Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs): What Are They? and How to Play
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Re: Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs): What Are They? and How to Play
#2This post is great. I love MUDs so much. I fell in love with them in the late 90s when I was finishing up high school. My favorite MUD was A.V.A.T.A.R., which I think is still around. (Update: I checked. It's still there!) The best part of a MUD is, like the article says, the multi-user aspect. It was an MMORPG before it was cool!
Whenever I learn a new programming language, my go-to project is to write a MUD from scratch. I try to make my area loader compatible with the Merc/Diku codebases, so I can start off with a fully realized world. I'm in the middle of writing one in Go. It's pretty dang fun, and there are sooooo many things to make that you really kind of never finish writing.
If anyone reading wants to check a MUD out, just type this into your terminal:
telnet avatar.outland.org 3000
(I have zero relation to Avatar other than being a fan/player.)
It's free, it's fun, and it's easy! The author of this article links to a bunch of ways to find new MUDs, if you enjoyed Avatar, there are tons of different kinds of MUDs, different themes, and so on. Enjoy!
Re: Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs): What Are They? and How to Play
#3Multi Undergraduate Destroyers was the acronym I heard attributed to it
Back on topic, I learned a little while back that Diku's source code appeared online, and while digging up some relevant supporting links, I just learned today that they have created Diku III which uses HTML and websockets: https://dikumud.com/
The journey of that source code into my modern eyes is meaningful to me because at the time I was playing MUDs, I didn't have enough programming chops to understand the C source, but now I can have enjoyment from the nostalgia and from the source
Re: Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs): What Are They? and How to Play
#4I give Gemstone III and Dragonrealms full credit for my current typing speed. And I remember setting up a local TinyMUD instance for my friends on the school network then creating all sorts of weird items and creatures to mess with them.
It's funny... These games largely didn't have graphics (you could argue some of the more advanced interfaces like with Simutronics stuff did). Yet I have vivid memories of specifics places, creatures, items, etc from my experiences. A true testament to the power of imagination.
Re: Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs): What Are They? and How to Play
#5MUDs were great, and they were partially responsible for me being able to work up my knowledge, experience, and confidence to start up a career in software engineering. I learned a lot from trying to make my own MUDs (from using ROM 2.4, some tiny codebase called CVagrant, and from scratch), as well as a little bit about Linux.
This is all aside from playing. I somehow convinced many of the right people in middle and high school to play a Tolkien-based MUD with me. It was really great back then, but I don't play any more nor does anyone I know. There are only a handful of MUDs that have the playerbase to make them interesting.
Also, I'm not sure if it's still the best place to browse what MUDs exist, but many can be found on http://www.mudconnect.com/.
Re: Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs): What Are They? and How to Play
#6I used to spend quite a bit of time on the #emacs Freenode IRC channel, but then discovered Discworld MUD, which is like #emacs on steroids: more NPCs (though less advanced ones), more puns (not a fan of those personally, but they create an amusing atmosphere), more locations. It can be quite a time sink, but indeed a fun one. I'm finding it rather strange that those are not more popular, and would recommend to try them too.
Re: Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs): What Are They? and How to Play
#7MUDs were great, and they were partially responsible for me being able to work up my knowledge, experience, and confidence to start up a career in software engineering. I learned a lot from trying to make my own MUDs (from using ROM 2.4, some tiny codebase called CVagrant, and from scratch), as well as a little bit about Linux. This is all aside from playing. I somehow convinced many of the right people in middle and…
Tolkien's Lord of the Rings was a huge influence on fantasy and MUDs. I don't know which one you used to play. I used to play MUME (currently at https://mume.org/ )
My brother still plays sometimes. He has a lot of friends there. Sometimes they have over 30 people on at the same time! Heh. It used to be hundreds.
Re: Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs): What Are They? and How to Play
#8I've only played a little with MUDs, but I believe they are due to a big comeback as AIs like GPT-3 gets cheaper and more convenient to use. The possibilities for human vs AI interaction and also worldbuilding are endless.
Re: Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs): What Are They? and How to Play
#9This post is great. I love MUDs so much. I fell in love with them in the late 90s when I was finishing up high school. My favorite MUD was A.V.A.T.A.R., which I think is still around. (Update: I checked. It's still there!) The best part of a MUD is, like the article says, the multi-user aspect. It was an MMORPG before it was cool! Whenever I learn a new programming language, my go-to project is to write a MUD from sc…
Wow, that’s a blast from the past. I played on that MUD for a couple of years in the mid to late 90s. Never got too far, but had fun playing.
Re: Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs): What Are They? and How to Play
#10MUDs may be history to most people, but at Iron Realms we still have five commercial MUDs running live with dedicated paid staff on each constantly working to improve the gameplay and enlarge the already massive worlds. Honestly, it's pretty surprising to me, as when I launched our first one - Achaea - in 1997 right around when Ultima Online launched, I gave us five years.