Richard A. Bartle: Minor Magazine-Published Articles

Minor Magazine-Published Articles

Minor, published magazine articles on or referring to MUDs and MUD-related matters. All these have been scanned from the original copies in my possession.

	Editorial Gore, B. Popular Computing Weekly, page 3, 15^th March, 1984. A short editorial complaining about the cost of telephone calls for playing MUD, but making no suggestion as to how to improve the situation. Popular Computing Weekly was published by Sunshine, under the same editor as Micro Adventurer, and they often "shared" material between the two magazines.
	UK loss is US gain Croft, M. Micro Adventurer, page 6, May, 1984. A short news piece stating that MUD was being blocked from success in the UK by the high cost of telephone calls. Tell me something new...
	Rockman Files Rockman, S. Games Computing, page 94, June, 1984. An article mainly concerned with the staggeringly good graphics of some contemporary car racing games, but with an initial paragraph plugging MUD again. It's also signed "Thor the Necromancer" (he hadn't made it to wiz yet). The main article it refers to was the April, 1984 column.
	Future Gaming Hatton, G. Micro Adventurer, pages 13 to 18, July, 1984. An article considering what the future may bring for adventure games. It's mainly concerned with very esoteric pieces of hardware, the consequences of which aren't always fully thought through (50,000 plus still images per adventure game - where are they all going to come from?!). At the end, though, is a discussion of the possibilities of networking adventure games; it didn't mention MUD by name, but did say that "some of our universities" were exploring this kind of game. I used this as an excuse to write a letter to the magazine, extolling the benefits of MUD, which rapidly led to my signing up to write a regular column on the subject.
	Editorial Gore, B. Micro Adventurer, page 3, September, 1984. This is the editorial from the MUD-blitzed September edition of Micro Adventurer. It discusses the similarities between the multi-player aspects of MUD and the newly-released Lords of Midnight (with its "stunning" graphics), which allowed players to use a variety of personae in the same game. The last line of the editorial could apply equally well today.
	MUD on line from Century Croft, M. Micro Adventurer, page 7, September, 1984. A news piece concerning MUD's imminent commercialisation under the auspices of Century Communications. In the event, Century did very little and we went it alone; they took a 10% stake in MUSE Ltd for their trouble, then got themselves closed down by their parent company. Great. There's a B&W photograph of me accompanying this article, looking suitably unhelpful.
	Compunet is up and running - but at what cost to the user? Cochrane, J. Commodore Horizons, pages 62 and 63, January, 1985. Primarily a description of the then new Compunet service, although of course MUD gets the inevitable mention; Commodore Horizons was published by Sunshine, the same enthusiastic bunch who brought out Micro Adventurer, but that probably had little to do with it - there wasn't much else worth using the system for at the time. I wrote a MUD-specific article for the issue which followed.
	Stick in the MUD Garroch, K. Personal Computer News, page 33, February, 1985. A section of an article on modems and BBSs. It gives the times that MUD was available and how much it cost in comms charges, but not a great deal else.
	BT signs MUD contract <author unknown> Popular Computing Weekly, page 6, 16^th May, 1985. News that BT had signed up MUD2. The deal was only 10 years ahead of its time (sigh)...
	MUD may be spread around... <author unknown> Telelink, page 6, May/June, 1985. News that MUD was going to be rewritten for launch on a new British Telecom system. Mainly quotes from a conversation with Trevor Havelock of BT.
	Muddier <author unknown> Personal Computer World, page 304, July, 1985. A short news piece from the Chip Chat section of the magazine warning of the impending launch of MUD2.
	More MUD in the autumn <author unknown> Telelink, page 8, July, 1985. A short news item following up an article in the previous issue but not saying a great deal more.
	GAMES NEWS <author unknown> Computer & Video Games, page 11, August, 1985. The only reference I have to a game known as MUNG which was due to be launched in "the first half of 1985" (ie. before this article was written). As far as I know, it never went live.
	If your name is MUD it's for you <author unknown> Your Computer, page 15, August, 1985. A 4 column-inch news item they probably put together having read a longer one somewhere else...
	The MUD is starting to fly <author unknown> Telelink, page 8, October, 1985. An attempt to make an article out of vague rumblings of mutual discontent between BT and Compunet concerning competition between MUD1 and MUD2.
	Exploring the electronic jungle Firbank, J. Telelink, pages 53 and 54, March/April, 1986. This is a general puff piece for Compunet. MUD1 gets a mention, but then so do rather a lot of other projects, most of which were doomed from the start...
	Modems Roberts, M. Computer Gamer, pages 54 and 55, August, 1986. A companion piece to another one in the same issue, this deals with modems and what you can do with them (from the days when having BT approval for connection to their network was a major factor in their price). MUD gets a mention. I didn't scan the photos of the various modems it mentions...
	WILL MUD BE MICRO-NETTED? <author unknown> NEWS, page 6, 25^th February, 1989. A short piece speculating on whether MUD2 would shortly appear on Micronet. No such luck... I have no idea from where they got their information.
	DELAYED SERVICE IS A MUG'S GAME <author unknown> Popular Computing Weekly, page 4, 22^nd February, 1990. An article heralding the arrival of the much-vaunted Bloodstone MUD, which died a death almost immediately. One look at its unlikely specifications shows why...
	Back to the Dungeon Dennis, P. PC Plus, page 387, January, 1992. Part of Tony Dennis's monthly comms column, announcing that MUD2 is back in action (although somewhat after the event).
	Wizards' Guild <author unknown> Computer Shopper, page 471, May, 1992. A short bit about the Wizards' Guild (who ran MUD2 at the time), which appeared in the Enthusiasts' Exchange section of the magazine.
	Avalon Europe Ltd. <author unknown> Role-Player Independent, page 6, February, 1993. A short news piece on the take-over by players of the running of Avalon's UK game. A lot of good it did them...
	Glorious MUD South, P. Amiga Computing, page 141, August, 1993. A standard, bread-and-butter article on MUDs and the like, which says very little of substance yet manages to get most of even that incorrect.
	Edge lexicon <author unknown> Edge a to z of interactive entertainment, page 7, April, 1996. The definition of the word "MUD" in the free suplement to Edge magazine. It's short, but (how about that?!) accurate.
	Land of Hope and Glory <author unknown> .net, page 45, April, 1999. As part of a feature to highlight the UK's contributions to the Internet, this small section on MUDs was included. Other than claiming Simon Dally to be one of the people who built the original game, it's OK. It did show a screen shot of the Wireplay version of the client, but I haven't scanned it because it was too small to read.