AberMUD
Encyclopedia
AberMUD, pronounced ˈæbərmʌd, was the first popular open source
MUD
, named after the town in which it was written, Aberystwyth
. The first version was written in B by Alan Cox
, Richard Acott, Jim Finnis, and Leon Thrane based at University of Wales, Aberystwyth
for an old Honeywell
mainframe
and opened in 1987.
Alan Cox
had played the University of Essex
MUD1
written by Roy Trubshaw
and Richard Bartle
, and the gameplay was heavily influenced by MUD1
.
In late 1988 AberMUD was ported to C
by Alan Cox
so it could run on UNIX
at Southampton University's Maths machines. This version was named AberMUD2.
In early 1989 there were three instances of AberMUD running in the UK, the Southampton one, one at Leeds University and a third at the IBM PC User Group in London, ran by Ian Smith. In January 1989 Michael Lawrie
sent a licenced copy of AberMUD3 to Vijay Subramaniam and Bill Wisner, both American Essex MIST players. Bill Wisner subsequently spread AberMUD around the world.
AberMUD3 was renamed to AberMUD II by Rich Salz
in February 1989 after he cleaned up the source code and ported it to UNIX.
In 1991, Alan Cox
wrote AberMUD IV (unrelated to AberMUD 4) and then AberMUD V, which was also used, with graphical extensions, in the Elvira game by Horror Soft, a trading name of Adventure Soft
. AberMUD V was later released under the GNU GPL
.
AberMUD4 was improved by Alf Salte and Gjermund "Nicknack" Sørseth to create Dirt. Their May 1993 final release of Dirt 3.1.2 is used by most of the remaining AberMUD games on the internet.
Notable AberMUDs include Northern Lights
and Infinity
. About twenty AberMUDs remain in operation, but even , they have few players. However, AberMUD's legacy lives on in the three major codebases it inspired: TinyMUD
, LPMud
and DikuMUD
.
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
MUD
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...
, named after the town in which it was written, Aberystwyth
Aberystwyth
Aberystwyth is a historic market town, administrative centre and holiday resort within Ceredigion, Wales. Often colloquially known as Aber, it is located at the confluence of the rivers Ystwyth and Rheidol....
. The first version was written in B by Alan Cox
Alan Cox
Alan Cox is a British computer programmer who formerly maintained the 2.2 branch of the Linux kernel and continues to be heavily involved in the development of the Linux kernel, an association that dates back to 1991...
, Richard Acott, Jim Finnis, and Leon Thrane based at University of Wales, Aberystwyth
University of Wales, Aberystwyth
Aberystwyth University is a university located in Aberystwyth, Wales. Aberystwyth was a founding Member Institution of the former federal University of Wales. As of late 2006, the university had over 12,000 students spread across seventeen academic departments.The university was founded in 1872 as...
for an old Honeywell
Honeywell
Honeywell International, Inc. is a major conglomerate company that produces a variety of consumer products, engineering services, and aerospace systems for a wide variety of customers, from private consumers to major corporations and governments....
mainframe
Mainframe computer
Mainframes are powerful computers used primarily by corporate and governmental organizations for critical applications, bulk data processing such as census, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning, and financial transaction processing.The term originally referred to the...
and opened in 1987.
Alan Cox
Alan Cox
Alan Cox is a British computer programmer who formerly maintained the 2.2 branch of the Linux kernel and continues to be heavily involved in the development of the Linux kernel, an association that dates back to 1991...
had played the University of Essex
University of Essex
The University of Essex is a British campus university whose original and largest campus is near the town of Colchester, England. Established in 1963 and receiving its Royal Charter in 1965...
MUD1
MUD1
Multi-User Dungeon, or MUD is the first MUD and the oldest virtual world in existence. It was created in 1978 by Roy Trubshaw at Essex University on a DEC PDP-10 in the UK, using the MACRO-10 assembly language...
written by Roy Trubshaw
Roy Trubshaw
Roy Trubshaw was a programmer at the University of Essex who co-authored MUD1, the first MUD, with Richard Bartle on a DEC PDP-10. Both of them now work together at Multi-User Entertainment with Trubshaw being the company’s technical director....
and Richard Bartle
Richard Bartle
Richard Allan Bartle is a British writer, professor and game researcher, best known for being the co-creator of MUD1 and the author of the seminal Designing Virtual Worlds. He is one of the pioneers of the massively multiplayer online game industry.-Life and career:Bartle received a Ph.D...
