Hosting games locally with Flash?

Question

I just can't find the right Google search terms for this...

Is it possible to use Flash (or a Flash compatible service) to allow players in a game to host their own games (using their own bandwidth), through a web browser? In a way, to run their own game servers (for a Flash in-browser game) from their computer, but through a web browser using Flash?

If so, any recommendations?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Answer 1

I am guessing that you want to make some kind of "game room" on which users can join local sessions hosted by themselves.

The word you are looking for is P2P.

Some useful links:

• http://www.flashrealtime.com/local-flash-peer-to-peer-communication-over-lan-without-cirrus/
• http://www.flashrealtime.com/video-on-demand-over-p2p-in-flash-player-101-with-object-replication/
• http://www.flashrealtime.com/tuts/p2p-in-flash.html
• http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/cirrus/
• http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flashmediaserver/articles/p2p_apps_cirrus_lccs.html

Cheers

Answer 2

Flash has flash.net.ServerSocket class, which can listen to incoming connections. So it's certainly possible, but I doubt it scales well beyound several players.