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SoylentNews is people

posted by mattie_p on Tuesday April 01 2014, @11:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the because-pigs-like-mud-its-a-bad-joke dept.

With all the announcements we've made today, and all the muffin and bacon drama, we've taken a break to roll out a new retro entertainment feature for the community, a MUD. If you're not familiar with the concept, a MUD is a text-based RPG, hosted online and free to play. This MUD, called SoylentMud for the time being, is available via telnet at mud.soylentnews.org, port 9000. It is based on the ROM source code, that being what I am most familiar with, and is entirely programmed in C.

We've added this feature because we want soylentnews.org to be a one-stop hub for all your nerd news and interaction. It is integrated with our IRC Network, allowing users on the MUD to chat with our IRC users, and vice versa, if desired. We'd like to offer the community a variety of outlets for interaction, and this seemed to be a good addition.

Historically, MUDs were pretty popular among nerds in the 1990s, and were the predecessors to the MMORPGs we now see everywhere. Additionally, most MUD source code was freely available on the internet for anyone to download and use, albeit with some weird licensing restrictions, such as having to send an email to a 24-year old account that no longer works.

It is pretty primitive and generally straight-out-of-the-box, last updated in 1998 (aside from my IRC port, which is largely based on sic), so stay tuned for updates. We will probably pursue running a completely FOSS MUD at some point, so feedback on that would be useful.

Telnet, while fully functional and the "best" client for the completely retro experience, isn't exactly the best client for actually playing MUDs though, so I recommend you pick up a dedicated MUD client, such as the FOSS client Mudlet. (Sourcecode available here. There is one known bug I've encountered, see here for the fix for login.) Using a dedicated client should allow you to use the color codes embedded in the software, as well as allow you to use triggers, one-keyclick commands, mapping, and the like. This will enhance the gaming experience, but isn't required to play.

NCommander adds: Although not open source, DikuMUD is an interesting piece of history, and despite its non-free license, I feel that users should have the ability to experience this living relic first hand. I have a hobby in software archaeology, and I'd like to build a collection of games and other software that time has more or less forgotten. At some point, I'd like to setup an actual games server hosting relics such as the original Rogue or Hunt the Wumpus. If possible, I'd like to see if we could recover the source to some of the old BBS games and host those as well.

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by cykros on Tuesday April 01 2014, @11:07PM

    by cykros (989) on Tuesday April 01 2014, @11:07PM (#24519)

    I've got a good few kicking around somewhere. Usurper, Lord, TW2002, and a few others are everywhere, but I was pretty happy when I came across Netrunner and Darkness (which was a cyberpunk themed Lord clone).

    Feel free to hit me up on irc or xmpp if these would be useful.

    • (Score: 2) by mattie_p on Tuesday April 01 2014, @11:31PM

      by mattie_p (13) on Tuesday April 01 2014, @11:31PM (#24522) Journal

      Those could be useful. We'll find you

      • (Score: 2) by Marand on Wednesday April 02 2014, @12:20AM

        by Marand (1081) on Wednesday April 02 2014, @12:20AM (#24537) Journal

        Don't forget NetHack! It's more interesting when you have lots of people supplying bones files.

    • (Score: 2) by metamonkey on Wednesday April 02 2014, @02:15PM

      by metamonkey (3174) on Wednesday April 02 2014, @02:15PM (#24794)

      LoRD please. Thanks!

      --
      Okay 3, 2, 1, let's jam.
    • (Score: 1) by creidiki on Wednesday April 02 2014, @03:42PM

      by creidiki (3955) on Wednesday April 02 2014, @03:42PM (#24917)

      TW2002! Heck yeah!

  • (Score: 5, Funny) by Marand on Tuesday April 01 2014, @11:32PM

    by Marand (1081) on Tuesday April 01 2014, @11:32PM (#24523) Journal

    IRC, wiki, and now even a MUD? Are you just trying to fragment the community's options for communication in as many ways as possible to discourage use of the website? What's next, Gopher and Usenet?

