Poll: Do you play MUDs?

[DrRock]

I started playing MUDs back in the late 80s, I even coded one, and yes I still play them. I find that the written word evokes the imagination a lot more effectively than anything visual.

Holy crap true! You coded one? Was it multiplayer? What programing language did you use? C+? Or one of the earlier ones? I used Basic Ages ago to make a simple adventure game. It took freakin forever.

Yes it was multi-user and could handle up to 8 players connecting through modems (I could never afford more than 4 phone lines though) but the other connections could be played locally.

The frontend which handled all of the modem interaction and pumped input back and forward was all in assembler, it had to be for pure speed considering we were talking 286 processor power.

The game engine was in Microsoft Pascal, because I was doing MOD work at the time in Ada and it was free. I later ported it to Delphi.

If you read the Cybergypsies book the game I coded was referred to as The Vortex (not its real name).

What are the chances of getting it online these days?

It is still running now with internet connections (in a fashion as it is being rewritten to run under Linux so isn't the total of the original), but I handed over the coding several years ago.

It was designed as a background for social roleplaying (no fighting) which fitted a niche at the time. In the UK the MUD community was very small, which wasn't surprising as the cost of being online for just an hour could be several pounds. I knew the coders of other MUDs and even had chats with the likes of Richard Bartle. It was a very different real and virtual world. The arrival of the internet caused an explosion in MUDs based on generic code bases, which changed that landscape forever.

I wouldn't want to give the illusion that it isn't a relic of the past, seldom visited by people other than old timers.

However, should you one day trip while eating a chilli burger and reading a dubious magazine, but somehow miss the ground, you might briefly find your way back to the late 80s.

 

[bimbley]

Discworld MUD is handsdown the best mud I've played...

Woo!

I'd recommend MUDs to anyone, it's a great form of gaming. I've been a console player since the very beginning, and had a C64 before that, but while I love my consoles nothing has ever taken over my life in quite the same way as the Discworld MUD. Started my character in early 2004 and he's still going strong, though I have had some long breaks in between.

-Bimbley

 

[Izakflashman]

I've played RetroMUD, though I haven't in a bit now. I got something of a reputation there for my high average rate of deaths. In a very tank-y class.

I tried it out. I got fuckin lost in the middle of nowhere. Ha ha. And I can't emote =(