TinyMUD
Encyclopedia
TinyMUD is the name of a MUD
server codebase
, and the first MUD running that codebase. The MUD itself has subsequently come to be known as "TinyMUD Classic" or simply "Classic", or occasionally "DaisyMUD" (since in the final days of its first incarnation, it ran on a computer named "daisy"). To distance itself from the combat orientated traditional MUDs it was said that the "D" in TinyMUD stood for Multi-User "Domain" or "Dimension", which led to the eventual adoption of the term MU* to refer to TinyMUD and its many derivatives.
in mid-to-late 1989 with the intention of focusing on player cooperation rather than point-gaining: it became the first so-called "social" MUD. TinyMUD was inspired by Monster (from Lauren Burka's MUDdex). He announced the availability of the first TinyMUD on August 19, 1989; seven months later, on April 29, 1990, he announced TinyMUD's closure (due to the process size exceeding the memory limit of 32 megabytes on the host system).
TinyHELL was the second TinyMUD server and included a whisper command.
TinyMUD's database was briefly resurrected as "PlanckMUD" (named after the new machine it was running on, "planck") by Bruce Woodcock on October 8, 1990. Subsequently renamed "TinyMUD Classic", the goal of this project was to clean up and revive the database, as well as serve as a method of stress-testing the new server it was running on. The revival was very controversial among many TinyMUD players, but the new version was actually even more popular than the original. TinyMUD was shut down again on December 11, 1990 when permission to use the new server was revoked. This version of the TinyMUD database is believed to have been subsequently lost.
On August 20, 1990, the administrator of what was then the most popular TinyMUD, Islandia, took down that mud and put TinyMUD Classic up in its place for the day, calling it "Brigadoon Day", a reference to the musical Brigadoon, about a mythical village in Scotland that only appears for one day every 100 years. Since then, it has become a tradition to bring back old muds on August 19 or August 20 for the day. In particular, TinyMUD Classic has reappeared at this time every year from 1998 to the present at toccobrator.com.
Aspnes released the code to TinyMUD resulting in later non-Aspnes versions; additionally, others extended and modified it into such variants as TinyMush
(written by Larry Foard), PennMUSH, TinyMUCK
(Stephen White), TinyMUX, TinyMUSE, and SMUG (Jim Aspnes and others). MUCK, MUSH, and MUX are now said to stand for "Multi-User Created Kingdom", "Multi-User Shared Hallucination", and "Multi-User eXperience", but these are backronym
s; originally they were simple plays on the notion of "mud." Other MUD servers such as UberMUD, UnterMUD, TeenyMUD and MOO were written by TinyMUD participants but are not directly derived from the TinyMUD code. In 2004, a stripped-down version of TeenyMUD 1, renamed t33nyMUD, was put together by its original author to provide a platform for running TinyMUD Classic, since running Classic's database on modern mud code proved problematic.
As early as the original run of TinyMUD Classic, other MUDs using the TinyMUD server began emerging; since then, literally hundreds of MUDs based on TinyMUD and its derivatives have existed. PennMUSH, TinyMUSH and TinyMUX, three of the most widely-used MU* servers in the world, both directly trace their lineage to TinyMUD, and many other servers were inspired by it or its descendants.
No active games currently run on a TinyMUD server, and as the code is extremely dated due to not having been maintained in over ten years, it is very unlikely one will ever start up. One MU*, TinyTIM
, formerly ran on TinyMUD but switched to a custom code base several years ago.
One of the important features of TinyMud was the ability of players to build and create their own rooms, objects, and puzzles in the game. The following is the original building commandset abridged from "Three's Unabridged Dictionary of Commands" by Chrysalis (1990).
These were the core building commands available on TinyMUD and remain quite similar to those used on later derivatives of TinyMUD.
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...
server codebase
Codebase
The term codebase, or code base, is used in software development to mean the whole collection of source code used to build a particular application or component. Typically, the codebase includes only human-written source code files, and not, e.g., source code files generated by other tools or...
, and the first MUD running that codebase. The MUD itself has subsequently come to be known as "TinyMUD Classic" or simply "Classic", or occasionally "DaisyMUD" (since in the final days of its first incarnation, it ran on a computer named "daisy"). To distance itself from the combat orientated traditional MUDs it was said that the "D" in TinyMUD stood for Multi-User "Domain" or "Dimension", which led to the eventual adoption of the term MU* to refer to TinyMUD and its many derivatives.
