April 21st 2008: Fifth Preview Release of SlashMUD X. This release is primarily intended for bug-hunters.

May 25th 2007: Fourth Preview Release of SlashMUD X. This release is primarily intended for bug-hunters.

May 8th 2005: Third Preview Release of SlashMUD X. This release is primarily intended for bug-hunters.

August 28th 2004: Second Preview Release of SlashMUD X. This release is primarily intended for bug-hunters.

March 25th 2004: First Preview Release of SlashMUD X. Movement and combat work, but other features (including player saving) have been disabled while they are being finished. This release is primarily intended for bug-hunters.

May 4th 2003: Work on SlashMUD X (porting SlashMUDServer to Mac OS X) is well underway. Many smaller supporting data types are finished, the general architecture is complete, the plugin architecture has been finalised, and new networking code has been incorporated. The current version of the server gets as far as reading in the Standard Library objects and Area files.

April 26th 2002: SlashMUDServer 1.0d65 is now available.

October 23rd 2001: SlashMUDServer 1.0d64 is now available in MacBinary format.

March 1st 2001: Updated the server to 1.0d56 --- Server, Source, Library and Plugin Packages are now available.

January 2nd 2001: Updated the server to 1.0d47.

November 2nd 2000: Updated the server to 1.0d45.

October 11th 2000: Merged the Downloads and Current Work pages.

October 9th 2000: Updated the server to 1.0d44.

October 1st 2000: Updated the server to 1.0d43.

August 1st 2000: Updated the server to 1.0d40.

February 12th 2000: Updated the server to 1.0d38 and posted the Server, Source and Library Packages. 1.0d38 fixes bug when creating a new player in 1.0d37.

February 10th 2000: Updated the server to 1.0d37 and posted the Server, Source and Library Packages. 1.0d37 fixes a couple of rare bugs in 1.0d36.

February 2nd 2000: Updated the server to 1.0d36 and posted the Server, Source and Library Packages.

December 10th 1999: Updated the WIP version of the server to 1.0d35 and posted the source for 1.0d35. The Source and Plugin packages for 1.0d27 (the previous stable version) have now been removed, since they're so far out of date as to be all but useless.

September 13th 1999: Updated the WIP version of the server to 1.0d34. There's now an area/object file checking utility, SlashLint (included with the WIP package).

August 1st 1999: Updated the WIP version of the server to 1.0d33.

July 5th 1999: Updated the WIP version of the server to 1.0d32.

June 22nd 1999: Updated the WIP version of the server to 1.0d31.

May 26th 1999: Updated the WIP version of the server to 1.0d30.

May 17th 1999: Updated the WIP version of the server to 1.0d29.

April 12th 1999: Finally added a link to Kyle's Area Building Documentation website.

March 30th 1999: Updated the WIP version of the server to 1.0d28.

March 28th 1999: The SlashMUD Social Writer has been updated to version 1.2 (it's on the downloads page).

March 22nd 1999: Version 1.0d27 released. This is 1.0d26 with a minor cosmetic fix (thanks Amy!). Version 1.0d27 of the Server Package has a large number of bug fixes and improvements over 1.0d22, the previous "stable" release. For full details see the "What's New in Version 1.0d27" document, which is included with the download.

March 19th 1999: The mailing lists are now hosted by eGroups.com.

March 15th 1999: Updated the WIP version of the server to 1.0d26.

February 25th 1999: Updated the WIP version of the server to 1.0d25.

January 4th 1999: Updated the WIP version of the server to 1.0d24. The Source package has been updated to 1.0d24. Kyle's base areas are now included with the server.

October 18th 1998: Updated the WIP version of the server, 1.0d23 with more bug fixes and features.

September 21st 1998: Versions 1.0d22 of the Server, Source and Plugin Packages are now available from the Downloads page. 1.0d22 adds many bug fixes, and PluginAttachments.

September 17th 1998: Versions 1.0d20 of the Source and Plugin Packages are now available.

September 16th 1998: The latest WIP version of the server, 1.0d21, is now available. 1.0d21 adds Attachments, the coolest things since sliced bread.