    I bet you even have email addresses.

    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by cykros on Tuesday April 01 2014, @11:52PM

      by cykros (989) on Tuesday April 01 2014, @11:52PM (#24525)

      Usenet was being talked about from the beginning, though there are technical difficulties getting slashcode to play nice with nntp. There is a group of exiles over on comp.misc since the beta blowout though.

      Gopher, while nifty...I'm not sure what use a site like this would have for it, given the interactive nature of what we do here. Might not be terrible to set up as a low-latency archival system for old posts at some point though to minimize bandwidth. Wikipedia never seems slow until you fire up gopherpedia in lynx...

  • (Score: 1) by Yog-Yogguth on Wednesday April 02 2014, @12:00AM

    by Yog-Yogguth (1862) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday April 02 2014, @12:00AM (#24528) Journal

    I've only been away for 14 days and what is this? Bacon! :D

    --
    Bite harder Ouroboros, bite! tails.boum.org/ linux USB CD secure desktop IRC *crypt tor (not endorsements (XKeyScore))
  • (Score: 2) by Lagg on Wednesday April 02 2014, @12:46AM

    by Lagg (105) on Wednesday April 02 2014, @12:46AM (#24545) Homepage Journal
    I'm probably going to come back to a corpse next time I log in because I just sat there poking mattie_p.
    --
    http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿
  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by velex on Wednesday April 02 2014, @01:04AM

    by velex (2068) on Wednesday April 02 2014, @01:04AM (#24550) Journal

    What about a LambdaMOO instance?

    I'd also be very happy to see LORD or especially TW2002. It's too bad that TeleArena and MajorMud probably still cost an arm and a leg. Those were my first introduction to (possibly MM)ORPGing, but I also remember this weird game MUD-like game where you were a mutant in the post-apocalyptic future and you used your mutant powers to kill other things, just can't remember its name.

    Oh, and while we're talking about BBS door games, does anybody in the house have a copy of Solar Realms Elite [wikipedia.org] or Falcon's Eye [wikipedia.org]?

    • (Score: 2) by Lagg on Wednesday April 02 2014, @01:30AM

      by Lagg (105) on Wednesday April 02 2014, @01:30AM (#24555) Homepage Journal
      Atonement RPI is probably what you're thinking of.
      --
      http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿
    • (Score: 1) by cykros on Wednesday April 02 2014, @06:26AM

      by cykros (989) on Wednesday April 02 2014, @06:26AM (#24638)

      Tw2002 is now a standalone game server, and would really be trivial to have set up. It's also still in semi-active development, with a fairly active remaining userbase. Whether or not Soylent implements it, it's worth digging into if you loved the game. Just a word of warning though, the ever-popular unlimited turn games with huge universes played on heavily automated clients (macros and scripts) are a far cry from the old style 250-750 turn per day games. The old style games still exist as well, but you have to really look for them. Both gamestyles have their benefits (the unlimited turn games tend to end within a couple of weeks instead of a year+), and it all really just boils down to what kind of game you're looking for.

      As for Lord and other games (Usurper, Barren Realms Elite, Solar Realms Elite, Falcon's Eye, etc) that would be cool to see, there's a project called Gameserv ( http://www.gamesrv.ca/ [gamesrv.ca] ) that allows you to host them without needing to run a full BBS. Though, I must say, if someone has the INSANE ambition it'd take to hack together slashcode with the Synchronet BBS server ( www.synchro.net ) (still actively developed, with gopher, http, ssh, telnet, ftp, nntp, smtp, and pop daemons, among others), I'd give them quite a bit of karma for it. I've seen it done with vBulletin, but slashcode is an entirely different animal...

      • (Score: 2) by rts008 on Wednesday April 02 2014, @08:28AM

        by rts008 (3001) on Wednesday April 02 2014, @08:28AM (#24664)

        Okay, I have heard this often, from many others also, but no one ever gives any info about why slashcode does not 'play well with others'.

