Hey Nick!

Hi Nick!

Back in the day I was a DoT regular for a number of years, and I really can't say Thanks enough for the experience. For a poor teen with nothing but dial-up and a sub-par computer, it was a fun introduction to computing and it's probably not a stretch to say that it helped set me on a trajectory to IT work. I know it's why I can type much faster than anyone I work with!

Assuming you have access to the email address I've registered with, feel free to send me a paypal address or similar so I can buy you the (long overdue) beer I'm sure I owe you :)


Anyway...
I've now got kids of my own and one of them is really into building games right now. Since he's more into game mechanics than visuals, I'd love to introduce him to MUDs. Naturally I'd love to start with DoT.

I know you have a stripped-down Windows executable still up, but would it be possible to get a full copy of the legacy DoT system with areas? I'm not fussed by the lack of support... I'll bash my way through it :)

Hi Adam,

Thanks for the supportive remarks. :)

There is a PayPal donate button on this page on the left.

You might be better off getting your son to work on SmaugFUSS which is actively supported.

https://smaugmuds.afkmods.com/files/

In particular: https://smaugmuds.afkmods.com/files/smaugfuss-194-501/

The DoT stuff might not compile these days, changes to the compiler means a lot of older stuff spews out dozens if not hundreds of errors/warnings.

I’m not sure if I ever saved the areas for Dawn. I think the developer made the code available but not necessarily the area files because it was an active MUD. The DoT site itself has, sadly, gone link-dead.

Smaug comes with some example areas, and over the years other have been released. Possibly those sites aren’t still up, but even the example ones that come with it should be enough to get started.

When I was young (many years ago now!) I learned to type on a mechanical typewriter. I had a typing manual, and spent hours doing ASDF JKL; to train my fingers. Then QWERT and YUIOP and so on.

It seemed a reasonably useful skill at the time, but after I got into IT myself, and started using "terminals" then it really got a work-out. Those were the days when you had a terminal to talk to a mainframe computer. Home computers were a long way off then.

However even now, I just type by watching the screen (and not my fingers) so I see any errors immediately.

The funny thing is if your fingers move off the "home" keys (usually by one key) and then you type nonsense.

gpt rcs,[;r ;olr yjod

(For example like this).

A smart auto-correct system would detect those spatial differences. Maybe that can be a project for your son, to detect words that are not English, but become English if they are shifted right or left by one character on the keyboard. :)

Many people may not notice, but the "home" keys have small indentations on them for your fingers to detect. Check out virtually any keyboard and you will see/feel them. These home keys should be your resting positions for when you are not typing. For English keyboards they would usually be F and J. (So, you type G by moving one right from F, and H by moving one left from K). Then R and U are one up from each, and V and N one down diagonally, and so on.

Thanks for the update. I clicked the button -- please be sure to use the tip irresponsibly :)

It's too bad about the codebase not compiling, but it makes sense. I would be tempted to build a VM to run the proper OS/software support it, but that's more trouble than it's worth without the old area files. We will definitely work with SMAUG if that's your recommendation.


I eventually got into the cybersecurity business (emphasis on networking), but before that I was a hairs breadth away from becoming as a developer. Since first playing DoT I was confused about/interested in this "source code" thing and eventually started taking classes in C++ because I knew that's what the game was written in and I found it interesting.

Along my career journey I've had reason to spend some time with Perl or Python, but I never got back to C++ and I've always wanted to. I'm hoping to use this as a good opportunity for my son to get into basic logic/design, and I'll enjoy having a "practical" use to spend time with C++.


Thanks again!

Hi Adam,

Thanks for the donation (and thanks to the other people who donate from time to time).

Much appreciated, I'll be sure to put it to good use. :)

- Nick