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TinyMUCK or, more broadly, a MUCK, is a type of user-extendable online text-based role-playing game, designed for role playing and social interaction.
Backronym A backronym is an acronym formed from an already existing word by expanding its letters into the words of a phrase. Backronyms may be invented with either serious or humorous intent, or they may be a type of false etymology or folk etymology. The ...
s like "Multi-User Chat/Created/Computer/Character/Carnal Kingdom" and "Multi-User Construction Kit" are sometimes cited, but are not the actual origin of the term; "muck" is simply a play on the term MUD.


History

*The original TinyMUCK 1.0 server was written by Stephen White from
University of Waterloo The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a Public university, public research university located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is on of land adjacent to uptown Waterloo and Waterloo Park. The university also op ...
in winter of 1990, based on
TinyMUD A multi-user dungeon (MUD, ), also known as a multi-user dimension or multi-user domain, is a multiplayer real-time virtual world, usually text-based or storyboarded. MUDs combine elements of role-playing games, hack and slash, player vers ...
1.5.2 codebase. This version improved building capabilities for the users. *TinyMUCK 2.0 was released in June 1990 by Piaw "Lachesis" Na from Berkeley, who added the programming language MUF for in-game server extensions. *TinyMUCK 2.1 and 2.2 were released in July 1990 and April 1991 by Robert "ChupChup" Earl of
San Diego, California San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...
. These were mostly bugfix releases as the code was cleaned up and ported to new operating systems and architectures. *FuzzBall MUCK server was built on TinyMUCK 2.2 codebase b
Belfry Webworks
and, as of version 5, released in 1995, includes the alternative programming language MPI. version 6, available a
SourceForge project fbmuck
also supports MCP and MCP-GUI.


Characteristics

MUCKs are extensible by design, players can create and modify ("build") all internal objects of the game environment, including rooms, exits, and even the system commands, for which the MUCKs use the MUF (Multi-User Forth) language. Fuzzball MUCKs also use Message Parsing Interpreter (MPI) which can be used to embed executable code into descriptions of all in-game objects. Unlike many other virtual worlds, however, TinyMUCK and its descendants do not usually have computer-controlled monsters for players to kill.


Usage

TinyMUCKs are popular among members of furry fandom; examples of active, large TinyMUCKs include '' FurryMUCK'' and '' Tapestries MUCK'', both of which run the Fuzzball version of MUCK server code.


See also

* MUD * MUSH *
MOO A MOO ("Multi-user dungeon, MUD, object-oriented") is a text-based online virtual reality system to which multiple users (players) are connected at the same time. The term MOO is used in two distinct, but related, senses. One is to refer to th ...
* Online text-based role-playing game


References


External links


MUCK Manual Version 1.0
at The MUCK Information Kiosk
FuzzBall Software
{{MUDs MU* games MUD servers Online chat