Lorry3d ago

This one might be interesting to anyone interested in computer gaming history.

https://dec10.uknet.net

I spent the last couple of weeks finally finishing a project I started for Bletchley Park about 20 years ago. Recreating the original MUD and MIST on a mirror of the original Essex University system that finally closed in 1991.

Roy Trubshaw and Richard Bartle wrote the first online multi-user game (MUD) on Essex University's DECSystem-10 in 1978 and it ran till I closed it in 1991. I diligently backed everything up so I could potentially recover it one day, but as far as I can see, all the DECSystem-10's went to the great scrapyard in the sky, my backups were mostly stolen when my first museum was stolen, and I had huge issues recovering the Essex BCPL compiler to compile what I had left when I finally got a decent TOPS-10 emulator running on a VAX for Bletchley Park.

One good thing about being an unemployable whistleblower is free time, so I finally hunkered down to some 90 hour weeks and built a software replica of the Essex system I think reflects it well. It's running on a KS10 not a KL10 but I had to let some things slip.

I put the latest known versions of MUD and MIST on it, and miraculously found ROCK too.

So, to meander to the point, if you want to see and relive exactly what online multi user gaming was like from 1978 to 1991, you can go to:

https://dec10.uknet.net

Or:

telnet telnet.dec10.uknet.net

(Port 2653 is available for ISPs that block 23)

And then follow the terse instructions from there.

In those days, you were generally faced with a "." prompt and left mostly alone, so for authenticity, I will leave it at that.

I should note that although they were, in their day, wildly popular games with a relatively huge community, this is a museum peice in snapshot-form at the moment. But I will leave them up and running to see what happens and as a useful reference. I wasn't going to, but Richard seemed happy to have MUD running, and former MIST players wanted it back, so...

Pop this a share if you know folks who might be interested.

** Update: New web client that works better.

** Another update - I added a telnet client.

Historically, the telnet connection is much more true to the traditional experience, where you were connecting to a working machine that didn't care about the MUD Guests, so there were no pointers at all. Just rumour and hearsay :)

If any of you Unix/Security people notice I messed up something, please tell me. I left "^], !sh" open on the telnet link for about 2 minutes and nearly had a heart-attack once I spotted it :D

#history #digital #retrogaming #retrocomputing #games #mud #muds #mist #rock #computers #emulation #emulators #vms #tops10 #museum #history #bletchleypark #simh #essex #uk #computinghistory #36bit #engineering #Linux #Security

(don't try this on a phone!)

ttyd - Terminal

Show threadCharlie Stross3d ago
@lorry What port/protocol? ssh, telnet, rlogin, or is there a web interface for us noobs? (I only used Essex MUD once—in 1986!)
Show threadLorry3d ago

@cstross if you are feeling really brave...

RUN ADVENT[42,42]

Though you'd have to be really dedicated to retro gaming to want to play it. But at least I installed the #Stanford version that doesn't require caps lock stuck on.

Show threadJordi3d ago
@lorry @cstross I’ve got a simulated KS10 running DECwar… in a Raspberry pi. Which is also running a couple of VAXen and maybe an IBM mainframe or two…
Show threadDaveBarnes3d ago

@jguillaumes @lorry @cstross

What about the DECtape drives?

Show threadLorry3d ago
@davebarnes @jguillaumes @cstross If you read the weblog post I sent somewhere in this thread, there's a rant about trying to read 7-track PDP-10 tapes that Richard had sent me. I thought I had just about every tape drive, but not that one.
Show threadbitsavers.org11h ago

@lorry @davebarnes @jguillaumes @cstross

There are very few people left in the world who can successfully recover 7-track 1/2" media. The UK needs an institution capable of duplicating what I have working at the Computer History Museum in California.

Show threadLorry11h ago

@bitsavers @davebarnes @jguillaumes @cstross

I gave it a hell of a try :)

I thought I had a 7-track tape somewhere in my pile of junk. Back when I worked in Epidemiology, I spent a lot of time trying to collate patient death data from every health recorder in the UK. They came on everything you can imagine, and I'd become the NHS's go-to tape-and-disk person as a somewhat annoying and unwanted side job for quite a while.

But nope, outside an environment where I could just send out a message begging to borrow a 7-track, I was completely buggered. I think it's the first time I have ever truly been defeated by a smug-looking bit of media, daring me to eviscerate it.

Mind you, now I know where to borrow a drive! Although by now these tapes are kinda crispy :)

Show threadbitsavers.org

@lorry @davebarnes @jguillaumes @cstross

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xlq_MPWNKk

I have an identical drive with a 7-track head mounted.

Computer History Museum Recovers Rare UNIX History

YouTube
5:03pmWeb
Show threadLorry9h ago

@bitsavers @davebarnes @jguillaumes @cstross Lovely :)

Funny thing is, I was almost tempted to go the path of exploring the idea of reading the digital information off it with an offset head - But I think at that point I'd (sensibly) convinced myself that it was really just an unreadable 9-track because it was pretty crispy at that point. Also, the chances of the compiler actually being on the tape were very low anyway. User backups are unlikely to have system partitions on them, so it really was a Hail Mary move.

I found a photo of the setup I was mostly using, a Microvax something-or-other on top of a DEC TSZ07 (my favourite DEC tape drive, and so the one I kept using, to the detriment of my poor back!). The photo info says this was 16 Nov 2003, so I have a date for that part of the project now, too.