37</span>
<span class='line-number'>38</span>
<span class='line-number'>39</span>
<span class='line-number'>40</span>
<span class='line-number'>41</span>
<span class='line-number'>42</span>
<span class='line-number'>43</span>
<span class='line-number'>44</span>
<span class='line-number'>45</span>
<span class='line-number'>46</span>
<span class='line-number'>47</span>
<span class='line-number'>48</span>
<span class='line-number'>49</span>
<span class='line-number'>50</span>
<span class='line-number'>51</span>
<span class='line-number'>52</span>
<span class='line-number'>53</span>
<span class='line-number'>54</span>
<span class='line-number'>55</span>
<span class='line-number'>56</span>
<span class='line-number'>57</span>
<span class='line-number'>58</span>
<span class='line-number'>59</span>
<span class='line-number'>60</span>
<span class='line-number'>61</span>
</pre></td><td class='code'><pre><code class=''><span class='line'>wifi.setmode(wifi.STATION)
</span><span class='line'>wifi.sta.config("SSID","password")
</span><span class='line'>
</span><span class='line'>function check_wifi()
</span><span class='line'> local ip = wifi.sta.getip()
</span><span class='line'>
</span><span class='line'> if(ip==nil) then
</span><span class='line'>   print("Connecting...")
</span><span class='line'> else
</span><span class='line'>  tmr.stop(0)
</span><span class='line'>  print("Connected to AP!")
</span><span class='line'>  print(ip)  
</span><span class='line'> end
</span><span class='line'>end
</span><span class='line'>
</span><span class='line'>tmr.alarm(0,1000,1,check_wifi)
</span><span class='line'>
</span><span class='line'>RADIO_PIN = 4
</span><span class='line'>gpio.mode(RADIO_PIN, gpio.OUTPUT)
</span><span class='line'>
</span><span class='line'>function sendCode(code)
</span><span class='line'>    print("Sending radio code " .. code) 
</span><span class='line'>  rc.send(RADIO_PIN,code,24,185,1,2) --Sends the data via GPIO pin 4 to the rc switch.
</span><span class='line'>end
</span><span class='line'>
</span><span class='line'>srv=net.createServer(net.TCP)
</span><span class='line'>srv:listen(80,function(conn)
</span><span class='line'>    conn:on("receive", function(client,request)
</span><span class='line'>        local buf = "";
</span><span class='line'>        local _, _, method, path, vars = string.find(request, "([A-Z]+) (.+)?(.+) HTTP");
</span><span class='line'>        if(method == nil)then
</span><span class='line'>            _, _, method, path = string.find(request, "([A-Z]+) (.+) HTTP");
</span><span class='line'>        end
</span><span class='line'>        local _GET = {}
</span><span class='line'>        if (vars ~= nil)then
</span><span class='line'>            for k, v in string.gmatch(vars, "(%w+)=(%w+)&*") do
</span><span class='line'>                _GET[k] = v
</span><span class='line'>                print("Got parameter " .. k .. ": " .. v)
</span><span class='line'>            end
</span><span class='line'>        end
</span><span class='line'>        buf = buf.."&lt;h1&gt; ESP8266 Radio Web Server&lt;/h1&gt;";
</span><span class='line'>        local radiofreq = {
</span><span class='line'>             ["Socket 1"] = {on= 6916877, off= 6916878},
</span><span class='line'>             ["Socket 2"] = {on= 6916871, off= 6916870},
</span><span class='line'>             ["Socket 3"] = {on= 6916875, off= 6916874},
</span><span class='line'>             ["Socket 4"] = {on= 6916867, off= 6916866}
</span><span class='line'>        }
</span><span class='line'>        for k, v in pairs(radiofreq) do 
</span><span class='line'>            buf = buf.."&lt;p&gt;" .. k .. "&lt;a href=\"?f=" ..v["on"] .."\"&gt;&lt;button&gt;ON&lt;/button&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&nbsp;&lt;a href=\"?f="..v["off"].."\"&gt;&lt;button&gt;OFF&lt;/button&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;";
</span><span class='line'>        end 
</span><span class='line'>       
</span><span class='line'>        local _on,_off = "",""
</span><span class='line'>        
</span><span class='line'>        if( _GET.f ~= nil)then
</span><span class='line'>              sendCode(_GET.f)
</span><span class='line'>        end
</span><span class='line'>        client:send(buf);
</span><span class='line'>        client:close();
</span><span class='line'>        collectgarbage();
</span><span class='line'>    end)
</span><span class='line'>end)
</span></code></pre></td></tr></table></div></figure>


<p><img src="http://coconauts.net/images/posts/2017-05-16-energenie-nodemcu/server.png" alt="server" /></p>

<p>Again, as always, our code and all the details about this project are available on <a href="https://github.com/rephus/nodemcu-radio">Github</a></p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Infinify: An Infinite Discovery Mode for Spotify]]></title>
    <link href="http://coconauts.net/blog/2017/05/01/infinify-an-infinite-discovery-mode-for-spotify/"/>
    <updated>2017-05-01T18:13:37+00:00</updated>
    <id>http://coconauts.net/blog/2017/05/01/infinify-an-infinite-discovery-mode-for-spotify</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>I&rsquo;m a Spotify user. I&rsquo;m not the greatest fan of the user experience they offer, but it&rsquo;s definitely the &ldquo;lesser evil&rdquo; when it comes to music streaming.</p>

<p>You see, I&rsquo;m the kind of person that just cant be bothered to choose, I <em>loathe</em>
choosing. Deciding albums to hear? What are we, in the 90s? with phisical CDs that
need popping into a player? It&rsquo;s the digital age! I just want to open Spotify
and be presented with a continuous stream of non-stop music,
wihout having the choose an album, or a genre, or a playlist.
They even require my constant feedback when in radio mode!
(don&rsquo;t even get me started on the Spotify radio, <em>yuck</em>).
I just want a big &ldquo;play&rdquo; button and let Spotify use a teeny bit of
machine intelligence to feed me stuff that it thinks I might like.
Considering the app is sitting on top of a pile of data from me
(listening history, saved collection)&hellip; is it really that hard?</p>

<p>Because Spotify is not giving that to me though, we at Coconauts decided to
build it ourselves, using their API and Javascript. The result: Infinify.</p>

<p><img src="http://coconauts.net/images/posts/2017-05-01-infinify/infinify.png" alt="Infinify" /></p>

<!-- more-->


<h2>What is it?</h2>

<p>Infinify is a website with a huge &ldquo;play&rdquo; button, that feeds on your
Spotify saved collection to produce a continuous mix of tracks from your
own music plus recommendations.</p>

<h2>How does it work?</h2>

<p>Spotify exposes <a href="https://developer.spotify.com/web-api/get-recommendations/">a very powerful <code>/recommendations</code> endpoint on their API</a>,
which I reckon plugs into <a href="https://qz.com/571007/the-magic-that-makes-spotifys-discover-weekly-playlists-so-damn-good/">the same magic that is powering their discovery modes</a>.</p>

<p>The <code>/recommendations</code> endpoint instantly gives you a list of recommended tracks,
given a seed of a list of songs, artists or genres. You can even tune a bunch of
crazy parameters, such as <em>danceability</em>, <em>energy</em> or <em>popularity</em>. It&rsquo;s quite amazing.</p>

<p>The problem though is that the recommendations output is finite (capped at 100 results),
whereas we want a continuous flow of recommendations.</p>

<p>Another problem with it, which is also noticiable in their discovery modes,
is that it tries too hard to give you music that is similar to <em>all</em> of your seeds.
Wha this means is: if you seed it with some classical music, heavy metal and jazz,
it&rsquo;s going to try to return tracks that are strange chimaeras mixing all of those
traits, rather than giving you a mixed bag of more conventional tracks in those genres.
In other words: it&rsquo;s an <em>and</em>, not an <em>or</em>. Now, this might actually be what you want
in some occasions, but when it comes to recommending music to people it doesn&rsquo;t work:
if I like John Williams and Queen I want to be recommended Danny Elfman and Van Halen,
not &ldquo;Some Orchestra Plays Very Bland Rock Classics&rdquo;.</p>