History
The TinyMUD server was originally written by James AspnesJames Aspnes
James Aspnes is a professor in Computer Science at Yale University. He earned his Ph.D. in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University in 1992. His main research interest is distributed algorithms....
in mid-to-late 1989 with the intention of focusing on player cooperation rather than point-gaining: it became the first so-called "social" MUD. TinyMUD was inspired by Monster (from Lauren Burka's MUDdex). He announced the availability of the first TinyMUD on August 19, 1989; seven months later, on April 29, 1990, he announced TinyMUD's closure (due to the process size exceeding the memory limit of 32 megabytes on the host system).
TinyHELL was the second TinyMUD server and included a whisper command.
TinyMUD's database was briefly resurrected as "PlanckMUD" (named after the new machine it was running on, "planck") by Bruce Woodcock on October 8, 1990. Subsequently renamed "TinyMUD Classic", the goal of this project was to clean up and revive the database, as well as serve as a method of stress-testing the new server it was running on. The revival was very controversial among many TinyMUD players, but the new version was actually even more popular than the original. TinyMUD was shut down again on December 11, 1990 when permission to use the new server was revoked. This version of the TinyMUD database is believed to have been subsequently lost.
On August 20, 1990, the administrator of what was then the most popular TinyMUD, Islandia, took down that mud and put TinyMUD Classic up in its place for the day, calling it "Brigadoon Day", a reference to the musical Brigadoon, about a mythical village in Scotland that only appears for one day every 100 years. Since then, it has become a tradition to bring back old muds on August 19 or August 20 for the day. In particular, TinyMUD Classic has reappeared at this time every year from 1998 to the present at toccobrator.com.
Aspnes released the code to TinyMUD resulting in later non-Aspnes versions; additionally, others extended and modified it into such variants as TinyMush
MUSH
In multiplayer online games, a MUSH is a text-based online social medium to which multiple users are connected at the same time...
(written by Larry Foard), PennMUSH, TinyMUCK
TinyMUCK
TinyMUCK or, more broadly, a MUCK, is a type of user-extendable online text-based role-playing game, designed for role playing and social interaction...
(Stephen White), TinyMUX, TinyMUSE, and SMUG (Jim Aspnes and others). MUCK, MUSH, and MUX are now said to stand for "Multi-User Created Kingdom", "Multi-User Shared Hallucination", and "Multi-User eXperience", but these are backronym
Backronym
A backronym or bacronym is a phrase constructed purposely, such that an acronym can be formed to a specific desired word. Backronyms may be invented with serious or humorous intent, or may be a type of false or folk etymology....
s; originally they were simple plays on the notion of "mud." Other MUD servers such as UberMUD, UnterMUD, TeenyMUD and MOO were written by TinyMUD participants but are not directly derived from the TinyMUD code. In 2004, a stripped-down version of TeenyMUD 1, renamed t33nyMUD, was put together by its original author to provide a platform for running TinyMUD Classic, since running Classic's database on modern mud code proved problematic.
As early as the original run of TinyMUD Classic, other MUDs using the TinyMUD server began emerging; since then, literally hundreds of MUDs based on TinyMUD and its derivatives have existed. PennMUSH, TinyMUSH and TinyMUX, three of the most widely-used MU* servers in the world, both directly trace their lineage to TinyMUD, and many other servers were inspired by it or its descendants.
No active games currently run on a TinyMUD server, and as the code is extremely dated due to not having been maintained in over ten years, it is very unlikely one will ever start up. One MU*, TinyTIM
TinyTIM
TinyTIM is a MUSH created in 1990 by Sketch and Trout.Complex. It is the oldest running MUSH in existence, having held that status at least since 1995.-History:...
, formerly ran on TinyMUD but switched to a custom code base several years ago.
One of the important features of TinyMud was the ability of players to build and create their own rooms, objects, and puzzles in the game. The following is the original building commandset abridged from "Three's Unabridged Dictionary of Commands" by Chrysalis (1990).
@chown
These were the core building commands available on TinyMUD and remain quite similar to those used on later derivatives of TinyMUD.