MUD1
Encyclopedia
MUD2
MUD2 is the successor of MUD1, Richard Bartle's pioneering Multi-User Dungeon. Rather than a sequel, it is the result of over 20 years of continuous development, and is still largely based on the game's original code....
, and the MUD
MUD
A MUD , pronounced , is a multiplayer real-time virtual world, with the term usually referring to text-based instances of these. MUDs combine elements of role-playing games, hack and slash, player versus player, interactive fiction, and online chat...
genre in general) is the first MUD
MUD
A MUD , pronounced , is a multiplayer real-time virtual world, with the term usually referring to text-based instances of these. MUDs combine elements of role-playing games, hack and slash, player versus player, interactive fiction, and online chat...
and the oldest virtual world
Virtual world
A virtual world is an online community that takes the form of a computer-based simulated environment through which users can interact with one another and use and create objects. The term has become largely synonymous with interactive 3D virtual environments, where the users take the form of...
in existence. It was created in 1978 by Roy Trubshaw
Roy Trubshaw
Roy Trubshaw was a programmer at the University of Essex who co-authored MUD1, the first MUD, with Richard Bartle on a DEC PDP-10. Both of them now work together at Multi-User Entertainment with Trubshaw being the company’s technical director....
at Essex University on a DEC PDP-10
PDP-10
The PDP-10 was a mainframe computer family manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation from the late 1960s on; the name stands for "Programmed Data Processor model 10". The first model was delivered in 1966...
in the UK, using the MACRO-10 assembly language
Assembly language
An assembly language is a low-level programming language for computers, microprocessors, microcontrollers, and other programmable devices. It implements a symbolic representation of the machine codes and other constants needed to program a given CPU architecture...
. He named the game Multi-User Dungeon, in tribute to the Dungeon variant of Zork
Zork
Zork was one of the first interactive fiction computer games and an early descendant of Colossal Cave Adventure. The first version of Zork was written in 1977–1979 on a DEC PDP-10 computer by Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling, and implemented in the MDL programming language...
, which Trubshaw had greatly enjoyed playing. Zork in turn was inspired by an older text-adventure
Interactive fiction
Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, describes software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives and as video games. In common usage, the term refers to text...
game known as Colossal Cave Adventure
Colossal Cave Adventure
Colossal Cave Adventure gave its name to the computer adventure game genre . It was originally designed by Will Crowther, a programmer and caving enthusiast who based the layout on part of the Mammoth Cave system in Kentucky...
or ADVENT.
In 1980 Roy Trubshaw created MUD version 3 in BCPL (the predecessor of C
C (programming language)
C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....
), to conserve memory and make the program easier to maintain. Richard Bartle
Richard Bartle
Richard Allan Bartle is a British writer, professor and game researcher, best known for being the co-creator of MUD1 and the author of the seminal Designing Virtual Worlds. He is one of the pioneers of the massively multiplayer online game industry.-Life and career:Bartle received a Ph.D...
, 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 over MUD to Richard Bartle, who continued developing the game. That same year, MUD1 became the first Internet multiplayer online role-playing game as Essex University connected its internal network to the ARPAnet
ARPANET
The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network , was the world's first operational packet switching network and the core network of a set that came to compose the global Internet...
.
In 1983 Essex University allowed remote access to its DEC-10 via British Telecom's Packet Switch Stream
Packet Switch Stream
In the United Kingdom, Packet Switch Stream was an X.25-based packet-switched network, provided by the British Post Office Telecommunications and then British Telecom starting in 1980...
network between 2 am and 7 am each night. MUD became popular with players around the world, and several magazines wrote articles on this new trend.
In 1984 Roy Trubshaw and Richard Bartle were approached by book editor and gamer Simon Dally to form a company to promote and market MUD, and to produce and market the next generation of multi-user games. As a result Multi User Entertainment (MUSE) Ltd was formed in 1985. The late Dally also wrote competitions for Acorn User
Acorn User
Acorn User magazine was founded by Acorn Computers in 1982, contract-published by Addison-Wesley, to coincide with the launch of the BBC Micro. It covered the range of Acorn home computers, the BBC Micro and Atom at first and later the Electron, Archimedes and Risc PC.The first issue was dated...
magazine. He told the editor Tony Quinn that he found the minicomputer to run the game in a builder's skip
Skip (container)
A rubbish skip is usually called merely a skip or waste bin. A skip is a large open-topped container designed for loading onto a special type of lorry. Differing from dumpster, instead of being emptied into a waste vehicle onsite, a skip is replaced by an empty skip and then tipped at a landfill...
.
In 1984 Compunet
Compunet
Compunet was a United Kingdom based interactive service provider, catering primarily for the Commodore 64 but later for the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST...
, a UK-based network primarily for Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
users, licensed MUD1 and ran it from late 1984 until 1987, when CompuNet abandoned the DEC-10 platform they were using.
In 1985 Richard Bartle created MUD1 version 4, better known as MUD2. It was intended to be run as a service for British Telecom.
In 1987 MUD1 was licensed by CompuServe
CompuServe
CompuServe was the first major commercial online service in the United States. It dominated the field during the 1980s and remained a major player through the mid-1990s, when it was sidelined by the rise of services such as AOL with monthly subscriptions rather than hourly rates...
, 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 in October 1987. MUD1 ran under the name British Legends until late 1999 and was retired along with other software during CompuServe's Y2K cleanup efforts.
In 2000 Viktor Toth rewrote the BCPL source code for MUD1 to C++ and opened it alongside MUD2 on British-legends.com.