List of MUD clients

A MUD client is a game client, a computer application used to connect to a MUD, a type of multiplayer online game. Generally, a MUD client is a very basic telnet client that lacks VT100 terminal emulation and the capability to perform telnet negotiations. On the other hand, MUD clients are enhanced with various features designed to make the MUD telnet interface more accessible to users, and enhance the gameplay of MUDs, with features such as syntax highlighting, keyboard macros, and connection assistance.

Standard features seen in most MUD clients include ANSI color support, aliases, triggers and scripting. The client can often be extended almost indefinitely with its built-in scripting language. Most MUDs restrict the usage of scripts because they give an unfair advantage, as well as the fear that the game will end up being played by fully automated clients instead of human beings.

Prominent clients include TinyTalk, TinyFugue, TinTin++, and zMUD.

History

The first MUD client with a notable number of features was Tinytalk by Anton Rang in January 1990, for Unix-like systems. In May 1990 TinyWar 1.1.4 was released by Leo Plotkin which was based on TinyTalk 1.0 and added support for event-driven programming. In September 1990, TinyFugue, which was based on TinyWar 1.2.3 and TT 1.1, was released by Greg Hudson and featured more advanced trigger support. Development of TinyFugue was taken over by Ken Keys in 1991. TinyFugue has continued to evolve and remains a popular client today for Unix-like systems.[citation needed]

TinyFugue, or tf, was primarily written for Unix-like operating systems. It is one of the earliest MUD clients in existence. It is primarily geared toward TinyMUD variants. TinyFugue is extensible through its own macro language, which also ties to its extensive trigger system. The trigger system allows implementation of automatically run commands.

Another early client was TINTIN by Peter Unold in April 1992. In October 1992 Peter Unold made his final release, TINTIN III, which was a much more mature and feature-rich program. Development of TINTIN was continued by Bill Reiss who announced the release of TinTin++ 1.0 in July 1993. The client gained popularity quickly because of its easy-to-use scripting language and the popularity of DikuMUD for which it was designed. Being open source with originally no license restrictions, many current clients like GGMud, MudMaster, and Pueblo are based on TinTin++.

Following on from TINTIN's success, Mike Potter was keen to produce a Windows port of the client resulting in the release of zMUD 1.0 in December 1995. zMUD was initially licensed as freeware, but Mike Potter realized that he could make a living from sales of the client and started selling zMUD 4.0 as shareware in September 1996. zMUD is particularly noted for its automapping capabilities.

MUSHclient

MUSHclient
DeveloperNick Gammon
Stable release
4.96 / December 2, 2014; 11 years ago (2014-12-02)
PlatformMicrosoft Windows
TypeMUD client
Websitemushclient.com

MUSHclient is a MUD client and peer-to-peer chat system originally written and maintained by Nick Gammon. The client is released as freeware. The source to the client is also available on GitHub.

Features

MUSHclient is highly flexible, and provides aliases, hotkeys, triggers (text-matching), command-execution timing, variables, multi-session support, ANSI-colour customisation and speed-walking. In July 2008, support for "miniwindows" was added, which allows MUD programmers to customize graphical elements to the screen, such as a map.

MUSHclient is compatible with screen readers such as JAWS, which read text out loud and allow blind users to play MUDs.

MUSHclient offers extensive scripting support via the Windows Script Host-supported languages, such as VBScript and JavaScript, as well as the platform-independent Lua-scripting. It also supports MCCP and MXP.

MUSHclient is also a peer-to-peer chat system using TCP/IP, featuring group calls and file transfers. This chat system is vulnerable to penetration attacks.

Portability

Although primarily written for Microsoft Windows, MUSHclient has been successfully run both under the Linux operating system by using Wine, and the Mac OS X operating system via Boot Camp and Parallels Desktop for Mac.

QMud

QMud
DeveloperPanagiotis Kalogiratos (Nodens)
Stable release
v10.04 / March 16, 2026; 7 months ago (2026-03-16)
PlatformLinux, Microsoft Windows, macOS
TypeMUD client
LicenseGNU GPL v3
Websitegithub.com/Nodens-/QMud

QMud is a Qt 6 port and continuation of the original MUSHclient (by Nick Gammon), designed and written by Panagiotis Kalogiratos (Nodens) of CthulhuMUD. It was released in March 2026 after being two years in development. It is compatible with existing MUSHclient data files and plugins, but it will migrate them to its own format in order to maintain separation.

