I was lucky enough to play the original MUD1 at Essex over the ARPANET! I was on the old INFO-MUD@MC ARPA mailing list, and somebody from Essex University (probably Richard Bartle) posted instructions and an invitation to log into the original MUD1 running on a PDP-10 at the University of Essex via the ARPA/UK gateway at ARPA host address # 42 (NCP host addresses only had 8 bits in those days).
In 1980, Roy Trubshaw created MUD version 3 in BCPL (the predecessor of C), to conserve memory and make the program easier to maintain. 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 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.
Here's a scan of the notes I took (back in the 80's, not sure which year exactly), scribbled on one of the coffee-stained pages of a Zork map.
@O 42
%CON ESX TORUS EPSS 52200300
LOG 1776,1776
Password BUZBY
TY GUID.TXT -Intro
RU DSKB:MUD[2011,2653]
K/P or K/B Logs off
I shared that scan with Richard Bartle recently, and he commented: "Blimey! That's a find! The password was BUZBY because that was the name of the bird being used by BT (or was it still the Post Office?) in their advertising."
The source code to MUD1 has been recovered and released, and possibly there's still a version running (but it seems to be down, now).
I was on the Essex MUD via JANET (Joint Academic Network) as an undergrad at Cambridge in late 87. IIRC there was a "shout" feature that broadcast a message to all users. I used to troll by shouting "VMS is way better than Unix"! Quite a few Essex MUDers would rise to the bait :)
Bonus JANET trivia: IIRC the email addrs were back to front, so my email addr was something like uk.ac.cam.chu@jos.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUD1
In 1980, Roy Trubshaw created MUD version 3 in BCPL (the predecessor of C), to conserve memory and make the program easier to maintain. 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 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.
Here's a scan of the notes I took (back in the 80's, not sure which year exactly), scribbled on one of the coffee-stained pages of a Zork map.
https://i.imgur.com/ZL7Bl24.jpg
I shared that scan with Richard Bartle recently, and he commented: "Blimey! That's a find! The password was BUZBY because that was the name of the bird being used by BT (or was it still the Post Office?) in their advertising."The source code to MUD1 has been recovered and released, and possibly there's still a version running (but it seems to be down, now).
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/05/02/mud1_open_source_re...
http://british-legends.com/CMS/
http://www.mud2.com/CMS/index.php/play-the-game