<p><img src="http://coconauts.net/images/posts/2017-05-01-infinify/epicrock.png" alt="Infinify" /></p>

<p>So our solution involves working around the endpoint, using in a bit unorthodox way:</p>

<ol>
<li>Fetch a random single song from the user&rsquo;s saved music collection.</li>
<li>Use this song&rsquo;s artist as a seed to the <code>/recommendations</code> endpoint. Get a small X number of songs back.</li>
<li>Pick a random song from the response, and add it to a playlist.</li>
<li>Repeat the above every 2 minutes.</li>
</ol>


<p>In this fashion, the result is a Spotify playlist that is continuously growing
with fresh recommendations (for as long as the the website remains open).</p>

<p>We use the artist as a seed, rather than the song, so that you can still get
a chance of getting the songs you already have in your library and love.</p>

<p>The seed is started from a single song to try to get purer recommendations, rather
than strange blends. We then produce X recommendations and pick one. Why?
Well, we experienced that the first item in the results is always a song by the
same artist that your seed, and this doesn&rsquo;t give you much variety. So by producing
several and then picking one of them, you get a delicious balance: you&rsquo;ll get a
certain chance to get songs by the same artists in your library, but them a slightly
bigger chance to get related artists (that may or not be in your library).</p>

<p>This X number of tracks is what we call the <em>discoverability</em> parameter, and
you can toggle it between 1 (&ldquo;I just want the artists I know and love&rdquo;) and 10
(in which approximately 9 in every 10 songs will be new, and 1 will be familiar).</p>

<p><img src="http://coconauts.net/images/posts/2017-05-01-infinify/discoverability.png" alt="Infinify" /></p>

<h2>The ugly bits</h2>

<p>Unfortunately there are some limitations that make the user experience a bit rough.
For starters, the fact that you need to have an external web application to start
the infinfy playlist. Spotify <a href="https://developer.spotify.com/technologies/apps/">scrapped their in-app extensions</a> some years ago,
so the only way to add integration nowdays is by keeping them completely external.</p>

<p>It would be possible to stream the audio directly to the webapp, but only 30-second
samples: not acceptable. So you need Spotify for playback, and the webapp for the
integration.</p>

<p>You can at least <a href="https://developer.spotify.com/web-api/start-a-users-playback/">control the playback on a device via the API</a>, you need to
have a premium account for that. So if you don&rsquo;t, you need to hit the play button
twice: once on infinify, once on the app.</p>

<p>Another uglyness is that we found no way via the API to be able to track the
listening progress of the user on the playlist. This made it quite difficult to
determine when we should add and remove tracks from the playlist.
After trying some nasty kludges, we decided for a straigghtforward solution:
just add new songs every 2 minutes, and keep the old ones there. They don&rsquo;t
bother you after all! (in fact, its kinda nice to have a record of your
listening session) and there&rsquo;s no problem on Spotify even if the playlist
gets absurdly long.</p>

<p>The only edge case is if you run out of songs in the
playlist: for this eventuality we added a little <code>(+)</code> button to force a manual
generation. When you start a new session the playlist gets reset, as it would be
confusing to have the long list of tracks from last time.</p>

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_ge4n9zmTRQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


<p>Because the way we are abusing the <code>/recommendations</code> endpoint, ours is
not the most rate-friendly solution. However, it&rsquo;s also not that bad: our load
is 4 or 5 requests every 2 minutes, which still falls within reasonable limits,
at least if we keep it to only one user.</p>

<h2>Final remarks</h2>

<p>For recommender engines, and in general many AI problems, there&rsquo;s usually
a rule: a naive, straightforward solution can take you 60-80% there.
Then any increases on that number will require years of PhD research.</p>

<p>Infinify is a very simple solution, but surprisingly, also very effective! I was
very pleased with the quality of recommendations, and how you can still get
a mix of familiar and new. Of course, most of the
heavy lifting comes from the magic behind the <code>/recommendations</code> engine,
but I&rsquo;m happy that we could bend it to overcome it&rsquo;s limitations.</p>

<p>For now, I intend to use it heavily for a while and see if it still satisfy me,
or if recommendations start getting a bit repetitive. In such case, I might start
tunning the algorithim to try more variability (for instance, going for
multi-level recommendations from recommendations).</p>

<p>You can get the code for Infinify <a href="https://github.com/coconauts/infinify">on Github</a>.</p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Water Ring Simulator]]></title>
    <link href="http://coconauts.net/blog/2017/03/27/water-rings-simulator/"/>
    <updated>2017-03-27T10:12:19+00:00</updated>
    <id>http://coconauts.net/blog/2017/03/27/water-rings-simulator</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>We have more projects that posts in the blog, that&rsquo;s why a long ago we created a new new version of our first-game-ever: Water Rings.</p>

<iframe width="560" height="560" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5VBlgFSvP_w" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>




<!--more-->


<p>Water Rings Simulator is the new version of the classic toy game on Unity3d exlusive for Android.</p>

<p>This game features:</p>

<ul>
<li>Realisitc underwater physics</li>
<li>3D graphics</li>
<li>Mobile movement detection</li>
<li>Realistic visual effects</li>
<li>Transparent phone background (using camera to see behind it)</li>
<li>It&rsquo;s FREE!</li>
</ul>


<p><img src="http://coconauts.net/images/posts/2017-04-20-water-rings-simulator/transparent.png" alt="game screenshot" /></p>

<p>Download the game for free on the <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.coconauts.water3d">Android Play Store</a></p>

<p>Do you want us to keep expanding the game? let us know in the comments</p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Github PR Tracker]]></title>
    <link href="http://coconauts.net/blog/2017/03/27/github-pr-tracker/"/>
    <updated>2017-03-27T10:12:19+00:00</updated>
    <id>http://coconauts.net/blog/2017/03/27/github-pr-tracker</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>Sometimes I feel like following changes on PRs on Github is a bit confusing and/or verbose, even with the existing <a href="https://github.com/notifications">Github notifications</a>
 or <a href="https://github.com/pulls">Github pulls</a> interfaces, sometimes the best way was to check your email inbox.</p>

<p>So I decided to create my own <a href="https://github.com/rephus/Github-PR-tracker">Github PR tracker</a>
for my own Pull Requests, but also for those that I&rsquo;m assigned to.</p>

<p><img src="http://coconauts.net/images/posts/2017-03-27-github-pr-tracker/screen.png" alt="github pr tracker" /></p>

<!-- more-->


<h2>Features</h2>

<ul>
<li><p>Group pull requests by title, that will allow me to easily visualize changes related between microservices (in different github repos)</p></li>
<li><p>Visual &ldquo;Red dot&rdquo; on those Pull requests that have been updated since you refreshed the page:
comment added, commit made, opened pull request&hellip;</p></li>
<li><p>Get quick access to all your relevant PRs, only pin this page on your browser,
and forget about dozens of opened tabs or bookmarks.</p></li>
</ul>


<h2>How to use</h2>

<p>First pull the repo from <a href="https://github.com/rephus/Github-PR-tracker">here</a>.</p>

<p>Then you need to create a
<a href="https://github.com/settings/tokens">Github personal access token</a>
and use it on the input text on the search (or modify the index.html to add the default value)</p>

<p>Easy and simple.</p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Control Energenie With ESP8266]]></title>
    <link href="http://coconauts.net/blog/2017/03/10/control-energenie-with-esp8266/"/>
    <updated>2017-03-10T21:30:19+00:00</updated>
    <id>http://coconauts.net/blog/2017/03/10/control-energenie-with-esp8266</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>We recently showed you how to control <a href="http://coconauts.net/blog/2017/02/15/control-energenie-with-pebble/">Energenie sockets using Pebble smartwatch app</a>,
thanks to a <a href="http://coconauts.net/blog/2016/04/15/energinie-and-raspberry-pi-setup/">Raspberry PI</a> REST API.</p>

<p>But we recently found this <a href="https://github.com/cjdell/esp-rf-switch">Github repo</a>
about how to use a generic 433Mhz radio module with an ESP8266  to control Energenie sockets.</p>

<!--more-->


<p>So we decided to replace our Raspberry setup with this cheaper, smaller, portable and scalabe solution.</p>

