
Stanford University acquires source code for Multi-User Dungeon - bovermyer
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/216421/Stanford_University_acquires_source_code_for_first_ever_online_virtual_world.php
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brianstorms
Multi-user graphical online virtual worlds, multi-user dungeons -- these
things were already booming on the University of Illinois' PLATO system in
1978; they'd started popping up in 1973, maybe even '72\. You had pedit5,
moria, oubliette, krozair, dnd, dungeon, then in 1979 avatar, just to mention
but a few. Multi-user dnd games were one of the most popular activities on
PLATO all during the mid to late 70s. And these games were all graphics-based,
not limited to just text like the far more primitive MUD1.

Bartle has gotten a lot of mileage over the years with the MUD1 story, leading
to a misinforming of the media and the public, both of whom, when it comes to
technology and the history of technology, seem to be perfectly fine with being
misinformed. It's a shame to see an institution as prestigious as Stanford
fall for the same misinformation and ignore the real history. Five minutes of
Wikipedia browsing would have set them straight.

I'm sure MUD1 was very cool during its time, and got a lot of people
interested in the ideas of MUDs. Unfortunately, it was not first. Hard as it
might be for people to grasp the concept, but more sophisticated multi-user
dungeon games existed before MUD1 was even conceived. Deal with it.

~~~
Tegran
I decided to do the "Five minutes of Wikipedia browsing" you suggested.

Under [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUD](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUD) I
found this:

"In 1978 Roy Trubshaw, a student at Essex University in the UK, started
working on a multi-user adventure game in the MACRO-10 assembly language for a
DEC PDP-10. He named the game MUD (Multi-User Dungeon), in tribute to the
Dungeon variant of Zork, which Trubshaw had greatly enjoyed playing.[18]
Trubshaw converted MUD to BCPL (the predecessor of C), before handing over
development to Richard Bartle, a fellow student at Essex University, in
1980.[19][20][21]

MUD, better known as Essex MUD and MUD1 in later years, ran on the Essex
University network until late 1987,[22] becoming the first Internet
multiplayer online role-playing game in 1980, when Essex University connected
its internal network to ARPANet."

~~~
brianstorms
Sigh. You're making my point for me. But the irony escapes you I guess.

~~~
georgeoliver
Honest question, does PLATO or any other intranet count for 'first online'
anything in the terms of this discussion?

~~~
brianstorms
PLATO was a network of systems, not just one. By 1978 there were PLATO systems
in Illinois, Minnesota, Delaware, Florida, Belgium, and other locales, all
internetworked using what was called "the link", a high-bandwidth connection
between these various CYBER mainframes. PLATO had collectively many more users
than ARPANET during this time; ARPANET's population wouldn't exceed PLATO's
until probably around 1981, though it might even be later.

~~~
piokuc
Here is Wikipedia page on PLATO:
[http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PLATO_(computer_system)](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PLATO_\(computer_system\))

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ramblerman
Trying to automate my mud play from aliases to scripting with triggers was how
I got started programming.

My regex is still better than most ;)

~~~
ja27
Hacking tinyMUD and bots for tinyMUDs is how I really learned C programming.

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slaxo
Though a cool artifact, it seems like the essence of something like this comes
from interaction with the others using the service.

There's a really interesting podcast segment[1] about the Preserving Digital
Worlds[2] project which tries to answer some of the questions about how to
best document / preserve something who's value comes from the experiences
users share with each other

[1][https://soundcloud.com/roman-mars/99-invisible-13x-game-
over](https://soundcloud.com/roman-mars/99-invisible-13x-game-over)
[2][http://pvw.illinois.edu/pvw2/](http://pvw.illinois.edu/pvw2/)

~~~
voltagex_
99% Invisible should turn up on HN more often. It's a very interesting and
very well produced podcast that should interest a lot of people here. The
episodes are short and it's worth digging through the archives.

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jaryd
I still play on [http://new.vampire-wars.com](http://new.vampire-wars.com) :)

~~~
Zolomon
Cool! I'm still playing Discworld MUD
([http://discworld.starturtle.net/](http://discworld.starturtle.net/)) since
2000. It was my saviour through my leukemia treatment.

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teh_klev
Direct link to the announcement:

[http://www.stanford.edu/group/htgg/cgi-
bin/drupal/?q=node/11...](http://www.stanford.edu/group/htgg/cgi-
bin/drupal/?q=node/1191)

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adefa
I miss the good old days of:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GemStone_IV](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GemStone_IV)

The best MUD I've ever played!

~~~
bovermyer
If you played that in the late 1990s and early 2000s, you may have seen
artwork of mine in there in low-level areas. =)

~~~
adefa
Awesome! I played while it was very popular on AOL and for a few years after
they started charging for it.

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frankydp
I will always love Medievia.

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mlitchard
star wars mud ftw swmud.org 6666

