Maybe they no longer use telnet like they did in the old days, but I’m nevertheless fascinated.
@ifixcoinops, who has one of the best moderation threads on Mastodon, runs Improbable Island.
I like the introduction:
Improbable Island is an old-school text adventure that’s been on the internet and under constant development since dial-up days. When something’s been kept alive for that long, it can either be a polished masterpiece with nothing unnecessary added, or it can be a huge, sprawling clattering kaleidoscope of interlocking cogs and gears that leaps out at unsuspecting newbies and swallows them whole into its oily, confusing mess. Guess which way we went. – *What even is this website please help me*
#MUD #MUSH
(Please contact me if you want to remove your comment.)
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FWIW there are a bunch of folks in the blind community still playing MUDs, even young folks in their 20s and teens. They have a mix of technical proficiency, from casual Windows user to seasoned Unix wizard.
PS. I love how easy it is to comment on your blog with gemini-write in emacs!
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Thanks! Did you know about Ijirait, the Gemini-based MUSH? 😆
– Alex 2023-01-25 06:50 UTC
I’m peripherally aware of it, though I haven’t checked it out yet. Re: one of the comments downthread, it’s a small world. I too was on Elendor for a while.
– Teiresias 2023-01-27 09:47 UTC
Yay! 😍 – Alex
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My first contact with MUDs was back in uni. Internet connection back then is was more of a privilege: expensive, slow, and from 6pm to 6am --and your phone was not available--. So I compiled MERC and ROM in my Linux and played alone. So it was single user.
Over the years I have revisited some MUDs, and unfortunately they often feel like that single user experience (plus perhaps an admin lurking in the shadows that may give you some equipment).
My best memories are from Petria (heavily modified ROM, IRRC; in Spanish), and something-something of Krynn framed in the Dragonlance world (was it ROM again?), and it was cool walking around in Solace and fighting Draconians.
– jjm 2023-01-25 07:22 UTC
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I remember in my twenties I used to go to the *other* university in town because they had an open computer lab where we could just walk in and play on the Lochness MUD. Later I was pretty invested in the Elendor MUSH. But that was twenty years ago…
– Alex 2023-01-25 09:43 UTC
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Sounds like fun. Crazy how long things like this will persist
– heree 2023-01-25 18:09 UTC