<p>All you need is an ESP8266 and this tiny and cheap radio module</p>

<p><img src="http://coconauts.net/images/posts/2017-02-16-control-energenie-esp8266/radio-transmitter.png" alt="radio-transmitter" /></p>

<p>In order to build this</p>

<p><img src="http://coconauts.net/images/posts/2017-02-16-control-energenie-esp8266/hardware.png" alt="hardware" /></p>

<p>The detailed guide and schemas about how to do it is on our <a href="https://github.com/rephus/esp8266-energenie-switch">own Github repo</a></p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Smart Staircase LED Lighting With Arduino and IR Sensors]]></title>
    <link href="http://coconauts.net/blog/2017/02/21/stair-lights/"/>
    <updated>2017-02-21T20:52:19+00:00</updated>
    <id>http://coconauts.net/blog/2017/02/21/stair-lights</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>For a long time, we&rsquo;ve been turning on the lights at the beginning the staircase,
just to turn them off when we reach another floor.</p>

<p>But instead, we built a simple system to turn them ON automatically when you are going upstairs or downstairs,
just by using a couple of IR proximity sensors, a relay and an Arduino Pro Mini, to control the timing.</p>

<p>Featured on <a href="https://www.instructables.com/id/Smart-Staircase-LED-Lighting/">Instructables</a> !!</p>

<!--more-->




<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Smart staircase LED lighting with <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Arduino?src=hash">#Arduino</a> and IR sensors <a href="https://t.co/ns5zh2r8tQ">pic.twitter.com/ns5zh2r8tQ</a></p>&mdash; Javi Rengel (@rephus) <a href="https://twitter.com/rephus/status/830460205699854336">February 11, 2017</a></blockquote>


<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


<p>If you want to build your own, just follow our guide.</p>

<h2>Shopping list</h2>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Smart-car-robot-E18-D80NK-infrared-obstacle-avoidance-sensor-proximity-switch-3-80cm-adjustable-Free-Shipping/32396659854.html">IR proximity sensor</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-Shipping-new-version-2pcs-lot-Pro-Mini-328-Mini-ATMEGA328-5V-16MHz-for-Arduino/1731218090.html">Arduino Pro Mini</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1pc-1-Channel-5V-Optocoupler-Driver-Relay-Module-High-Level-for-Arduino-top-quality/32638202870.html">Relay</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-Shipping-SMD5050-12V-flexible-light-60-leds-m-LED-strips-5m-lot-White-Blue-Green/1599651146.html">5m LED strip</a></li>
</ul>


<p>You can optionally use a power converter (from 12v to 5v) if you want to take advantage of the 12v input to power your Arduino and sensors.</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1Pc-DC-to-DC-12V-to-5V-3A-15W-Auto-Car-Power-Converter-Regulator-Adapter-for/32702720703.html">12v to 5v converter</a></li>
</ul>


<h2>Schema</h2>

<p><img src="http://coconauts.net/images/posts/2017-02-18-stair-lights/schema.png" alt="schema" /></p>

<h2>Arduino code</h2>

<figure class='code'><div class="highlight"><table><tr><td class="gutter"><pre class="line-numbers"><span class='line-number'>1</span>
<span class='line-number'>2</span>
<span class='line-number'>3</span>
<span class='line-number'>4</span>
<span class='line-number'>5</span>
<span class='line-number'>6</span>
<span class='line-number'>7</span>
<span class='line-number'>8</span>
<span class='line-number'>9</span>
<span class='line-number'>10</span>
<span class='line-number'>11</span>
<span class='line-number'>12</span>
<span class='line-number'>13</span>
<span class='line-number'>14</span>
<span class='line-number'>15</span>
<span class='line-number'>16</span>
<span class='line-number'>17</span>
<span class='line-number'>18</span>
<span class='line-number'>19</span>
<span class='line-number'>20</span>
<span class='line-number'>21</span>
<span class='line-number'>22</span>
<span class='line-number'>23</span>
<span class='line-number'>24</span>
<span class='line-number'>25</span>
<span class='line-number'>26</span>
</pre></td><td class='code'><pre><code class=''><span class='line'>#define IR_RECEIVER 8
</span><span class='line'>#define RELAY 10
</span><span class='line'>
</span><span class='line'>void setup() {
</span><span class='line'>  // initialize digital pin LED_BUILTIN as an output.
</span><span class='line'>    pinMode(RELAY, OUTPUT);
</span><span class='line'>  digitalWrite(RELAY, LOW);
</span><span class='line'>
</span><span class='line'>}
</span><span class='line'>
</span><span class='line'>// the loop function runs over and over again forever
</span><span class='line'>void loop() {
</span><span class='line'>
</span><span class='line'>  int sensorValue = digitalRead(IR_RECEIVER);
</span><span class='line'>  // print out the value you read:
</span><span class='line'>  delay(10);        // delay in between reads for stability
</span><span class='line'>
</span><span class='line'>  if (sensorValue == 0 ) {
</span><span class='line'>    digitalWrite(RELAY, HIGH);   // turn the LED on (HIGH is the voltage level)
</span><span class='line'>    delay(5000);
</span><span class='line'>  }
</span><span class='line'>  else {
</span><span class='line'>    digitalWrite(RELAY, LOW);
</span><span class='line'>
</span><span class='line'>  }
</span><span class='line'>}</span></code></pre></td></tr></table></div></figure>


<h2>Images</h2>

<p><img src="http://coconauts.net/images/posts/2017-02-18-stair-lights/arduino.jpg" alt="arduino" />
<img src="http://coconauts.net/images/posts/2017-02-18-stair-lights/upstairs.jpg" alt="upstairs" />
<img src="http://coconauts.net/images/posts/2017-02-18-stair-lights/downstairs.jpg" alt="downstairs" /></p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Coconauts Podcast S1E1 (en Español)]]></title>
    <link href="http://coconauts.net/blog/2017/02/19/coconauts-podcast-e1s1-en-espanol/"/>
    <updated>2017-02-19T20:00:14+00:00</updated>
    <id>http://coconauts.net/blog/2017/02/19/coconauts-podcast-e1s1-en-espanol</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>Note: today&rsquo;s post is about our podcast in spanish.
But don&rsquo;t worry, we&rsquo;ll be back to english on the next post!</p>

<p>¡Ya está aqui la segunda entrega de nuestro podcast!</p>

<iframe id='audio_17098008' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen='' scrolling='no' height='200' style='border:1px solid #EEE; box-sizing:border-box; width:100%;' src="https://www.ivoox.com/player_ej_17098008_4_1.html?c1=ff6600"></iframe>


<p>En este episodio hablamos de:</p>

<ul>
<li>Noticias: el outage de Gitlab, Steam cierra Greenlight, RethinkDB y Cloud Spanner, Gameband.</li>
<li>Yo he venido aquí a hablar de mi libro: la psicología de los objetos cotidianos de Don Norman</li>
<li>Debate: frameworks de desarrollo de videojuegos</li>
</ul>


<!--more-->


<p>Enlaces relacionados:</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://about.gitlab.com/2017/02/10/postmortem-of-database-outage-of-january-31/">Gitlab outage postmortem</a></li>
<li><a href="http://steamcommunity.com/greenlight/discussions/18446744073709551615/133256758580075301/">Steam greenlight</a></li>
<li><a href="https://rethinkdb.com/blog/rethinkdb-joins-linux-foundation/">RethinkDB</a></li>
<li><a href="https://cloudplatform.googleblog.com/2017/02/introducing-Cloud-Spanner-a-global-database-service-for-mission-critical-applications.html">Google Cloud Spanner</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gameband/gameband-the-first-smartwatch-for-gamers?ref=category_newest">Gameband</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtgR1YiwnEY">Watchduino</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.es/psicolog%C3%ADa-objetos-cotidianos-Serie-Media/dp/8415042019">La psicologia de los objetos cotidianos</a></li>
<li><a href="http://coconauts.net/blog/2017/01/09/2d-game-framework-comparison/">Comparativa de game frameworks</a></li>
</ul>


