MUDs & Text Games
147 sites
http://mud.arctic.org/
ArcticMUD is a free online multi-player text-based RPG set in the Dragonlance universe of Krynn, running continuously since 1992. Players can explore a massive world, complete quests, engage in player-vs-player combat, and choose from a variety of character classes and alignments inspired by TSR's beloved fantasy novels.
https://tinyfugue.sourceforge.net/
TinyFugue (tf) is a powerful, programmable MUD client created by Ken Keys, designed for connecting to text-based MUDs across UNIX, MacOS, and Windows platforms. The site offers full documentation, download instructions for multiple operating systems, and details on advanced features like scripting, triggers, SSL support, and ANSI display.
https://thresholdrpg.com/
Threshold RPG is one of the oldest active role-playing-enforced MUDs on the internet, having opened to the public in June 1996 and running 24/7 for players worldwide. The site serves as a comprehensive portal for the game, covering character creation, guilds, races, religions, quests, economy, and an extensive bestiary of monsters to encounter in its high fantasy world.
http://cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/wsr/Web/IF/homepage.html
Scott Neal Reilly's Interactive Fiction Page is a comprehensive directory of resources for both players and developers of text-based adventure games, with links to FTP archives, FAQs, reviews, platform-specific game collections, and community publications like SPAG and XYZZYnews. Maintained by a former CMU researcher who later worked at Zoesis Studios on interactive characters, the site bridges classic text-based IF with emerging realtime interactive storytelling.
http://lysator.liu.se/mud/bsxmud.html
A page documenting Regenesis, a graphical LP-MUD hosted by Lysator (Linköping University) that supported X11, Amiga, Mac, and MS-DOS graphical clients to render in-game imagery alongside text. The MUD used the BSX protocol developed by Bram Stolk to deliver visual context to players, making it a notable early experiment in graphical multi-user dungeon gameplay from the early 1990s.
https://logicalshift.co.uk/unix/zoom
Zoom is a free, open-source interpreter for Z-Code, TADS, and Hugo interactive fiction formats, supporting classic Infocom titles like Zork as well as modern text adventures. Available for OS X and Unix-like systems, it includes plugin support for multiple story formats and comes with a downloadable manual.
https://aardwolf.com/
Aardwolf is a long-running free text-based MUD set in the fantasy world of Andolor, featuring 28 character classes, hundreds of quests, real-time overhead maps, and a thriving multiplayer community. The site serves as the official hub for the game, offering a web client to play directly, a wiki, Lua coding documentation, clan and race information, and regularly updated news about game changes.
http://awns.com/tkMOO-light
tkMOO-light is a cross-platform chat client developed by Andrew Wilson, designed specifically for connecting to MUD and MOO online text-based environments on UNIX, Windows, and Macintosh. The site offers downloads, a manual, plugin documentation, and release notes for a client that has been actively developed since the mid-1990s.
http://nodeka.com/
Nodeka is a real-time multiplayer online fantasy RPG featuring an overhead map client, a wildly complex crafting system, 120+ character classes, 80+ races, and over 400 quests with a morality engine. With thousands of skills, spells, and components to discover, it pitches itself as a deep and strategic alternative to traditional MUD-style games.
https://majik3d-legacy.org/
A legacy archive preserving the history of Majik 3D MMORPG, a volunteer-driven open-source online roleplaying game active from 1995 to 2002 that evolved from a text-based MUD through a 2D roguelike into a full 3D world. Maintained by the original developer namhas, the site hosts over 3,300 files including source code on GitHub, archived mailing lists, forums, screenshots, and design documents chronicling one of the early indie MMORPGs with player-controlled economies and ecosystems.