codebase
CircleMUD
The DikuMUD derivative that was documented well enough to teach with. Enormously forked; still running.
Games running it
47 listed · 0 archived · measured, not declared
Counted from the catalogue on this request, over the same filter the link above carries — so this number and that listing are one query and cannot drift apart.
offered in their handshakes: MSSP, MSDP, MXP, MCCP, GMCP, EOR
CircleMUD is a DikuMUD derivative whose distinguishing feature was never a game mechanic: it was the documentation. Jeremy Elson's release was clean, commented and accompanied by a coding guide, and as a result it became the codebase people learned C on, ran a MUD from, and forked without needing to reverse-engineer anything first.
The consequence is that a very large number of running games are Circle derivatives several generations removed, often without the word appearing anywhere a player would see it.
Development of Circle proper is long finished; tbaMUD is the continuation, and a Circle game being maintained today is usually being maintained as tbaMUD.
What it looks like from outside
MSSP, answered on request. No WHO at the login screen — the Diku family generally does not offer
one, which is why a directory that only reads login screens sees nothing here.
See also
- DikuMUD The root of the combat-MUD family. Levels, classes, equipment and area files — and a licence that shaped a generation of derivatives.
- tbaMUD The maintained continuation of CircleMUD, and the usual answer to "I want to start a Diku-style MUD today".
- ROM Merc's best-known descendant, and the combat engine a large share of nineties MUDs were built on.