Software:MUD client

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A MUD client is a computer application used to connect to a MUD, a type of multiplayer online game. Generally, a MUD client is a very basic telnet client that lacks VT100 terminal emulation and the capability to perform telnet negotiations. On the other hand, MUD clients are enhanced with various features designed to enhance the gameplay of MUDs.[1]

Standard features seen in most MUD clients include ANSI color support, aliases, triggers and scripting. The client can often be extended almost indefinitely with its built-in scripting language. Most MUDs restrict the usage of scripts because they give an unfair advantage, as well as the fear that the game will end up being played by fully automated clients instead of human beings.[2]

History

The first MUD client with a notable number of features was Tinytalk by Anton Rang in January 1990, for Unix-like systems.[3] In May 1990 TinyWar 1.1.4 was released by Leo Plotkin which was based on TinyTalk 1.0 and added support for event-driven programming.[4] In September 1990 TinyFugue which was based on TinyWar 1.2.3 and TT 1.1 was released by Greg Hudson and featured more advanced trigger support.[5] Development of TinyFugue was taken over by Ken Keys in 1991. TinyFugue has continued to evolve and remains a popular client today for Unix-like systems. TinyFugue, or tf, was primarily written for Unix-like operating systems. It is one of the earliest MUD clients in existence.[6] It is primarily geared toward TinyMUD variants.[7] TinyFugue is extensible through its own macro language, which also ties to its extensive trigger system.[7][8] The trigger system allows implementation of automatically run commands.[9]

Another early client was TINTIN by Peter Unold in April 1992.[10] In October 1992 Peter Unold made his final release, TINTIN III, which was a much more mature and feature rich program.[11] Development of TINTIN was continued by Bill Reiss who announced the release of TinTin++ 1.0 in July 1993.[12] The client gained popularity quickly because of its easy to use scripting language and the popularity of DikuMUD for which it was designed. Being open source with originally no license restrictions, many current clients like GGMud, MudMaster, and Pueblo are based on TinTin++.

Following on from TINTIN's success, Mike Potter was keen to produce a Windows port of the client resulting in the release of zMUD 1.0 in December 1995.[13] zMUD was initially licensed as freeware, but Mike Potter realized that he could make a living from sales of the client and started selling zMUD 4.0 as shareware in September 1996.[14] zMUD is particularly noted for its automapping capabilities.[15][16]

Comparison of MUD clients

Operating systems

The operating systems the clients can run on.[os 1]

Name Windows Mac OS X Linux BSD Unix Android iOS Updated
Atlantis No Yes No No No No No 2006
Axmud Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No 2021
BeipMU Yes No No No No No No 2020
BioMUD Yes No No No No No No 2016
Blightmud No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No 2021
BlowTorch No No No No No Yes No 2018
CMUD Yes No No No No No No 2010
GGMUD Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No 2007
GMUD Yes No No No No No No 1998
Gnome-Mud No No Yes No No No No 2018
JamochaMUD CPI CPI CPI CPI CPI No No 2014
KBtin No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No 2020
KildClient Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No 2017
KMuddy No Yes Yes Yes No No No 2009
Lyntin CPI CPI CPI CPI CPI No No 2008
mcl No No Yes No No No No 2003
muby No CPI CPI CPI CPI No No 2009
Mud Gangster Yes No Yes No No No No 2020
Mudlet Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No 2021
MudMagic Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No 2006
MUDRammer No No No No No No Yes 2015
MUSHclient Yes No No No No No No 2019
Portal Yes No No No No No No 2013
Potato CPI CPI CPI CPI CPI No No 2017
Powwow Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No 2020
Pueblo/UE Yes No No No No No No 2004
SimpleMU Yes No No No No No No 2001
Soiled CPI CPI CPI CPI CPI No No 2012
TinTin++ Cygwin[os 2] Yes Yes Yes Yes Termux iSH 2021
TinyFugue Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No 2007
Tortilla Yes No No No No No No 2018
Trebuchet CPI CPI CPI CPI CPI No No 2015
Wintin.Net Yes No No No No No No 2007
zMUD Yes No No No No No No 2008
  1. ↑ 'CPI' refers to Cross-platform or Interpreted software
  2. ↑ TinTin++ is available as an installer named WinTin++ on Windows systems.

