Kaillera
Developer(s)Christophe Thibault
Initial release4 March 2001 (2001-03-04)
Final release
0.9 (Client) 13 February 2002 (2002-02-13) / 0.87 (Server) 23 June 2006 (2006-06-23)
Operating systemMicrosoft Windows
TypeMiddleware
LicenseProprietary
Websitewww.kaillera.com

Kaillera is middleware designed to aid networked multiplayer play for emulators.[1] The word "Kaillera", also spelled "kaïra", is the verlan of the French word racaille, meaning "hooligans" or "rascals".

History

Kaillera was developed by Christophe Thibault in the years 2001-2006. His most recent entry was the Kaillera Client library and SDK on 13 February 2002. Later in early 2006, rights and source code of Kaillera were sold to a private online gaming advertising company called TC. Ads and Etai Hugi. On 17 June 2006, Christophe Thibault himself publicly confirmed the sale of Kaillera and also announced that TC. Ads. no longer had anything to do with the Kaillera project and that Etai Hugi is the only owner.

On 20 November 2006, Etai Hugi announced that a new version of Kaillera would be released in "the next several months". His announcement also suggested that the new version would be "much better" and "more efficient" than the current version.[2] In July 2007, he posted on the official forums and sent emails to the forum administrator announcing that the next official release would occur in "3-4 months." This announcement coincided with a revamp of the forums and the posting of new unofficial builds created by others for download (the first new downloads posted in nearly four years). On 4 November 2007, it was announced that due to unforeseen "bugs" the imminent release would be postponed for a time. It was later announced that the new version of Kaillera would be released on 7 April 2008. However, the official Kaillera website along with existing Kaillera master servers list was taken down a few days prior to the release date. Later when it came back up, no explanations for the downtime was given and nothing was released. Etai Hugi an Israeli developer purchased Kaillera from Christophe Thibault in 2006.[3]

Features

Like most networked multiplayer gaming systems, Kaillera is implemented to work on client–server architecture.[1]

The client is implemented as a small library with a typical GUI which is incorporated with the emulator. Its simple self-explanatory API, consisting of only eight functions, allows emulators to perform necessary functions such as specifying the list of supported games and controlling game execution to some extent. Everything after enabling the client to starting the game is managed by the client and the user. The client can only make requests to server on user's input and react to server's response.[1]

On the other hand, the server takes the tedious role of managing all the users. Users can join servers if their conditions are satisfactory. Then they are allowed to chat and make games on the server which other users can join. A maximum of 8 players are allowed to participate in a game and others are treated as spectators. Once a game starts, the server is also responsible for scheduling and mix matching data sent by emulators in a manner befitting user's ping and connection configuration.[1]

Emulators with Kaillera support

Notes

Note 1: There are several third-party versions of MAME with Kaillera, but these violate the MAME license by not having the source code to the Kaillera client library distributed, even though the source code to the modified version of MAME itself (such as "MAME32k", "MAME32 Plus! Plus!" and "MameLang32+") are always provided.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Carless, Simon (2005). Gaming Hacks. O'Reilly Media, Inc. ISBN 0596007140. Retrieved 2014-02-21.
  2. ↑ "Kaillera Forums". Kaillera. 2006.
  3. ↑ "Kaillera Forums". Kaillera. 2006-11-29.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Whitson Gordon (2014-02-14). "Bring Your Retro Games Into The Modern Age With These Emulator Tricks". Life Hacker.
  5. ↑ "Kaillera netplay". Retrieved 2014-02-20.
  6. ↑ "Genesis emultion". Rom Nation.
  7. ↑ "Nintendo emulation".
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