The Mud Connector

The Mud Connector, abbreviated TMC, is a computer gaming website that provides articles, discussions, reviews, resource links and game listings about MUDs.^[1] The site lets MUD owners, administrators and enthusiasts submit information and reviews about specific MUDs.^[2]^[3] The site contains over 1000 MUD listings^[4] and designates a subset of virtual communities suitable for children.^[5]^[6] Mud Companion magazine praised the site.^[7]^[8]

Type of site

Computer gaming website

OwnerAndrew Cowan

CreatedbyAndrew Cowan

URLhttp://www.mudconnect.com/

Quick facts Type of site, Owner ...

The Mud Connector

Type of site	Computer gaming website
Owner	Andrew Cowan
Created by	Andrew Cowan
URL	http://www.mudconnect.com/
Registration	Optional and free
Launched	January 8, 1995

History

The Mud Connector website was founded on January 8, 1995, by Andrew Cowan. It was hosted on the University of North Carolina at Greensboro mathematics department graduate assistants' Linux server.^[9] Shortly after the website was created, it was believed to be lost, due to a fatal hard disk crash and poor backup preparations, but within a few months the webpage was found in a Netscape cache file and restored.^[10] Initial MUD data was gathered via frequent requests made on Usenet newsgroups such as rec.games.mud.admin, inviting MUD administrators to submit their muds to the TMC database. Over time the Usenet postings were phased out and TMC outgrew the capabilities of its host, eventually moving to a dedicated server.^[11]

References

[1]
Towers, J. Tarin; Badertscher, Ken; Cunningham, Wayne; Buskirk, Laura (1996). Yahoo! Wild Web Rides. IDG Books Worldwide Inc. p. 138. ISBN 0-7645-7003-X. The MUD Connector at http://www.mudconnect.com has just about everything you could possibly need to get on a MUD. It has MUD-related links to FAQs, newsgroups and clients; as well as player discussions and forums about different MUDs. This site also has a listing of over 500 MUDs, with pretty useful descriptions of what you can expect to find on most games. You can even click on the MUD or home page you'd like to see and link right to it. If you're shopping for a new MUD and aren't sure what you're looking for, this is the place to park it. We're talking big time bookmark material here.
[2]
Pantuso, Joe (1996). The Complete Internet Gamer. John Wiley & Sons. p. 115. ISBN 0471137871. The Mud Connector has, at the time of this writing, links to 205 active Muds. The Muds are reviewed periodically, so there are few dead links. What sets this site apart from some of the other Mud link connections listed here is that each link includes the name of the Mud, the kind of code it is based on (nice for developers), the telnet address written out, an active hyperlink to the telnet site and Web home page if one exists, and a short but useful description of the Mud. The list is alphabetized and broken into four sections for easy loading. There are also forms for submitting your Mud to the list. There is even a page for dead links in case you want to see what has gone before.
[3]
Condon, William; Butler, Wayne (1997). Writing the Information Superhighway. Longman. pp. 306. ISBN 020519575X. "The Mud Connector" is a complete on-line service designed to provide the most up-to-date listings of registered Multiuser on-line games. Every entry lists the site of the game, the base code used, descriptions of the game as submitted by the administrators, links to WWW homepages (when available), and Telnet links to the game.
[4]
McClellan, Jim (1999-01-28). "Mind game in the MUD". Guardian Unlimited.
[5]
Slatalla, Michelle (1998-02-26). "Computing; Parents' Dilemma: A Child's Own PC?". New York Times.
[6]
Peal, David (1998). America Online Official Internet Guide. Mcgraw-Hill Osborne Media. pp. 396. ISBN 0078825164. At the excellent MudConnector Web site (http://www.mudconnect.com), you will find a huge amount of information about MUDs, as well as direct links to just about all of them. Its list of MUDs includes every variety, from aggressive galaxies to peaceable kingdoms, from Age of Dragons to New Age. Particularly useful are the plain-English MUD categories, which allow you to link to MUDs that are Educational, Safe for Children, Research Oriented, or Newbie Friendly, for example. Or, choose a theme such as Cyberpunk, Medieval Fantasy, Science Fiction, Star Wars, or Tolkien.
[7]
John Bellone (March 2002). "So you want to be a coder, eh?". The Mud Companion (3): 28. ISSN 1499-1071. There are good resources on the Internet that deal with codebases, one of which is the Mud Connector ... The Mud Connector has a lot of great information
[8]
Michael Tresca (Winter 2001). "An interface only a mother could love". The Mud Companion (2): 42. ISSN 1499-1071. Take a look at the latest MUDs and you'll see there are a lot to choose from. In fact, there are too many to choose from; 1,795 when this article was written. The good news: it's fairly easy to distinguish the good MUDs from the bad MUDs. The bad news: there are a LOT of bad MUDs. It's just a matter of sorting through the chaff and finding the MUD that's right for you. Got your notepad open? Good! ..."
[9]
Cowan, Andrew (1995-01-08). "WWW Mud Connector". rec.games.mud.diku.
[10]
Cowan, Andrew (1995-03-29). "WWW Mud Connector is back!". rec.games.mud.diku.
[11]
Cowan, Andrew (1996-08-19). "The MUD Connector (mudlist)". rec.games.mud.announce.

The Mud Connector

History

References

External links

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