vga256 @vga256@tomodori.net
Public

just stumbled upon an incredible piece of MUD/MOO history from the mid-90s web that disappeared in the 2000s and is now all but forgotten. it is a testament to the interactive and creative possibilities real people imagined in the 90s, before greed and pessimism spread through the world wide web.

MOOSE Crossing: A MUD for Kids was a mud/moo designed by Amy Bruckman at MIT as her doctoral dissertation project in 1996

"MOOSE Crossing is a MUD designed to get kids 9-13 excited about reading,
writing, and computer programming. It includes a new programming language
(MOOSE) and client interface (MacMOOSE) designed to make it easier for kids to
learn to program.

Kids have made things like pigs you can hug, light bulbs that tell light
bulb jokes, and pots of gold at the end of the rainbow that ask you a
riddle! They're doing creative writing and computer programming in their
spare time for fun, and meeting other kids from around the world."

(from a rec.games.tiny.mud announcement groups.google.com/u/1/g/rec.ga)

while a moo wasn't anything new at all in 96, what i find incredible is that her team also built a custom graphical mud programming WYSIWYG client, for Mac and Windows. the clients - MacMOOSE.sea.hqx and WinMoose.exe appear to be lost to time (edit: macmoose has been found! mastodon.tomodori.net/@vga256/), but i found this screenshot buried in the wbm. you can see how an object is broken down into verbs and properties.

i have about a million questions about how the client-server system worked because this is adorable and user friendly. but for now, i'm excited to just think out loud about what the world wide web could be made into today, if developers got more interested in user-driven interactivity

this is the original site for MOOSE Crossing:
web.archive.org/web/1998120205

Amy's dissertation in html:
ic.media.mit.edu/Publications/

A screenshot of the MacMOOSE mud client. It shows two windows. The foreground window is an object editor that allows you to select a game object, and then browse through lists of verbs and properties that can be applied to that object. In the background window, Moose Crossing appears to be running in a telnet client. It reads: Magic Shoppe You are standing in a damp cave chamber. There are shelves of scrolls and books all containing magic spells. There are also many walking staffs leaning against a corner on the other side of the room. Hermit (brave) and Thea are here.
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