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I've been reading up a lot for 2 days now. Had to open up a mindmap to write down all active forks we have for Sphere... a whopping 7!
I'm trying not to get sucked into the engine again, and actually start doing something about the game coding I had planned... uhm... more than 10 years ago... when I found Sphere 1.3
For now I'm testing each fork for neatness and functionality. Once I settle for one, Ill start writing test cases. Once that is done, Ill start reading my old libraries again, undusting them, and start again on the project. It is hard, because my latest were on a laptop that blew up... I connected the harddisk to a usb interface and it went poof. I have backups, but they are never the latest. And so, the storyboard is incomplete, and I lost lots of plot ideas.  No matter, they were cheesy anyway, but still I had funny ideas....

Is there someone who has compiled 1.6 and has it stable? Is there a place I can read up on compiling in Linux? (seems like the wiki is gone?)

Polygon() existed back in the old 1.5 version. But there was no easy way to detect if one polygon was touching another polygon. There also is no polygon editor. And so, nobody really used it.
Until I found a fast algorithm for http://www.visibone.com/inpoly/, published in 97 in the Linux Journal. In fact, the article contains several of these algorithms and puts them somewhat side by side. The code is small, fast and brilliant. And fortunately, still around. And worth the read, so check the URL out.

At that moment in time, I was more concerned with writing good interface code, than understanding the algorithm, that is why in the sources you still can see this comment:

inside=!inside; // I nod and smile...

Yes. It is not always easy to "understand" the code. The focus and effort was more on following all JS guidelines to not leak memory (it does not leak). And getting all glue functions, documentation, testing, etc. together to add a function. At a mere 173 lines of code, it was the stepping stone for the much bigger sfxr sound generator, that was added later on.

Did you try the Lithonite tech demo I included with the engine?

Of course, and also one I had lying around. All I can think of is that I grabbed the wrong zip.

The J in the icon with swords should be fatter and more prominent. Maybe even centered, and behind one of the swords? Also the font is too plain, use something more epic (but keep it readable).
I like the colour. Not too screamy, blends in with the soft grays.

I applaud your efforts Radnen, but yes, if we are going to pull off another release, we will need consensus about the engine (the editors, I like them to be numerous, as each user using them can see which one is more comfortable. For *.js coding I do not use the editor, I use notepad++, the graphics I edit in other programs, and paste them into the editor. Especially with fonts, where I export to a PNG, edit it, then use a converter program to put that back into a .fnt file. While other would prefer to only use one tool...). But the engine... we should concentrate efforts on one. Especially because our numbers are dwindling.

As you might remember, the big problem with 1.6 was stability of the build. I was never able to duplicate the stability 1.5 had.... even with 1.5 sources. Which meant that the MSVC compiler was either buggy, or I could not find the perfect settings. Even after rewriting parts to remove warnings, the build was never stable. A shame too, I saw Anatoli write the best optimized code for displaying. And was in awe at what the particle engine could accomplish.

I guess goals are lower now, and it is to recreate the Sphere 1.5 functionality. But we have 3 options:

1. Keep going with the 1 man - 1 Sphere fork. I can help with the requested test cases, will start this week.
2. Choose one, and work together on that one to get it up to par. (basically what the Verge team did with IKA)
3. change scope and hope for new users and developers. (very hard to pull off)

I like the fact you are using node.js as networking glue. I like the fact Sphere had networking, and somebody actually made a webserver back in the day....  (doing what node.js does now, but way earlier)
Sphere still is unique. It works like imagemagick, in that you can generate graphic images with external data. Ten years ago, I created performance graphics that way at work. (combined with irfanview batch processing to convert the graphics to smaller jpg's (both in size as well as dimensions))
It works as javascript test case software. Where I coded ITM5 monitors (IBM Tivoli Framework) in Sphere. Using mock input, and knowing the expected output, I used it as testcase-first programming. Then moved the tested functions into the monitor template, builded it, and did the real test with real data. As I could program it everywhere, I could work on the train, and test each change with arrow up + enter (commandline sphere). Fast iteration = Very productive hours.
Granted, there is better software now to do what I did back then with Sphere, but it was used that way, by me, on purpose.
Oh, and a primitive mathjs viewer, where you could actually display values, plot them or save them to file. But now, browsers have come a long way: http://mathjs.org/examples/browser/plot.html

My  main question (better asked in another post, but why not here) is if we have to put efforts into the main branch... making it compatible with the new JS, which has renamed quite a few functions... at least to try to see if it is fast as V8?