, and the gameplay was heavily influenced by MUD1
MUD1
Multi-User Dungeon, or MUD is the first MUD and the oldest virtual world in existence. It was created in 1978 by Roy Trubshaw at Essex University on a DEC PDP-10 in the UK, using the MACRO-10 assembly language...
.
In late 1988 AberMUD was ported to C
C (programming language)
C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....
by Alan Cox
Alan Cox
Alan Cox is a British computer programmer who formerly maintained the 2.2 branch of the Linux kernel and continues to be heavily involved in the development of the Linux kernel, an association that dates back to 1991...
so it could run on UNIX
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
at Southampton University's Maths machines. This version was named AberMUD2.
In early 1989 there were three instances of AberMUD running in the UK, the Southampton one, one at Leeds University and a third at the IBM PC User Group in London, ran by Ian Smith. In January 1989 Michael Lawrie
Michael Lawrie
Michael Lawrie is a British computer security and social networking expert known for many things ranging from running MUDs to accidentally being the world's first Cybersquatter...
sent a licenced copy of AberMUD3 to Vijay Subramaniam and Bill Wisner, both American Essex MIST players. Bill Wisner subsequently spread AberMUD around the world.
AberMUD3 was renamed to AberMUD II by Rich Salz
Rich Salz
Rich Salz is currently the technical lead for the XML appliance products at IBM. He came to IBM when he was Chief Security Officer of DataPower, which was acquired by IBM in 2005....
in February 1989 after he cleaned up the source code and ported it to UNIX.
In 1991, Alan Cox
Alan Cox
Alan Cox is a British computer programmer who formerly maintained the 2.2 branch of the Linux kernel and continues to be heavily involved in the development of the Linux kernel, an association that dates back to 1991...
wrote AberMUD IV (unrelated to AberMUD 4) and then AberMUD V, which was also used, with graphical extensions, in the Elvira game by Horror Soft, a trading name of Adventure Soft
Adventure Soft
Adventure Soft is a UK-based video game developer established by Mike Woodroffe, first as an importer and reseller of Adventure International games. The firm operates out of Sutton Coldfield, and is best known for the Simon the Sorcerer series of games....
. AberMUD V was later released under the GNU GPL
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
.
AberMUD4 was improved by Alf Salte and Gjermund "Nicknack" Sørseth to create Dirt. Their May 1993 final release of Dirt 3.1.2 is used by most of the remaining AberMUD games on the internet.
Notable AberMUDs include Northern Lights
Northern Lights (online game)
Northern Lights, abbreviated NL, is a MUD, a text-based online role-playing game, founded in 1992 by Anna "Vitastjern" Eklund. It has at times been noted as a particularly large and popular example of its type, and has received critical praise....
and Infinity
Infinity (AberMUD)
Infinity is a MUD, a text-based online role-playing game, founded in 1993.-Game characteristics:Infinity is set in a fantasy world, with player characters adventuring and battling to advance.-Reception:...
. About twenty AberMUDs remain in operation, but even , they have few players. However, AberMUD's legacy lives on in the three major codebases it inspired: TinyMUD
TinyMUD
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"...
, LPMud
LPMud
LPMud, abbreviated LP, is a family of MUD server software. Its first instance, the original LPMud game driver, was developed in 1989 by Lars Pensjö...
and DikuMUD
DikuMUD
DikuMUD is a multiplayer text-based role-playing game, which is a type of MUD. It was written in 1990 and 1991 by Sebastian Hammer, Tom Madsen, Katja Nyboe, Michael Seifert, and Hans Henrik Staerfeldt at DIKU —the department of computer science at the University of Copenhagen in Copenhagen,...
.
External links
- List of existent AberMUDs
- A mostly complete history of the AberMUD V packages
- Manual for AberMUD V: the introduction contains a lot of history about who wrote what.
- Source for version 2 & 3 of AberMUD