Loteria Mexicana online / Mexican Bingo Online

Back in 1996 i was learning computer programing, it was interesting to me because I had a little background in electronics. So to practice what I have learned, I was looking  for an idea to put that basic knowledge to work.
I came across a Mexican Loteria game that made me remember how we used to play Loteria in the Mexican street festivals and fairs with my Grandmother Martha when I was little. I'll come back to share more memories of my beautiful Grandmother later.

When the operating system Windows 95 was released it came with some music videos, who would not remember that song Good Times by Edie Brickell.
Then for windows 95 Microsoft released a Game SDK with a library called DirectPlay witch supposed to connect gamers in a network so the days of playing alone were going to be gone some day. I used DirectPlay to create the first Loteria Mexicana Game for internet, check the picture above and see how the program looked after I finished. The program had 7 buttons, All with Spanish labels like Terminar (Exit), Conectar(Connect), Unirse(Joint), Jugar(Play). The other 3 buttons where used to select the playing board in Spanish called Tabla. It had a panel to display all the current gamers, a message panel and a message input.

To play the user first would look for a group to play pressing the Connect button, then will hit the Joint button, choose a playing board and the group has to agree to who was going to be the Loteria Caller. To synchronize all player only one person could be the caller while they were playing so by pressing the play button that person would become the caller and all the other players would get the called card on the center of the window while they chat and click on the playing board if the called card matches a card in the playing board. When anyone got all its playing board cards marked the program would display a message to all players saying who was the winner. Buenas LOTERIA!!!!...

I exchange messages with people to test the program  and everything looked good so I released it free of charge on a website to promote the Loteria Mexicana game that I had good memories playing with my grandmother.
Here is a screenshot of one of the first website that made for the Loteria, this probably was the third one I made for it:

Still can be viewed at: http://members.nbci.com:80/osito29/

By year 2000 everybody was learning Java to create games and interactive content for the web so I gave it a try to learn a bit of it and I made a  Loteria Java Applet. It was placed in this website witch still exist:

http://lotmex.tripod.com/index.html

Then I continued to developed other software like Loteria Workshop but what amaze me is that how many Loteria online Games exist today, all flavors and styles for many devices. There are some that have good graphics designs. Besides the Loteria online apps there has been an increased number in the creation of Loteria Playing Boards some made by well recognized artist, so the next time someone says - Plant a tree, have a child, write a book and make a loteria for that child - it's true. Long Live La Loteria!!!.

 

I will continue and expand this story when I have time.
Thanks