2025

The Facebook login for this discuss site and the main site aren't working anymore, so email me at Info at Santa Cruz Web Factory dot com (Arlon Arriola) to get an account here, that doesn't use the Facebook login. I'm sure there's a way to get Google login for this too, but for now just email me.

Facebook had began limiting the Facebook login capability years ago, 2018/2019, somewhere in there, so we had to stop using the game. I remember them throttling requests at one point because the code was requesting Facebook data changes quite often (originally an intentional feature). So, I changed that, but then login still broke, for whatever reason - and when I was in school, so I didn't have time to patch it up with what Facebook wanted - so we had to stop using it. No warning, no nothin', I bet there are still unfinished games left from 2018 or whenever that was.

So I went through school, got my degree in computer science with a concentration in software engineering at the end of 2022. Then in 2023 I got a job, started working in aerospace, and got sidetracked from fixing the game.

Until - Eventually - about a month ago, I finally got to it. I started hitting the Facebook login problem. I had hit it in 2023, but work on it dead ended, it seemed like at the time, because they were demanding I have a business registration. I do have business paperwork, but the game has never been a business, inherently, just a fun game. And there was something else I got stuck on at the time, I remember they wouldn't let me make test players, and I eventually got stuck and gave up again because I had to job hunt and the bottom line was I just couldn't get it to work. My profile could log in so I personally could play but Facebook essentially locked everyone else out.

But then I got a job, and started working eventually, and now, a few years in, I finally implemented Google login for the game, this month. ChatGPT has been helping me a lot, so I have been getting stuck less, and bridging strange programming gaps very quickly with its help. So I got the game back up and running.

Swapping login methods was not trivial, so there were a few things to fix, and I still have a couple left, but it's basically working now, near as I can tell, with the Google login.

The bugs I see that I will be fixing in the next couple days are that:
DONE/FIXED 20251123: Invites are still Facebook based, and so still don't work
DONE - BUT NOT PERFECT, WILL BE REVISITING 20251123 - The facebook control panel can go away for now so I'll be taking that off
DONE/FIXED 20251123: There are some extraneous messages that can get hidden now that it's fixed
Online-edness - I see a bug in the online-edness, even when playing games - that is top priority
Profile image recall on back pages need a little work showing the new google profile images (easy, will fix soon)
Ranking across game types is split, I found out, but it needs to be split across game type variations, ie board sizes aren't split out - so different games' don't affect each other across game type variations. That's not a new bug it's a missing feature, it never had that before, and I will be adding that feature soon, and others.

This game is a legacy of me learning programming in JavaScript, PHP, and MySQL through the years, but also being perpetually under assault from Facebook login API changes through the years, so the program is quite a war-beaten machine. I built it a pretty rock-solid request framework that makes it pretty easy for me to troubleshoot problems so I have high hopes for it and many feature ideas for it including more game types, more robots, more login provider options, perhaps ranking methodology variations, theme variations, [working] game comments and whatever the player suggestion list is.

If you need more info, feel free to email me.

BTW Meanwhile I had also created AccountBlaster so everyone could get their accounting done more easily, click on the 'free' link underneath the homer-flamingo and you'll be in AccountBlaster. It's pretty intuitive and I made some videos on how to use it if you YouTube search for Super Bomb Reversi and/or AccountBlaster it's the same channel.

Update, Fri, 11/21/25: It's been a few weeks now since I posted my business verification paperwork to Facebook. It's the second actual upload of paperwork, the first one was rejected for no reason. This one they are just letting hang. The confirmation says "It could take up to two business days for verification to take place" but it's been weeks. I feel like we should literally sue them for unfair treatment because there is no way to get a hold of them, rattle their cage and say - hey - we are the most legit of the legit - let us log in!

Again, let there be no mistake, the game is now operational with Google login.

Update Sunday, 11/23/2025: Getting rid of the FB control panel actually gave me a little push-back so what I did for now was just hack-delete it, let it load and then get rid of if, so it's not at all perfect yet but I'll revisit that until I get it right. Probably just a little more digging to find the right thing to turn off and no more. I had found the general area but turning it off was causing problems because I didn't hone in on the exact line that shows the control panel, rather I turned off the system prematurely and it affected operation of functionality. Anyways, the way it is is fine for now, until I get a little more time to study that section better.

I replaced the invite modal with another that's not Facebook related, it just lets you copy a link. There's a QR-code aspect I haven't gotten to work yet so that might get added in later.

I have lots of really great inspirations about it, so hopefully there will be some good new features soon as well. It's at a point that it's really fun to build off of, so I want to start looking at adding alternate game types, alternate robots, alternate themes, alternate rankings, alternate interfaces for mobile platforms, perfecting and perhaps broadening and re-purposing the framework it uses, combining it with other programs, promoting it, taking player suggestions, adding sound effects, and, as you can see, there is really no end to the to-do list, which is great because it leaves plenty of room for future feature and functionality expansion. The request framework it utilizes should be able to accommodate a wide variety of functionality additions without adding much complexity at all - zero core complexity in fact, hopefully. The more I work with it, the more I simplify and simplify and lock in perfected features.

There is a lot to it though, it's not a trivial program. Built in 2009 to replace the then go-to reversi app, fb_reversi, or maybe facebook_reversi, created by Jason Hanley, Super Bomb Reversi is built on inspiration, love for Othello, and passion for programming, but also upon the factually historically extremely unstable Facebook login api. As you can see, now, the Facebook login has been so unstable that even upon submitting the most legitimate of legitimate business verification paperwork for us, so that Facebook can let us use the login API again, recently, Facebook is failing to allow verification to pass (for no reason, at all, whatsoever, the status is locked in verification 'In Review' state, as the second legitimate submission of paperwork, showing that I own the company Opal Cliff Trading (which in no way matters), but for whatever reason, they are demand that to use the FB login API that I must own a business (which I do) and when I send paperwork to prove that I do, they first 'denied' verification and the second time with OCR-scanned paperwork, so the robots can read it too, they just locked their interface in verification 'In Review' - I could swear this is lawsuit material. So this is not the first time, this is why the other app gave up, because the Facebook login API is a moving target - they keep changing it, and keep changing it - disallowing this, disallowing that, disallowing too many requests, etc. - recent research suggests all the 2018 supreme court commotion with Zuckerberg affected FB policies, so here we are, not even being allowed to use the FB api anymore. Why did they try and provide this API, ever, in the first place, if it was going to be so fleetingly short-lived. The point I am getting to is that since the login API has been a moving target - and, in fact, even PHP methodologies across the past 16 years have changed entirely, going to PDOs - these essentially surprise paradigm shifts had forced me to scramble to make patches and mods amidst 'real work' I had to be doing, and so, the point I'm trying to make is that the program is not perfected yet, it is still going through growing pains, but - it's usable, and a really fun project for me to work on, one of my favorites. Thank you for enjoying it, and let me know what your suggestions are. Meanwhile also don't forget to get your accounting done as well at AccountBlaster. (Click the 'AccountBlaster Free' link underneath the Homer-Flamingo-Art, then you're in AccountBlaster. Use the sample accounts or click trash to trash them all and create your own. Great for keeping track of what you spend, where, and how much money you have, where.)