September 16th 1998: Version 1.0d20 of the Server Package is now available. 1.0d20 adds the following new features: Dragonbane, Bounty Hunter, Mentor, Janitor, Treknobabbler and TestPluginThings; the long description is now displayed again and supports colour tokens; extensive memory improvements; many new tokens for Socials, wielded and worn messages; the %you and %possessive tokens are obsolete; more skill plugins; fixes for description weirdnesses.

September 6th 1998: Versions 1.0d18 of the Server, Source and Plugin packages. 1.0d18 adds the following new features: Dragonbane, Bounty Hunter, Mentor, Janitor, Treknobabbler and TestPluginThings; the long description is now displayed again and supports colour tokens; extensive memory improvements; many new tokens for Socials, wielded and worn messages.

September 1st 1998: Version 1.0d16 of the server is now available. 1.0d16 adds a slew of new features, including: imp-configurable socials; imp-configurable armourtypes; imp-configurable weapontypes; improved support for races; improved race and zone file loading; variable healing-time for races; players are now loaded into the room they were last saved in; removed group objects (players can now create groups as and when they want); thoroughfare flag for rooms; race support is nearly finished - race now affects all stats, height, healing time, and so much other stuff its unbelievable; there's a folder of Guidelines for writing objects and areas; the documentation has been revised; the save format has been slightly modified - there are grep patterns to help in converting; aliases are a space-delimited list; creatures drip less often (so shut up already about the dripping, ok?); weapons and armours can specify messages to be displayed when worn/wielded; things can specify an minimum and maximum alignment for creatures that want to use them; things, foods and drinks now load correctly. That's about half the new features, if you want to know the rest read the docs!

August 24th 1998: The latest WIP version of the server, 1.0d15, is now available. 1.0d15 adds a slew of untested features, including: imp-configurable socials (for Amy); imp-configurable armourtypes (for Kyle); imp-configurable weapontypes (for me); improved support for races; improved race and zone file loading; variable healing-time for races; players are now loaded into the room they were last saved in; removed group objects (players can now create groups as and when they want).

August 24th 1998: Version 1.0d14 of the server is now available. 1.0d14 is a bug fix release for 1.0d12 that fixes the area file corruption problem. It also adds a 'verbose' command for players and revises the key/lock system (blame Kyle).

August 20th 1998: Final candidate 4 for version 1.0d12 of the SlashMUD package is now available from the Downloads page. 1.0d12fc4 fixes bugs with custom weaponstrings and rings, changes the behaviour of shout, say and tell to echo back to the player what was said, allows rooms to prohibit the movement of monsters and allows rooms to use their zone's long description.

August 16th 1998: Final candidate 3 for version 1.0d12 of the SlashMUD PowerPC and Source packages. 1.0d12fc3 fixes a crash that occurred when restarting the MUD.

August 10th 1998: Final candidate 2 for version 1.0d12 of the SlashMUD PowerPC and Source packages. 1.0d12fc2 features text files for everything (help, areas, zones, races, standard objects, settings); the ability to specify zones for rooms; autogenerated, fully customisable HTML; improved ANSI colour; 10 more monsters; 2 new variations for monsters; 5 new armours; the ability for weapons and armour to influence stats; improved support for races; processor checking code now recognises the Mach 5 and G3 PowerPCs; many bugs and glitches fixed. For a full list of the changes made please see the "What's New In Version 1.0d12fc2" document, which is included in the documentation folder of the SlashMUD PowerPC package.

May 15th 1998: Version 1.0d11r3 of the SlashMUD PowerPC package is now available. This is a bug-fix release of version 1.0d11.

May 11th 1998: Version 1.0d11r2 of the SlashMUD PowerPC package is now available. This is a bug-fix release of version 1.0d11.

May 8th 1998: Version 1.0d11 of the SlashMUD PowerPC package is now available. For a full list of the changes made please see the "What's New In Version 1.0d11" document, which is included in the documentation folder of the SlashMUD PowerPC package. Highlights include: support for ANSI colour; doors, locks and keys; user-selectable hit point information styles; many bugs and glitches fixed. Source code in CodeWarrior Pro 3 format is also available; the Plugins package will be available soon.

