This is the Chronology of Starmud 7373 as related by
the Blackheart in times past.
A rare insight into a megalomaniacs point of view
of the unfolding of a universe he was instrumental in creating. I cannot vouch
for the veracity of this essay (nor, out of fear for my physical well-being
can I contradict it). Please file all complaints with Guido. There are many
references to things that people not familiar with the MUD and its inhabitants
may not understand...
...but feel free to log on and ask, talking about the past
is a favorite thing to do among most of the staff of StarMUD.
It all started in 1992.
Dent, a good friend of mine, got
his second wizard ever on a MUD called EarthMUD. He got fascinated by the TMI
mudlib which was used there, so he decided to get his own copy of the mudlib,
so that he could work locally. As he was working on it, he decided that he
wanted to open his very own MUD. Being a very good coder, or quickly becoming
so, he decided that he wanted a space, sci-fi MUD loosely themed on Douglas
Adam's Hitchiker's Guide To The Galaxy novels. I was the second person ever
to log on, and it was my second wizard ever. As Dent reworked the basics of
the lib to fit a sci-fi theme, myself, Dgod
and Defender started the very first three domains:
Dynamo - The area which was inspired by the Cyberpunk theme, coded by myself.
Genertela - A desert planet with naked amazon women running around, Defender's
area which inhabited more spelling errors than Iceman's entire work at StarMUD. Bad Thing(tm).
Bukovina - Dgod's area, which was meant to be a classic gothic horror fantasy area,
based on the Ravenloft books.
As the work continued, players somehow found their way to StarMUD.
This MUD was running on krynn.solace.mh.se 7373, a SUN4-490 with
128 megs memory.
New Domain Lords arrived, Defender was kicked out cause of his stupid
opinions about the MUD, stealing code from Ancient Anguish, one of the
very first LPmuds out there, was one of the main reasons. (It wasn't even
compatible in the first place. 8)
Most of the new coders were drafted from the newly installed TMI-2 MUD
Campus. Some of them I remember still, some of them I will never forget.
Some of them are still my friends, and some of them are now long gone;
lost in a real world that sometimes seems confusing and even terrifying,
but holds more promise than any other world I or anyone else might create.
Still, these people have meant something to the MUD and to me, they were
never virtual, never imagined and never a fantasy. They were real flesh
and blood people, and their opinions helped create the person that I am
today.
Pyrosius - Who quickly became Administrator cause he was the main
reason coders arrived so quickly. At the time Pyrosius was a wizard on about
30 different muds, but he gave StarMUD much of his time. Pyrosius opened the
Empire Domain, a classic fantasy area. Pyrosius had a fantastic vocabulary,
and a truly creative mind. Unfortunately later on he and I clashed together
and only one of us remained. Still, I see him now and again and he was once
one of my greatest friends.
Hotrod - Who later changed name to Nightranger, she opened the
very first player accessible area in Bukovina. This woman, hotter than the
blood of a demon in hell, has gotten on my nerves several times, yet still,
she has meant a lot for the MUD, and she still hangs out as an Admin. She
is one of the few, true, veterans that has earned my respect, but not
always my agreement.
Kitten - My very first mudwife, whom I have not heard from since
maybe a year after the MUD started. I don't remember her real name, and I wish
she would never have disappeared like she did, but I hope she is well and
the few tender moments we shared on the MUD was enough for me to hold memories
of her in my heart for the rest of my life. With the help of her boyfriend (!)
she coded perhaps one of the funniest areas ever on StarMUD, Madonna's Neighborhood.
Fantome - A very efficient coder, coded a small area that never
opened. However he coded much of the backbone stuff for wiz toys. Never talked
much to him, and never really liked him, but it was still a shame to see him go.
(Read about Zuma).
Damnedsoul - One of the very best coders StarMUD has ever had.
Was the soul coder of the cybermerc profession, the Sirius Cybernetics domain,
he was also he soul contributor of new elevator code, new room inherits and
most of the profession code back on 7373 as StarMUD I is commonly refered as.
