The Video Game Newsroom Time Machine is a weekly retro gaming podcast in which we travel back in time to see what was making headlines 40, 30, and 20 years ago in the arcade, video game, and computer gaming business and interview industry veterans.
We try to put those events into historical context to understand how the industry of today came to be.
It's fun and educational! (in case you need to justify listening to it to a significant other)
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Aug 2, 2025
While there are many founders of the video game industry writ large, the dawn of multiplayer gaming is a much more select group of luminaries and our guest today, Richard Bartle is most definitely one of them. He cocreated MUD1, the first Multi User Dungeon game as a college student and has gone on to help shape the academic view of gaming ever since.
Recorded: January 2025
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Links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Bartle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUD1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracosm
https://www.mobygames.com/game/124837/multi-user-dungeon-mud1/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eve_Online
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima_Online
https://mud.co.uk/richard/mpublish.htm
https://mud.co.uk/richard/pcwaug84.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_of_Kesmai
https://mud.co.uk/richard/pcpsep87.htm
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessmulligan/
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/historical-bits-mobile-gaming-part-2-wap-games-anu-halme/
Books by Richard:
How to Be a God
http://www.howtobeagod.com/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0955649498
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0955649498/
https://mud.co.uk/richard/How%20to%20Be%20a%20God.pdf
Dheghōm
http://www.Dheghōm.com/
(http://www.xn--dheghm-fgb.com/)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1915964008/
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1915964008/
https://mud.co.uk/richard/Dhegh%C5%8Dm.pdf
Erwā
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1915964040
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1915964040
Bhéwonom
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1915964067
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1915964067
Copyright 2025 Karl Kuras