From: bairds@ursula.ee.pdx.edu (Wraith)
Newsgroups: rec.games.mud.diku
Subject: Diku variations (was Re: Source of the term "diku")
Keywords: diku DIKU Guildmaster of Fidos PK PT flag me baby i aint scared
Date: 28 Dec 92 22:47:43 GMT
Article-I.D.: newsgate.1ho06fINNaic
NNTP-Posting-Host: ursula.ee.pdx.edu

bowden@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (John utters the words, "tuborg") writes:
>Anyone out there know where the term "diku" originated?
>Any relevent info would be appreciated.

Hmmm, I'll go ahead and assume this is serious (probably against my better
judgement).  If you examine the credits in any Diku there should be a bit
that looks something like this:

                     Original game idea, concept, and design:

              Katja Nyboe               [Superwoman] (katz@freja.diku.dk)
              Tom Madsen              [Stormbringer] (noop@freja.diku.dk)
              Hans Henrik Staerfeldt           [God] (bombman@freja.diku.dk)
              Michael Seifert                 [Papi] (seifert@freja.diku.dk)
              Sebastian Hammer               [Quinn] (quinn@freja.diku.dk)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                     Additional contributions from:

Michael Curran  - the player title collection.
Ragnar Loenn    - the bulletin board.
Bill Wisner     - for being the first to successfully port the game, uncovering
                  several old bugs in the proccess.

Developed at:
  DIKU - The Department of Computer Science at the University of Copenhagen
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

---
As you can see, the name Diku comes from the university at which it was
developed.  If this isn't available in some way or another at the Diku you
play, the admins are making a serious error, as the agreement states something
to the effect of leaving the original credits intact.  Diku has also changed
quite a lot since the original.  Hmmm, these are the main derivitives I can
recall, in no particular order (obviously there are lots of hacked Dikus, but
these seem to be the majors I can remember):

     Dikumud v4.0 (Temple) -- this one runs on bigboy.cis.temple.edu,
        and has been heavily modified by the main implementor,
        Jeff Stine (Abaddon), including crash save, an interactive
        object/mobile/room editor, a few new spells, etc.  One of the
        last remaining bastions of player killing/thieving.  Not
        generally available to others, I believe, although there were
        a couple of other muds running older versions, I think.  Jeff
        is working on some new stuff, too.

     SillyMUD -- this one contains some modifications by some guys at
        (shoot me if I'm wrong) the University of Florida, I believe.
        The main implementor was Loki.  This system offers multi-
        classing, a large number of spells, an increased number of
        levels, object stacking (like, hmmm, a bread [5] to mean five
        breads in the room), teleport rooms and other nifty ideas.
        From looking at Perilous Realms a bit, I'm thinking it might
        be a heavily modified SillyMUD as well.

     Copper -- don't remember all the modifications or implementor of
        this variation, didn't play it much.  It still exists and
        indeed the original Copper MUD is still up, if I recall
        correctly.

     Sequent -- early versions implemented by Savaki, later
        modifications by Duke.  Quite a few additional spells and
        areas.  Exxon's chessboard area was first installed here, I
        believe.  One of the first to offer a flag type killing/thieving
        system with witnesses, a bribeable judge, etc.

     Huey -- this one changed the look quite a bit, with multi-classing,
        the entire way the summon thing works, gates (as in making a new
        exit from one room to another room and placing it as an object
        in the rooms), pushing mobiles, underwater rooms, fly rooms,
        etc.

     Diku II -- not even sure if a finished Diku II exists yet.  This,
        as I recall, is a venture being done by some of the original
        Diku coders.  The attempt is to move to a more skills based
        system along with enhanced flexibility in other areas.

     DaShadow's -- again we have more spells, multi-classing, more
        classes, etc.  This one has a fairly polished look.  From what
        I remember, a lot of the coding was Clore's work.  Not sure
        about that though.

     Armageddon -- Jhalavar's (aka Gothmog) attempt to create a Dark Sun
        environment for playing.  Based on the Dark Sun stuff from TSR
        along with quite a bit of enhancement by Jhalavar.

     Arctic -- still yet to appear, this is a work I don't know a whole
        lot about.  I think it may be semi-based upon some of the
        Forgotten Realms stuff from TSR, or maybe it was the DragonLance
        stuff.  It's members are known to be fanatic ;) and what it
        will offer if and when it appears to the public, I don't know.

DeathDealer@Adversary

--
Shawn L. Baird           | "By all means, take the moral high ground --
bairds@ursula.ee.pdx.edu | all that heavenly backlighting makes you a
-------------------------| much easier target."  --Solomon Short
Newsgroups: rec.games.mud.diku