Mastodawn

Okay, still trying to figure out what chapter of "Art of the Deal" this whole strategy is from:

* Straight of Hormuz was free and open to everyone.
* Kill children of people who could close it, angering them.
* They close the straight, causing us huge economic damage.
* Threaten war crimes if they don't open it back up.
* Back down when they call your bluff.
* Impotently grouse on social media that they won't open it, saying, "Open the fuckin' straight, praise be to Allah!"

#uspol

Lone Spelunker Mar 31

Mael Duin Mar 31

This week's stream is a day earlier and it's interview time! I'll have a chat with Travel-Friendly Cake (Mike and Talia) about Puzzle Spy International, which just released! Come join us and ask your questions in the chat!

🌎 Puzzle Spy International + developer interview

See you LIVE on YouTube❤️+💜Twitch
#puzzlegame #indiegames #livestream #youtube #twitch #puzzlespyinternational

Lone Spelunker Mar 17

Lorry Mar 17

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

Lone Spelunker Mar 14

Tom Gauld Mar 14

My books cartoon for this week’s @[email protected]

Lone Spelunker Mar 13

Monkeyslunch/Bug & Claw Mar 13

I'm building the ultimate #ttrpg oracle tool, and the prototype is ready. Desktop resolution required; not mobile-friendly yet.
https://prism.monkeyslunch.com/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=fedica-Random

The Prophecy Prism

The Prophecy Prism — An oracle and random generator tool for tabletop roleplaying by Monkey's Lunch.

Lone Spelunker Mar 11

Sure, Hegseth might be responsible for the killing of a school full of middle school girls, but let’s not forget that it’s Hegseth who’s the real victim here.

#uspol