Virtually Here

In the mid-eighties I often found myself in the computer lab at my University. Often late at night and often without anyone around. For those that missed out on the X-Generation I may need to clarify that a computer lab at this period often, as in my case, was made up of a number of dummy terminals all hooked up to a mainframe computer (VAX being one popular make at the time) if you printed anything out the sound of the smattering matrix printer would echo down the hallway as your striped paper neatly folded up underneath the 100 pound+ printing terminal. PC-whatnow?

As much as I enjoyed working on whatever class assignment I had in front of me I also found myself missing, in lack of a better word, entertainment. The matrix printer just didn’t do it for me. Queue the M.U.D.

MUD stands for Multi User Dungeon and was an ASCII/Text based-only adventure game that allowed multiple people to get together and move their characters (an ‘X’) around a very complex cave system in search of dragons and gold while interacting with other people (in some ways not much have changed) - over the computer.

This was such a revolutionary experience that people from all over the world found themselves staying later and later in their college computer names. In some cases camping out all night. But what was so addictive? Games had been around since the beginning of times. The hook was that you could interact in real-time with people, strangers to you, that apparently shared an interest with you - and without leaving the computer (well, terminal). Does it start to sound familiar?

As mainframe computers became replaced by personal computers with independent processor capabilities, graphics and easier access the need for the type of interaction that some people had gotten a taste of didn’t disappear - but instead it found new ways to meet that need.

Join me as we work our way out of the MUD and onto the Personal Computer of the late 1980’s.

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