Welcome to Starez' official website.

Starez is a game update platform. That means that you can easily download games through Starez, and that your games are automatically updated and patched. Starez mainly runs on Linux, but is theoretically able to run on other operating systems too, however, no game binaries are provided for other platforms.

We use IRC to communicate. You can join us at irc://irc.freenode.net/#codeyard.

A few weeks ago, version 1.0.2 of both the Starez Server and Client was released. The release did not end up on starez.org yet, because it went a little out of sync. The client release did end up on Donkerdump, though. This version is the last stable version before going on to 1.1.0.

Version 1.0.2 of Starez can be obtained by using subversion:

client: svn checkout https://cvs.codeyard.net/svn/StoomBoot/tags/client/1.0.2 starez-client 
server: svn checkout https://cvs.codeyard.net/svn/StoomBoot/tags/server/1.0.2 starez-server 

Because Hylke is very busy with his exams, the client release for Starez 1.0.2 will take a few weeks longer. I've written down some goals I'd like to reach for Starez 1.1.0 which, unless we decide to do some more small releases, will be the next release for Starez after 1.0.2.

• * challenge-based authentication: Although Starez connections run over SSL, we'd like to phase out the current password-sending authentication. This is going to be replaced with a challenge-based authentication, which is safer should somebody be watching (especially in the light of recent problems with Debian's OpenSSL .)
• * server-to-server connections: Since dazjorz.com, the service running the Starez website and servers, now has two servers, the Starez project is aiming to run a server on both of them, and connecting them together for some load balancing, in an IRCD-kind of way.
• * new database connection: A Starez server uses MySQL for its data storing. Currently, the way of retrieving and saving data isn't really nice code-wise, I'm aiming to rewrite pieces of this to make it better. Also, the current backend for data storing, POE::Component::SimpleDBI, mysteriously doesn't work on one of the two dazjorz.com servers; I'm going to see if I can replace this module with my own code.

Update, forgot about this:

• * Patch support: A feature which has been supported by the client for a while. Patch support is a very important feature for Starez, making the program able to instantly update game versions. When a game developer sends in a patch, all clients with this game are notified and get the option to update to the newest version.

There will be some other changes to Starez itself, which you will notice as soon as the stable version is done. If you really can't wait, you can use Starez from the SVN repository - however, this is very unstable and at your own risk ! We recommend most users to just wait for the real release. We'll keep you posted.

If you would like to send in a comment, you can mail me at mailto:dazjorz@starez.org.

Sjors

Yay! Starez has won! (Dutch article on Livre.nl)

More information will be posted here later. For now, Dutch readers can read the article linked above, other users may want to check the article as translated (read: mangled) by Google Translater, but Google Translater is never a guarantee for success. (Note that Hylke's name is 'Hylke Donker', not 'Hylke Dark' as translated. ;-) )

Also a heads-up: 1.0.2 is almost ready for release!

Sjors

The Autopackage bug (as described below) which made Starez unable to run on KDE 4 systems has been fixed in their SVN repository, thanks to the Autopackage guys which responded to the ticket really fast! Once Autopackage releases a new version, everyone's life will just get a little better; for now, KDE4 people will need to get Autopackage from SVN.

Sjors

We're very glad to announce that Starez is in the Capgemini Award of 2008 Finals! More information on this award can be found here (in Dutch).

Yesterday has been a busy day, with a Starez presentation and talks. The presentation went without any trouble. The only real problem we had to face, was at the "project marketplace"... We wanted to give a demonstration of Starez, and guess what, Autopackage didn't install. Bye-bye, "Starez is easy to install" statements, thanks, Autopackage ;-) (No, I don't really blame you. Really. But fix that, please. ;-) )

We're planning to release a version 1.0.2 before the real final, with some new features, along with some general code improvements like server tests which have been on the (mental?) todo list for a while.

Sjors

On February the 29th, 2008, version 1.0.1 of both the Starez Server and Client was released. This version, apart from a lot of bugfixes and feature improvements, primarily features account registration.

Version 1.0.1 of Starez can be obtained in a number of ways. One of these is by using subversion:

client: svn checkout https://cvs.codeyard.net/svn/StoomBoot/tags/client/1.0.1 starez-client 
server: svn checkout https://cvs.codeyard.net/svn/StoomBoot/tags/server/1.0.1 starez-server 

An autopackage and a tarball are also available:

• starez-client-1.0-1.tgz
• starez-client-1.0-1.x86.package
• starez-server-1.0-1.tgz

Please note that Autopackage seems to have trouble on 64-bit systems. This also means you will probably be unable to install software using Starez, since it uses Autopackage internally. Please let us know if you've got some more information.

Hylke

• CodeYard forum
• Starez is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL) 2.
• Explanation of Starez by Hylke Donker (in Dutch).
• Hylke's blog, sometimes he blogs about Starez (in Dutch).