More MUD in the autumn

MUD, which has collected a cult following around university mainframes and on Compunet, has been licensed to British Telecom and should appear in the autumn on information networks like Telecom Gold or Prestel. It is being rewritten in machine independent Pascal, thus overcoming its previous limitation to DEC hardware.

Simon Dally, who has formed a company with the authors Roy Trubshaw and Richard Bartle, says the new version will have twice as many locations as the original - perhaps up to 1,000.

The game is a massive on-line dungeon allowing for multi-player participation and is patrolled by "Wizards" - expert users who help or hinder lower level users. They will have an additional 60 spells to help them and players on their way.

BT is considering running the game from 6pm to 8am on weekdays and all weekend.

For those with a PSS account the NUA for MUD on Essex University - evenings only - is A2206411411.