NiMUD is a periodically updated package of open source MUD software. It has been distributed as "NiMUD", "TheIsles" and "NiM5". The project included what became a popular variant of online creation for Merc DikuMUD, and possesses features adapted from LPC and DuneMUSH. It was modified from the original Merc code by Herb ("Locke") Gilliland and Christopher ("Surreality") Woodward over the telephone and via the internet in Pittsburgh, PA, primarily using the MS-DOS djgpp, and later developed for Debian linux using gcc.

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Project History

NiMUD started as a project called "CthulhuMUD" http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.mud.diku/browse_thread/thread/94009fe1bdd58e71/68d5fc359740ba0c?lnk=st&q=cthulhumud&rnum=106&hl=en#68d5fc359740ba0c , but author Locke later changed its name to "Nameless Incarnate MUD" in reference to Locke's first mudding experience on a Merc 1.0 called "Nameless Merc". After Locke discovered Suffer, Little Children by philologist Farrell Till, whom he contacted after discovering the connection, he went with it artistically, and used the cultural history of Assyria to develop some of the gameplay and thematic elements in the game The Isles.

It was first publicly released on July 29, 1994http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.mud.diku/msg/7757251d1a196047 , but in late 1993 Locke announced plans to privately give the software to a small group of individualshttp://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.mud.diku/browse_thread/thread/b873badc85cc3691/232bcd79c84d649f?lnk=st&q=nimud&rnum=1&hl=en#232bcd79c84d649f .

Described as a more advanced codebase among Diku derivatives http://ftp.game.org/cgi-bin/directory?/pub/mud/diku/merc/nimud , NiMUD has its own scripting language, and online creation system. One of the team's efforts was to insure that many of the numbers and digits could be read in English, and that most of the descriptions used full words and descriptive text instead of broken sentences with bad grammar, to facilitate the use of screen readers for the blind. Later versions of NiMUD utilize NASA data to generate worlds, a full-screen debugger and ASCII graphics language, OLC and "Trace" action recording features. The team grew after Surreal left the project. NiMUD's major contributers include Andrea Cavaluzzo (Callista) of IdeaLab and Sidra.org and Newt, the mud administrator of a hybrid William Gibson / Bruce Sterling-like historical science fiction world called Imperial Gothique. Newt developed the original combat routines. Zlixlt and Kalgen (Alex Dzur) were an inspiration with their mud,
also based on Merc 2.2, entitled Zebesta .
The OLC feature was inspired by the online building system of Hidden Worlds and was later enhanced with ideas from PennMUSH, the software on which DuneMUSH was built (specifically the world generation and script language are inspired by the DSpace and MUSHcode of DuneMUSH).

Derived works

The "online creation system" was ported as ILAB/OLC in 1994, and derived as EnvyOLC and ROMolc. It has been included in at least 35 derived works and over 300 online games. Features from NiMUD also have been integrated into Lyonesse an Italian-language variant. The most popular derivative is ROMolc, which, along with the ROM (MUD) code, are excellent examples of NiMUD-inspired work.

A version was ported, with permission, to Windows 32-bit API by Omar Yehia (Lordrom), in 1996.

Dedication

It is dedicated to Christopher "Surreal" Woodward, its co-author, who died December 13th, 1995 from complications due to an operation on an hour-glass shaped "benign" tumor located in his brain. The cause of this tumor, though speculative, may have involved prolonged exposure to a Cathode-Ray Tube (this was the reason his parents were given during the last few months he was alive). Despite treatment, he was killed by the part of the tumor that could not be removed. Woodward was a first-year computer engineering student at Penn State and had been an active member of both the BBS and MUD communities, contributing to PennMUSH (Dune), Telegard and Renegade BBS software, and Merc, a variant of Dikumud.

Recent Changes

NiMUD's major changes in recent versions reflect a desire of its surviving author to complete a conceptual connection between LARP-style roleplay, dramatic structure, and MUDs, a la the type of dramatic structures present in game design today. Some of this philosophy originates with Don Marinelli, co-founder of Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center.

Applying elements of Aristotelian Poetics, NiMUD has modified the terminology present in Diku-derived MUDs for objects, mobiles and rooms to props, actors and scenes. The traditional OLC role of builder is now referred to as writer, and the role of implementer as producer.

External links

*NiMUD Website
*Information about Christopher "Surreal" Woodward

References

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* First public release
Category:MU* servers
Category:MU* games