Game 579: Multi-User Dungeon (1978)

Multi-User Dungeon AKA "MUD1" United KingdomIndependently developedWritten in 1978 for a DEC PDP-10 at the University of Essex Date Started: 12 June 2026 ***** MUD Day is Saturday, 20 June 2026! Join me in the Multi-User Dungeon as hosted by British Legends. I will be in the game from at least 18:00–22:00 UTC. See the bottom of this entry for further instructions and matters of etiquette. ****** In some ways, the entire history of CRPGs can be seen as an attempt to mimic the narrative flexibility of a tabletop RPG session. If we were to judge CRPGs solely against this aspiration, however, we must regard them as a dismal failure. Fifty-one years after the first "pedit5" player fought a goblin in a hallway, the average CPRG player still can't smash a window, light a fire as a distraction, or trick a bandit by pointing behind him. Not only can the most powerful character in Skyrim not make his own bid for the throne, he can't even speak his own dialogue to his wife. If he could, she…