April 17th 1998: Announcing SlashMUD MazeMaker, a utility for creating random mazes for use with SlashMUD. MazeMaker is available from the Downloads page.

March 29th 1998: Version 1.0d10 of the SlashMUD PowerPC package is now available from the Downloads page. For a full list of the changes made please see the "What's New In Version 1.0d10" document, which is included in the documentation folder of the SlashMUD PowerPC package. Highlights include: installation uses Installer VISE Lite by MindVision Software; SlashMUDServer now uses two shared libraries; support for height; support for Races; Plugins can no longer be disabled; Skill Mentors are now implemented as PluginMonsters; new abbreviations for common commands; new commands for the admin login; vastly improved speed; the online help system has been updated; many bugs and glitches fixed. Since the next release of CodeWarrior is imminent, the next version of the Plugins and Source packages will use CWPro 3, and will be available shortly after I receive my copy of CWPro 3 (probably mid to late April).

March 19th 1998: The 68K version of SlashMUD is no longer supported.

February 21st 1998: Profiling SlashMUDServer shows that about 65% of the current processing time is spent in debugging code (specifically, assertions). Roughly speaking, this means that the final 1.0 version of SlashMUDServer should run over 2.5 times faster than the current version (excluding the effects of other compiler optimisations).

February 17th 1998: Versions 1.0d9 of the SlashMUD PowerPC, SlashMUD Plugins and SlashMUD Source packages are now available from the Downloads page. For a full list of the changes made please see the "What's New In Version 1.0d9" document, which is included in the documentation folder of the SlashMUD PowerPC package. Highlights include: Plugin Skills, user-configurable port number and a bug fix release of the SMCompiler (now at version 1.2).

February 5th 1998: Source code for version 1.0d8. The projects build, but have not been thoroughly tested. When they have been tested (in the next week or so) new versions of the server will be put up for download. Version 1.0d8 contains major internal changes from 1.0d6. In particular, plugins written for version 1.0d6 and earlier are incompatible with 1.0d8 and vice versa. An updated Plugins Kit will be available at the same time as version 1.0d8 of the server. If anyone is desperate to write plugins for 1.0d8 and cannot wait, ask me on the slashmud-plugins mailing list how to do so (it's a lot simpler than for 1.0d6).

January 22nd 1998: After having it pointed out to me that the instructions for connecting to SlashMUD on a standalone Mac aren't included with the downloads (they were in the SlashMUD Manual, which I left out because it was horribly out of date and didn't say much that wasn't in the web pages --- except how to connect to SlashMUD on a standalone Mac :) I've rewritten the relevant information and made it available on a separate page.

January 18th 1998: An attempt to pre-empt any more email about this: the port number for SlashMUD is 6100, and cannot (as of 1.0d6) be user-configured. In the next release the port number will be user-configurable. In the meantime, if you have the SlashMUD Source package there's nothing to stop you altering the port (it's in SMConfiguration.p) and building the project yourself.

January 5th 1998: Source code version 1.0d6. The purpose in making the source code available before the final 1.0 version is to enable those who are interested to familiarise themselves with it.

January 5th 1998: The Downloads have been split into four packages: SlashMUDServer for PowerPC, SlashMUDServer for 68K, SlashMUD Plugins and SlashMUD Source.

January 5th 1998: Server version 1.0d6. New features since 1.0d4 include: Support for attacks on Guilds similar to those in the Assembly of Knights on Nannymud; Dynamic room and living allocation - previously the maximum number of livings and rooms was fixed, now it's limited only by available memory. The maximum number of players still remains a hard limit (8 in the current versions); New command: the 'score' command has been split into 'score' and 'skills'; The markup at the shop has been changed to 50%; Bug fix: Guild rooms didn't load the name of their Guild properly (most likely this bug only affected the 1.0dx versions); Bug fix: some debugging code that should have affected both PPC and 68k versions was only affecting the 68k version and has been fixed; Bug fix: the TimeManager wasn't initialising correctly; Bug fix: if shutting down took a very long time it was possible for the server not to shut down at all; Glitch fix: if a Player fumbled while bandaging then they received two messages instead of one.

December 18th 1997: There's now a SlashMUD mirror site in the United States that is identical to the main web site, with local copies of all the download files. Thanks to Neal Lucier for the web and ftp server space.

