It really depends on how precise your definitions are. Obviously there were no Diku muds around before 1990, and Gemstone was still on version 2. LPmud wasn't written until April 1989, although Nanvaent also opened later that year and is still running. Apart from that, the only pre-1990 mud I can of is MUD itself, of which there is currently "an accurate reconstruction" running today.

The most popular muds seem to be those which were written in the early-to-mid 90s. The pre-1990 muds were generally pretty clunky and old fashioned, as mudding hadn't really reached it's "golden age" yet.

Don't know about other muds... But NannyMUd opened in april 1990 according to the mud website. I also think that the guy who created the mud still run the show there.

Dragon's Gate wasn't launched until 1990.

Re: Old muds
 

I did smile at the classifications, less than 20 as dead. Back in the late 80s if you were truly independent and didn't have one of the early networks to rely on, the hardware capacity to support 20 users was well beyond mere mortals.

I created The Void in the very late 80s, finally went live at AdventureCon '89, still ticking along happily with classification dead (although technically a Lua re-write is). I believe Shades is still running (in it's original format) with the same classification.

At the time phone bills were up to £3+ an hour to connect, and you needed some hardware knowledge, so not a huge playerbase even inside of London.

I recall busting a gut to buy 2 286s, had to beg and borrow 4 Dowty Quattros, and relied on someone else to run and pay for the 4 lines. The frontend had a hugely expensive 8 way serial card (a moment of blind optimism), so if I could have afforded the lines I would have been limited to 9 players (with the console).

I seem to recall even semi-commercial games at the time, like the Lap of the Gods frontend the Butler only had 12 lines (although I could well be wrong). Not sure how many lines Pippin's network had.

Anyway enough of my reminiscing, to answer your question I doubt any game truly exists in anything like its pre-90 format that can support the numbers you are looking at. It was a very different time, the tools we had to play with a tad primitive.

Re: Old muds
 

One of my gavourite MUDs, GateWay, started in 1990 in Nova Scotia by combining two 1989 MUDs called Underground in Toronto and Haven in Sweden which became 2 of the (now 6) domains. I only joined in Jan. 1992 but this is what I've heard from some of the truly elder people. I also heard that there was a cap of 40 or something players in the early 90's. Right now we're averaging about 10. Myself I know that in 1992 GW ran at on a University mainframe as did many of the MUDs I visited.

Re: Old muds
 

You could reference old (1993) which are floating around the net. Some of these are indeed still running, in some incarnation. Old newsgroup postings are a wealth of history & info too.

Re: Old muds
 

Considering the original post was made more than a decade ago, I doubt the OP is still following the thread.

Re: Old muds
 

That's definitely a valid point considering his low post count and lack of interaction, but stranger things have happened. For instance, I'm still hanging around these threads. ;)

Kaylus

Re: Old muds
 

That's a valid point! :o

They outta make those post dates a little bigger. :rolleyes:

Re: Old muds
 

FWIW, I've really enjoyed KaVir's last few necros, which just goes to show that *anything* can be done right.

This one is beyond entertaining. At the same time, somewhat sad and thought-provoking.

Anyway, I am a voice risen from a 'dead' MUD who shall now return to its misty underworld. Howwwwl!

Re: Old muds
 

Whoops! :o

Was sort of expecting the threads to appear in reverse chronological order. *quickly clicks the last button*