Feature support

Name Gui Logging Mapper Multiplaying Scrollback Spell checker Tab completion Telnet triggers Timers Triggers Redirection Regex
Axmud Custom Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes
BeipMU No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No No Yes WSH Yes
Blightmud VT102 Yes No No Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes
CMUD Custom Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes WSH Yes
Mud Gangster Custom Plugin No No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No Lua patterns
Mudlet Custom Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes
MUSHclient Custom Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes WSH Yes
TinTin++ VT100 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Wintin.net No Yes No Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes No No
zMud Custom Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes WSH Yes

Protocol support

Information about what protocols the clients support.

Name COLOR VT100 TLS NAWS[17] EOR[18] ECHO[19] MCCP[20][21] MXP[22] MSP[23] MMCP[24] 256 colors Unicode
Atlantis Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No No Yes Yes
Axmud Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
BeipMU Yes No Yes No No No No No No No Yes Yes
BioMUD Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No No No Yes No
Blightmud Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes No No No Yes Yes
BlowTorch Yes No No No No No No No No No Yes No
CMUD Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No
GGMUD Yes No No No No Yes Yes No No No No No
GMUD Yes No No No No No No No No No No No
Gnome-Mud Yes No No No No No No No No No Yes No
JamochaMUD Yes No Yes No No No No No No No No No
KBtin Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes
KildClient Yes No Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes
KMuddy Yes No No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No
Lyntin Yes No No No No No No No No No Yes No
mcl Yes No No No No No Yes No No Yes Yes No
muby Yes No No No No No No No No No Yes No
Mud Gangster Yes No No No No No No No No Yes No No
Mudlet Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes
MudMagic Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No
MUDRammer Yes No Yes Yes No Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes
MUSHclient Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Plugin Yes Yes
Portal Yes No No No No No No No No No No No
Potato Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No No No No Yes Yes
Powwow Yes Yes No Yes No Yes No No No No Yes No
Pueblo/UE Yes No No No No Yes Yes Yes No No No No
SimpleMU Yes No No No No No Yes No Yes No No No
Soiled Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No No No Yes No
TinTin++ Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Plugin Plugin Yes Yes Yes
TinyFugue Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes No
Tortilla Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes
Trebuchet Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No
Wintin.Net Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No
zMUD Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Plugin No No
  • A locally running MCCP or TLS proxy server can be used by clients that do not support MCCP or TLS natively.
  • Many MUD clients will be able to display Unicode characters but will have wordwrapping issues without proper support.

Scripting support

Name C# Client-Specific Lua Perl Python Ruby TINTIN VB.NET Tcl PHP JScript
Atlantis No Minimal Yes Yes No No No No No No No
Axmud No Minimal No Yes No No No No No No No
BeipMU No Minimal No No No No No No No No No
BioMUD No Yes Yes No No No No No No No No
Blightmud No No Yes No No No No No No No No
BlowTorch No Minimal Yes No No No No No No No No
CMUD No No Yes No No No Yes No No No No
GGMUD No No Yes No No No Yes No No No No
GMUD No Minimal No No No No No No No No No
Gnome-Mud No No No No Yes No No No No No No
JamochaMUD No Minimal No No No No No No No No No
KBtin No No No No No No Yes No No No No
KildClient No No No Yes No No No No No No No
KMuddy No Minimal Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes No
Lyntin No No No No Yes No Yes No No No No
mcl No Yes No No No No No No No No No
muby No No No No No Yes No No No No No
Mud Gangster No No Yes No No No No No No No No
Mudlet No Minimal Yes No No No No No No No No
MudMagic No No No Yes Yes No No No No No No
MUSHclient No No Yes Yes Yes Minimal No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Portal No Yes No No No No No No No No No
Potato No Yes No No No No No No Yes No No
Powwow No Yes No No No No No No No No No
Pueblo/UE No No No No No No Yes No No No No
SimpleMU No No No No No No No No No No No
Soiled No No No No No No No No No No No
TinTin++ No No No No No No Yes No No No No
TinyFugue No Yes No No No No No No No No No
Tortilla No No Yes No No No Yes No No No No
Trebuchet No No No No No No No No Yes No No
Wintin.Net Yes No No No No No Yes Yes No No No
zMUD No No No No No No Yes No No No No

