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{{short description|Multiplayer text-based role-playing computer game from 1991}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{More citations needed|date=December 2020}}
{{Primary sources|date=December 2020}}
}}
{{Infobox video game
| italic title =
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| developer = Sebastian Hammer, [[Michael Seifert (programmer)|Michael Seifert]], Hans Henrik Stærfeldt, Tom Madsen, Katja Nyboe
| publisher =
| series =
| engine =
| platforms = [[Unix-like]]
| released = {{Video game release|WW|1 March 1991}}
| genre = [[Multi-user dungeon|MUD]]
| modes = [[Multiplayer video game|Multiplayer]]
}}
'''DikuMUD''' is a multiplayer text-based role-playing game, which is a type of multi-user domain ([[Multi-user dungeon|MUD]]). It was written in 1990 and 1991 by Sebastian Hammer, Tom Madsen, Katja Nyboe, [[Michael Seifert (programmer)|Michael Seifert]], and Hans Henrik Stærfeldt at [[DIKU]] ('''''D'''atalogisk '''I'''nstitut '''K'''øbenhavns '''U'''niversitet'')—the department of [[computer science]] at the [[University of Copenhagen]] in [[Copenhagen, Denmark]].{{R|shahromine-diku|hahn}}
Commonly referred to as simply "Diku", the game was greatly inspired by [[AberMUD]],{{R|shahromine-diku|keegan}} though Diku became one of the first multi-user games to become popular as a freely-available program for its gameplay and similarity to ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]''. The gameplay style of the great preponderance of DikuMUDs is [[hack and slash]], which is seen proudly as emblematic of what DikuMUD stands for.{{R|shahromine-style}}
Diku's [[source code]] was first released in 1990.{{R|dog}}
== Development and history ==
DikuMUD was created by the [[University of Copenhagen]]'s Department of Computer Science among a group of student friends: Katja Nyboe, Tom Madsen, Hans Henrik Staerfeldt, Michael Seifert, and Sebastian Hammer. According to [[Richard Bartle]], co-creator of [[MUD1|the first MUD]], DikuMUD's developers sought to create a better version of [[AberMUD]]. Unlike [[TinyMUD]] and [[LPMUD]], which encouraged live changes to the virtual world, DikuMUD hard-coded its virtual world.{{r|bartle}}
The making of DikuMUD was first announced on Usenet by Hans Henrik Stærfeldt March 27, 1990. At the time Madsen, Hammer, and Stærfeldt were the only developers, joined by [[Michael Seifert (programmer)|Michael Seifert]] in June 1990. Stærfeldt stated that their intention was to create a MUD that was less messy than AberMUD, less buggy than [[LPMud]], and more like ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]''.{{R|staerfeldt}} The first DikuMUD was in working development as early as October 1990 and officially opened publicly running at <code>freja.diku.dk port 4000</code> on February 3, 1991.{{R|hammer}}
A second DikuMUD appeared in January 1991, running at <code>hayes.ims.alaska.edu</code>.{{R|woodcock}}  In March 1991, the first public version of DikuMUD, known as Diku Gamma, became available at <code>beowulf.acc.stolaf.edu</code>. Afterwards the DikuMUD at <code>freja.diku.dk</code> was shut down and the game and development moved to <code>alfa.me.chalmers.se</code>.{{R|wisdom}}
Other Diku Gamma MUDs appeared in March 1991 running at <code>eris.berkeley.edu</code>, followed by a multiprocessor version running at <code>sequent.berkeley.edu</code>.{{R|wisdom_30041991}} By early April 1991, there were DikuMUDs running at <code>spam.ua.oz.au</code>, <code>goldman.gnu.ai.mit.edu</code>, <code>bigboy.cis.temple.edu</code>, and <code>elof.iit.edu</code>.{{Citation needed|date=December 2020}}
Diku Alfa was released in July 1991 and the DikuMUD team hereafter continued with the development of DikuII. That version  was however never released to the public but continues to run today under the name of Valhalla MUD.{{R|dikuiimud}}
On June 21, 2020, [[Michael Seifert (programmer)|Michael Seifert]] released DikuMUD III for HTML 5 with Websockets. This is now the last official release of DikuMUD.{{Citation needed|date=December 2020}}
== Legacy ==
