Editing Multi-user dungeon (section)

==Early history==

=== Origins ===
[[File:ADVENT -- Will Crowther's original version.png|thumb|[[Will Crowther]]'s ''Adventure'']]
''[[Colossal Cave Adventure]]'', created in 1975 by [[Will Crowther]] on a [[Digital Equipment Corporation|DEC]] [[PDP-10]] computer, was the first widely played [[adventure game]]. The game was significantly expanded in 1976 by [[Don Woods (programmer)|Don Woods]]. Also called ''Adventure'', it contained many D&D features and references, including a computer controlled [[dungeon master]].{{R|montfort|livinginternet}}

Numerous [[dungeon crawl]]ers were created on the [[PLATO system]] at the University of Illinois and other American universities that used PLATO, beginning in 1975. Among them were "[[pedit5]]", "oubliette", "[[Moria (PLATO)|moria]]", "avatar", "krozair", "dungeon", "[[dnd (PLATO video game)|dnd]]", "crypt", and "drygulch". By 1978–79, these games were heavily in use on various PLATO systems, and exhibited a marked increase in sophistication in terms of 3D graphics, storytelling, user involvement, team play, and depth of objects and monsters in the dungeons.<ref>Brian Dear, Chapter 16: "Into the Dungeon", [https://books.google.com/books?id=D5ZBDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA286 ''The Friendly Orange Glow''], Pantheon Books, New York, 2017; see pages 292–294 for "pedit5", pages 294–297 for "dnd", pages 297–298 for "dungeon".</ref>

Inspired by ''Adventure'', a group of students at [[MIT]] in the summer of 1977 wrote a game for the PDP-10 minicomputer; called ''[[Zork]]'', it became quite popular on the [[ARPANET]]. ''Zork'' was [[ported]], under the filename DUNGEN ("dungeon"), to [[FORTRAN]] by a programmer working at [[Digital Equipment Corporation|DEC]] in 1978.{{R|zork|bartle-acronym}}

In 1978 [[Roy Trubshaw]], a student at the [[University of Essex]] 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.{{R|wired-dragon}}  Trubshaw converted MUD to [[BCPL]] (the predecessor of [[C (programming language)|C]]), before handing over development to [[Richard Bartle]], a fellow student at the University of Essex, in 1980.{{R|bartle-history-email|shahrominemud1|cuciz}} The game revolved around gaining points till one achieved the Wizard rank, giving the character immortality and special powers over mortals.

=== Wider access and early derivatives ===

''MUD'', better known as ''Essex MUD'' and ''MUD1'' in later years, ran on the [[University of Essex]] network, and became more widely accessible when a guest account was set up that allowed users on [[JANET]] (a British academic [[X.25]] computer network) to connect on weekends and between the hours of 2 AM and 8 AM on weekdays.{{R|wisner1}} It became the first Internet multiplayer online role-playing game in 1980 and started the online gaming industry as a whole<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Hosch |first1=William L. |last2=Ray |first2=Michael |date=2023-05-09 |title=Online gaming |url=https://www.britannica.com/technology/online-gaming |access-date=2023-05-19 |publisher=[[Encyclopedia Britannica]] |language=en}}</ref> when the university connected its internal network to [[ARPANet]].{{R|dogarpa}}

The original ''MUD'' game was closed down in late 1987,{{R|bartle-mud1-1987}} reportedly under pressure from [[CompuServe]], to whom Richard Bartle had licensed the game. This left ''[[MIST (MUD)|MIST]]'', a derivative of ''MUD1'' with similar gameplay, as the only remaining MUD running on the University of Essex network, becoming one of the first of its kind to attain broad popularity. ''MIST'' ran until the machine that hosted it, a [[PDP-10]], was superseded in early 1991.{{R|escape-from-the-dungeon}}

1985 saw the origin of a number of projects inspired by the original ''MUD''. These included ''Gods'' by [[Ben Laurie]], a ''MUD1'' clone that included [[online creation]] in its endgame, and which became a commercial MUD in 1988;{{R|bartle-mudreport2}} and ''MirrorWorld'',{{R|bartle-mudreport1}} a [[tolkienesque]] MUD started by Pip Cordrey who gathered some people on a BBS he ran to create a ''MUD1'' clone that would run on a home computer.

Neil Newell, an avid ''MUD1'' player, started programming his own MUD called ''SHADES'' during Christmas 1985, because ''MUD1'' was closed down during the holidays. Starting out as a hobby, ''SHADES'' became accessible in the UK as a commercial MUD via British Telecom's [[Prestel]] and [[Micronet800|Micronet]] networks.{{R|shades}} A scandal on ''SHADES'' led to the closure of [[Micronet800|Micronet]], as described in [[Indra Sinha]]'s net-memoir, ''The Cybergypsies''.{{R|sinha}}

At the same time, [[Compunet]] started a project named ''Multi-User Galaxy Game'' as a science fiction alternative to ''MUD1'', a copy of which they were running on their system at the time. When one of the two programmers left CompuNet, the remaining programmer, Alan Lenton, decided to rewrite the game from scratch and named it ''[[Federation II]]'' (at the time no ''Federation I'' existed). The MUD was officially launched in 1989.{{R|bartle-mudreport3}} ''Federation II'' was later picked up by AOL, where it became known simply as ''Federation: Adult Space Fantasy''. ''Federation'' later left AOL to run on its own after AOL began offering unlimited service.