Notes

  • WSH: Windows Script Host allows the execution of various scripting languages.
  • CLI: command-line interface using redirection, not to be confused with system (C standard library)
  • Many clients provide their own scripting language, sometimes in addition to another scripting language.
  • Clients providing a modified version of the original TINTIN scripting language are listed as supporting TINTIN.

References

  1. ↑ More Internet for Dummies. IDG Books. 1997. pp. 199. ISBN 0-7645-0135-6. "A better way to connect to a MUD is by using a MUD client program: a program specifically designed for MUDding. A MUD program is really a telnet program that has had various MUD-related commands added." 
  2. ↑ Raph Koster (2008). "A brief history of botting". http://www.raphkoster.com/2008/03/25/a-brief-history-of-botting/. "Everyone’s advice to a newbie was “get a client,” followed by the lengthy caveat that a given mud had specific rules about what was permissible. In other words, the third-party tools were seen as something that added invaluable interface enhancements, but that also afforded a bit too much power." 
  3. ↑ Anton Rang (1990). "TinyTalk 1.0 is now available for anonymous FTP". http://groups.google.com/group/alt.mud/msg/cd7c39ab3fbefbb2. "TinyTalk is an interface to the TinyMUD system. It replaces telnet, and adds many new features." 
  4. ↑ Jason Downs (1990). "TinyWar does exist! Here it is...". http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.mud/msg/1dcd26a137a6fe86. "The program you are using now. Tinywar is a modified tinytalk, the later program originally written by Anton Rang. It's a telnet clone, with MUD-specific features." 
  5. ↑ Greg Hudson (1990). "TinyFugue 1.1.4 released to anonymous FTP". http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.mud/msg/29ed0f9e9c5b28e8. "TinyFugue is, I believe, the most advanced TinyClient to date, incorporating most of the features of TinyWar 1.2.3, the features of GrimJim's TT 1.1.jwl-2 beta, many of my own enhancements (such as extensive reentrance, trigger priority, and trigger probability), and input/output windows." 
  6. ↑ Mulligan, Jessica; Patrovsky, Bridgette (2003). Developing Online Games: An Insider's Guide. New Riders. pp. 453. ISBN 1-59273-000-0. "1990 [...] The MUD client tinyFugue is available now in version 1.4 Beta." 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Shah, Rawn; Romine, James (1995). Playing MUDs on the Internet. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.. pp. 257. ISBN 0-471-11633-5. "TinyFugue [...] Commonly known as tf. Designed primarily for TinyMud-style Muds, although will run on LPMUDs and Dikus. Features include regular expression hilites and gags, auto-login, macros, line editing, screen mode, triggers, cyberportals, logging, file and command uploading, shells, and multiple connects." 
  8. ↑ Busey, Andrew (1995). Secrets of the MUD Wizards. SAMS Publishing. pp. 200. ISBN 0-672-30723-5. "The TinyFugue system has long been a popular client interface for players of MOO, MUCK, and many TinyMUD-derivative systems. With a robust feature list supporting multiple sessions, macros, triggers and automation, command history and other functions, TinyFugue offers users maximum control over their environment. Although more recent programs such as Tintin++ have gained large followings, many MUD players continue to use TinyFugue because of its power and flexibility in the hands of an experience client programmer." 
