Available Information on MUDs

This page is a list of links to many useful sources of MUD information. There is a particular emphasis on MUSHes, although there is plenty of general information as well.

http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~lwl/mudinfo.html (World Wide Web Directory, 06/1995)

These MUD pages have gotten quite long recently; I've started a Recent Changes file for the updates.

If you know of any major MUD information repositories not listed below, please email me at lwl@graphics.cis.upenn.edu and let me know.

Sections in this Collection

Click on one of these to quickly jump to another section of this document.

FAQs, Documentations, and Papers
MUDlists and MudWHO
Information Collections: Gophers and WWW Pages
Web Servers and WWW Interfaces to Games
FTP Archives
USENET Newsgroups

FAQs, Documentation, and Papers

Want to know more about the world of MUDs (and the subcategory of MUSHes)? Here are some things you might want to check out.

Moira's MUD Frequently Asked Questions List
Amberyl's MUSH Manual: Your handy guide to programming either PennMUSH 1.50 or TinyMUSH 2.0 and 2.2. Everything from the basics of how to get something to go "bibble" at you, to designing recursive algorithms for complex text formatting. It is available as a compressed tar archive or in parts.
Javelin's Guide for PennMUSH Gods: A document which administrators of PennMUSH 1.50-based MUSHes might find helpful; it covers basic issues in administration, and contains a guide to making hardcode modifications.
The History of MUDs: A document collection, done by Lauren Burka ("ashne") detailing the evolution of MUDs and MUD culture. Includes logs, analysis, and many interesting details.
Jamie Norrish's collection: An archive of theoretical documents on MUDs.
The LambdaMOO and MediaMOO paper collections.
Cultural Formations: A Master's thesis, authored by Elizabeth Reid, on the culture of MUDs.
Collaborative Networked Communications: Subtitled "MUDs as Systems Tools", this is a paper given at the 1993 USENIX, by Remy Evard, about uses for MUDs in systems administration.
Wizard Ethics: An essay, on wizard behavior and responsibilities, uses and abuses for power, and an ethical code for "good wizards".
Julia's Page: Information about the famous TinyMUD robot, Julia.
PARCftp Papers: The LambdaMOO FTP server contains one of the largest collections of papers that have been written about MUDs.

MUDlists and MudWHO

The MUDlist Page: A collection of links to MUDlist information, maintained by Andrew Wilson. Scott Goehring is no longer maintaing his MUDlist (thereby outdating the many, many recent Internet books that list him as the source of that particularly bit of wisdom); the task has since fallen to Adam "Doran" Wozniak; this WWW page provides a searchable index of the latter's list.
The weekly archive of Howard's Automated MUDlist.: This link might not be currently operational.
The MudWHO Gateway: A WWW way to see who's logged on where, via the Oklahoma State MudWHO server.
The Almost-Complete List of MUSHes: Addresses (and telnet links), commentary, links to the MudWHO service, and links to home pages, for over seven dozen MUSHes. There is also an Automated List which summarizes all of those MUSHes and gives hourly updates of their status.
The Tarp MUD Lists: A collection of links to MUDs, based on Doran's MUDlist.
The Lysator MUD pages: Information on the Lysator MUDs, and general MUD information.
The Lysator MUDlist: A small amount of information and links to other places.
The World of Darkness MudWHO: A MudWHO server for the World of Darkness (White Wolf) MUSHes.

Information Collections: Gophers and WWW Pages

ACTLAB Gopher: A large repository of MUD information of all types.
UMN Gopher: An extensive list of multi-player interactive entertainment of all types, including BBS listings, commercial services, and links to MUDs. Although the listings of MUDs are quite extensive, the information is not terribly up-to-date.
Maricopa Gopher: This gopher is associated with Maricopa MUSE, an educational MUD. It contains links to various interesting documents detailing the MUSE, the theories behind it, and some other bits of general MUDding interest.
MUD Home Pages: A collection of links to home pages for specific MUDs. Note: MUSHes are the one subcategory of MUD not included here, since those links are available via the Almost-Complete List of MUSHes.
Russ Smith's MUD Page: A collection of links to various repositories of MUD information and in-game WWW servers.
BlackMagic's MUSH Page: Some information on World of Darkness (White Wolf Storyteller) MUSHes.

