Forbidden Realms

Starting the Journey

Blane Bramble points you in the right direction

Welcome to the Multi User Game section of Comms Plus! In this and future issues I will be providing you with information on all the available MUGs, news, gossip, and the latest in ideas and developments within the MUG world. This issue I am keeping well away from technical matters, but if there is enough demand for it I'll add a technical bumph section for all you MUGers that like to dabble in the black arts of hardware and software...

MUGs - NEW PLAYERS START HERE.

What is a MUG? Basically an adventure program that allows for more than one person to play at once. The vast majority of MUGs draw on medieval fantasy mythos for their setting, and the players progress (or attempt to), from a lowly rank (peasant or similar), through to the highest rank available (wizard or witch on most games - and generally called a 'Wiz'). Players create characters and wander around the game, scoring points by finding and selling treasure, solving puzzles, and killing things. Fairly simple stuff, but the fact that there will be other people doing the same things gives the games their addictiveness, as other players' actions will often affect you!

WHAT GAMES ARE AVAILABLE?

Well, here is a list of some of the more popular MUGs, as well as information on the services offered, and how to connect to them. Not all the games are free to play, although the charges are generally not high. I would suggest any new p]ayers should start with one of the free games to a) see what they are like, and b) find out how large their phone bill will become even without any subscription charges!

MUD, the Multi User Dungeon - (available from Essex University via PSS)

Essex MUD was the game that started it all, originally started in 1980 by Roy Trubshaw during his final year at Essex University, the game has gone from strength to strength. There are now two versions of MUD, Essex MUD, and MUD 2 (or MUD II).

Essex MUD is still available from Essex MUD, although the hours during which you can log-on are a little anti-social. Currently you may only play MUD between 2am and (I think) 7am each night. The game is free to play, although you will need access to a PSS (Packet Switch Stream) PAD to log-on. Firstly dial up your local PAD and log onto it, now type CALL A49600000 (or A00004960000, as some PADs require the four leading zeroes), this will connect you to the Essex Gateway, now type SET HOST 1 to select the Essex DEC-10 (the machine on which MUD runs). Type LOG 2653,2653 to log mto the MUD account, and then type MIST to play.

The game is fairly slow, partially due to the ancient DEC-10 hardware it is running on, and partially due to the packet switching that PSS does, still it's free, and a fun game - although puzzle solving at 3 in the morning can be tough to say the least! Full marks go to Essex University for continuing to make MUD available to everyone, so please don't abuse the system...

MIRRORWORLD - (0883) 844044,(0883)844164

MirrorWorld is located in Redhill, Surrey and has NO game charges at all, making it about the cheapest game to play - it is a local call from London, and so costs per hour range start at 54p for local cheap rate. There are 10 external lines, and the system is generally reliable. To get to Wiz you need 1,000,000 points (a lot compared to some games), but there are some puzzles worth over lk Mirror-World runs on a BBC Master 128 (with 4Mb of RAMdisk), attached to the MUTS f/e (the MirrorWorld front end chat system).

Tips: (1) Avoid the dragon at all costs. (2) The small shop is W, N, N, N, N, from the landing stage - you can sell small treasure here (more valuable stuff must be sold at the trading post, ask a player to show you where it is). (3) If you run into problems or don't understand something, use the SHOUT command, or MUTS chat to ask someone to help!

QUEST - (available from the MW f/e)

Ouest is the second game available from the MirrorWorld front end system, (although more games are being developed at this very moment). Along similar lines to MW, the game has managed to introduce ideas of its own, and so has avoided the problem of being thought a MW clone. Still under development, the game is quite small at the moment, but is still good fun. Quest runs on an IBM PC clone, attached to the MUTS f/e.

Tips:(1) Avoid the Screecher at all costs. (2) From the starting position go S, E, E, E, E, N, N, N, N, to get to the bottomless hole where you can drop treasure for points. (3) Higher level characters need to give it to Taliesin's apprentice to score the full value.

SHADES - (0342) 810 905

Shades is still fun to play. The game is again FREE apart from BT's rates, although it is A rate from London. It can also be accessed via Micronet, under their local call system. I'll be covering Shades in more depth next issue.

GODS - (01 ) 994 9119

Gods is one of the commercial MUGs, offering two games and a bulletin board (see below for Zone - the second of the two). The charges aren't too expensive - for £11.50 (that's £10.00 + VAT) you can choose to have 20 hours play, or 1 month's play, depending on how much you think you will use the system. If you intend to play often and long, buying a months play will be cheaper; if you will play irregularly then 20 hours play is probably going to be the best option. Payment may be made on-line by VISA or ACCESS, so if you are interested, log-onto the guest account (you will be informed how to do this when you call the system), and have a look around. Gods runs on an 80386 machine running the Xenix operating system (a version of Unix) - a fairly hefty set-up!

THE ZONE - (available from the GODS f/e)

Well, I used to play Zone when it was a brave free game with only 1 external line (then with 2!). The game is for ADULTS ONLY, as it involves large amounts of drinking and sex (yes, well...) - which can make for quite funny games. A bit weird to get used to, The Zone runs on a Thor (which is a Sinclair QL clone with 3 1/2" disks), and apparently is written in SuperBASIC and assembler. The game is treated as an extension to Gods in that time purchased may be split freely between the games and the bulletin board (see Gods above for costs).

Tips: (1) Drinking may be fun, but one too many and you'll bump into walls! A cup of coffee often helps... (2) Don't get caught with your trousers down by the Priest or Nun - this is a sure way to lose points! (3) To score for your treasure go to the chapel and type PUT T ON ALTAR.

BULLETIN BOARDS.

Many systems (in fact most of them), also have a bulletin board system available for users to post messages to each other. These vary from simplistic ones with a limited number of messages (128 say, with the 129th overwriting the 1st and so on), to more complex ones with many megabytes of messages, separate message areas, and so on. If one is available, new players should have a quick look round the BB system, as there may be many useful tips there!

DON'T DESPAIR!

For the first time user, MUGs often seem bewildering places, especially if there are several experienced players on. The best thing to do is to stay still (the initial location is usually a 'safe' location where no-one can attack you), and examine what HELP facilities are available to find out some of the commands. Once you are familiar with the way you move about, and talk to other users (most often with the SAY and TELL commands), try and find someone to help you out. Remember, everyone was new at one stage, and so will usually give a new player a guided tour of the game, and a fair amount of help.

FEEDBACK.

Please do contact me to inform me of omissions, mistakes and downright lies within these pages, and also to let me know what you would like to see - without your comments I can't tell what you want from this section. As time goes by I will be splitting things up here, creating a number of sub-sections so you can find the information you're interested in, and skip bits that you find boring (not that there will be any of those, of course...).

CONTACT POINTS.

As well as via COMMS PLUS! and THE OWL SERVICE Bulletin Board, I can also be contacted on MirrorWorld (which I generally call late night Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday). You can either leave me a message on the bulletin board - Host C, if available - to GEOLIN (try to keep the message public if possible); or you may find me logged into the MUTS chat system as GEO. If you want to chat to me on the game itself, look out for: GEOLIN, FREHLEY, HIPPY, WYRD, ZEDEIGHTY... And a countless cast of many other characters! If you can't find me you may be able to pass me a message by twisting other players' arms to hand on a short message (most people will do so if asked).

BLANE BRAMBLE