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MUD1

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MUD1
Developer(s)
Platform(s)Platform independent
Release1978
Genre(s)FantasyMUD
Mode(s)Multiplayer
A screenshot fromMUD1

Multi-User Dungeon,orMUD(referred to asMUD1,to distinguish it from its successor,MUD2,and theMUDgenre in general), is the firstMUD.

History

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MUD was created in 1978 by Roy Trubshaw andRichard Bartleat theUniversity of Essexon aDECPDP-10.[1][2]Trubshaw named the gameMulti-User Dungeon,in tribute to theDungeonvariant ofZork,which Trubshaw had greatly enjoyed playing.[3][4]Zorkin turn was inspired by an oldertext-adventuregame known asColossal Cave AdventureorADVENT.[5]

MUD1was written in thedomain-specific programming languageMulti User Dungeon Definition Language (MUDDL).[6]Its first version was written by Richard Bartle and Roy Trubshaw inBCPL.It was later ported toC++[7]and used in other MUDs such asMIST.[6]

In 1980, Roy Trubshaw created MUD version 3 inBCPL(the predecessor ofC), to conserve memory and make the program easier to maintain.[8]Richard Bartle,a fellow Essex student, contributed much work on the game database, introducing many of the locations and puzzles that survive to this day. Later that year Roy Trubshaw graduated from Essex University, handing overMUDto Richard Bartle, who continued developing the game.[9]That same year,MUD1became the first Internet multiplayer online role-playing game as Essex University connected its internal network to theARPANET.[10]

In 1983,Essex Universityallowed remote access to its DEC-10 viaBritish Telecom'sPacket Switch Streamnetwork between 2 am and 7 am each night.[11]MUD became popular with players around the world, and several magazines wrote articles on this new trend.[12]

Between 1984 and 1987, MUD was hosted on the DEC-20 ofDundee College of Technology[13]which was one of the few institutions to allow outside access.

In 1984,Compunet,a UK-based network primarily forCommodore 64users, licensed MUD1 and ran it from late 1984 until 1987, when CompuNet abandoned the DEC-10 platform they were using.[14]

Trubshaw and Bartle (with the assistance of Simon Dally) subsequently formed the company Multi-User Entertainment Limited, and proceeded to work on MUD version 4, also known asMUD2(released in 1985).[15]MUD2 was intended to be run as a service for British Telecom.[16]

In 1987, MUD1 was licensed byCompuServe,who pressured Richard Bartle to close down the instance of MUD1, better known as 'Essex MUD',that was still running at Essex University. This resulted in the deletion of the MUD account that October. This leftMIST,a derivative ofMUD1with similar gameplay, as the only remaining MUD running on the Essex University network, becoming one of the first of its kind to attain broad popularity.MISTran until the machine that hosted it, aPDP-10,was superseded in early 1991. [17]

MUD1ran under the nameBritish Legendsuntil late 1999 and was retired along with other software during CompuServe'sY2Kcleanup efforts.[18]

In 2000, Viktor Toth rewrote the BCPLsource codeforMUD1to C++ and opened it alongsideMUD2on British-legends.[19]

In 2014, with permission from the authors ofMUD1,the C++ reimplementation ofMUD1was deposited within the archives of Stanford University for historical purposes.[20][21]

In 2020, the full source code for thePDP-10implementation ofMUD1(as of 1986) was released on Github (with permission from the authors), under theGPL v3license.[22]

Reception

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Computer Gaming Worldin 1993 calledBritish Legendson CompuServe as a "typical text-based multi-player role-playing game" with an emphasis on magic.[23]