WEB Servers and WWW Interfaces to Games

htMUD: This is a WWW interface to a TinyMUD-style MUD (it's designed to work with PennMUSH 1.50 and TinyMUSH 2.0). It is written in perl, and requires you to open, simultaneously, an HTTP connection (using a forms-capable client; the latest versions of Xmosaic and lynx will work) and a telnet connection to a MUD. It displays graphical-style output in the WEB client window, and other text through the telnet connection.
MOO-WWW Links: A collection of links and project documentation for connecting MOOs to the World-Wide Web.
WebWorld: This is not a MUD, but it's structured along the same sort of idea as the original Tiny-style building MUDs. You can construct things and "link" them in on the WEB, creating a virtual world. Very nifty.
The web2mush interface to TinyCWRU.: An experimental interface between TinyCWRU (a MUSH), and WWW. Documentation is also available through this link.
The JaysHouse MOO WEB server.

FTP Archives for MUDs

ftp.math.okstate.edu: A major MUD archive, with reasonably up-to-date versions of most clients and servers, the most up-to-date FAQs, pictures of MUDders, and documentation. The emphasis here is on Tiny-style MUDs, although this is a reasonably reliable place to find any client or server that lacks its own major FTP archive.
ftp.tcp.com: This was once one of the most popular and up-to-date collections of MUD-related items. A lot of older things can still be found here, particularly those which have vanished off other FTP sites.
glia.biostr.washington.edu: The archive for TinyFugue, the most popular MUD client available.
mellers1.psych.berkeley.edu: An archive site for some useful utilities, including the logedit program, which edits the output of logs into a prettified format (specifically for MUSH, although the program can be tweaked for other types of MUDs).
ftp.cis.upenn.edu: A directory here is used for Amberyl's personal (small) FTP archive, containing source code for TinyMUSH 2.2 and other MUSH-server-related things, as well as Tess Snider's handy mtrans ascii-picture-to-MUSH-format translator.
ftp.ccs.northeastern.edu: The major archive site for LP-MUD and related drivers, including MudOS and DGD. Other related material is also available here, including mudlibs, documentation, and clients.
nightmare.connected.com: Another archive site for LP-MUD and related drivers (MudOS, DGD, and CD). Drivers, mudlibs, clients and documentation are available here.
marble.bu.edu: A small archive of DikuMUD code (specifically the "Merc" variant), LP-MUD mudlibs and drivers, and assorted related things. It's not always kept terribly up-to-date.
ftp.cs.jhu.edu: The official archive site for CircleMUD, a DikuMUD variant.
caisr2.caisr.cwru.edu: The archive site for old MUDlists and general MUSH stuff (server code, clients, MUSHcode packages, and documentation). Of particular interest:
ftp.parc.xerox.com: The archive site for MOO. It includes server code, core databases, and documentation. There is also a collection of papers.
mcmuse.maricopa.edu: The archive site for MUSE. It also contains some MOO and ColdMUD-related things.

USENET Newsgroups

rec.games.mud.announce: Important announcements, the MUD lists, and other useful information.
rec.games.mud.admin: Theoretically for the discussion of issues relevant to MUD administration.
rec.games.mud.diku: Discussion of DikuMUDs (a type of combat MUD).
rec.games.mud.lp: Discussion of LP-MUDs and related drivers, such as MudOS. MUDs of this type are generally oriented towards combat and quests.
rec.games.mud.misc: General discussion (and frequent flamewars) about MUDs.
rec.games.mud.tiny: Discussion of Tiny-style MUDs, such as MUSHes, MUCKs, and MOOs. MUDs of this type are usual for social chatting, or for roleplaying.

Compilation by Lydia Leong (otherwise known as 'Amberyl').

Jump back to Lydia's home page.

Lydia Leong / lwl@graphics.cis.upenn.edu / August 16th, 1994