Project Darkstar was represented in a big way at JavaOne this year.  Demos were given, labs were taught, presentations were delivered, and fun was had. 

The biggest splash was the surprise launch of DarkCHAT, a multiuser visual chat environment with a 100% JavaFX front end and a 100% Project Darkstar back end.   DarkCHAT was used by conference attendees to make spontaneous connections during the conference.  At one point, even Java programming icon James Gosling joined the DarkCHAT fun.  Some good news for our community is that during final testing, Project Darkstar handled 10k DarkCHAT clients without any difficulty.  Very cool.

Tonnect, a company providing a multiplayer mobile gaming platform, announced that they are building on Project Darkstar and demonstrated a Texas hold 'em poker game on the iPhone. Chris Melissinos' interview with the Tonnect founders appears at about 3:45 of this video clip.  Check it out!

There were many Project Darkstar related technical sessions delivered, including all those listed in an earlier blog post.  The slide material from most of those presentations is available now to Sun Developer Network members (free to register), including:

• Duke's Dancing Partner: Connecting Handheld Game Consoles with Java™ Technology

• Creating Games with the Open Source Multithreaded Game Engine

• Project Darkstar: A Scalable Application Server for Networked Games, Virtual Worlds, and MMOGs

• Project Darkstar: Open Source Technology Powering New Worlds (video from CommunityOne)

In addition to his technical session, Owen Kellet published a comprehensive daily JavaOne blog and taught a great Project Darkstar Hands On Lab.  Although this primo material is not yet available on the JavaOne website, we'll get it published on the project darkstar website as soon as possible.  Owen also recorded a podcast in the java.net community corner.  No word yet on when that content will be out.

Finally, there was time for fun.  Yes.  The Project Darkstar team at Sun never attends a conference without enjoying a little time out.  This time around, Mike led a group out to a small "pitch and putt" course in Oakland.  Here's the gang preparing to... ah, well, sorta, but not quite, "tee off."   The foursome shown left to right: Jonathan Kaplan, Owen Kellett, Keith Thompson, and Mike Gialis.