Reminiscing about MU* RPGs...

[Kor]

I have been thinking about the ancient text-based MUD/MUSH/MUSE/etc RPG format. There used to be a lot of these based on the Trek universe. I'm not sure what the current scene is like.

I was a bit involved in a few of these about fifteen years ago. Fun times, even if it got a little complicated having to type in every single command. And the mechanics were occasionally a little odd... like RP'ing an altercation with someone, but typing "punch so-and-so" over and over again and always getting the same result of "Character X takes a swing at so-and-so and misses" because your combat stats are too low... and even getting that when you try to punch a stationary piece of equipment such as a console.

Does anyone still play this kind of game? Got any interesting experiences?

There was one I liked called TOS TrekMUSE, but it got stale after a while and then went offline for good. I doubt anyone even remembers it any more.

Kor

 

[Kroel]

Hey, Kor! I've been playing TIOS TrekMUSE since 1998! The cool news is that the place has been restored at tos.trekmuse.net 1701
Here is an email from Othic (who used to be Fed Head Admin):
Hello everyone, this is Othic from TOS.

TOS has been down for 12 years now, give or take a year. Doubt it's coming back, not that we were all holding our breath for it.

I recently found an old code base that I started working on back in 2011 that has a lot of TOS recreated. I've put it up on a server, continued to work on it over the past two months and am having a lot of fun.

I'd like to invite each of you to come by, take a look and play.

My goal is to eventually have an active player base in all three empires. However, right now I don't want to spread everyone out like we had at the end of TOS, so I've created a ship on 5-year type mission to the edge of Federation space. Everyone will start as a StarFleet officer on this ship until we have enough players to populate other sectors/empires better. This also gives me time to work on econ and actually building other places.

So there it is. Right now, things work and a few places are built. I'm working on building more places and finishing up systems. I'd love for you guys to come by and take a look, hang out, chat, play or whatever. I've already had a few old friends stop by, and I'm having fun just building, coding and talking about Star Trek and old times.

I'm also interested in any logs you guys have to help me with some parts I'm a bit fuzzy on.


Game Address: tos.trekmuse.net:1701

 

[Kodiak]

You guys give me the warm and fuzzies of nostalgia lane.

I was on TOS TrekMUSE starting sometime around 1994/95. Right in a super bright spot of internet access but technology limitation: text-based flight simulation was king for multiplayer combat and role play. Some of my fondest memories and major skill sets used today are from this period of time.

The only thing that dragged it down was the administrative policies, politics, and dirty-faith actions by those in charge. That and the general absence of the top tier powers who could actually do something in the event of a crash/code issue. When the game sported 50-ish players a night at a time during the Ikarian saga, it was hopping and that fraction-type division in the administration made for absolutely smashing play at all hours of the day because everyone looked out for 'their people' only.

I always wanted a copy of MacGyver's code base and had done a overhaul skin in PennMUSH + HSpace to mimic the space system, UI, and physics around 2005/6. But then real life popped up and the project now lives 90% completed on an old HDD somewhere. I'd still kill for Mac's code, though, there are some things it does that you can't replicate (like true terminal buffers) easily in current code bases. :P

Years ago, I'm guessing 2010/11, the game was up but a skeleton of itself.

Graphical games are great but I'll miss the nuance of typed language and the vastness of imagination. Maybe some day VR will get close to that.

 

[ChallengerHK]

I'm unfamiliar with any of these, so I'm going to have to ask how they work. From Kor's description they sound somewhat like Zork.