20 Mar
2026
20 Mar
'26
7:18 p.m.
On Mar 20, 2026, at 2:13 PM, Paul Koning via groups.io
<paulkoning=comcast.net(a)groups.io> wrote:
I can't help them with their errors, but it's amusing to notice that, while PLATO
is not listed as an article, several other articles mention it, including the one on Dnd
-- https://mud.fandom.com/wiki/Dnd -- which credits authors Whisenhunt and Wood.
A lot more PLATO history can be found in The Friendly Orange Glow by Brian Dear.
paul
On Mar 20, 2026, at 2:00 PM, John H. Reinhardt
<johnhreinhardt(a)thereinhardts.org> wrote:
I'm guessing this perhaps was one of the sources.
https://mud.fandom.com/wiki/MUD1
That source is certainly very wrong about history.
paul MUD1 (referred to as MUD1, to distinguish from
its successor, MUD2) is 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. He named the game Multi-User Dungeon, in tribute to the Dungeon variant of Zork,
which Trubshaw had greatly enjoyed playing.[1][2] Zork in turn was inspired by an older
text-adventure game known as Colossal Cave Adventure or ADVENT.[3]
John H. Reinhardt 
20 Mar
20 Mar
7:24 p.m.
New subject: [simh] MUDs TOPS again
But with that said, dnd do not appear to have been a multiplayer game.
And I'm not sure it predates ADVENTURE.
Johnny
On 20/03/2026 19.18, Paul Koning via groups.io wrote:
On Mar 20, 2026, at 2:13 PM, Paul Koning via
groups.io <paulkoning=comcast.net(a)groups.io> wrote:
I can't help them with their errors, but it's amusing to notice that, while PLATO
is not listed as an article, several other articles mention it, including the one on Dnd
-- https://mud.fandom.com/wiki/Dnd -- which credits authors Whisenhunt and Wood.
A lot more PLATO history can be found in The Friendly Orange Glow by Brian Dear.
paul
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On Mar 20, 2026, at 2:00 PM, John H. Reinhardt
<johnhreinhardt(a)thereinhardts.org> wrote:
I'm guessing this perhaps was one of the sources.
https://mud.fandom.com/wiki/MUD1
That source is certainly very wrong about history.
paul MUD1 (referred to as MUD1, to distinguish from
its successor, MUD2) is 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-10assembly
language. He named the game Multi-User Dungeon, in tribute to the Dungeon variant of Zork,
which Trubshaw had greatly enjoyed playing.[1][2] Zork in turn was inspired by an older
text-adventure game known as Colossal Cave Adventure or ADVENT.[3]
John H. Reinhardt
8:22 p.m.
New subject: [simh] MUDs TOPS again
On Mar 20, 2026, at 2:24 PM, Johnny Billquist
<bqt(a)softjar.se> wrote:
But with that said, dnd do not appear to have been a multiplayer game.
And I'm not sure it predates ADVENTURE.
Johnny
Oh, it certainly was a multiuser game, with a graphical user interface (albeit a simple
one). All the popular PLATO games were multi-user: airfight, empire.
paul
9:43 p.m.
New subject: [simh] MUDs TOPS again
While I can’t comment on some of these points, what I do know is that when it comes to the
UK, and particularly JANET, these systems were among the first MUDs. Aside from the author
of this article, I knew others who were building systems very early on and a lot of his
points tally.
Anyway, I’m not chasing the who-did-what-first. I just thought these kinds of worthwhile
exercises may be interesting to folks on this list.
-jon.
--
Jon Morgan
"Cenedl heb iaith, cenedl heb galon."
On Mar 20, 2026, at 18:24, Johnny Billquist via
groups.io <bqt=softjar.se(a)groups.io> wrote:
But with that said, dnd do not appear to have been a multiplayer game.
And I'm not sure it predates ADVENTURE.
Johnny
On 20/03/2026 19.18, Paul Koning via groups.io wrote:
I can't help them with their errors, but it's amusing to notice that,
while PLATO is not listed as an article, several other articles mention it, including the
one on Dnd -- https://mud.fandom.com/wiki/Dnd -- which credits authors Whisenhunt and
Wood.
A lot more PLATO history can be found in The Friendly Orange Glow by Brian Dear.
paul
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On Mar 20, 2026, at 2:13 PM, Paul Koning via groups.io
<paulkoning=comcast.net(a)groups.io> wrote:
On Mar 20, 2026, at 2:00 PM, John H. Reinhardt
<johnhreinhardt(a)thereinhardts.org> wrote:
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) is 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-10assembly language. He named the game Multi-User
Dungeon, in tribute to the Dungeon variant of Zork, which Trubshaw had greatly enjoyed
playing.[1][2] Zork in turn was inspired by an older text-adventure game known as Colossal
Cave Adventure or ADVENT.[3]
John H. Reinhardt
That source is certainly very wrong about history.
paul
10:08 p.m.
New subject: [simh] MUDs TOPS again
On Mar 20, 2026, at 4:43 PM, Jon Morgan via groups.io
<jmorgan6=gmail.com(a)groups.io> wrote:
While I can’t comment on some of these points, what I do know is that when it comes to
the UK, and particularly JANET, these systems were among the first MUDs. Aside from the
author of this article, I knew others who were building systems very early on and a lot of
his points tally.
Anyway, I’m not chasing the who-did-what-first. I just thought these kinds of worthwhile
exercises may be interesting to folks on this list.
-jon.
They certainly are.
But people who make claims of historic fact (such as "first") can expect
pushback when that information clearly is wrong. And it's particularly embarrassing
when the same Wiki containing the incorrect information also contains the correct
information.
paul
23 Mar
23 Mar
1:54 p.m.
New subject: [simh] MUDs TOPS again
From my archives, Essex MUD
https://pastebin.com/raw/M94dsYEp
--Saku
On Fri, Mar 20, 2026 at 8:25 PM Johnny Billquist <bqt(a)softjar.se> wrote:
But with that said, dnd do not appear to have been a
multiplayer game.
And I'm not sure it predates ADVENTURE.
Johnny
On 20/03/2026 19.18, Paul Koning via groups.io wrote:
I can't help them with their errors, but it's amusing to notice that,
while PLATO is not listed as an article, several other articles mention it,
including the one on Dnd -- https://mud.fandom.com/wiki/Dnd -- which
credits authors Whisenhunt and Wood.
> On Mar 20, 2026, at 2:13 PM, Paul Koning via groups.io <paulkoning=
comcast.net(a)groups.io> wrote:
>
>
>
>> On Mar 20, 2026, at 2:00 PM, John H. Reinhardt <
johnhreinhardt(a)thereinhardts.org> wrote:
>>
>> 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)
is
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-10assembly language. He named the game Multi-User Dungeon, in tribute
to the Dungeon variant of Zork, which Trubshaw had greatly enjoyed
playing.[1][2] Zork in turn was inspired by an older text-adventure game
known as Colossal Cave Adventure or ADVENT.[3]
John H. Reinhardt
That source is certainly very wrong about history.
paul
A lot more PLATO history can be found in The Friendly Orange Glow by
Brian Dear.
paul
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5 comments
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participants (4)
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Johnny Billquist -
Jon Morgan -
Paul Koning -
Saku Setälä