Editing Multi-user dungeon (section)

=== 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.