Multi User Dungeons

A Multi User Dungeon (or MUD for short) is a game which is a bit similar to the old computer game adventure which was also known as collosal caves. Most MUDs also contain a combat element which is somewhat similar to old desktop wargames and borrows some ideas from the famous Dungeons and Dragons game. The Multi-User aspect is important because players can interact with the game and also with each other, thus teamwork and trust become important elements of good gameplay.

Beginners Guide

If you have never played a MUD before then there are some basic ideas that you will need before you get started. For starters you need a MUD client on your computer. This can be as simple as the telnet program (which is supplied on nearly every computer) but much more advanced clients are available. Some MUDs can be played using a web browser as a client.

Next you have to choose a MUD server and there are a large numbers of servers out there. See the links below for places to go looking for MUD servers. It is almost guaranteed that the first few MUDs you visit will not be to your liking, for one reason or another. Don't be afraid to move on and look at other servers until you find one that you like. You want to find a MUD that is fun to play (but everyone has a different idea of what is fun) and you want a MUD that is reasonably busy so there are other players you can meet, but not too busy or else it loses the personality.

Server Listings

There are too many servers to list here, here are links to some common websites that contain server listings.

FIXME!

Clients

Source Code for MUDs

Java based

diku variants and similar (C, C++)

C/C++ based and Non-Diku

16k MUDs for Competition Entries

perl

python

LPmud

The LPmud principle is a two-layer system. The bottom layer (aka driver) runs natively on the server and hosts the top layer (or mudlib) which runs in some sort of interpreted or bytecoded manner and usually supports interactive modification of top-layer code without interrupting the bottom-layer.

Visual BASIC

Mapping

What's the fun of a good quest without a bad map? Here is a link to a discussion of a mapping technique based on square regions

Random Name Generation

Another part of adventure games is trying to think of a name for all those characters. Nothing like a random number generator to fill in the blank spots in your imagination... Click here to get a list of randomly generated names.

3D and Graphics

Other Adventure Game Resources


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