Node417
The game has been undergoing bursts of activity for the past 10 years and is my "white whale", it may never be finished.
Node417 is a text-based multiplayer game accessed via SSH, set in an underground post-collapse civilization in the year 3921 CE. Players SSH into the server and interact with the world through VANTA, a fictional terminal OS that serves as the interface layer between residents and their reality.
Architecture
The project is a monorepo with several interconnected services:
- Auth API - Express.js service that validates user access codes against MongoDB
- SSH Server - Custom ssh2 gateway that spawns game sessions using node-pty
- Game Client - Terminal UI built with neo-blessed featuring windows, modals, and focus management
- Ambient Broadcast Service - Generates world flavor broadcasts stored in MongoDB, delivered via Redis Streams
- RF Worker - Simulates radio frequency physics for underground communications
- Comms Bus - Shared Redis Streams library for reliable band-based messaging
Tech Stack
- Node.js with Express
- SSH2 and node-pty for the SSH server
- neo-blessed for terminal UI
- MongoDB for users, messages, and world state
- Redis Streams for real-time messaging
- Docker Compose for orchestration
