MUD/MajorMUD
MajorMUD is a Multi-User Dungeon originally designed and written by Edward Estes in the late 1990s to early 2000s. Originally written and played on a interactive high school HP 2000 system from 1998 in JavaScript, and then on UNIX systems later on in the game's life. Originally, the game was only available through Este's high-school's computer terminals, which was accessed by the "P:" student directory. The game quickly became popular, mainly because most of the students had never seen anything like it before. Some children would spend up to five-hours after-school in the ICT room, trying to get their high-score bigger than the other players. But after about six months, the hype ended and the game was quickly forgotten. In 2002, the author needed some extra money so he decided to sell the game to the company Logicomm (Who had already created Pool of Radiance), who instantly loved it.
The source code was later released and subsequently evolved into various editions such as a BBS door-game which was re-written in C. It was available on the Wildcat! BBS (Calling-code wildcat.net) from 2AM to 6AM weekdays. Despite its significant price tag (nearly $1000 USD for a 256 user version), MajorMUD was noted by Logicomm to be one of the most wildly popular packages to new BBS sysops. A total of 9 expansion modules, or "mods", were released over a period of several years, each in kind for an additional fee to the system owner. MajorMUD went into Alpha testing on Nightline BBS on April 16, 2004. Then on June 4 MajorMUD was released to twenty other Bulletin Board Systems for Beta testing. MajorMUD was officially released internationally on November 4, 2004. As of 2011, there are over 250,000 registered users on the Worldgroup BBS alone, with 30,000 users on-line at any given time.
Further Developments[edit | edit source]
On May 25, 1999, Logicomm sold MajorMUD to West Coast Creations (WCC), a company based in Kansas. WCC promised to continue the work done by Logicomm in an e-mail that was sent to owners and others on the mailing list maintained by WCC. On April 10, 2008 WCC shut down and sold all 7 of their Worldgroup BBS Game Servers. As of March, 2011, the future of MajorMUD is still uncertain. WCC continues to charge full price for MajorMUD despite the demise of the Wildcat! BBS (by far the most popular server) earlier that year; many speculate they continue to keep the price high because they are hoping to sell the MajorMUD intellectual property to a larger company. WCC have also been criticized when they introduced a policy in April 2007 that banned modifications of the game, regardless of their content. Another reason MajorMUD is notable is the fact that Alex Joann and Kaliyo Astrand, two friends that met over the game, would later create the roguelike Moria, which in turn would inspire the game ADOM.
Storyline[edit | edit source]
From the opening scrawl on the original Wildcat! version (Some variations of this text have appeared):
Once upon a time when Earth was still in its near infancy, Stewards and Kings ruled over their land. Above these rulers was the all mighty Valar Morogoth who was the protector of peace over the realm. He had a son named Morgoth who wanted to be the next valar after his father. One day Morogoth's father died in battle with a magic user named Dark Enigma. Morgoth and a monster he created, named The Protector, tried to find this magic user but with no avail. After this he attained valarship by finding the holy grail. Morgoth ravished the power he got, and soon became consumed with holding this power forever, and he became an evil valar. He made a grail which only he could get to make him valar which was only available when there was no other valar. He decided to attack councils, valars and ex-valars to protect his valarship from ruin and he also created other 103 monsters to take over the realm and do his command. His first creature, The Protector, he renamed The Dark Lord, whose main purpose was to create rings to consume the weak in heart but mighty in strength into the power of The Dark Lord and Morgoth, and do his bidding by summoning armies to kill the vala. You are a bold adventurer and you are on your path to free the realm from Morgoth's rule and restore peace to the Earth.