====== DikuMUD ======
**DikuMUD** is a historic open MUD family (C codebase, room/mobile/object model, fight and skill loops) that shaped countless fantasy text worlds. The official home is still [[https://dikumud.com/|dikumud.com]].

===== History =====
DikuMUD was written in 1990–1991 at **DIKU** (Datalogisk Institut, Københavns Universitet / University of Copenhagen) by Sebastian Hammer, Tom Madsen, Katja Nyboe, Michael Seifert, and Hans Henrik Stærfeldt. It was inspired mainly by AberMUD, released freely, and its D&D-like hack-and-slash style became the hallmark of the Diku family.

Development was working as early as October 1990. The game opened publicly at freja.diku.dk port 4000 on **3 February 1991**. The first public download was Gamma 0.0 around March 1991, with Alfa in July 1991. A fuller timeline is on the [[https://dikumud.com/history/|official history]] page.

Source was first released in 1990 (per the official site). In 2020 the lineage saw fresh LGPL re-releases and DikuMUD III — the family is still maintained from [[https://dikumud.com/|dikumud.com]].

===== Influence on MMORPGs =====
Diku-style combat, classes, and leveling heavily shaped early graphical MMOs. **EverQuest** is the bridge most often cited from text Diku play into 3D worlds; the 2000s then brought an explosion of MMORPGs in that vein — **Dark Age of Camelot**, **World of Warcraft**, and others such as **Final Fantasy XI**. **Ultima Online** and **Asheron's Call** sit in the same pioneering graphical era; they are cousins in the broader MUD-to-MMO story rather than pure Diku children. That lineage is about design influence, not copied source code.

===== Nilgiri's relationship =====
Nilgiri is **Diku-descended**. Older Nilgiri content lived in Diku-style files; Code Law notes that DOM / XML tooling helped convert those files into the Neo-Nilgiri format. The live game is Java (**Neo-Nilgiri**), not a stock Diku binary.

Player experience still feels Diku-familiar: directional movement, ''look'' / ''exits'', shop and rent tropes, city guards, and classless skill trees layered on rolled stats.

===== Related =====
  * [[https://dikumud.com/|Official DikuMUD site]]
  * [[https://dikumud.com/history/|Official DikuMUD history]]
  * [[nilgiri:codelaw|Code Law]]
  * [[player:gamelaw|Game Law]]
  * [[https://github.com/nilgirian/Neo-Nilgiri|Neo-Nilgiri on GitHub]]