April 1997
- From out of the shadows... Dan Mazeau
- Introduction Shawn Halpenny
- Introduction Nathan Yospe
- Introduction Chris Gray
- Introduction coder@ibm.net
- Introduction S001GMU@nova.wright.edu
- Introduction Jeff Kesselman
- Introduction Chris Gray
- Introduction Mik Clarke
- Introduction Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Introduction Mik Clarke
- Introduction Caliban Tiresias Darklock
On 10:20 PM 12/8/98 +0000, I personally witnessed Mik Clarke jumping up to
say:
>
>If you're looking for insiration, I've got a
>single-adventurer program engine written in Java.
I'm not a big fan of Java, actually. I think its liabilities outweigh its
benefits right now; I've put together a basic competency level in it all
the same, however, since I don't want to make the same mistake I did with
Perl and Visual Basic: ignore it, and then eventually watch it become the
industry standard and have to learn it anyway.
I already have a large advantage, in any case, since I actually do have a
complete and (theoretically) working game. Most of what I'm doing right now
is reading a meg and a half of C source which has been eaten away by
bit-rot for nearly five years. (You can't tell me source code doesn't go
bad. I know better.) Some of what the program does is terribly naive (the
handling of specialty devices: device1(), device2(), device3(),
device4()...), but some of it is very forward-thinking; it has an indexed
string table, for example, which was pretty radical for the time. I wish it
had readable constants for identifiers, though -- comm_write(3146,1284) is
not exactly helpful when trying to figure out what a function does. No
comments to speak of; comment tags are normally used to block out code that
evidently doesn't work or isn't finished. <shudder>
If you have a choice, don't ever take on a project that's been moldering in
the corner for five years. The only saving grace to this is that I *knew* I
would have to start from scratch anyway, so I'm not in a state of shock at
how unreadable the code is or how much work has to be done to get it
operable again. In addition, it used a third-party comm library which is no
longer available and therefore needs to be replaced by homegrown routines
-- which means it won't compile just yet, but it's mainly because I haven't
finished going through and replacing serial communications routines with
local functions.
>Yeah, pretty but shallow. Unfortunately when it comes to amatures (like
>most mudders), the result tends to be ugly and shallow (but with
>promise).
I remember when I first started looking to get back into a tabletop gaming
group a couple years ago. I came across a local hobby shop that offered
gaming, and I went in and looked around to see a bunch of people playing
Warhammer (which I don't like). There was one group playing AD&D, so I sort
of hung around nearby listening.
The gist of the adventure seemed to be that the characters were wandering
up and down the beach while being repeatedly crapped on by seagulls, which
would anger the players greatly and inspire them to chase after the birds
and try to chop them up with axes. As I listened to the group, they
reminded me more and more of Beavis and Butt-head. There was no perceptible
goal to the adventure; if there had ever been one, it had either been
accomplished already or discarded as too difficult. The players seemed to
find it much more amusing to chase seagulls, and delighted greatly in the
detailed description of where the crap hit and what its consistency and
color were and exactly how it splattered. The DM was very good at these
descriptions, in all fairness, and had apparently had a lot of practice.
This, in turn, reminded me of why I stopped playing AD&D. ;)
You might note that several MUDs have a beach, along which you may wander
aimlessly while seagulls fly overhead. While they don't crap on you, to my
recollection, I'm quite sure someone is working on it.
-----
| Caliban Tiresias Darklock caliban@darklock.com
| Darklock Communications http://www.darklock.com/
| U L T I M A T E U N I V E R S E I S N O T D E A D
| 774577496C6C6E457645727355626D4974H -ÊBAL::3146=- - Introduction J C Lawrence
- Introduction Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Introduction Elia Morling
- Event-driven? Michael Hohensee
- Event-driven? Nathan Yospe
- Event-driven? coder@ibm.net
- Event-driven? Jon A. Lambert
- Event-driven? Adam Wiggins
- Event-driven? Shawn Halpenny
- Event-driven? Chris Gray
- Event-driven? coder@ibm.net
- (subject missing) Dan Mazeau
- A late introduction Jon A. Lambert
- Re-Introduction S001GMU@nova.wright.edu
- New guy Walter Goodwin
- New guy coder@ibm.net
- Socket Stuff Shawn Halpenny
- database stuff Chris Gray
- So in an event-driven server, how do you ... Michael Hohensee
- So in an event-driven server, how do you ... Nathan Yospe
- So in an event-driven server, how do you ... S001GMU@nova.wright.edu
- So in an event-driven server, how do you ... Chris Gray
- So in an event-driven server, how do you ... clawrenc@xsvr1.cup.hp.com
- So in an event-driven server, how do you ... clawrenc@cup.hp.com
- Off on the languages tangent! Chris Gray
- Yet Another Introduction Reed D. Copsey, Jr.