<p>Música de <a href="http://jukedeck.com">http://jukedeck.com</a></p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[RPS: A Phaser.io Simple RTS]]></title>
    <link href="http://coconauts.net/blog/2017/02/18/rps-a-phaser-io-simple-rts/"/>
    <updated>2017-02-18T11:57:19+00:00</updated>
    <id>http://coconauts.net/blog/2017/02/18/rps-a-phaser-io-simple-rts</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>If you follow <a href="http://twitter.com/rephus">me</a> or <a href="http://twitter.com/coconauts">Coconauts</a> on Twitter, you might have seen some
GIFs about an RTS game we&rsquo;re developing on Phaser.io.</p>

<p>Codename: RPS (Rock, Paper, Scissors). Is a simple RTS (Real Strategy Game)
we&rsquo;re building using the Phaser.io framework for HTML5 games.</p>

<p>We aim to have a fun and complete game, with campaign, multiplayer
and with a fresh interface, compatible with mobile and touch devices.</p>

<p>The main selling point are its simple but effective mechanics.
Forget about hundreds of different units with their own powerups, multiple buildings,
or advanced research.</p>

<!--more-->


<p>This is some of the recent progress we&rsquo;ve made in the last 2-3 weeks.</p>

<ul>
<li>Minimap</li>
</ul>


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Added a Minimap (bottom-rigth) to our game. It was easier than I expected <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/gamedev?src=hash">#gamedev</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/phaserIo?src=hash">#phaserIo</a> <a href="https://t.co/A0ATvb5ZxM">pic.twitter.com/A0ATvb5ZxM</a></p>&mdash; Coconauts (@coconauts) <a href="https://twitter.com/coconauts/status/826728173996015616">February 1, 2017</a></blockquote>


<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


<ul>
<li>Simple AI, sight area, and new map</li>
</ul>


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Big progress on our RTS game in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/phaserio?src=hash">#phaserio</a>: simple AI, sight area, new map and more! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/gamedev?src=hash">#gamedev</a> <a href="https://t.co/jnxwofvm5c">pic.twitter.com/jnxwofvm5c</a></p>&mdash; Coconauts (@coconauts) <a href="https://twitter.com/coconauts/status/826161939478872069">January 30, 2017</a></blockquote>


<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


<ul>
<li>Emojis dialogs</li>
</ul>


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Express yourself with in-game emojis <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/gamedev?src=hash">#gamedev</a> <a href="https://t.co/l6RoYpmrrm">pic.twitter.com/l6RoYpmrrm</a></p>&mdash; Javi Rengel (@rephus) <a href="https://twitter.com/rephus/status/825682597170786304">January 29, 2017</a></blockquote>


<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


<p>If you want to follow these updates closely, checkout our <a href="http://coconauts.net/projects/rps">Project page</a></p>

<p>And let us know if you want to give us feedback about how to improve the game !</p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Smart Staircase LED Lighting With Arduino and IR Sensors]]></title>
    <link href="http://coconauts.net/blog/2017/02/18/stair-lights/"/>
    <updated>2017-02-18T10:42:19+00:00</updated>
    <id>http://coconauts.net/blog/2017/02/18/stair-lights</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>For a long time, we&rsquo;ve been turning on the lights at the beginning the staircase,
just to turn them off when we reach another floor.</p>

<p>But instead, we built a simple system to turn them ON automatically when you are going upstairs or downstairs,
just by using a couple of IR proximity sensors, a relay and an Arduino Pro Mini, to control the timing.</p>

<!--more-->




<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Smart staircase LED lighting with <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Arduino?src=hash">#Arduino</a> and IR sensors <a href="https://t.co/ns5zh2r8tQ">pic.twitter.com/ns5zh2r8tQ</a></p>&mdash; Javi Rengel (@rephus) <a href="https://twitter.com/rephus/status/830460205699854336">February 11, 2017</a></blockquote>


<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


<p>If you want to build your own, just follow our guide.</p>

<h2>Shopping list</h2>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Smart-car-robot-E18-D80NK-infrared-obstacle-avoidance-sensor-proximity-switch-3-80cm-adjustable-Free-Shipping/32396659854.html">IR proximity sensor</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-Shipping-new-version-2pcs-lot-Pro-Mini-328-Mini-ATMEGA328-5V-16MHz-for-Arduino/1731218090.html">Arduino Pro Mini</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1pc-1-Channel-5V-Optocoupler-Driver-Relay-Module-High-Level-for-Arduino-top-quality/32638202870.html">Relay</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-Shipping-SMD5050-12V-flexible-light-60-leds-m-LED-strips-5m-lot-White-Blue-Green/1599651146.html">5m LED strip</a></li>
</ul>


<p>You can optionally use a power converter (from 12v to 5v) if you want to take advantage of the 12v input to power your Arduino and sensors.</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1Pc-DC-to-DC-12V-to-5V-3A-15W-Auto-Car-Power-Converter-Regulator-Adapter-for/32702720703.html">12v to 5v converter</a></li>
</ul>


<h2>Schema</h2>

<p><img src="http://coconauts.net/images/posts/2017-02-18-stair-lights/schema.png" alt="schema" /></p>

<h2>Arduino code</h2>

<figure class='code'><div class="highlight"><table><tr><td class="gutter"><pre class="line-numbers"><span class='line-number'>1</span>
<span class='line-number'>2</span>
<span class='line-number'>3</span>
<span class='line-number'>4</span>
<span class='line-number'>5</span>
<span class='line-number'>6</span>
<span class='line-number'>7</span>
<span class='line-number'>8</span>
<span class='line-number'>9</span>
<span class='line-number'>10</span>
<span class='line-number'>11</span>
<span class='line-number'>12</span>
<span class='line-number'>13</span>
<span class='line-number'>14</span>
<span class='line-number'>15</span>
<span class='line-number'>16</span>
<span class='line-number'>17</span>
<span class='line-number'>18</span>
<span class='line-number'>19</span>
<span class='line-number'>20</span>
<span class='line-number'>21</span>
<span class='line-number'>22</span>
<span class='line-number'>23</span>
<span class='line-number'>24</span>
<span class='line-number'>25</span>
<span class='line-number'>26</span>
</pre></td><td class='code'><pre><code class=''><span class='line'>#define IR_RECEIVER 8
</span><span class='line'>#define RELAY 10
</span><span class='line'>
</span><span class='line'>void setup() {
</span><span class='line'>  // initialize digital pin LED_BUILTIN as an output.
</span><span class='line'>    pinMode(RELAY, OUTPUT);
</span><span class='line'>  digitalWrite(RELAY, LOW);
</span><span class='line'>
</span><span class='line'>}
</span><span class='line'>
</span><span class='line'>// the loop function runs over and over again forever
</span><span class='line'>void loop() {
</span><span class='line'>
</span><span class='line'>  int sensorValue = digitalRead(IR_RECEIVER);
</span><span class='line'>  // print out the value you read:
</span><span class='line'>  delay(10);        // delay in between reads for stability
</span><span class='line'>
</span><span class='line'>  if (sensorValue == 0 ) {
</span><span class='line'>    digitalWrite(RELAY, HIGH);   // turn the LED on (HIGH is the voltage level)
</span><span class='line'>    delay(5000);
</span><span class='line'>  }
</span><span class='line'>  else {
</span><span class='line'>    digitalWrite(RELAY, LOW);
</span><span class='line'>
</span><span class='line'>  }
</span><span class='line'>}</span></code></pre></td></tr></table></div></figure>


<h2>Images</h2>

<p><img src="http://coconauts.net/images/posts/2017-02-18-stair-lights/arduino.jpg" alt="arduino" />
<img src="http://coconauts.net/images/posts/2017-02-18-stair-lights/upstairs.jpg" alt="upstairs" />
<img src="http://coconauts.net/images/posts/2017-02-18-stair-lights/downstairs.jpg" alt="downstairs" /></p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Control Energenie With Pebble]]></title>
    <link href="http://coconauts.net/blog/2017/02/15/control-energenie-with-pebble/"/>
    <updated>2017-02-15T10:42:19+00:00</updated>
    <id>http://coconauts.net/blog/2017/02/15/control-energenie-with-pebble</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>Last year I got a cheap Pebble smartwatch
<a href="https://twitter.com/rephus/status/806522854699372546">just days before the company was sold to Fitbit</a></p>