As a result of its easily operable codebase, several major standalone MUD codebases were spun out using DikuMUD's code, namely Circle, Silly, and Merc. In turn, Merc led to ROM (Rivers of MUD) and Envy), which each spawned their own codebases.{{r|bartle}} One such derivative of DikuMUD and Merc was SMAUG (Simulated Medieval Adventure Multi-user Game).<ref name="qualitative-research">{{cite journal |author = Simona Isabella |title = Ethnography of Online Role-Playing Games: The Role of Virtual and Real Contest in the Construction of the Field |journal = Forum: Qualitative Social Research |date = September 2007 |volume = 8 | issue = 3 |issn = 1438-5627 | url = https://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/280/615 | access-date=2020-12-08|quote = Realms of Despair (RoD) uses SMAUG, implemented in MERC 2.1}}</ref>
It has been proposed by [[Raph Koster]] (lead designer of ''[[Ultima Online]]'' and chief creative officer of ''[[EverQuest II]]'') that Diku has resulted in the greatest proliferation of gameworlds due to being the easiest to set up and use.{{R|koster-tails|koster-lpd}}  He further pointed out that "Diku codebases did eventually popularize many of the major developments in muds",{{R|koster-diku}} and that the Diku gameplay provided inspiration for numerous [[MMORPG]]s, including ''[[EverQuest]]'', ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' and ''[[Ultima Online]]''.{{R|koster-uo-ideas}}
There was a minor controversy in late 1999 and early 2000 regarding whether the commercial [[MMORPG]] ''[[EverQuest]]'', developed by [[Verant Interactive]], had derived its code from DikuMUD.<ref name="bartle-eq">{{cite book
| last = Bartle | first = Richard | author-link = Richard Bartle
| title = [[Designing Virtual Worlds]]
| publisher = New Riders
| year = 2003
| isbn = 0-13-101816-7
| page = 25
| quote = If ever there was a case of being in the right place at the right time, EverQuest (EQ) is it.  It was basically a DikuMUD with a graphical client bolted on - the similarities are so close that under legal threat its server programmers were forced to sign sworn statements to the effect that they didn't use any actual DikuMUD code in EverQuest.
}}</ref> It began at the Re:Game gaming conference in 1999, where the Director of Product Development for EverQuest, Bernard Yee, allegedly stated that ''EverQuest'' was "based on Dikumud". He did not specify whether he meant the code itself was derived from DikuMUD, or if it just had a similar feeling. Some attendees had understood it to mean the former, given that the chief designer, [[Brad McQuaid]] was an avid player of SojournMUD and [[TorilMUD]] that was based on the [[Sequent (MUD)|Sequent]] DikuMUD derivative, and reported to that effect on Usenet.{{R|usenet-eq}} After the Diku group requested clarification, Verant issued a sworn statement on March 17, 2000 that EverQuest was not based on DikuMUD source code, and was built from the ground up.{{R|verant-diku-persons|verant-diku-server}}  In response, the DikuMUD team publicly stated that they find no reason whatsoever to believe any of the rumors that ''EverQuest'' was derived from DikuMUD code.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://dikumud.com/everquest/|title=DikuMUD/EverQuest|publisher=DikuMUD|access-date=2022-11-12}}</ref>{{R|diku-eq}}
== See also ==
* [[Chronology of MUDs]]
* [[Immortal (MUD)|Immortal]]
* [[Rent (MUD)|Rent]]
* [[Consider (MUD)|Consider]]
== References ==
{{Reflist|colwidth=40em|refs=
<ref name="hahn">{{cite book
| last = Hahn
| first = Harley
| title = The Internet Complete Reference
| edition = 2nd
| publisher = Osborne McGraw-Hill
| year = 1996
| isbn = 0-07-882138-X
| page = [https://archive.org/details/harleyhahnsinter00hahn/page/558 558]
| quote = DikuMuds are named after the Datalogisk Institut Københavns Universitet (Department of Computer Science, University of Copenhagen), where the original DikuMud was created in 1990 by Katja Nyboe, Tom Madsen, Hans Henrik Stærfeldt, [[Michael Seifert (programmer)|Michael Seifert]] and Sebastian Hammer.
| url-access = registration
| url = https://archive.org/details/harleyhahnsinter00hahn/page/558
}}</ref>
<ref name="dog">{{cite book
| last1 = Mulligan | first1 = Jessica
| last2 = Patrovsky | first2 = Bridgette
| year = 2003
| title = Developing Online Games: An Insider's Guide
| publisher = New Riders
| isbn = 1-59273-000-0
| pages = 452–453
| quote = 1990 [...] DIKU MUDs are released.
