MUDs Turn 30 Years Old

Massively points out that today marks the 30th anniversary of the first Multi-User Dungeon (MUD) going live at Essex University in the UK. The game, referred to as MUD1, was created by Roy Trubshaw. Richard Bartle, a man who also worked on the game as a student at Essex, has a post discussing the milestone and talking about how MUDs relate to modern MMOs. What MUDs did you play?

Comments

Aardwolf!

[Lookin4Trouble]

Aardwolf - where the men are MEN, and most of the women are too... http://www.aardmud.org/

30 years old

[Bastard of Subhumani]

30 years old ... and they still haven't got laid.

Tinyworld and the Univ of Northern Iowa

[Foofoobar]

Tinyworld was popular by alot of people at Carnegie Mellon and the Univ of Northern Iowa and we had a bit of an exchange program. We even talked an english teacher into teacher class online. We started a school organization to police ourselves so we didnt hog all the universities resources for students who needed them but the university still considered it a game and when they found out that we had found a loophole in the student organization charter to get around them kicking people out for using computers for MUDDING, they called me (the president of the org) before the school board). I took the opportunity to give a presentation on how MUDDing was an example of the internet and how the internet would allow people from across the world to connect. I showed them how we were able to exchange files and ideas and how one teacher had taught a class online. Afterward, they were so impressed that I didn't get kicked out of school and instead they put a million dollars more funding into the information/computer sciences programs (which at that time was what they considered it to fall under).

Thirty years...

[hvatum]

Thirty years, and the graphics still suck.

Abermud explained it all for me

[wandazulu]

Back in 1990 I had absolutely no idea what "multitasking" and "multi-user" meant when it came to a single machine; I was raised on C64s, Apple ][s, etc., which were basically single-tasking. A friend at college showed me MUDs (specifically AberMUD) and all of a sudden it was like playing Zork and Adventure all over again, but in real time! With real people! All over the world!

As if my mind weren't already completely blown by the idea of a real-time Zork-like game, I realized that all of this was happening on a single machine, somewhere in Sweden. I asked how this was possible, and therein lies the beginning of my discovery of how computers worked in general, culminating in being a developer today.

It seemed absolutely magic to me then, and in reality, is still magic now. Man...I can still see it all now, sitting in front of that VT102 on the tiled, raised floor, thinking I had been let in on the hidden secret of the world, which was the early 1990s-era Internet.

Good times, good times.

Re:What MUDs "did" I play?

[ArsonSmith]

There is a shape made up of four squares arranged 3 on one side and one sticking out to the left at the bottom. The next shape after this is four squares arranged in a two by two square.

Which direction do you wish to move the current peice?
(left, right, down)

100hp 56ma 13456exp > d

You have made 2 complete lines. Gained 148 experience.

The pieces are moving faster now.

There is a shape made up of four squares arranged in a two by two square. The next shape after this is four squares arranged with two on the bottom left and two on the top right.

Which direction do you wish to move the current peice?
(left, right, down)

I have a log of that first MUD session

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

I have a text log of that first MUD session by the two guys who set it up:

# Welcome to MUD1 at Essex University!
#
# Time: 18:57:32
# There are 1 users on currently, including you.
#
# You are in a room with one door on the north wall.
#
> n
# You go north.
> look
# You see one door to the south.
> s
# You go south.
> look
# You are in a room with one door on the north wall.
> search
# What?
> examine
# I don't know how to do that, Dave.
> find
# What?
>
# TimTheEnchanger logged in.
#
# Time: 19:02:12
# There are 2 users on currently, including you.
#
>
*** TimTheEnchanter attacks YOU ***
*** You are hit for 26721 damage! ***
*** You DIE! ***
> n
# You can't do that, you are dead.
> nnnn
# What?
> nn
# I don't know how to do that, Dave.
> nnnnnnnnnnnn
# What?
>
TimTheEnchanter shouts, "hahaha dumbass!"
> q
# I don't know how to do that, Dave.
> quit
# What?
> exit
# Goodbye, and thanks for playing! Come back soon!
# Elapsed time: 0 hours 6 minutes 33 seconds.
^(*@#CONNECTION LOST

And we've never looked back!