<p>One of the reasons was to play with it building our custom apps,
so we built an app to control our Energenie sockets from the watch,
sending HTTP requests to a Raspberry PI with the official radio module from Energenie.</p>

<p>All you need, apart form the pebble is a Raspberry PI to send the radio signal from a REST API to a Energenie socket.
Check how to do it <a href="http://coconauts.net/blog/2016/04/15/energinie-and-raspberry-pi-setup/">on our previous post</a>.</p>

<p>You can see it in action <a href="https://twitter.com/rephus/status/810630836697649152">here</a>.</p>

<!--more-->




<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Turning on Christmas from my pebble watch app and energenie sockets. <a href="https://t.co/XvtuQGs6h0">pic.twitter.com/XvtuQGs6h0</a></p>&mdash; Javi Rengel (@rephus) <a href="https://twitter.com/rephus/status/810630836697649152">December 18, 2016</a></blockquote>


<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


<p>The source code is availabe on <a href="https://github.com/rephus/pebble-energenie">this repo</a></p>

<p>We might try to build a game using the gyroscope in the future,
do you have any other ideas?</p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Coconauts Podcast Pilot (en Español)]]></title>
    <link href="http://coconauts.net/blog/2017/02/07/coconauts-podcast-pilot/"/>
    <updated>2017-02-07T20:37:11+00:00</updated>
    <id>http://coconauts.net/blog/2017/02/07/coconauts-podcast-pilot</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>Note: today&rsquo;s post is about a podcast we&rsquo;ve started in spanish.
But don&rsquo;t worry, we&rsquo;ll be back to english on the next post!</p>

<p>Con ustedes, ¡el episodio piloto del podcast de Coconauts!</p>

<iframe id='audio_16881889' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen='' scrolling='no' height='200' style='border:1px solid #EEE; box-sizing:border-box; width:100%;' src="https://gb.ivoox.com/es/player_ej_16881889_4_1.html?c1=ff6600"></iframe>


<p>Ultimamente, dado que vamos al trabajo en un trayecto largo en tren, nos hemos
enganchado a escuchar podcasts (mayormente de videojuegos). Sin embargo,
no hemos encontrado ningun podcast de tecnologia o desarrollo en español
que nos guste, así que nos hemos planteado ¿por qué no intentar llenar el hueco?</p>

<!--more-->


<p>Nuestro plan con el podcast es un poco tratar los mismos temas que en el blog
(desarrollo software, hardware y de juegos) con una serie de seciones
mas o menos fijas.</p>

<p>En este episodio piloto hablamos de:</p>

<ul>
<li>Noticias: Zenimax vs Oculus, Asus Tinkerboard, Libretaxi y cancelacion de Scalebound.</li>
<li>Yo he venido aqui a hablar de mi libro: Masters of Doom</li>
<li>Debate: creatividad computacional</li>
</ul>


<p>¡Esperamos que lo disfruteis! No dudeis en dejarnos comentarios aqui mismo,
en nuestro email, o en nuestra cuenta de twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/coconauts">@coconauts</a>.</p>

<p>Enlaces relacionados:</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.polygon.com/2017/2/1/14474198/oculus-lawsuit-verdict">Oculus vs Zenimax</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.engadget.com/2017/01/23/asus-tinker-board/">Asus Tinkerboard</a></li>
<li><a href="https://medium.com/@romanpushkin/how-i-made-uber-like-app-in-no-time-with-javascript-and-secret-sauce-94ef9120c7f6#.cc6jss25p">Libretaxi (making of)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://uk.ign.com/articles/2017/01/11/scalebound-cancellation-developers-comment-on-the-situation">Desarrolladores de scalebound sobre su cancelacion</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.es/Masters-Doom-Created-Transformed-Culture/dp/0749924896/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1486501773&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=masters+of+doom">Masters of Doom</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY2FPWWc_Sk">Jukedeck @ London Techcrunch Disrupt 2015</a></li>
</ul>

]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[2D Game Framework Comparison: Defold vs Phaser vs Game Maker]]></title>
    <link href="http://coconauts.net/blog/2017/01/09/2d-game-framework-comparison/"/>
    <updated>2017-01-09T10:42:19+00:00</updated>
    <id>http://coconauts.net/blog/2017/01/09/2d-game-framework-comparison</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>We wanted to start a building new 2D game ideas we have in mind, and we thought
our favorite 3D platform so far (Unity3D) was not optimal enough to build a fully 2D game.
And despite having experience with some other frameworks like LibGDX (as we built
<a href="http://coconauts.net/projects/timebomb2">Exploding Bunnies</a> ) along with some other Ludum Dare games,
we wanted to see if there is something better.</p>

<p>After some investigation, we narrowed the list to Defold vs Phaser.io vs Game Maker,
 so we decided to give them a try by building a quick Pong demo in those 3 frameworks,
and gather some conclusions before we start building our next 2D game.</p>

<!--more-->


<h2>Defold</h2>

<p>Propietary framework made by King (experts on mobile games). They have built a
promising editor with a lot of great features, like version control and easy deployment to multiple platforms.
Although it&rsquo;s still on Beta, it sounds like this might be a trully solid option.</p>

<p>It took me some time to get used to the new concepts like the atlas and the collection, plus all the properties.
After a while, the whole framework reminded me of Unity3D, but simpler.
On the other hand, the current editor, which is based on Eclipse, gave me bad memories;
fortunately they&rsquo;re moving  to a <a href="http://www.defold.com/roadmap/">cloure based editor</a> now.
I got blocked during almost an hour because of this
<a href="https://forum.defold.com/t/scaling-collision-object-when-game-object-is-scaled-def-521/547">scaled collision object bug</a>
until I discovered the useful debug option on game settings.</p>

<iframe src='http://html5.coconauts.net/2d-framework-comparison/defold/' width=650 height=350></iframe>


<ul>
<li><p><a href="http://www.defold.com/showcase/">Showcase</a></p></li>
<li><p>Language: Lua</p></li>
<li><p>Getting started: <a href="http://www.defold.com/tutorials/getting-started/">http://www.defold.com/tutorials/getting-started/</a></p></li>
</ul>


<p><img src='http://coconauts.net/images/posts/2017-01-09-2d-framework/defold-editor.png'/></p>

<h4>Pros:</h4>

<ul>
<li>Free</li>
<li>Visual editor</li>
<li>Available on Linux</li>
<li>Multiplatform</li>
<li>Performance</li>
<li>Version control friendly (+integrated)</li>
<li>Integrated game analytics</li>
</ul>


<h4>Cons:</h4>

<ul>
<li>Propietary solution</li>
<li>Still beta</li>
<li><p>Found bugs while building demo</p></li>
<li><p>Score:  7 / 10</p></li>
</ul>


<p>Get our demo <a href="https://github.com/rephus/pong-sample-defold">here</a></p>

<h2>Phaser.io</h2>

<p>Pretty popular simple opensource framework  with a great community and tons of examples.</p>

<p>While building this demo, I found it was surprisingly easy to start with,
plus the documentation and the API was very clear and advanced.</p>

<p>Things like <code>game.world.centerX</code> instead of doing <code>game.world.width / 2</code> or
<code>body.collideWorldBounds = True</code> really impressed me.</p>

<iframe src='http://html5.coconauts.net/2d-framework-comparison/phaser/' width=650 height=350></iframe>


<ul>
<li><p>Language: Javascript</p></li>
<li><p>Getting started: <a href="http://phaser.io/tutorials/getting-started">http://phaser.io/tutorials/getting-started</a></p></li>
<li><p>Pong tutorial: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3egKs7b86j0">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3egKs7b86j0</a></p></li>
</ul>


<h4>Pros:</h4>

<ul>
<li>Open source (but with a company behind it)</li>
<li>Available on Linux</li>
<li>HTML5 (multiplatform)</li>
<li>Great community</li>
<li>Version control capabilities</li>
</ul>


<h4>Cons:</h4>

<ul>
<li>No official Visual editor</li>
<li><p>No direct Android exporting (cordova/cocoon required)</p></li>
<li><p>Score: 8 / 10</p></li>
</ul>


