View source for AberMUD

{{Short description|Multi user dungeon server}}
{{EngvarB|date=February 2018}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2018}}
{{Infobox Software
|name                       = AberMUD
|developer                  = [[Alan Cox (computer programmer)|Alan Cox]] <br> Richard Acott <br> Jim Finnis <br> Leon Thrane
|released                   = January 1989
|programming language       = [[B (programming language)|B]], [[C (programming language)|C]]
|operating system           = [[Unix-like]]
|size                       = 224 KB
|genre                      = MUD server
|licence                    = Open Source
}}

'''AberMUD''' {{IPAc-en|ˈ|æ|b|ər|m|ʌ|d}} was the first popular [[Open-source software|open source]] [[Multi-user dungeon|MUD]]. It was named after the town [[Aberystwyth]], where it was written. The first version was written in [[B (programming language)|B]] by [[Alan Cox (computer programmer)|Alan Cox]], Richard Acott, Jim Finnis, and Leon Thrane based at [[University of Wales, Aberystwyth]] for an old [[Honeywell]] [[Mainframe computer|mainframe]] and opened in 1987.{{R|bartle-cox|lawrie-copyright}}

The gameplay was heavily influenced by ''[[MUD1]]'', created by [[Roy Trubshaw]] and [[Richard Bartle]] at the [[University of Essex]], which Alan Cox had played.{{R|carroll-cox}}

In late 1988, ''AberMUD'' was ported to [[C (programming language)|C]] by Alan Cox so it could run on [[Unix]] at [[University of Southampton|Southampton University's]] Maths machines.{{R|bartle-aber}} This version was named ''AberMUD2''.{{R|lawrie-parallels}}

In early 1989, there were three instances of ''AberMUD'' running in the UK, the Southampton one, one at [[Leeds University]] and a third at the IBM PC User Group in London, run by Ian Smith. In January 1989 [[Michael Lawrie]] sent a licensed copy of ''AberMUD3'' to Vijay Subramaniam and Bill Wisner, both American ''[[MIST (MUD)|Essex MIST]]'' players.{{R|lawrie-dungeon}} Bill Wisner subsequently spread ''AberMUD'' around the world.{{R|lawrie-lorry}}

''AberMUD3'' was renamed ''AberMUD II'' by [[Rich Salz]] in February 1989 after he cleaned up the source code and ported it to UNIX.{{R|carroll-salz}}

In 1991, Alan Cox wrote ''AberMUD IV'' (unrelated to ''AberMUD 4'') and then ''AberMUD V'', which was also used, with graphical extensions, in the ''Elvira'' game by ''Horror Soft'', a trading name of [[Adventure Soft]]. ''AberMUD V'' was later released under the [[GNU General Public License|GNU GPL]].

''AberMUD4'' was improved by Alf Salte and Gjermund "Nicknack" Sørseth to create ''Dirt''. Their May 1993 final release of ''Dirt 3.1.2'' is used by most of the remaining AberMUD games on the internet.{{R|saltesorseth}}

AberMUD's legacy lives on in the three major [[codebase]]s it inspired: [[TinyMUD]], [[LPMud]] and [[DikuMUD]].{{R|bartle-imitators}}

==See also==
* [[AberMUD family tree]]
* [[Multi-user dungeon|MUD]]
* [[Chronology of MUDs]]
* [[Wizard (MUD)]]

==References==
{{Reflist|colwidth=40em|refs=
<ref name="bartle-cox">{{cite book | last = Bartle | first = Richard | authorlink = Richard Bartle | title = [[Designing Virtual Worlds]] | publisher = New Riders | year = 2003 | isbn = 0-13-101816-7 | pages = 8–9 | quote = Because few academic institutions in the U.K. were as liberal with their computer resources as Essex University, those MUDs that were written at such places tended to achieve only local success. The exception was ''AberMUD'', so called because it was written at the University of Wales at Aberystwyth. Its programmer, Alan Cox, wrote it in B (another fore-runner of C) for a Honeywell L66 mainframe under GCOS3/TSS in 1987.}}</ref>

<ref name="bartle-aber">{{cite book | last = Bartle | first = Richard | authorlink = Richard Bartle | title = [[Designing Virtual Worlds]] | publisher = New Riders | year = 2003 | isbn = 0-13-101816-7 | pages = 9 | quote = A year later, it was ported to C. This was a turning point in virtual world history. The game wasn't particularly advanced either technologically or in terms of content (it was very combat-oriented), but it was great fun. More importantly, in C it was positioned to make a huge advance: It could run under Unix.}}</ref>

<ref name="bartle-imitators">{{cite book | last = Bartle | first = Richard | authorlink = Richard Bartle | title = [[Designing Virtual Worlds]] | publisher = New Riders | year = 2003 | isbn = 0-13-101816-7 | pages = 9 | quote = ''AberMUD'' spread across university computer science departments like a virus. Identical copies (or incarnations) appeared on thousands of Unix machines. It went through four versions in rapid succession, spawning several imitators. The three most important of these were ''TinyMUD'', ''LPMUD'' and ''DikuMUD''.}}</ref>