Elric - Coded StarMUD's first gun code, was in charge of emotes,
coded the Bukovina tower with a quest. Later disappeared to code his own C++
assembler.
Trak - Coded the popular super player area Wastelands. Implemented
the Volkswagen car in memory of my own, killing a lot of players with its stereo(!).
Was the coder of the famous Priest, which killed another lot of players. Spent some
time as the head of the StarMUD project at Solace, and is still around, though well
into retirement.
Zuma - Coded a grid, is now known as Rust on TMI-2 and LimaBean,
a very good coder who has contributed alot to the different TMI-2 libraries.
However when he first appeared at StarMUD, he was an unemployed lab worker,
and I helped him code his very first room. As he started his own MUD called
Woodstock; Zuma, Fantome and some other wizards I can't remember the name of,
argued with Dent and disappeared from StarMUD. Following this, StarMUD was
very close to shutting the lid forever. Most coders went away, and StarMUD
literally experienced a soap-opera trauma, with suicide threats, deleted
areas, etc. I still see him sometimes, and I still like him, and one day
we were discussing the probability that graphical MUDs would one day take
over, and that most friends would disappear from our MUDs, and with
the risk of sounding sentimental, I don't think I can ever forget what he said,
"When that happens, I will still be MUDding with my friends."
Turbo - Laster known as Thor, Domain Lord for Sewers, the connecting
area which connected all other areas. His area topped our kill logs. Also, we
were forced to hack and redirect certain commands so that he would not gain
access to overall MUD shouting (or echoalling).
Dm - Was in charge of the virtual reality cyperspace like system we
were going to implement, never finished it however, now runs his own MUD.
Doc - One of the greatest players ever on StarMUD, nice, a very
good player killer, and all in all a great person makes him deserve a comment
in StarMUD's history book.
Ford - Came on as a hot shot who wanted his own Domain at once,
proved to be one of StarMUD's greatest assets, even though his domain, based
on the Paranoia roleplaying game, never materialized. Most people don't
believe me when I tell them that one of Ford's first commands was called
'explode' and was an echoall which prompted: Ford explodes Barney the purple
dinosaur in the sky. Ford is now gone, and I don't really know what he's doing
at the moment, but I doubt he'll ever give up the net entirely. I also doubt
that there will ever be a more complex love-hate relationship on StarMUD than
the one Ford and I endured, but most of the time, when we were not busy
fwapping each other, we did pretty well. StarMUD would not have been what it
is today without his excellent guidance and coding, and we owe him a lot. I
know I risk getting fwapped by others when I say that I actually enjoyed his
cynicism and irony. But he wasn't exactly what people call 'snuggly'. =)
Lordbry - A player who endlessly tried to spam our logs with
multiple connections. Also one of StarMUD's greatest loudmouths ever.
Much can be said about Bry, and most things said will have something to do
with his ego which is completely out of this world, but after ignoring his
horrible indentation, his insane ego and his ability to do exactly the
opposite of what he's been told, I have to say that he is a loveable, great
guy and that many a times I have torn my hair in frustration only to be
offered a seat by his "'s cool man".
Dragonstar - A player
who was mainly attracted to the cybermerc profession and has been so ever since.
I enjoyed killing him back then, with my playerchar Steel. =) God we had a few
good fights, and Ron, as I always call him now really surprised me one day when
he called me up IRL. We spoke for what must've been an hour, and I consider him
one of my very, very best friends on the net. There are many things I can say
about him, but nothing negative. I love you man. He disappeared in 1999, no idea
what he is up to nowadays.
Freon - Devoted more time to play StarMUD than to study. StarMUD's
first really, _really_ addicted player. Is by far StarMUD's most cynical
personality, but you can't help but to love him, even though sometimes it
seems your love is unwanted. =) What I will remember the most of you Jan,
was when we meet at the ferry port and you gave me a hug hard enough to
squeeze the stuffing out of me. I was completely taken aback, and I'm sorry
that we forgot about you when we were at the festival, but you, my
"Knight of Light" will always be remembered by me. He quit being
a wizard many years ago, and played under the name Phoenix for a while, then
disappeared altogether.