<p>Get our demo <a href="https://github.com/rephus/pong-sample-phaser">here</a></p>

<h2>Game Maker</h2>

<p>Probably one of the oldests game frameworks and still pretty popular,
I remember using this like 10 years ago, before I knew anything about programming.
And to be honest, it hasn&rsquo;t changed that much since then.</p>

<p>The fact the free version only allows to generate window executables and
that the studio only runs on Windows was conclusive enough,
but also the whole framework is no much different from the others,
if you know programming.</p>

<p>Some of the best indie games have been made with this framework like:</p>

<ul>
<li>Spelunky</li>
<li>Hyper Light Drifter</li>
<li>Nuclear Throne</li>
<li><p>Hotline Miami</p></li>
<li><p>Language: Game Maker Language</p></li>
<li><p>Getting started: <a href="http://www.yoyogames.com/learn">http://www.yoyogames.com/learn</a></p></li>
</ul>


<p><img src='http://coconauts.net/images/posts/2017-01-09-2d-framework/gamemaker-editor.png'/></p>

<h4>Pros:</h4>

<ul>
<li>Visual editor</li>
<li>No programming skills required</li>
<li>Seems to be the indie industry standard</li>
</ul>


<h4>Cons:</h4>

<ul>
<li>Propietary solution</li>
<li>Windows only editor</li>
<li>No multiplatform (free version)</li>
<li>Uses its own scripting language</li>
<li>Version control issues</li>
<li><p>Slow runnable</p></li>
<li><p>Score:  3 / 10</p></li>
</ul>


<h2>Conclussions</h2>

<p>We decided Phaser.io to be our next 2D framework. Of the 3 it was the faster and easiest to get started with. Defold sounds like with some polish it might be a sounder solution to use for real projects (for example, the mobile export is managed a lot better, or the integrated analytics are a bit plus); but the bugs we found on Defold while building this simple demo scared us a bit. Once it matures we might give it another go, but for now Phaser fits the bill for our purposes.</p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Coconauts 2016 Retrospective]]></title>
    <link href="http://coconauts.net/blog/2016/12/30/coconauts-2016-retrospective/"/>
    <updated>2016-12-30T21:11:39+00:00</updated>
    <id>http://coconauts.net/blog/2016/12/30/coconauts-2016-retrospective</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>Another year went by, and this is the third that we find ourselves writing
a retrospective in the blog, not bad eh?
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z04M6NhkIKk">2016 hasn&rsquo;t been too cheerful</a>
(at least not for fans of the many stars that have left us this year,
or for people with progressive political views in general).</p>

<p>When it comes to Coconauts however it didn&rsquo;t go too bad:</p>

<ul>
<li>Perhaps the biggest highlight of the year is the
<a href="http://retrophies.win/">Retrophies project</a>. Featured in
<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12205560">HackerNews</a> and
<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/comments/4voi81/retrophies_achievements_system_for_emulators/">Reddit</a>.
We started it as an experiment that turned out to be successful,
and we are still expanding it (for instance, the latest addition was a
<a href="http://coconauts.net/blog/2016/12/29/how-improve-nintendo/">multiplayer mario game using websockets</a>).</li>
<li>We&rsquo;ve been experimenting with the ESP8266 chip, as a more versatile,
powerful and cheaper alternative to Arduino, and we started
<a href="http://coconauts.net/blog/2016/09/08/smartwatch-prototype-with-esp8266/http://coconauts.net/blog/2016/09/08/smartwatch-prototype-with-esp8266/">migrating Watchduino to the ESP8266</a>.</li>
<li>A small hack that also turned out to be a hit is the
<a href="http://coconauts.net/blog/2016/06/13/lightning-dodge-o-matic/">Lightning-dodge-O-matic</a>,
featured on <a href="http://hackaday.com/2016/06/22/cheating-at-video-games-arduino-edition/http://hackaday.com/2016/06/22/cheating-at-video-games-arduino-edition/">Hackaday</a>!</li>
<li>We published our <a href="http://coconauts.net/blog/2016/02/04/coconauts-ci-nodejs/">custom mini-CI system</a></li>
<li>We started the year working on a <a href="http://coconauts.net/blog/2016/01/30/starcraft-mobile-unity3d/http://coconauts.net/blog/2016/01/30/starcraft-mobile-unity3d/">mobile version of Starcraft</a> (which we shortly after stopped working on, but there&rsquo;s still a demo video).</li>
</ul>


<p>Our plans of focusing on game making haven&rsquo;t materialized as much as we would have liked.
We&rsquo;ve also continued blogging very little during the year; although, there is one
aspect where we have delivered: more frequent status updates about ongoing projects. Thanks to this,
we&rsquo;ve shown you some prototyes and smaller projects through the year despite not
having any big reveals.</p>

<p>So what are our best whishes for 2017? Pretty much the same as the year before:</p>

<ul>
<li>More games</li>
<li>More open source</li>
<li>More frequent blogging</li>
<li>More awesome</li>
</ul>


<p>See you in 2017, have a good one! =)</p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[How to Improve Classic Nintendo Games]]></title>
    <link href="http://coconauts.net/blog/2016/12/29/how-improve-nintendo/"/>
    <updated>2016-12-29T10:42:19+00:00</updated>
    <id>http://coconauts.net/blog/2016/12/29/how-improve-nintendo</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>Although the Nintendo Mini has been a great success, and the best way of recreating our childhood
experience with a great collection of classic Nintendo games; There are a lot of things still Nintendo
can do to our beloved classic games in order to let us play those classic games in a complete new (and refreshing) way. They don&rsquo;t even need to do it on a new old mini console, but on their virtual store on WiiU or NX (switch)</p>

<p><img src="http://coconauts.net/images/posts/2016-12-29-how-improve-nintendo/nes-mini.jpg" alt="achievement"></p>

<!--more-->


<p>Some of these ideas have already been proved possible in our <a href="http://retrophies.win">Retrophies</a> project, just by taking the original game, with no ROM hacking involved but just checking the memory values in the emulator, so imagine what Nintendo can do with their original games,
something they already tried on the great Nes Remix compilation.</p>

<h2>Achievements</h2>

<p>Some people love them, some people hate them, but it&rsquo;s true they are a good way of motivating people
on playing games again with an objective in mind. Won&rsquo;t you play Super Mario Bros again if I tell you
you will get an official reward by finishing it ? Maybe the brand new Nintendo coins.</p>

<p><img src="http://coconauts.net/images/posts/2016-12-29-how-improve-nintendo/achievement.png" alt="achievement"></p>

<p>This was the main feature of Retrophies and it was pretty fun to build and play.</p>

<h2>Multiplayer</h2>

<p>Another concept we tested on Retrophies, having the capability of see (or interact) with
other players in real time while you play.</p>

<p><img src="http://coconauts.net/images/posts/2016-12-29-how-improve-nintendo/multiplayer.png" alt="multiplayer"></p>

<p>Sounds like playing New Super Mario Bros on Super Mario Bros.</p>

<h2>Scoreboards</h2>

<p>Who is the fastest player to finish World 1-1 on Super Mario Bros ? This is a concept we
are still working on Retrophies.</p>

<p>Nintendo can add official scoreboard to most of their games. I mean, speedrunners
do this with most Nintendo games already, think about all the crazy Ocarina of Time speedrunnes available, why don&rsquo;t make it official.</p>

<h2>Maker version of classic games</h2>

<p>Remember Mario maker and how fun was to build scenarios on Super Mario ? Then why not integrating
this function on existing games ? This is also a possibility that we could integrate in
Retrophies in the future (by adding blocks or items in the screen in memory).</p>

<p>Do you have another idea for twisted classic Nintendo games ?</p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Sea-Life: Game for ProcJam 2015]]></title>
    <link href="http://coconauts.net/blog/2016/10/05/sea-life-at-procjam/"/>
    <updated>2016-10-05T20:54:19+00:00</updated>
    <id>http://coconauts.net/blog/2016/10/05/sea-life-at-procjam</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Procedurally drawn fishies with balanced stats in our <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/procjam?src=hash">#procjam</a> entry. Coming next: changing their shape accordingly! <a href="https://t.co/dzoFheVaO1">pic.twitter.com/dzoFheVaO1</a></p>&mdash; Coconauts (@coconauts) <a href="https://twitter.com/coconauts/status/664208953522462720">November 10, 2015</a></blockquote>