}}</ref>
<ref name="bartle">{{cite book
| last = Bartle | first = Richard | author-link = Richard Bartle
| title = [[Designing Virtual Worlds]]
| publisher = New Riders
| year = 2003
| isbn = 0-13-101816-7
| page = 10
}}</ref>
<ref name="keegan">{{cite web
| last = Keegan
| first = Martin
| url = http://mk.ucant.org/info/classification_muds.html
| title = A Classification of MUDs
| work = Martin Keegan's Home Page
| date = 2003-02-02
| access-date = 2010-09-20
| archive-date = 2012-04-28
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120428085552/http://mk.ucant.org/info/classification_muds.html
| url-status = dead
}}</ref>
<ref name="staerfeldt">{{cite web
| last = Staerfeldt | first = Hans Henrik
| url = https://groups.google.com/group/alt.mud/msg/a42c8dbda0e80f9a
| title = New mud comming up.. &#91;sic&#93;
| work = alt.mud
| year = 1990
| quote = We have started to program a mud, that we hope will be finished some time in the end of the summer. This mud will be better (we hope) than other muds as we have learned from their mistakes.
}}</ref>
<ref name="hammer">{{cite web
| last = Hammer | first = Sebastian
| url = https://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.mud/msg/2e1623c460e78e2b
| title = New Mud
| work = rec.games.mud
| year = 1991
| quote = We consider playing in groups to be one of the more important (entertaining, that is) aspects of mudding, and hence the game includes various features, especially designed to make group-adventuring more fun and rewarding: Four different classes of players, with various abilities; a system which allows members of a group to share the score made at a kill; and lots of other stuff.
}}</ref>
<ref name="woodcock">{{cite web
| last = Woodcock | first = Bruce Sterling
| url = https://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.mud/msg/a2e9c0a8166ebf1c
| title = Mud List: January 31, 1991
| work = rec.games.mud
| year = 1991
}}</ref>
<ref name="wisdom">{{cite web
| last = Wisdom | first = Joseph
| url = https://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.mud/msg/0f37748a12d02866
| title = Arki's MUDLIST... promotional posting.
| work = rec.games.mud
| year = 1990
| quote = beowulf.acc.stolaf.edu /pub/pub/mud tinymud, tinymuck, login style abermud, lpmud, ubermud, myth, ftp daemon patch for lpmuds, vast array of clients, gb, bt, dikumud.
}}</ref>
<ref name="wisdom_30041991">{{cite web
| last = Wisdom | first = Joseph
| url = https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!msg/rec.games.mud/u9WQGB6h70M/LMwGbkP_K8AJ
| title = MUD List.
| work = rec.games.mud
| year = 1991
| quote = dikumud.
}}</ref>
<ref name="shahromine-diku">{{cite book
| last1 = Shah | first1 = Rawn
| last2 = Romine | first2 = James
| year = 1995
| title = Playing MUDs on the Internet
| publisher = John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
| page = 22
| isbn = 0-471-11633-5
| quote = DikuMud first appeared in mid-March of 1990 when a group of programmers at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark got together and began work on a multiplayer game that is similar to but improved on AberMuds.  These coders were Hans Henrik Stærfeldt, Katja Nyboe, Tom Madsen, [[Michael Seifert (programmer)|Michael Seifert]], and Sebastian Hammer.
}}</ref>
<ref name="shahromine-style">{{cite book
| last1 = Shah | first1 = Rawn
| last2 = Romine | first2 = James
| year = 1995
| title = Playing MUDs on the Internet
| publisher = John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
| page = 22
| isbn = 0-471-11633-5
| quote = There are Muds for socializing and for being creative, but DikuMuds are for adventure, advancement, and battle.