Behavior aims for high compatibility with original MUSHclient persistence and Lua workflows while using a modern Qt C++ implementation. There are several improvements and new features implemented and a focus on going forward with future development of the client with modern technologies.

Features

QMud supports the original MUSHclient feature set with the exception of it deprecating all scripting languages that were supported via WSH (Windows Script Host) and maintaining only Lua for scripting which it has updated to 5.4. It has also dropped several dependencies of the original client in favor of native Qt implementations. Several new features are already implemented, such as split-pane scrollback buffer, autosaving, autobackup, log rotation and log compression, with many more on its roadmap.

Portability

Unlike MUSHclient, QMud is cross-platform, supporting Linux, Windows and MacOS with future plans for Android and iOS support as well.

Savitar

Savitar
DeveloperJay Koutavas
PlatformmacOS
TypeMUD client
LicenseBSD 3-Clause License
Websiteheynow.com/savitar

Savitar is a MUD client for macOS, originally released for the classic Mac OS in the late 1990s. Savitar 2 is a native macOS rewrite for modern versions of macOS and supports both Intel-based and Apple silicon Macs.

Savitar 2 is intended to provide compatibility with Savitar 1.6.3 world documents and settings, including existing triggers and macros. Its features include ANSI color output, triggers, macros, variables, command history, logging, speech output, multiple world documents and a built-in world picker. The software is open source under the BSD 3-Clause License.

Operating systems

The operating systems the clients can run on.

Name Windows Mac OS X Linux BSD Unix Android iOS
AMudClient No No Yes No Yes No No
Atlantis No Yes No No No No No
BeipMU Yes No No No No No No
BioMUD Yes No No No No No No
BlowTorch No No No No No Yes No
CMUD Yes No No No No No No
Dome Client Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
GGMUD Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
GMUD Yes No No No No No No
Gnome-Mud No No Yes No No No No
JamochaMUD CPI CPI CPI CPI CPI No No
KBtin No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
KildClient Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
KMuddy No Yes Yes Yes No No No
Lyntin CPI CPI CPI CPI CPI No No
mcl No No Yes No No No No
muby No CPI CPI CPI CPI No No
Mudlet Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
MudMagic Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
MUDRammer No No No No No No Yes
MudMaster2k16 Yes No No No No No No
MUSHclient Yes No No No No No No
Portal Yes No No No No No No
Potato CPI CPI CPI CPI CPI CPI CPI
Powwow Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
Pueblo/UE Yes No No No No No No
QMud Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
Savitar No Yes No No No No No
SimpleMU Yes No No No No No No
Sip Yes Yes Yes No No No No
Smudgy Yes Yes Yes No No No No
Soiled CPI CPI CPI CPI CPI No No
TinTin++ Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
TinyFugue Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
Tortilla Yes No No No No No No
Trebuchet CPI CPI CPI CPI CPI No No
Wintin.Net Yes No No No No No No
zMUD Yes No No No No No No

Protocol support

Information about what protocols the clients support.

Name COLOR VT100 TLS NAWS EOR ECHO MCCP MXP MSP MMCP 256 colors Unicode
AMudClient Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No No No No Yes Yes
Atlantis Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No No Yes Yes
BeipMU Yes No Yes No No No No No No No Yes Yes
BioMUD Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No No No Yes No
BlowTorch Yes No No No No No No No No No Yes No
CMUD Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No
Dome Client Yes No No No No No No No No No Yes Yes
GGMUD Yes No No No No Yes Yes No No No No No
GMUD Yes No No No No No No No No No No No
Gnome-Mud Yes No No No No No No No No No Yes No
JamochaMUD Yes No Yes No No No Partial No No No No No
KBtin Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes
KildClient Yes No Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes
KMuddy Yes No No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No
Lyntin Yes No No No No No No No No No Yes No
mcl Yes No No No No No Yes No No Yes Yes No
muby Yes No No No No No No No No No Yes No
Mudlet Yes No Yes Yes No No Yes Yes No No Yes Yes
MudMagic Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No
MUSHclient Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
MudMaster2k16 Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No
Portal Yes No No No No No No No No No No No
Potato Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No No No No Yes Yes
Powwow Yes Yes No Yes No Yes No No No No Yes No
Pueblo/UE Yes No No No No Yes Yes Yes No No No No
QMud Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
SimpleMU Yes No No No No No Yes No Yes No No No
Sip Yes No No Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Smudgy Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes
Soiled Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No No No Yes No
TinTin++ Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes
TinyFugue Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes No
Tortilla Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes
Trebuchet Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No
Wintin.Net Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No
zMUD Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No