<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


<p>On 10 Nov 2015 we posted a procedurally generated game featuring
websockets for the Procjam 2015 (done only in 2 days). Almost a year ago, we decided to create a post for it, just for the record (see the original post <a href="https://marbu.itch.io/sea-life">here</a>)</p>

<p>Play the game <a href="http://html5.coconauts.net/sealife/">here</a> or check the <a href="https://github.com/coconauts/sea-life">Github repo</a></p>

<!--more-->


<h2>Description</h2>

<p>This game attempted to be an iteration on a similar idea that we did for a Ludum Dare, <a href="http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-24/?action=preview&amp;uid=16605">&ldquo;Sea Evolution&rdquo;</a></p>

<p>In the game you are sea creature that needs to survive in your ecosystem. You get hungry, you need to eat, and you can lay eggs to perpetuate your species. Different sea creatures have different attributes, which determine who can eat and get eaten by.</p>

<p>Unfortunately we didn&rsquo;t have a lot of time during this week, so we couldn&rsquo;t develop or polish as much as we wanted! Here&rsquo;s what we managed to do:</p>

<h2>Infinite game world</h2>

<p>In the original sea evolution there was no scrolling. But we wanted to make it feel like the endless sea, so in this one we made a scrolling world that gets autopopulated with new fishes as you advance through it.</p>

<p>Our original plan was to emulate a sea bottom, which we would also autopopulate with seaweeds, reefs, or even dark abyss areas, or polluted areas where only poison-resistant fishes would be able to habitate. But we didn&rsquo;t have time for all this! So instead you are just traversing the boring open ocean.</p>

<h2>100% canvas, randomized fish shapes</h2>

<p>Everything is drawn with canvas, no sprites! It&rsquo;s the first time we actually do this sort of thing, and it was challenging but quite fun. This allows for some fun features, such as being able to alter the shape of the fishes programatically. Each fish will randomly be given a distinct color and shape.</p>

<h2>Autogenerated fish statistics</h2>

<p>Fishes are created with a set of stats: speed, attack power and defense. These are represented by the gauge meters below the fish. Normally you should be safe to attack a fish if it has less attack and defense than you do (otherwise the other fish might kill you!). The stats are balanced, so that if you get more of one you&rsquo;ll get less of the others.</p>

<h2>Fish growth</h2>

<p>In the original Sea Evolution, fishes went through several life stages, from egg to adult. On each life stage their stats were bumped. You were always able to survive by eating the fishes that were in lower life stages, beacause they had lower stats. On adult form, fishes can lay eggs to perpetuate there species.</p>

<p>In this game we have implemented the life stages, and you can notice that after a certain amount of time the stats are bumped. However we didn&rsquo;t have timeto alter the appearance of the fishes when this happens.</p>

<h2>Controls</h2>

<p>You can move with the arrow keys or the mouse. The enemy fishes randomly pick where to go, or if they are close to other fish they will chase it to eat it. Sometimes this results in all of the enemies gathering together in one point eating each other out.</p>

<p>The player fish also follows the same behavior if you don&rsquo;t tell it where to go. This is a bit confusing, yes, but we didn&rsquo;t have time to change it.</p>

<h2>Descendants</h2>

<p>The original idea for Sea Life was to be able to perpetuate your species over the rest. You would be able to lay eggs and have descendancy, and your success in life (ie, your game score) would be measured to how many descendants did you managed to get until you died. How successful you would be in your species conquering the sea world would depend in both your ability and the statistics autogenerated for your sea species.</p>

<p>So we did implement this&hellip; partially. You will have children from time to time, and they will follow you along. But actually they don&rsquo;t really have any stats, or count as real fishes. But they make you feel less lonely, no?</p>

<h2>Websockets</h2>

<p>Yay! Another experiment. We wanted to make this a multiplayer experience, using websockets. When you join the game you will connect to a server keeping track of all the players, and you will receive their possitions. So you might cross another human while playing!</p>

<p>It&rsquo;s easy to identify a human: they will have no stats displaying (because you can&rsquo;t really eat them), and they would have an autogenerated name, in the pattern &ldquo;adjective + sea animal&rdquo; (in the spirit of Metal Gear Solid troop names, or Ubuntu distributions)</p>

<p>And that is basically it. Probably too buggy to be playable for a long time, but a fun experiment with some forms of procedural generation =)</p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Smartwatch Prototype With ESP8266: ESPmartwatch]]></title>
    <link href="http://coconauts.net/blog/2016/09/08/smartwatch-prototype-with-esp8266/"/>
    <updated>2016-09-08T23:44:00+00:00</updated>
    <id>http://coconauts.net/blog/2016/09/08/smartwatch-prototype-with-esp8266</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>It&rsquo;s been a while since we built and deprecated our <a href="http://coconauts/projects/watchduino2">Watchduino 2</a> smartwatch built with Arduino and BLE technology. The reason why we stopped developing the prototype was because it was not as optimal as we expected, and the bluetooth communication was unstable in practice; this is probably something we could have solved with time, but we just decided it was not worth it.</p>

<p><img src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8284/29441586932_55059378bc_z_d.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p>However, with the &ldquo;new&rdquo; ESP8266 we decided to try a quick prototype to see how it behaves as in a smartwatch, and we did a lot of things in just a couple of days, this are the list of features of our new  <code>ESPmartwatch</code>:</p>

<!--more-->


<ul>
<li>ESP8266 model ESP-01</li>
<li>Wifi connection</li>
<li>I2C OLED model SSD1306 128X64</li>
<li>Send and receive messages via Websockets</li>
<li>All messages are using JSON (being parsed on C++ too)</li>
<li>Sync time and display on screen</li>
<li>Display notifications from phone on screen using <a href="https://github.com/rephus/notification-webhook">Notification webhook</a></li>
</ul>


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Doing web development with JSON and websockets in C++ on ESP8266, exciting! <a href="https://t.co/v2ZU4hNZO5">pic.twitter.com/v2ZU4hNZO5</a></p>&mdash; Javi Rengel (@rephus) <a href="https://twitter.com/rephus/status/772901218414891008">September 5, 2016</a></blockquote>


<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


<p>On the way, we faced a few unexpected issues that took us some time to fix (more than implementing communication with websockets) like the ESP8266 restarting itself every 5 mins because the WDT.</p>

<p>But still, a lot of things are left to do like:</p>

<ul>
<li>Reduced consumption by enabling deep sleep mode while using websockets</li>
<li>Lack of GPIO pins on ESP-01, need to try with a different ESP model</li>
<li>Better OLED SSD1306 screen controller, u8glib seems incompatible, maybe Adafruit ?</li>
<li>A way to introduce SSID and passwords from the watch (input required)</li>
<li>Secure communication on websockets</li>
</ul>


<p>So at this point we decided that it was not worth to continue with the project, specially when just the new <a href="http://hackaday.com/2016/09/05/new-part-day-the-esp32-has-been-released/">ESP32 has been released</a></p>

<p>All our code is available on <a href="https://github.com/rephus/ESP8266-OLED-Websocket">Github</a> so if you want to continue our work, or look at how we use some of the libraries, give it a go.</p>

<p>Who knows, we might probably continue with the development at some point, so watch this space.</p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Retrophies: Achievements System for Emulators]]></title>
    <link href="http://coconauts.net/blog/2016/08/01/retrophies/"/>
    <updated>2016-08-01T20:54:19+00:00</updated>
    <id>http://coconauts.net/blog/2016/08/01/retrophies</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>Play now at <a href="http://retrophies.win">retrophies.win</a>!</p>

<p>If there’s one thing that has become a de-facto standard in the gaming industry during the last decade this is game achievements, trophies, or whatever you may call them. Not only on console games, but Apple and Android also provide facilities to integrate this features in games published on their platforms. Many games even implement a custom achievements system specific for that game in isolation.</p>