References

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  1. ^Sloane, Sarah (2000)Digital Fictions: Storytelling in a Material World,Ablex Publishing Corporation,ISBN978-1-56750-482-8,p. 168
  2. ^Slator, Brian M. et al "From Dungeons to Classrooms: The Evolution of MUDs as Learning Environments", in Jain, Lakhmi C., Tedman, Raymond A. & Tedman, Debra K. (eds.) (2007)Evolution of Teaching and Learning Paradigms in Intelligent Environment,Springer,ISBN978-3-540-71973-1,p. 121-2
  3. ^Kelly, Kevin;Rheingold, Howard(1993)."The Dragon Ate My Homework".Wired.Vol. 1, no. 3.In 1980, Roy Trubshaw, a British fan of the fantasy role-playing board gameDungeons and Dragons,wrote an electronic version of that game during his final undergraduate year at Essex College. The following year, his classmate Richard Bartle took over the game, expanding the number of potential players and their options for action. He called the gameMUD(forMulti-User Dungeons), and put it onto the Internet.
  4. ^Richard Bartle(2003).Designing Virtual Worlds.New Riders.p. 741.ISBN0-13-101816-7.The "D" in MUD stands for "Dungeon"... because the version of ZORK Roy played was a Fortran port called DUNGEN.
  5. ^Tim Anderson;Stu Galley (1995)."The History of Zork".Archived fromthe originalon 16 January 2009.Zork was too much of a nonsense word, not descriptive of the game, etc., etc., etc. Silly as it sounds, we eventually started calling it Dungeon (Dave admits to suggesting the new name, but that's only a minor sin). When Bob the lunatic released his FORTRAN version to the DEC users' group, that was the name he used.
  6. ^abBartle, Richard(1999)."MUDDL".Many MUDDL databases were written by students at Essex University, the most well-known being 'Mist', 'Rock', 'Blud' and 'Uni' [...]
  7. ^Bartle, Richard(2002)."Incarnations of MUD".Viktor Toth had had a copy of the BCPL source code forMUD1for some years, and decided that now was the time to do something with it. In a 9-day programming blitz over Christmas, he rewrote the BCPL MUDDL engine in C++ and opened it up alongsideMUD2.The ex-CompuServe players gravitated there, where it now runs as a direct continuation of the defunct original BL incarnation.
  8. ^Richard Bartle(1990)."Early MUD History".The program was also becoming unmanageable, as it was written in assembler. Hence, he rewrote everything in BCPL, starting late 1979 and working up to about Easter 1980. The finished product was the heart of the system which many people came to believe was the 'original' MUD. In fact, it was version 3.
  9. ^Eddy Carroll (1995)."MUD Timeline".Archived fromthe originalon 3 May 2016.Retrieved12 July2008.Roy graduates from Essex University, and Richard takes full control of the game, fleshing out the database and adding additional commands. A proper persona communication system is introduced, along with the concepts of points and wizards.
  10. ^Mulligan, Jessica; Patrovsky, Bridgette (2003).Developing Online Games: An Insider's Guide.New Riders. p. 444.ISBN1-59273-000-0.1980... Final version ofMUD1completed by Richard Bartle. Essex goes on the ARPANet, resulting in Internet MUDs!
  11. ^Eddy Carroll (1995)."MUD Timeline".Archived fromthe originalon 3 May 2016.Retrieved12 July2008.Essex University allows outside users to access its DEC-10 via BT's Packet Switch Stream network (PSS) during the normally idle period from 2am to 8am each night.
  12. ^Richard Bartle (1995)."MUD Magazine Bibliography".
  13. ^Richard Bartle (2004).Designing Virtual Worlds.ISBN9780131018167.Furthermore, it only ran on DEC-10, and although copies were sent to other institutions in the U.K., Sweden, and Norway, only two of these allowed outsiders access (Dundee Technical College and Oslo University).
  14. ^Richard Bartle (1999)."CompuNet MUD".The incarnation ofMUD1on the CompuNet network in the UK, the first commercial MUA in the world.
  15. ^"MUSE's Personnel",mud.co.uk, retrieved 2010-12-18
  16. ^Richard Bartle (2002)."MUSE background".A new version of the game, which came to be known asMUD2,was written in 1985 to be run as a service for British Telecom.
  17. ^Michael Lawrie(2003)."Escape from the Dungeon".October of 1987 was chaos. The MUD account was deleted, but the guest account on Essex University remained open. I guess it wasn't causing any trouble so they simply left it. ROCK, UNI and MUD all ran from the MUD account so they had gone but... MIST ran from a student account and it was still playable.
  18. ^Richard Bartle (2007)."A Brief History".Due in part to a fortuitous coincidence (MUDwas written for the same DECSystem-10 computing platform that CompuServe used for its information service)MUDwas licensed by CompuServe in the mid-1980s where it ran as a popular game until late 1999. It was eventually retired along with other software during CompuServe's Y2K cleanup efforts.
  19. ^Richard Bartle (2002)."Incarnations of MUD".Viktor Toth had had a copy of the BCPL source code forMUD1for some years, and decided that now was the time to do something with it. In a 9-day programming blitz over Christmas, he rewrote the BCPL MUDDL engine in C++ and opened it up alongsideMUD2.The ex-CompuServe players gravitated there, where it now runs as a direct continuation of the defunct original BL incarnation.
  20. ^Simon Sharwood (2014)."Source code for world's first MUD, Essex Uni's MUD1, recovered".The Register.The code has landed at Stanford University, which says it has secured permission to redistribute the game's blueprints from the authors Richard Bartle and Roy Trubshaw.
  21. ^"MUD1/British Legends source code, 1999-2014 M2013".oac.cdlib.org.Retrieved5 June2024.
  22. ^PDP-10/MUD1,PDP-10, 2 May 2024,retrieved5 June2024
  23. ^"A Survey of On-Line Games".Computer Gaming World.May 1993. p. 84.Retrieved7 July2014.
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