}}</ref>
<ref name="koster-tails">{{cite web
| last = Koster | first = Raph | author-link = Raph Koster
| url = http://www.raphkoster.com/2007/05/29/mmo-long-tails/
| title = MMO long tails
| work = Raph Koster's Website
| date = 2007-05-29
| access-date = 2010-09-20
}}</ref>
<ref name="koster-lpd">{{cite web
| last = Koster | first = Raph | author-link = Raph Koster
| url = http://www.raphkoster.com/gaming/lpvdiku.shtml
| title = LP Muds versus Diku-derived muds
| work = Raph Koster's Website
| access-date = 2010-09-20
}}</ref>
<ref name="koster-diku">{{cite web
| last = Koster | first = Raph | author-link = Raph Koster
| url = http://www.raphkoster.com/2009/01/09/what-is-a-diku/
| title = What is a Diku?
| work = Raph Koster's Website
| date = 2009-01-09
| access-date = 2010-09-20
}}</ref>
<ref name="koster-uo-ideas">{{cite web
| last = Koster | first = Raph | author-link = Raph Koster
| url = http://www.raphkoster.com/2006/06/16/from-the-mailbag-fan-mail-uo-ideas/
| title = From the mailbag: fan mail, UO, ideas
| work = Raph Koster's Website
| date = 2006-06-16
| access-date = 2010-09-20
}}</ref>
<ref name="usenet-eq">{{cite web
| url = https://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.mud.diku/browse_thread/thread/7496cf1b1f7f2658/527aaec6e4b04ac9#527aaec6e4b04ac9
| title = Sony's EverQuest admits to using Diku as a base
| work = rec.games.mud.diku
| access-date = 2007-02-03
}}</ref>
<ref name="verant-diku-persons">{{cite web
|last1=Smedley
|first1=John
|author-link1=John Smedley (video games)
|last2=McQuaid
|first2=Brad
|author-link2=Brad McQuaid
|url=http://www.dikumud.com/img/persons.gif
|title=Sworn Statement
|publisher=DIKU MUD
|date=2000-03-17
|access-date=2010-04-26
|url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110413185123/http://www.dikumud.com/img/persons.gif
|archive-date=2011-04-13
}}</ref>
<ref name="verant-diku-server">{{cite web
|last1=McQuaid
|first1=Brad
|author-link1=Brad McQuaid
|last2=Clover
|first2=Steve
|last3=Uzun
|first3=Roger
|url=http://www.dikumud.com/img/server.gif
|title=Sworn Statement
|publisher=DIKU MUD
|date=2000-03-17
|access-date=2010-04-26
|url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110413185134/http://www.dikumud.com/img/server.gif
|archive-date=2011-04-13
}}</ref>
<ref name="diku-eq">{{cite web
|url         = http://www.dikumud.com/everquest.aspx
|title       = DikuMUD's statement on Everquest
|access-date  = 2007-02-03
|url-status     = dead
|archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20070203234300/http://www.dikumud.com/everquest.aspx
|archive-date = 2007-02-03
}}</ref>
<ref name="dikuiimud">{{cite web
| url = http://www.valhalla.com/
| title = DikuMUD II running as Valhalla MUD
| access-date = 2013-01-12
}}</ref>
}}
== Further reading ==
* {{cite book
| editor1-last = Shah | editor1-first = Rawn
| editor2-last = Romine | editor2-first = James
| title = Playing MUDs on the Internet
| publisher = John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
| year = 1995
| isbn = 0-471-11633-5
| last = Romine | first = James
| contribution = Part 1: DikuMUDs
| pages = 19–153
}}
* {{cite book
| last = Busey | first = Andrew
| title = Secrets of the MUD Wizards
| publisher = [[SAMS Publishing]]
| year = 1995
| isbn = 0-672-30723-5
| chapter = 9. DikuMUDs
| pages = 133–177
}}
== External links ==
* {{Official website|dikumud.com}}
* [http://www.circlemud.org/dlicense.html CircleMUD's copy of the DikuMud license]
* [http://www.mudconnect.com/ The MUD Connector: 700+ Dikumud MUD Listings Available]
* [http://www.mudmagic.com/codes/download/diku/ Mud Magic: 1,200+ Diku Based Code & Snippet Downloads]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070310211000/http://www.mudbytes.net/index.php?a=files&cid=8 MudBytes DikuMUD code and derivative downloads]
* [http://www.faqs.org/faqs/games/mud-faq/diku/ rec.games.mud.diku FAQ from 1997]
* [http://mudseek.com/ MUDseek MUD games search engine]
* [http://www.raphkoster.com/2009/01/09/what-is-a-diku/ Raph Koster: "What is a Diku?"]
{{MUDs}}
[[Category:MUD servers]]
[[Category:MUD games]]
[[Category:Video games developed in Denmark]]
[[Category:Video games with available source code]]