20 Mar
2026
20 Mar
'26
6:52 p.m.
Oh. The article gave the meaning of MUD as "multi-user game", I missed the
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. Not sure I head of any
earlier MUDs though...
Johnny
On 20/03/2026 18.38, Paul Koning via groups.io wrote:
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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 one and 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