20 Mar
2026
20 Mar
'26
7 p.m.
I'm guessing this perhaps was one of the sources.
https://mud.fandom.com/wiki/MUD1
*MUD1* (referred to as /MUD1/, to distinguish from its
successor, /MUD2 <https://mud.fandom.com/wiki/MUD2>/) is the oldest virtual world
<https://mud.fandom.com/wiki/Virtual_world> in existence. It was created in 1978 by
Roy Trubshaw <https://mud.fandom.com/wiki/Roy_Trubshaw> at Essex University on a DEC
PDP-10 <https://mud.fandom.com/wiki/PDP-10> in the UK, using the MACRO-10 assembly
language. He named the game /Multi-User Dungeon/, in tribute to the /Dungeon/ variant of
/Zork/, which Trubshaw had greatly enjoyed playing.^[1]
<https://mud.fandom.com/wiki/MUD1#cite_note-wired-article-1> ^[2]
<https://mud.fandom.com/wiki/MUD1#cite_note-2> /Zork/ in turn was inspired by an
older text-adventure <https://mud.fandom.com/wiki/Interactive_fiction> game known as
/Colossal Cave Adventure <https://mud.fandom.com/wiki/Colossal_Cave_Adventure>/ or
/ADVENT/.^[3] <https://mud.fandom.com/wiki/MUD1#cite_note-3>
John H. Reinhardt
On 3/20/2026 12:56 PM, Johnny Billquist via groups.io wrote:
The article is pretty bad. :-(
In multiple ways.
Johnny
On 20/03/2026 18.52, Paul Koning via groups.io wrote:
> Oh. The article gave the meaning of MUD as "multi-user game", I missedthe
mismatch.
>
> Multi-user dungeon games were among the most popular multi-user games on PLATO at
least as far back as 1976 and probably earlier. They still are, in fact.
>
> paul
>
>> On Mar 20, 2026, at 1:42 PM, Johnny Billquist via groups.io
<bqt=softjar.se(a)groups.io> wrote:
>>
>> Well, to be nit-picky - MUD = Multi User Dungeon. :-)
>>
>> For sure it was nowhere near the first multi-user game in general. Notsure I head
of any earlier MUDs though...
>>
>> Johnny
>>
>> On 20/03/2026 18.38, Paul Koning via groups.io wrote:
>>>> On Mar 20, 2026, at 1:16 PM, Jon Morgan via groups.io
<jmorgan6=gmail.com(a)groups.io> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> (Apologies for the cross-posting.)
>>>>
>>>> I very good friend of mine has been doing some digital archaeology.
>>>>
>>>> https://infosec.exchange/@lorry/116257448642523972
>>>>
>>>> I think a lot of folks here would like what he’s done.
>>>>
>>>> -jon.
>>> Interesting. I see "wrote the first online multi-user game (MUD) on
Essex University's DECSystem-10 in 1978".
>>> That can be parsed several ways. I assume it means "first on a
DEC-10". It certainly isn't the first MUD; there were probably a dozen different
ones before then on the PLATO system. In 1976 I remember airfight (multiuser flight / air
combat simulator), empire (multiuser SF game in a Star Trek theme universe), spasim (SF
game with 3d graphics), at least oneand possibly several DND games, and I'm sure there
were several more I never knew or forgot about. And all those were graphical games, not
just text.
>>> paul