Grim Wheel :: MUD-Dev

MUD-Dev

The original MUD-Dev started back in August of 1996 as interest in Multi-User Dungeons expanded. By this time the creators of DikuMUD opened their code to the public, Circle, Merc and other codebases were in active development, and other kinds of text games (MOOs, MUSHes, LPMuds, etc.) were increasing their numbers. Forums were not yet widespread, and while there were other means of communication (such as Usenet,) mailing lists were very popular, and their contents were sent directly to your inbox.

MUD-Dev covered most of the topics that concern implementors and administrators today. How do we deal with player killers? How should muds compress the data coming from their servers? What's the best kind of version control? How do we design a coordinate-based world system? What do players want in a game? Should we add an obscenity filter to our game? Should games sell in-world items for real-world cash? These very same concerns fill the pages of today's gaming forums.

MUD-Dev closed its doors in early 2006. The conversations therein, however, remain with us in various locations on the Internet. Here are links to the original MUD-DEV repository:

MUD-Dev Archive - The most accessible of the existing archives, the author of this repository separated the mailing-list into years and months, then added a full-text search function at the side. This repository also contains the archives for the MUD-Dev2 mailing list.

This archive replaces the site once found at this now-defunct repository.

By the way, if you are looking for the MUD-Dev FAQs, you can find them here:

MUD Dev FAQ Part 1 | MUD Dev FAQ Part 2

I grabbed them from files 30056.html and 30059.html, found in the MUD-Dev zipped archive below. I left them largely intact, but did edit them in places for clarity.

Raph's Website - Raph Koster is a designer and gamer who hosts the complete MUD-Dev archive in one large zip file. There are over 30,000 entries in the zip file, so be prepared for a lot of 'grep'ing to find what you want.

The Complete MUD-Dev Archive - As a courtesy, I've added the complete archive provided by Raph above here at Grim Wheel. The same warnings apply regarding the size of the zip file and the number of entries in the archive.

MUD-Dev at Fandom - Someone created a brief history of MUD-Dev at Fandom, which states that "MUD-Dev was closed as a result of a catastrophic hardware failure." In case the page disappears or the site goes defunct, I've linked to an archive of the wiki entry.

MUD-Dev2 and MUD-Dev3

After MUD-Dev died, two attempts were made to resurrect the discussion, one a mailing list (MUD-Dev2, gone,) the other a Google Group (MUD-Dev3, empty.) It would appear MUD-Dev2 lasted from mid-2006 till mid-2010, when it, too, went defunct. An archive of its contents appears to start here.

No further attempts at a MUD-Dev have been made.

About

Grim Wheel is a site dedicated to old school text gaming.

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Click the links below to go from section to section of this site.

Development

Buildcraft - Articles which discuss the craft of building on Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs).

MUD Forums - Links to offsite forums that concern themselves with all things related to Multi-User Dungeons.

MUD-Dev - Where you can find archives of the former mailing list known as "MUD-Dev", as well as a link to the newest mailing list.

Imaginary Realities - Archives of articles from the now-defunct online magazine Imaginary Realities.

Games

MUD Listings - Websites which list the many text games still in existence.

MUD Clients - Clients which you can use to connect to an active MUD.

Other Resources

Netbooks - A repository of supplements for tabletop roleplaying games.

Miscellaneous - Links that do not fall easily into any other category.