Over 3,400 people played Hill 218 online in Dec-Jan

[Chad_YMG]

Whenever someone plays Hill 218 online, part of Java's Web Start technology automatically checks to see if there has been an update. Because of this, we get data on how many people are getting the update in any given period -- not the total number of plays or even the total users but the number of people who have played during a period since the most recent update.

Andrew Gross released the online version of Hill 218 in December 2007. During that month, 100+ unique users downloaded the software, which we thought was pretty cool.

Andrew updated the program in early December, eliminating some bugs that users had pointed out. This gave us a fresh look at how many people are playing Hill 218 online. Over 3,400 unique users got the update during December-January. The update wasn't promoted, and the bugs were minor, so there's no particular reason to think this is anything other than a window into ongoing usage. That means that there are enough people playing Hill 218 online that in a two-month period over 3,000 of them do so.

How cool is that?

[gull2112]

That is way cool! Hill 218 is so deceptively simple that you think you'll have it figured out like checkers or even tic-tac-toe, but no, endless variety...

Not a good buy for addictive personalities. BG:FW is my methadone equivalent.

[jhenke]

I've introduced a lot of people to the game and sent them to the Java version to keep it in their heads. I get schooled every time I teach this beast. It's always with me and it's always ready to go.

A great, great game...and I'm horrid! 

Absolutely a ton of fun for lunch or coffee shops.

The Java version is a great fallback. Thank you guys for putting that up back in the day.

[gull2112]

Maybe we can play it at the coffee shop?