Saint - Did I say Lordbry had a big mouth? I was wrong. Saint was
StarMUD's greatest pain in the butt, however he kept himself so close to the
edge that we had to hardcode a theft system so that we'd get a valid reason
to nuke him. Ford's greatest nightmare, hated by all players, loved by me.
Nicole - A player devoting her entire MUD career to healing
other players. She was also the most exciting player to annoy cause her
spelling was perfect while she was calm, and worthless while she was pissed.
God how I loved to pinch her butt. =)
Akasha - What can I say? MUDding destroyed her entire schoolwork,
her phone bill was franticly high since she used to call Thor, sorry Turbo,
all the time. In time I have grown old enough to miss her. And just recently,
I caught her ONLINE, and we enjoyed a friendly chat. For some reason, it
made me feel very old, and sentimental. I am sorry for what I did to you
too, but I suspect that we've outgrown that now. In any case, I hope you
forgive me for "logging that session" and I can honestly say that
I haven't tried to pull such a stunt again. Amy, I miss you too. You are and
will always be a part of my StarMUD history.
Demian - A player which annoyed me constantly by taking his deaths
so easy. Nothing can touch this man... Nothing. Well... except nuking him.
Dennis, you can be such a pain in the ass, and I blame it all on Genocide MUD,
but in general, we've talked enough for me to love you for the person that you are.
I will never forget the night when you logged on and were terrified of possible
legal charges you might've faced, and we talked for a few hours. You poured
your heart's content into me and I drank eagerly, because you earned my respect
and love.
Bliss - A person who eventually got it together with Pyrosius
in real life. A very nice girl, I think she was the one who coded the original
greenhouse, or it was Alyssa? Emmy stopped hanging around many years ago, but I
love her immensely. SIVP, that's Emmy arright, but don't call her cute. =)
Alyssa - A wizard whom I unfortunately never got to speak so
much with. A great fan of Dent however. =) Was in charge of emotes eventually
when 4000 opened. Dunno what happened to her to be frank, but here she is
now, and will stay.
Daisy, Dgodess, Love - StarMUD's perhaps cutest IRL romance. Dgod
and Love got it together and met in Sweden, I believe they both had a great
time. Also one of the cutest smiles I've ever seen (And butt, erhmph).
Ozma - Holly, I miss you so much it hurts to even write about you.
If you read this one of these days, but I doubt you will, then please try to
contact me.
Dumrats - I can't remember when I first realized that 'Dumbass'
as I now call him, truly rocks StarMUD. Where are you now Greg? Where'd you
go? I miss you too you git. Damn. I laughed so much when you told me about
your affair with Nightranger and how your RL GF found her letters. Still
brings a smile on my face. If I knew you would disappear the way you did,
then I would've made sure to visit you when I was in England, unfortunately,
that didn't happen. You are and will always be one of my best friends Greg.
Dawnfire - Trilby, or Catwoman as her name was first, managed to
annoy me to the point of bursting sometimes, yet I could never be cruel to
her. Trilby, if I ever had a virtual little sister, it was you. I hope your
cows are doing well, because if they are, you're sure to be around. I miss
you Trilby.
I can't remember everyone, and I have surely missed many of you, but please
let me know and I will add you to my list using my own comments.
On with the story:
Dent got better and better in coding, starting with a driver only, he coded
a totally scratchbuilt lib much like the TMI-2 lib, only that the lib turned
out to be faster, more efficient, and generally better than any TMI library.
As news of a total player purge because of the library switch came out,
StarMUD lost many players never to return. Including a lot of wizards.
The new MUD was called StarMUD - The Next Generation, and was opened
on krynn.solace.mh.se 4000. Later to be moved several times to reorx.solace.mh.se,
thakisis.solace.mh.se, and later moved to Texas and then back to Solace for
a time and then it moved back to Texas again, where it resides today.
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