The roots of multiboxing?

[propagandalf]

I was getting all nostalgic the other day, remembering my first adventures in an online RPG, MUDs. If you don't know what MUDs are, they were text based online RPGs, long before Ultima Online.

I started to remember the MUD I played on and why I specifically loved that one, over all the others -- it allowed "Multiplaying". Only a few (out of hundreds) allowed this. You can still search the MUD Connector and filter your search by "Allows Multi-play" (http://www.mudconnect.com/adv_search.html).

This meant you could play multiple characters at the same time in the game. Sounds a lot like Multiboxing, huh?

You had to use a special MUD client called TinTin++:

http://tintin.sourceforge.net/manual/session.php

Syntax: #session {name} {address} {port}


Will start a session with the given name, connecting to the specified address and port.


Example: #ses twinkie neverneverland.bla 1234
Ofcourse you'd have to fill in something else if you actually want to go somewhere. The Mud connector offers a large searchable list of muds.


Other options are #session + and - to go to the next or previous session. This only works if you are multiplaying. #session <number> activates the session corresponding to the given number.

That's when it hit me... I've been multiboxing for almost 20 years! Scary

[Binzyrd]

That's a good analogy... I guess I've been multiboxing for longer than I thought . Hell, I still multiplay a MUD, but I'm using zmud.

[propagandalf]

That's a good analogy... I guess I've been multiboxing for longer than I thought . Hell, I still multiplay a MUD, but I'm using zmud.

Oh yeah, I forgot aobut zMUD. That was a huge upgrade from Tintin++!

[Starbuck_Jones]

I would say UO was the first game that I really multi-boxed with. Having another toon that would stand there for hours on end while you beat on them to get your weapon skills up with was extremely useful. So was the stealing ability. I remember setting up one toon who was a grand master snoop/steal in the Brit provisioner shop and swipe peoples items. Guards would insta kill you and I used my other account to loot the corpse. Ahh those were the days...

[JohnGabriel]

When I worked at Nintendo in the late 80s there was a game play counselor (the guys you called for game tips) and he could play two Nintendos at once, one in each hand. It was very impressive to see him playing two separate games independently of each other.

[Starbuck_Jones]

I called those Nintendo guys! My mother didn't like that it was a long distance phone call to Washington (I think that was the 206 area code?) They couldn't help much with that god damned Milons Secret Castle. I remember them telling me that only the guy who made the game knows how to play it.

[heyaz]

I called those Nintendo guys! My mother didn't like that it was a long distance phone call to Washington (I think that was the 206 area code?) They couldn't help much with that god damned Milons Secret Castle. I remember them telling me that only the guy who made the game knows how to play it.

I racked up a $250 phone bill on that I think in high school, on my grandmother's phone. I didn't know how much I was being charged but hoped it was too small for grandma to notice. When they got the bill I played it out like I didn't know there was a charge at all.

[Ishar]

I don't remember if I really multi-played MUDS. Scripting tho, oh yeah. Lots and lots of scripting. In some ways it was the most interesting part of muds for me...complex triggers and such. It's sort of a meta-game. So since I remember being into that, I'm sure I took advantage of multi-playing at times, but it wasn't really a day-to-day play style. When EQ came out, yeah...playing a melee w/ out a pocket healer really wasn't viable after a certain point in that game.

Even in this day and age some muds are still apparently going strong, somewhat paradoxically, like dragonrealms, which is fairly expensive as games go, and basically a glorified mud. Though, if you've ever played it, other mud's don't really compare to it in terms of depth of content or features. But then, hey, it has a subscription model.

[zenga]

Must 've been 1987 iirc (Im born in 1978) and I was playing Beyond Dark Castle (still has a busy forum up) that summer on my Mac Plus. For some reason my dad was doing business with Japanese people and closing the deal required a family dinner with them. He challenged me to practise eating with chopsticks, and the stubborn kid I was I practised a lot in the forthcoming days, to the point where I could multibox chopsticks, 2 in my left and 2 in my right hand. And the Japanese were very impressed with my skills, I don't remember if the deal was closed or not, I only remember the constant stream of jokes from my parents at the expense of the Japanese later on, so I guess not.

We had a newer and an older mac plus at that point at home, and since I was so good at Dark Castle, the chopstick experience gave me the idea to try and play the game with my left hand instead of my right hand. as an extra challenge. Shortly after I tried to play on 2 different computers, which was my very first experience with multiboxing games.

[Alge]

I was heavily into MUDs back in the day, so much so that when I started playing EQ I was pretty sure it was most heavily inspired by DikuMUD rather than any other code base.

While doing some fact-checking for this post I learned I wasn't the only one.