<ref name="lawrie-copyright">{{cite newsgroup | last = Lawrie | first = Michael | authorlink = Michael Lawrie | title = AberMUD-4 | year = 1990 | message-id= 990@tharr.UUCP | newsgroup = rec.games.mud | url = https://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.mud/msg/321996d7ca69ec41 | quote = The Software, both source code, design and scenario are copyright Alan Cox, Richard Acott, Jim Finnis, And Leon Thrane, save for the Blizzard pass section of the scenario which is (C)1988 Alan Cox, save for versions of the scenario on the ZX Spectrum 128K microcomputer. (C) 1987/88 All rights reserved.}}</ref>

<ref name="lawrie-parallels">{{cite web | last = Lawrie | first = Michael | authorlink = Michael Lawrie | title = Parallels in MUD and IRC History | year = 2002 | url = http://www.ircnet.org/History/jarkko-mjl.html | quote = He did this on Southampton University's Maths machines thanks to a chap called Pete Bentley who ran a bulletin board called SBBS there, and in late 1988, there was a fairly playable game called ''AberMUD2'' up and running.}}</ref>
<ref name="lawrie-dungeon">{{cite web | last = Lawrie | first = Michael | authorlink = Michael Lawrie | title = Escape from the Dungeon | url = http://lorry.org/arch-wizard/history.html | year = 2003 | quote = I had also taken over a new game called ''AberMUD'' that two of my wizards, Anarchy (Alan Cox) and Moog (Richard Acott) had originally written at Aberyswyth University and Alan was now converting to Unix at Southampton University. Alan ended up taking a year out so I took on ''AberMUD'' and roped in a couple of programmers in to help keep the thing maintained and expanded. [...] In 1991, I sent a copy of ''AberMUD'' to Vijay Subramaniam and Bill Wisner (our only two American MIST wizards) and as far as MUDs being generally available to the world, the rest is history which oddly isn't true for the credits in ''AberMUD'' since a huge amount of the original authors were removed somewhere. }}{{Dead link|date=August 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

<ref name="lawrie-lorry">{{cite web | last = Lawrie | first = Michael | authorlink = Michael Lawrie | title = A brief history of Lorry | year = 1997 | url = http://lorry.org/Docs/lorry.html | quote = By 1987, Lorry had taken over the Essex Systems (MUD itself, and the thing he was to become best known for, MIST) and ran them, and just about every other publicly available 'leisure' system on UK academic networks until 1992. Politically, this did me a lot of good, personally, it didn't. Bill Wisner and myself will argue who it actually was who exported MUDs to the rest of the world, I certainly mailed him the first US ''AberMud'' distribution, but I reckon that his originally distributing the AberMuds, Diku's and LPMuds makes him far more responsible for this crime against humanity.}}</ref>

<ref name="carroll-cox">{{cite web | url=http://www.iol.ie/~ecarroll/mud/mr_5b#sect_5_4 | title=5. Reviews – Rest of the World | author=Eddy Carroll | quote=Cox was a player of MUD1 who wrote ''AberMUD'' while a student at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. | access-date=11 July 2008 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100423150558/http://www.iol.ie/~ecarroll/mud/mr_5b#sect_5_4 | archive-date=23 April 2010 | url-status=dead}}</ref>

<ref name="carroll-salz">{{cite web | last = Carroll | first = Eddy | url = http://www.iol.ie/~ecarroll/mud/mr_5b#sect_5_4 | title = 5. Reviews – Rest of the World | quote = The code was made generally available, and was enhanced and added to by several people, most notably Salz. | access-date = 11 July 2008 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100423150558/http://www.iol.ie/~ecarroll/mud/mr_5b#sect_5_4 | archive-date = 23 April 2010 | url-status = dead}}</ref>

<ref name="saltesorseth">{{cite web | last1=Salte | first1=Alf | last2=Sørseth | first2=Gjermund | title=Information and Installation Guide for DIRT 3.1.2 | url=http://www.abermud.com/index2.html | quote=The files doc/CHANGELOG-aber-IV and doc/Manual.ms contain changes and info for the old original code, they are obsolescent and are included for historical reasons only. | url-status=dead | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080924122202/http://www.abermud.com/index2.html | archivedate=24 September 2008}}</ref>
}}

==External links==
* [http://ftp.linux.org.uk/pub/linux/alan/Software/Games/AberMUD5 A mostly complete history of the AberMUD V packages]
* [http://ftp.linux.org.uk/pub/linux/alan/Software/Games/AberMUD5/DOC/Manual.01 Manual for AberMUD V]: the introduction contains a lot of history about who wrote what.
* [http://abermud.tripod.com/mudstuff.html Source for version 2 & 3 of AberMUD]

{{MUDs}}

[[Category:History of computing in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:MUD games]]
[[Category:MUD servers]]
[[Category:Aberystwyth University]]
[[Category:Video games developed in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Science and technology in Wales]]