<p>There seems to be an exception though. Retro games. Obviously a game from 20 years ago was not designed with achievements in mind, but even when companies re-edit old games, they seem to be happy enough charging you current day prices for what it is often an effort-less dump of the classic game, which you may even wonder if they’re running though an emulator. Do you expect the new <a href="https://www.nintendo.com/nes-classic">mini-NES</a> will be anything more than this?</p>

<p>At Coconauts we love classic games, as well as emulators. So we’ve wondered… how would it be if your favourite emulators had some of the functions of today’s game platforms, like achievements?</p>

<p>This what Retrophies is trying to achieve. And for the first proof of concept we’re bringing achievements to Super Mario Bros.</p>

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<p>You can see Retrophies in action <a href="http://retrophies.win">here</a>. A rom of Super Mario Bros for NES is running on a forked version of JSNES, implementing Retrophies. If you play for a little bit, you should start seeing some notifications for unlocking some achievements, after certain events occur in the game. How many can you get?</p>

<p><img src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8674/28062483653_c8da6e86ea_z_d.jpg" alt="achievement"></p>

<p>You may be wondering how all this works. No romhacking is involved, or at least not in the game rom itself. Retrophies is nothing more than a collection of memory registers and values. The emulator implementing Retrophies needs to be constantly inspecting those register in the running game RAM. When the correct value is up, the achievement should be triggered.</p>

<figure class='code'><div class="highlight"><table><tr><td class="gutter"><pre class="line-numbers"><span class='line-number'>1</span>
<span class='line-number'>2</span>
<span class='line-number'>3</span>
<span class='line-number'>4</span>
<span class='line-number'>5</span>
<span class='line-number'>6</span>
<span class='line-number'>7</span>
</pre></td><td class='code'><pre><code class=''><span class='line'>var achievements = [
</span><span class='line'>    //[Memory (0), Value (1) , Title (2), Description (3), Img (4), Triggered (5)]
</span><span class='line'>    [0x0770, 1, "Enjoy Retrophies", "Play Super Mario Bros", "mario", false],
</span><span class='line'>    [0x0748, 10, "Gold mine", "Collect 10 coins", "coin", false],
</span><span class='line'>    [0x075A, 7, "More lives than a cat", "Get 8 lives", "1up", false],
</span><span class='line'>    ...
</span><span class='line'>]</span></code></pre></td></tr></table></div></figure>


<p>As you see, the system itself is quite simple. The difficult part comes when figuring out the list of memory values that should trigger achievements. This of course has to be custom-tailored for each individual game, in a reverse engineering process of trial and error, similar to what it takes to discover cheat codes for Game Genie.</p>

<p>Game-hacking utilities come handy for this task. The SMB achievements were obtained using an emulator called FCEUX, which <a href="http://www.fceux.com/web/help/fceux.html?ROMHacking.html">comes with a good bunch of tools</a> used by rom hackers, or speedrunners. Particularly useful for our purposes are a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfnqxxwlIyo">real time hex editor</a>(pictured below) or the <a href="http://tasvideos.org/EmulatorResources/RamSearch.html">RAM search tool</a>.</p>

<p><img src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8835/28600323071_60e66949c8_z_d.jpg" alt="fceux"></p>

<p>We can also take advantage of the <a href="http://gamehacking.org/game/31010">plenty of already existing game cheat codes</a> that people have already deciphered for the game. If we have a cheat code for invincivility setting a particular value in a particular register, we already know the register and the value that we have to inspect if we want to trigger an achievement when getting an invincivility star. There are different formats for game codes, but there are conversors around that will map them in the end to one or several memory locations.</p>

<p>Our Retrophies implementation has only been done for now on the JSNES emulator, as a proof of concept. However, as the system is very simple, as well as <a href="https://github.com/rephus/retrophies">open source</a>, it should be easy for other emulators to implement. Achievement codes can also be obtained for any ROM, given some time and dedication. Watch this space for further news.</p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Lightning-dodge-O-matic]]></title>
    <link href="http://coconauts.net/blog/2016/06/13/lightning-dodge-o-matic/"/>
    <updated>2016-06-13T20:51:00+00:00</updated>
    <id>http://coconauts.net/blog/2016/06/13/lightning-dodge-o-matic</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>If you have played Final Fantasy X, either its original version for PS2 or its remastered version
for PS4 and PSVita, you might remember Thunder Plains and its lightning dodge challenge
to get the Mars sigil.</p>

<p>It&rsquo;s quite challenging and it might take a while. I once got it (and I have a PS2 memory card to prove it),
but I was not in the mood to do it again on the remastered version.</p>

<p>That&rsquo;s why I decided to build a simple machine to do the job for me.
Because constantly processing inputs to produce outputs is what machines do best.</p>

<blockquote class="twitter-video" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Lightning dancing like a machine. Presenting lightning-dodge-O-matic <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FFX?src=hash">#FFX</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Lulu?src=hash">#Lulu</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Arduino?src=hash">#Arduino</a> <a href="https://t.co/WMLX1CRwSN">pic.twitter.com/WMLX1CRwSN</a></p>&mdash; Javi Rengel (@rephus) <a href="https://twitter.com/rephus/status/742057060456648709">June 12, 2016</a></blockquote>


<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>




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<p>Just by using a LDR, a servo and an Arduino you can dodge lightnings like a Pro too.</p>

<p>You can download the script and the schema in <a href="https://github.com/rephus/lightning-dodge-O-matic/blob/master/README.md">Github</a></p>

<p><img src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7335/27042150163_732cb2c99b_z_d.jpg" alt="Schema" /></p>

<p>By building this, you can avoid not only 200 lightnings but as many you like, I did 1066 in a few hours.</p>

<p><img src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7423/27042150153_b6daeed7d5_z_d.jpg" alt="record" /></p>

<p>Happy gaming.</p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[We Built Our House With Unity3D and Blender]]></title>
    <link href="http://coconauts.net/blog/2016/05/19/build-house-in-3d-with-blender-unity3d/"/>
    <updated>2016-05-19T22:51:00+00:00</updated>
    <id>http://coconauts.net/blog/2016/05/19/build-house-in-3d-with-blender-unity3d</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>We moved home a few months ago to a beautiful house in the country side in UK,
outside the expensive area of London, but close enough to commute daily.</p>

<p>As soon as we moved in, we built a simple version of our home in 3D on Blender
 to help us decorate. And then we integrated the 3D model into Unity3D and build
a game on top of it, on this case, a FPS or more like a FPW: First Person Walker,
a FPS without shooting, not as fun as it sounds.</p>

<p>We posted an image on Twitter a few months ago about our first prototype:</p>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I finally created a First person game of my new home with <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/unity3D?src=hash">#unity3D</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/blender?src=hash">#blender</a> . Looks better than real life! <a href="https://t.co/JjSPPP1835">pic.twitter.com/JjSPPP1835</a></p>&mdash; Javi Rengel (@rephus) <a href="https://twitter.com/rephus/status/698998470280089600">February 14, 2016</a></blockquote>


<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>




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<p>And this is how our place looks after we bought all the furniture.</p>

<p><img src='https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7236/26513350403_4ac3cc142c_z_d.jpg'/>
<img src='https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7714/27083818276_36950ff772_z_d.jpg'/></p>

<p><img src='https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7715/27083819056_acb9ae8fa5_z_d.jpg'/>
<img src='https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7348/27083818686_12b5f68383_z_d.jpg'/></p>

<p><img src='https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7211/27083819206_727a82707c_z_d.jpg'/>
<img src='https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7434/26513349443_4d9df59b0d_z_d.jpg'/></p>

<p><img src='https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7750/27083819266_15ca7674e5_z_d.jpg'/>
<img src='https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7054/27083818506_f84f07ba12_z_d.jpg'/></p>

<p>The game is also a good chance to try out VR, perfect to use with Google VR to feel
like you are at home.</p>

<p><img src='https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7554/27083819136_dd3a9a50d3_z_d.jpg'/></p>

<p>If you are interested, you can play on our 3D model we made, please feel at home.</p>

<p><a href="http://unity3d.coconauts.net/welwyn">Play it here!</a></p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
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