December 9th 1997: On the weekend of 6-7 December, the mailing lists and other services at Stairways Shareware went down. There's more information about what happened at the Stairways web site. The two SlashMUD mailing lists, slashmud-testers and slashmud-plugins, are hosted by Stairways and were affected by this. As a result of the crash, all subscribers to slashmud-testers and slashmud-plugins were unsubscribed, and will need to resubscribe. Unfortunately, the only record of exactly who was subscribed (and the backups) were lost in the crash. I've sent an email to everyone who has contacted me about SlashMUD or posted to either of the lists in an attempt to reach most of those who were previously subscribed, but inevitably some will have slipped through the gaps. If you wish to subscribe or resubscribe to either of the SlashMUD mailing lists, information on how to do so can be found on the mailing lists page.

November 26th 1997: Server version 1.0d4. New features: "help" command gives syntax, examples and abbreviations for all SlashMUD commands; "give" command to enable players to give items to other players; "rifle" command for examining what other players are carrying; "steal" command for stealing items from other players; "pickpocket" command for picking other players' pockets; if Players or Monsters take more than 20 points of damage from a single hit they are stunned for the next turn; Bug fix: if a required system software component or SlashMUD file was missing then SlashMUD froze while trying to quit, it now quits successfully; Bug fix: AggressiveRoamingMonsters caused a crash when they died.

October 17th 1997: Server version 1.0d3. New features: changed the teaching command to 'instruct <player> <skill>' where <skill> is one of: archery, bandage, shortblade, mediumblade, longblade, twohanded, weaponskill, animalhandling, unarmed -- this prevents a clash when trying to get the mentors to teach you a skill; more extensive logging to the Admin Log file; miscellaneous improvements and bug fixes.

October 17th 1997: SlashMUD Plugins Kit: PowerPC C plugins now work without the PascalPluginLibrary. The routines previously incorporated in the PascalPluginLibrary can now be accessed from within a C version of the PluginLibrary or the C source files for the library can be directly included in the project. These changes will feature in version 3 of the Plugin Developers Kit.

October 2nd 1997: Added a link to URLMinder. Fill in the form below to receive automatic updates when this page is updated.

October 2nd 1997: Server version 1.0d2. New features: Karma - every day (refreshed at midnight) each player has 100 karma points to spend via the 'goodkarma <amount> <player>' and 'badkarma <amount> <player>' commands; certain computer-controlled characters will react to a player's karma rating; storage lockers for guilds, created in rooms as an object with the keyword 'guildstorage'; examples of storage locker commands are 'withdraw 36' to withdraw the 36th item, 'withdraw bastard sword' to withdraw a bastard sword, 'credits' to see how many credits you have, 'store bastard sword' to store an unwielded bastard sword, 'store all' to store all unwielded and unworn weapons and armour, 'list' to get a list of all stored items, 'list armours' to get a list of all stored armours, 'list weapons' to get a list of all stored weapons; Players who have reached 'Teacher' ranking or above in one or more skills can teach other players the skill(s) with the command 'instruct <player> <skill>' where <skill> is one of: archery, bandage, shortblade, mediumblade, longblade, twohanded, weaponskill, animalhandling, unarmed; the teach command works exactly as if the teaching Player was one of the Mentors (suggestion: when you reach Teacher status, charge other Players a fee in exchange for teaching them); miscellaneous improvements and bug fixes.

September 11th 1997: Server version 1.0d1. This has not been tested as thoroughly as v0.9, use at your own risk. New features: A climate, complete with rain, wind, hail, thunderstorms and sunshine. Hint: standing outside wearing metal armour during a thunderstorm is not the brightest thing you could do. Check the weather with the 'weather' command; SlashMUD time - the game now has it's own concept of time, with one SlashMUD day being equivalent to four hours real time; players can see how old they are with the 'score' command; the server keeps track of how long it's been running and displays the game time and date in addition to the local time and date when players log on (currently game time/dates begin on Jan 1, 1904, this will change); food and drink have been radically overhauled as they were acting too quickly. Slightly intoxicated players heal more quickly, drunk players lose hit points and spell points.