        Not being a programmer, I have become rather curious over the years about this, but never asked. (I just guessed that was something programmers learned in 'programming class'. I picture the professor, wild-haired, wild-eyed, foaming at the mouth, while yelling:"And whatever you do...stay away from slashcode...it's to much pain for even hard core masochists!!")

        So now I have to ask...just what are some of the problems?(you can be brief, I would not mind learning from the research needed to understand what you may reply)

        • (Score: 1) by cykros on Wednesday April 09 2014, @12:02AM

          by cykros (989) on Wednesday April 09 2014, @12:02AM (#28524)

          Well, vBulletin wasn't exactly a simple process to get integrated with Synchronet from what I gathered. I was just trying to say that since Slashcode and vBulletin are not at all the same thing, there was no shortcut to be had by just copying what was already done there.

          The other thing is the way the Synchronet message base is set up. It's not all that threaded (but it can be...kind of...). The threads aren't at all apparent from the BBS interface, but I guess they do exist on some of the alternate interfaces (nntp and gopher iirc...web is still flat).

          It'd be cool to see it done, it's just not something someone's throwing together in a couple hours.

    • (Score: 1) by cykros on Wednesday April 02 2014, @02:23PM

      by cykros (989) on Wednesday April 02 2014, @02:23PM (#24807)

      I have a copy of SRE kicking around, though it does have a y2k bug in it, and the original author lost the source code ages ago. It can be set up by temporarily changing the system time during install though.

      Either of those should be relatively easy to google for though, perhaps less so for SRE. Falcon's Eye and Barren Realms Elite I believe are still being actively curated and can be bought for something like $5 apiece. LORD LOOKS like it is in the same situation, but all of the chatter on the BBS networks seems to point to that not actually being something that works anymore, and most treat it as abandonware.

  • (Score: 1) by CyberB0B39 on Wednesday April 02 2014, @01:46AM

    by CyberB0B39 (492) on Wednesday April 02 2014, @01:46AM (#24558)

    This topic brought back memories of gemstone 3 on AOL. I spent hours playing this very advanced mud until AOL dumped them. I was crushed

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by WildWombat on Wednesday April 02 2014, @03:52AM

      by WildWombat (1428) on Wednesday April 02 2014, @03:52AM (#24596)

      AOL dropped them as part of the AOL system but they existed outside of AOL. You just had to pay them directly instead of AOL. They still exist, although the game is now Gemstone IV. I think they incremented the version when they added ranged combat but its still pretty much the same game as Gemstone III. You can still deliver messages all over The Landing if you wish.

      Cheers,
      --WW

  • (Score: 2) by WizardFusion on Wednesday April 02 2014, @11:09AM

    by WizardFusion (498) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday April 02 2014, @11:09AM (#24690) Journal

    I remember back in the BBS days, I used to play a game where you were a patient in a mental hospital or such. It was quite good then.
    Ah the memories - god I am getting old.!

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by JeanCroix on Wednesday April 02 2014, @01:12PM

    by JeanCroix (573) on Wednesday April 02 2014, @01:12PM (#24736)
    (Assuming this isn't just an April Fools joke which whooshed me), if anyone's interested in an Android MUD client, I've had good luck with AndroMUD (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=bas ement.lab.mudclient). It definitely has that old-school ANSI flavor.
    • (Score: 2) by mattie_p on Wednesday April 02 2014, @02:53PM

      by mattie_p (13) on Wednesday April 02 2014, @02:53PM (#24853) Journal

      No, we have an actual MUD set up and running. Later on I'll probably set up a web client for it. Good looking out on the Android client. Thanks!

      • (Score: 1) by Drake_Edgewater on Wednesday April 02 2014, @03:46PM

        by Drake_Edgewater (780) on Wednesday April 02 2014, @03:46PM (#24921) Journal

        Man, I've been looking for a good excuse to use telnet for years (last time was that ascii animation of star wars). This weekend I'll give it a go!