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Issue 0x0C - C is for CTRL
Greetings, adventurers!
Spring is nearly over, and this time of year almost brings me back to my summer breaks as a kid where I found myself with an abundance of time to play my favorite MUD. With no school and not being old enough to get a job, I would spend my days battling monsters and telling tales of epic quests, and even filling graph paper notebooks up with areas I hoped to someday build. That time in my life is what drove me to become a software developer in the first place, and I’ve held a soft spot in my heart for MUDs ever since.
While there is a lot of content for us to get to in this issue, I wanted to take a moment and highlight just a few things. For one, submissions for the Enter the (Multi-User) Dungeon Game Jam are officially closed! Voting is open until May 30th, so if you haven’t had a chance yet, get out there and cast your vote for your favorite games! Secondly, my new favorite podcast, Titans of Text, has a handful of new episodes out since the last newsletter. If you haven’t listened, I couldn’t recommend it enough. There’s so much MUD history and passion that it’s impossible to stop listening once you start.
Now, with that said, I’ll leave you with Issue 0x0C of The MUD Coders Guild newsletter! Enjoy!
- Zach
> notes
Looter, No Looting!
The Anthem launch (and post launch) has meant a lot of things to a lot of people. Most of those things aren’t good. I mean really are any of them good? Having pre-ordered Anthem on the strength of the gameplay from the demo period…
The Secret Ingredient is: System Design
That joke is probably not well executed; we’re not in Kitchen Stadium and I am definitely not taking a bite out of a raw bell pepper for anyone’s amusement. Still the title is probably better than…
> wiznet
The MUD Coder's Guild Second Annual GameJam voting has now begun!
The MUD Coder’s Guild Second Annual GameJam voting is now officially open! The polls close on May 30th, so get out there and vote!
JS1k 2019 demo — "Genorama" by Jack Oatley
JS1k 2019 demo: “Genorama” – Continuously renders a procedurally generated terrain. The terrain is originally from a game created I helped create for #EnterTheMUD jam.
Griatch's Evennia musings: Creating Evscaperoom, part 1
This is an excellent writeup of Evscaperoom, a text-based multi-player “escape-room” written in Python using the Evennia MU* creation system for the #EnterTheMUD 2019 game jam.
Mudlet 3.20 – Reworked timers, triggers area
The next release of Mudlet features a reworked timers subsystem & added remainingTime(), getTextFormat().
> open source
css-only-chat
A truly monstrous async web chat using no JS whatsoever on the frontend. I personally find this entire project to be an abomination of the greatest offense, but where would we be if we discouraged doing ridiculous things with impractical technology?
dragon-mud
A text-based game engine written in Go and scripted with Lua created by TMCG member bbuck.
scepter
Scepter of Goth (AKA Milieu) multi-user role playing game written in C. SoG was the first commercial multi-user role-playing game (RPG) and the first commercial multi-user MUD.
dome-client.js
A node.js/socket.io web app which a MOO can run for its users to connect with and (probably most importantly) uses no flash or java.
spigot
A telnet test server for Grapevine’s web client. Test your telnets.
MOOts
MOOts is an awesome MOO-inspired TypeScript engine.
blop-language
Blop is a Web oriented programming language that compiles to JavaScript. First person to make a MUD in it will receive a high five and the respect of all.
gb-studio
A visual retro game maker (see GameBoy games) powered by Electron. I know this isn’t MUD related, but I’m a fan of all things retro-engineering, so gb-studio felt like a nice cousin to what we love at TMCG.
> inventory
Beej's Guide to Network Programming - Using Internet Sockets
A more appropriate title for this would probably be Beej’s Network Programming Bible, but you get the idea. Invaluable resource for all aspiring MUD developers out there.
Telnet Option Negotiation - Q Method
The Q Method of Telnet Option Negotiation is defined in RFC 1143. This method of option negotiation can best be visualized as a state machine comprising of 6 different states.
Screen reader accessibility
It’s no secret that MUDs are a favorite among visually impaired gamers, due to the lowered barrier to entry of text-based games paired with screen readers. Starmourn is one game that leans into their accessibility, and this forum post is evidenced by that.
You can now download the source code for all Infocom text adventure classics
Yes, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Zork are both included. This is a literal treasure trove of source code for near-forgotten text-based games.
What's Up With MUSHes?
Seriously, what’s up with them?
Do Not Use sha256crypt / sha512crypt - They're Dangerous
Bcrypt or bust.
Microsoft's New Programming Language 'Bosque' Keeps Your Code Simple
Microsoft has launched a new programming language called Bosque. The company says Bosque has been designed to write code that is simple, obvious, and easy to reason for both humans and machines. As cool as that is, I posit that it’s not a real programming language until someone makes a MUD with it.
The Flask Mega-Tutorial Part I: Hello, World!
The MUD Coders Guild’s Python community has been steadily growing, so as existing and new members begin to explore MUD development in Python, some great tutorials for the language (and its libraries) have been shared.
Elixir, Phoenix, Absinthe, GraphQL, React, and Apollo: an absurdly deep dive
I’m not going to lie, I barely understand a word of this article, but as active and passionate as our Elixir community is I’m more than a little terrified of what would happen if I didn’t include it. Enjoy!
Using Rust to Scale Elixir for 11 Million Concurrent Users
Another language with passionate advocates is Rust. This article is hardly new, but Discord is well known for the gains it achieved when it embraced the Elixir programming language; which makes this article doubly interesting, as it expands upon those gains using Rust.
> cast 'inspiration'
The Game Archaeologist: How Sceptre of Goth shaped the MMO industry
Everyone always talks about Diku’s influence on MMORPGs (usually in the context of the EverQuest controversy), but Sceptre of Goth is another such game that helped shape the genre as we know it today.
r/UnderTheEclipseRPG - Arcana spell list
If you’re struggling to come up with a magic system (or spells in general), here’s a great list to start with.
GitHub - lorin/resilience-engineering: Resilience Engineering Notes
Resilience engineering as a field emerged from the safety science community. That’s why you’ll often see examples from aviation and medicine, as well as other safety critical areas like maritime, space flight, nuclear power, and rail.
The Life of a 4th Century A.D. Egyptian Vineyard Guard
Guarding an Egyptian vineyard 17 centuries ago was fraught with difficulties and dangers.
> afk
Titans of Text
Titans of Text is my new favorite podcast. Co-hosted by TMCG admins eric and swiftausterity, Titans of Text interviews prominent MUD implementors and influencers to shine a fascinating light on this too-small genre.
Grapevine List Products from Grapevine
Discover Grapevine List T-Shirt from Grapevine, a custom product made just for you by Teespring. With world-class production and customer support, your satisfaction is guaranteed. - Get a t-shirt to represent your love of MUDs…
DOOM Music and Sounds
This page has all the music and sounds from Doom and Doom 2. I know, MUDs and music don’t necessarily go together, but I’m a sucker for old-school media.
Command Router - 2019-05-06 - Live Coding Grapevine
Watch TMCG admin eric do some live coding on Grapevine. Continuing working on Spigot, a test server for Grapevine, allowing for multiple command “routers.”
> quit
Give a man a game engine, and he'll have fun making a game. Teach a man to create an engine and... I dunno, he's still creating the, what is it, fifth iteration of his engine?
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