  9. ↑ Cheong, Fah-Chun (1996). Internet Agents: Spiders, Wanderers, Brokers, and Bots. New Riders. pp. 256. ISBN 1-56205-463-5. https://archive.org/details/internetagentssp00cheo/page/256. "There are also front-end client programs, such as TinyTalk, TinyFugue, and Tintin, that provide an easier interface to the MUDs for their human players. They can handle some of the more routine work—for example, automatically greeting anyone who enters the room." 
  10. ↑ Peter Unold (1992). "TINTIN - a dikumud client". http://groups.google.com/group/alt.sources/msg/b144a14d0d0a9741. "(T)he K(I)cki(N) (T)ick D(I)kumud Clie(N)t (hell I simply wanted it to be called TINTIN....)" 
  11. ↑ Peter Unold (1992). "TINTIN III released". http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.mud.diku/msg/1f603d9ddbe251a9. "TINTIN III is a mud client special designed to help dikumudders. It runs under various UNIX implementations." 
  12. ↑ Bill Reiss (1993). "where to get tintin++". http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.mud.diku/msg/49964f64eff2b017. "Since berkeley removed its diku base, I have put a copy of tintin++ 1.0 beta on flipper.pvv.unit.no in the pub/mud/diku directory. From here on, I will most likely be putting the updates to tintin++ there." 
  13. ↑ Mike Potter (1995). "New Winsock MUD Client: zMUD". http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.mud.announce/msg/edf21b9bf336d887. "zMUD is a powerful client, with many features of TinTin++, as well as graphical interface features such as customizeable buttons." 
  14. ↑ Mike Potter (2006). "About Zugg Software". http://www.zuggsoft.com/zuggsoft/about.htm. "Sep 1996 zMUD v4.0 is released as Shareware -- Zugg Software officially formed" 
  15. ↑ Dodge, Martin; Kitchin, Rob (2000-09-02). Mapping Cyberspace. Routledge. p. 153. ISBN 0-415-19884-4. "One interesting approach that attempts to achieve this is, is one which automatically records movement through MUD space, using this information to dynamically map the spaces visited. Such an approach has been adopted by the zMUD client, from Zugg Software, which includes the automapping tool shown in figure 8.5. zMUD can be configured to decode the room descriptions, and to record the standard cardinal walking directions, teleports and one-way links." 
  16. ↑ Designing Virtual Worlds. New Riders. 2003. p. 481. ISBN 0-13-101816-7. "Some clients (zMUD is the best-known) constructed for use with generic textual worlds can automap arbitrary room connections, exploring a virtual world exhaustively to produce an accurate map." 
  17. ↑ Waitzman, D.. "Telnet window size option" (in en). https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1073. 
  18. ↑ Postel, J.. "Telnet end of record option" (in en). https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc885. 
  19. ↑ J., Postel; J., Reynolds. "Telnet Echo Option" (in en). https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc857. 
  20. ↑ "Mud Client Compression Protocol" (in en). https://mudhalla.net/tintin/protocols/mccp. 
  21. ↑ "Mud Client Compression Protocol" (in en). https://smaugmuds.afkmods.com/mccp. 
  22. ↑ "Mud eXtension Protocol" (in en). https://www.zuggsoft.com/zmud/mxp.htm. 
  23. ↑ "MUD Sound Protocol" (in en). https://www.zuggsoft.com/zmud/msp.htm. 
  24. ↑ "Mud Master Chat Protocol" (in en). https://tintin.sourceforge.io/protocols/mmcp. 

Further reading

  • Busey, Andrew (1995). "10. MUD Clients". Secrets of the MUD Wizards. SAMS Publishing. pp. 179–203. ISBN 0-672-30723-5. 



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