=== Other early MUD-like games ===
In 1978, around the same time Roy Trubshaw wrote ''MUD'', Alan E. Klietz wrote a game called ''Scepter'' (Scepter of Goth), and later called ''Milieu'' using Multi-[[Pascal (programming language)|Pascal]] on a [[CDC Cyber]] 6600 series [[Mainframe computer|mainframe]] which was operated by the [[Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium]].{{R|wisner2}}  Klietz ported ''Milieu'' to an [[IBM XT]] in 1983, naming the new port ''Scepter of Goth''. ''Scepter'' supported 10 to 16 simultaneous users, typically connecting in by modem. It was the first commercial MUD;<ref>{{cite book 
| last = Bartle | first = Richard | author-link = Richard Bartle 
| title = MMOs from the Inside Out 
| publisher = Apress 
| year = 2016 
| isbn = 978-1-4842-1724-5
| pages = 31
| quote = in 1983, Klietz formed a company, GāmBit, with Bob Alberti and two others to commercialize Sceptre.
| title-link = MMOs from the Inside Out }}</ref> franchises were sold to a number of locations. ''Scepter'' was first owned and run by GamBit (of [[Minneapolis, Minnesota]]), founded by Bob Alberti. GamBit's assets were later sold to [[Interplay Entertainment|Interplay Productions]].{{R|klietz}}<ref>{{harvnb|Bartle|2003|p=13}}, "Around the same time that Roy Trubshaw began work on what was to become MUD1, Alan Klietz wrote Sceptre of Goth on the CDC Cyber run by MECC (the Minnesota Educational Computer Consortium)."</ref>

In 1984, Mark Peterson wrote ''The Realm of Angmar'', beginning as a [[clone (computer and video games)|clone]] of ''Scepter of Goth''. In 1994, Peterson rewrote ''The Realm of Angmar'', adapting it to [[MS-DOS]] (the basis for many dial-in [[Bulletin board system|BBS]] systems), and renamed it ''[[Swords of Chaos]]''. For a few years this was a popular form of MUD, hosted on a number of BBS systems, until widespread Internet access eliminated most BBSes.{{Citation needed|date=January 2009}}

In 1984, [[Mark Jacobs (video game designer)|Mark Jacobs]] created and deployed a commercial gaming site, ''Gamers World''. The site featured two games coded and designed by Jacobs, a MUD called ''Aradath'' (which was later renamed, upgraded and ported to [[GEnie]] as ''[[Dragon's Gate]]'') and a [[4X game|4X]] science-fiction game called ''Galaxy'', which was also ported to [[GEnie]]. At its peak, the site had about 100 monthly subscribers to both ''Aradath'' and ''Galaxy''.  GEnie was shut down in the late 1990s, although ''[[Dragon's Gate]]'' was later brought to [[America Online|AOL]] before it was finally released on its own. Dragon's Gate was closed on February 10, 2007.{{R|dragonsgate}}

In the summer of 1980, [[University of Virginia]] classmates John Taylor and [[Kelton Flinn]] wrote ''Dungeons of Kesmai'', a six player game inspired by ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' which used [[roguelike]] [[ASCII]] graphics. They founded the [[Kesmai]] company in 1982 and in 1985 an enhanced version of ''Dungeons of Kesmai'', ''[[Island of Kesmai]]'', was launched on [[CompuServe]]. Later, its 2-D graphical descendant ''[[Legends of Kesmai]]'' was launched on [[AOL]] in 1996. The games were retired commercially in 2000.{{R|dogkesmai}}

The popularity of MUDs of the University of Essex tradition escalated in the United States during the late 1980s when affordable [[personal computers]] with 300 to 2400 bit/s [[modems]] enabled role-players to log into multi-line [[Bulletin Board Systems|BBSs]] and [[online service providers]] such as [[CompuServe]]. During this time it was sometimes said that MUD stands for "Multi Undergraduate Destroyer" due to their popularity among college students and the amount of time devoted to them.{{R|mudsociety}}

''[[Avalon: The Legend Lives]]'' was published by Yehuda Simmons in 1989. It was the first [[Persistent world|persistent game world]] of its kind without the traditional hourly resets<ref>{{cite web|last1=Bartle|first1=Richard|title=Richard A. Bartle: Reviews - UK|url=http://mud.co.uk/richard/imucg4.htm|quote=When you leave the game, objects can be kept for when you restart (eg. that weapon you commissioned from a smith), and you restart in the room from which you quit. This means some objects can be kept unavailable for long periods if their owner isn't playing. There are no resets.|access-date=June 7, 2015|archive-date=December 28, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151228220559/http://mud.co.uk/richard/imucg4.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> and points-based puzzle solving progression systems.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Bartle|first1=Richard|title=Reviews – UK|url=http://mud.co.uk/richard/imucg4.htm|website=www.mud.co.uk|quote=Experience is obtained by visiting new places, wandering around exploring, and even by simply chatting. This contrasts with the usual MUA scheme where points are obtained for finding treasure or performing specific tasks.|access-date=June 7, 2015|archive-date=December 28, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151228220559/http://mud.co.uk/richard/imucg4.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> Avalon introduced equilibrium and balance (cooldowns), skill-based player vs player combat and concepts such as player-run governments and player housing.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Bartle|first1=Richard|title=Reviews – UK|url=http://mud.co.uk/richard/imucg4.htm|website=www.mud.co.uk|quote=Almost anything can be bought, including houses, shops, taverns, animals, weapons, food and drink. Personae may use certain skills to create objects, eg. potions, which can be sold to other players for use on their adventures.|access-date=June 7, 2015|archive-date=December 28, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151228220559/http://mud.co.uk/richard/imucg4.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Later history ===
In 2004, significant usages of MUDs included "online gaming, education,...socializing", and religious [[ritual]]s or other religious activities.<ref name=":022" />