This is what I had back in 2014. I have not done any work on it. I will delve into surfaces (Radnen request), and isolate/remove all 1.6 tests so that it works in classis Sphere 1.5, to serve as a testbed. Unfortunately, it uses a few complex functions, and I am not sure all Sphere derivates can handle them... we will see...

Log opened: Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- COLOR(toJSON()):assertEquals OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- COLOR(read red component):assertEquals OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- COLOR(read green component):assertEquals OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- COLOR(read blue component):assertEquals OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- COLOR(read alpha component):assertEquals OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- COLOR(clamp alpha createColor()):assertEquals OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- *COLOR(clamp red assigned):assertEquals FAIL: (new Number(0))!=(new Number(255))
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- *COLOR(COLOR):NOTE FAIL: No good assertion results, rewrite either the test or the code! false
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- COLORMATRIX(toJSON()):assertEquals OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- COLORMATRIX(assign rn):assertEquals OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- COLORMATRIX(assign negative rg):assertEquals OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- FLATE(bytearray length):assertEquals OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- FLATE(convert back to string):assertEquals OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- FLATE(deflate actually compresses):assertTrue OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- FLATE(deflate to correct object):assertEqualType OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- FLATE(inflate to same ByteArray):assertEquals OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- FLATE(inflate to same string):assertEquals OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- FLATE(reflate):assertEquals OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- FLATE(reflate 9):assertEquals OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- FLATE(reflate :assertEquals OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- FLATE(reflate 7):assertEquals OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- FLATE(reflate 6):assertEquals OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- FLATE(reflate 5):assertEquals OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- FLATE(reflate 4):assertEquals OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- FLATE(reflate 3):assertEquals OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- FLATE(reflate 2):assertEquals OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- FLATE(reflate 1):assertEquals OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- FLATE(reflate 0):assertEquals OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- FLATE(bytearrays):assertEqualType OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- FLATE(reflate too small buffer):assertNotEquals OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- FLATE(not equal bytearrays by data):assertNotEquals OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- FLATE(ByteArray clone):assertEquals OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- FLATE(length read-only):assertEquals OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- FLATE(not equal bytearrays by length):assertNotEquals OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- FLATE(not equal bytearrays):assertNotEquals OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- SPHERE16(Sphere 1.6):assertEquals OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- SPHERE16(Sphere v1.6):assertEquals OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- SPHERE16(GVS() is string):assertString OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- GetGlobalConfiguration(GetGlobalConfiguration 0):assertNumber OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- GetGlobalConfiguration(GetGlobalConfiguration 0):assertInteger OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- GetGlobalConfiguration(GetGlobalConfiguration 1):assertNumber OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- GetGlobalConfiguration(GetGlobalConfiguration 1):assertInteger OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- GetGlobalConfiguration(GetGlobalConfiguration 2):assertNumber OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- GetGlobalConfiguration(GetGlobalConfiguration 2):assertInteger OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- GetGlobalConfiguration(fraction not integer):assertString OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- GetGlobalConfiguration(fraction not integer):assertBoolean OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- SFXR(test type):assertEquals OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- SFXR(Same):assertEquals OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- SFXR(not same):assertNotEquals OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- SFXR(toJSON):assertEquals OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- SPRITESETS(isbase):assertType OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- SPRITESETS(setpersonbase):assertEquals OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- APROX(assertAprox):assert OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- APROX:passed OK
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- TOTAL goodfunctions:1
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- TOTAL badfunctions:1
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- TOTAL totalRequiredFunctions:0
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- TOTAL totalgoodRequiredFunctions:0
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- TOTAL coverage:NaN%
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- TOTAL succeeded:52
Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014 -- TOTAL fails:2
Log closed: Sat Sep 27 17:50:10 2014
fbnil@sphere:~/Documents/mygame/sphere/Sphere16$ cat dotest.sh
wine engine.exe -game auto_test
cat games/auto_test/logs/unittest.log