php socket servers, actionscript 3 and multiplayer

Question

So I am thinking about creating a multiplayer game and I was wanting to use php because I already have a php server. Is it possible to make a socket server that will be able to handle a actionscript multiplayer game. The game won't be big. so we wont need any huge amount of data pushing through. just some software that is probably reliable enough to run a multiplayer game.

Answer 1

PHP is clearly not a solution when it comes to socket server. It's simply not meant for that kind of usage.

If you really want to go multiplayer, SmartFox ( http://www.smartfoxserver.com/) offers a professional solution when it comes to Flash. After that developing a small socket server in a proper language is not that complicated, and the possibility are endless (Python, Java, C#, C, C++, Erlang, Go, Erlang, ...). It really depends on what kind of game you're want to do.

PHP could be eligible as a solution in case of turn by turn type game, you could simply handle it as a RESTful service (sending back and forward the game state by http).

Answer 2

You could use PHP, but I wouldn't recommend it. In addition you will need a shell on your server and the ability to execute custom servers, since the PHP socket server will not be running from inside the webserver (Apache etc).

I would recommend one of the many realtime communication servers available for Flash, such as Wowza, ElectroServer, Union, or others (just google for them)

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There are some free ones available too, but the quality may not be as good. Some examples I found with a 30 second google serach, I know nothing about them: Oregano, GFS, Palabre

Answer 3

You could use Red5. It's an open source Java implementation of a Flash Media Server that allows for what you want to do: http://osflash.org/red5