- Yet Another Introduction Nathan Yospe
- Yet Another Introduction clawrenc@cup.hp.com
- Yet Another Introduction clawrenc@cup.hp.com
- Yet Another Introduction Adam Wiggins
- Yet Another Introduction Dmitri Kondratiev
- self-intro: Cynbe Cynbe ru Taren
- Unique id's Chris Gray
- Unique id's clawrenc@cup.hp.com
- Unique id's Jon A. Lambert
- Unique id's coder@ibm.net
- Unique id's Jon A. Lambert
- Unique id's coder@ibm.net
- Unique id's Jeff Kesselman
- Unique id's clawrenc@cup.hp.com
- Unique id's Jon A. Lambert
- Dupes are my fault (again) coder@ibm.net
- six degrees of submission ... er, compilation. Cynbe ru Taren
- six degrees of submission ... er, compilation. Jeff Kesselman
- Java as a mudserver language Cynbe ru Taren
- Java as a mudserver language Jeff Kesselman
- Execution Chris Gray
- Using system time for ObjectIDs clawrenc@cup.hp.com
- short absence Chris Gray
- short absence coder@ibm.net
- Hello! Ross Nicoll
- Ho hum (clarifiyign AI terms) Jeff Kesselman
- Ho hum Ling
- Fw: Just a bit of musing Travis Casey
- Risk Assessment -- was (Ho hum) Jon A. Lambert
- Who is Steward and what can he do for me? Jon A. Lambert
- Who is Steward and what can he do for me? clawrenc@cup.hp.com
- Who is Steward and what can he do for me? Chris Gray
- project management (or coding, kings, and other things) Jon A. Lambert
- Threads and Sockets (Was Ho hum) S001GMU@nova.wright.edu
- Threads and Sockets (Was Ho hum) Jeff Kesselman
- Threads and Sockets (Was Ho hum) S001GMU@nova.wright.edu
- Threads and Sockets (Was Ho hum) clawrenc@cup.hp.com
- Threads and Sockets (Was Ho hum) Chris Gray
- Strings & Memory Usage Greg Munt
- Strings & Memory Usage clawrenc@cup.hp.com
- Strings & Memory Usage Jeff Kesselman
- Strings & Memory Usage Shawn Halpenny
- Strings & Memory Usage ashen
- Strings & Memory Usage Chris Gray
- Steward coder@ibm.net
- r.g.m.* - worthwhile thread Nathan Yospe
- r.g.m.* - worthwhile thread clawrenc@cup.hp.com
- r.g.m.* - worthwhile thread Jeff Kesselman
- r.g.m.* - worthwhile thread Chris Gray
- (fwd) A Mud Protocol (MUD Markup Language) coder@ibm.net
- Ho hum (Sockets) Ling
- Steward and other painful friends coder@ibm.net
- A Combat System (please critique!) S001GMU@nova.wright.edu
- Your Message To mud-dev Jon A. Lambert
- I'm back Chris Gray
- Changes to the list coder@ibm.net
- Oops coder@ibm.net
- Verb binding Chris Gray
- Verb binding clawrenc@cup.hp.com
- Verb binding ashen
- Verb binding Chris Gray
- Verb binding Adam Wiggins
- Verb binding clawrenc@cup.hp.com
- Verb binding S001GMU@nova.wright.edu
- Verb binding Shawn Halpenny
- Verb binding Chris Gray
- Verb binding clawrenc@cup.hp.com
- Verb binding Chris Gray
- Why have a combat state? Jeff Kesselman
- Why have a combat state? clawrenc@cup.hp.com
- Introduction Jamie Norrish
- Introduction S001GMU@nova.wright.edu
- Introduction clawrenc@cup.hp.com
- Introduction Jeff Kesselman
- Introduction clawrenc@cup.hp.com
- Introduction Chris Gray
- Introduction Travis Casey
- Introduction Jeff Kesselman
- Introduction scherecwich@angelfire.com
- Introduction Jon A. Lambert
- Introduction Chris Gray
- (fwd) Issues from the digests and Wout's list Raz
- (fwd) Issues from the digests and Wout's list Chris Gray
- (fwd) Issues from the digests and Wout's list clawrenc@cup.hp.com
- (fwd) Issues from the digests and Wout's list Raz
- (fwd) Issues from the digests and Wout's list Chris Gray
- (fwd) Issues from the digests and Wout's list clawrenc@cup.hp.com
- (fwd) Issues from the digests and Wout's list Chris Gray
- (fwd) Issues from the digests and Wout's list clawrenc@cup.hp.com
- (fwd) Issues from the digests and Wout's list Oliver Jowett
- (fwd) Issues from the digests and Wout's list Chris Gray
- (fwd) Issues from the digests and Wout's list clawrenc@cup.hp.com
- (fwd) Issues from the digests and Wout's list Raz
- (fwd) Issues from the digests and Wout's list Miroslav Silovic
- (fwd) Issues from the digests and Wout's list clawrenc@cup.hp.com
- (fwd) Issues from the digests and Wout's list Adam Wiggins
- (fwd) Issues from the digests and Wout's list clawrenc@cup.hp.com
- (fwd) Issues from the digests and Wout's list Miroslav Silovic
- (fwd) Issues from the digests and Wout's list clawrenc@cup.hp.com
- (fwd) Issues from the digests and Wout's list Raz
- (fwd) Issues from the digests and Wout's list clawrenc@cup.hp.com
- (fwd) Issues from the digests and Wout's list clawrenc@cup.hp.com
- Me Raz
- Sendmail changes coder@ibm.net
- Reposts Adam Wiggins
- Semaphores, Mutices, fd_sets Greg Munt
- Semaphores, Mutices, fd_sets Jeff Kesselman
- Semaphores, Mutices, fd_sets clawrenc@cup.hp.com
- MUD Design Digest V1 #55 coder@ibm.net
- Me Raz
- Magnetic Scrolls' magical parser Greg Munt
- Magnetic Scrolls' magical parser clawrenc@cup.hp.com
- Magnetic Scrolls' magical parser Adam Wiggins
- Magnetic Scrolls' magical parser Nathan Yospe
- Magnetic Scrolls' magical parser Chris Gray
- Magnetic Scrolls' magical parser Ling
- Magnetic Scrolls' magical parser Chris Gray
- Magnetic Scrolls' magical parser Shawn Halpenny
- Reposts Jeff Kesselman
- Email change Alex Oren
- SUBSCRIBE Alex Oren
- (fwd) Death in Muds -(also Birth, Imprisonment, Aging, and skill development) coder@ibm.net
- fd_set limitations Greg Munt
- parsing Chris Gray