Scripting support

Name C# Client-Specific Lua Perl Python Ruby TINTIN VB.NET Tcl PHP JScript
AMudClient No Yes No Yes No No No No No No No
Atlantis No Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No No
BeipMU WSH No No WSH WSH WSH No WSH No No WSH
BioMUD No Yes Yes No No No No No No No No
BlowTorch No Minimal Yes No No No No No No No No
CMUD WSH No Yes WSH WSH WSH Yes WSH No No WSH
Dome Client No No No No No No No No No No No
GGMUD No No Yes No No No Yes No No No No
GMUD No Minimal No No No No No No No No No
Gnome-Mud No No No No Yes No No No No No No
JamochaMUD No Minimal No No No No No No No No No
KBtin No No CLI CLI CLI CLI Yes No CLI CLI No
KildClient No No No Yes No No No No No No No
KMuddy No Minimal Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes No
Lyntin No No No No Yes No Yes No No No No
mcl No Yes No No No No No No No No No
muby No No No No No Yes No No No No No
Mudlet No No Yes No No No No No No No No
MudMagic No No No Yes Yes No No No No No No
MudMaster2k16 No Yes No No No No No No No No No
MUSHclient No No Yes Yes Yes Minimal No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Portal No Yes No No No No No No No No No
Potato No Yes No No No No No No Yes No No
Powwow No Yes No No No No No No No No No
Pueblo/UE No No No No No No Yes No No No No
QMud No No Yes No No No No No No No No
SimpleMU No No No No No No No No No No No
Sip No No No No No No No No No No Yes
Smudgy No No CLI CLI CLI CLI No No CLI CLI Deno
Soiled No No No No No No No No No No No
TinTin++ No No CLI CLI CLI CLI Yes No CLI CLI No
TinyFugue No Yes No No No No No No No No No
Tortilla No No Yes No No No Yes No No No No
Trebuchet No No No No No No No No Yes No No
Wintin.Net Yes No No No No No Yes Yes No No No
zMUD WSH No No WSH WSH WSH Yes WSH No No WSH

Notes

In computing, MXP stands for MUD eXtension Protocol. It is used in MUDs to enhance the normal text output with a markup language loosely based on HTML and XML. In order for MXP to be used it must be implemented on the server as well as on the MUD client. MXP is in the public domain.

References

  1. ↑ Levine, John R. (1997). More Internet for Dummies. IDG Books. p. 199. ISBN 0-7645-0135-6. A better way to connect to a MUD is by using a MUD client program: a program specifically designed for MUDding. A MUD program is really a telnet program that has had various MUD-related commands added.
  2. ↑ Shah & Romine 1995, p. 257, "Features include regular expression hilites and gags, auto-login, macros, line editing, screen mode, triggers, cyberportals, logging, file and command uploading, shells, and multiple connects."
  3. ↑ Busey 1995, p. 200, "The TinyFugue system has long been a popular client interface for players of MOO, MUCK, and many TinyMUD-derivative systems. With a robust feature list supporting multiple sessions, macros, triggers and automation, command history and other functions, TinyFugue offers users maximum control over their environment. Although more recent programs such as Tintin++ have gained large followings, many MUD players continue to use TinyFugue because of its power and flexibility in the hands of an experience client programmer."
  4. ↑ Raph Koster (2008). "A brief history of botting". Everyone's advice to a newbie was "get a client", followed by the lengthy caveat that a given mud had specific rules about what was permissible. In other words, the third-party tools were seen as something that added invaluable interface enhancements, but that also afforded a bit too much power.
  5. ↑ Cheong 1996, p. 256.
  6. ↑ Bartle 2003, p. 481.
  7. ↑ Anton Rang (1990). "TinyTalk 1.0 is now available for anonymous FTP". TinyTalk is an interface to the TinyMUD system. It replaces telnet, and adds many new features.
  8. ↑ Jason Downs (1990). "TinyWar does exist! Here it is..." The program you are using now. Tinywar is a modified tinytalk, the later program originally written by Anton Rang. It's a telnet clone, with MUD-specific features.
  9. ↑ Greg Hudson (1990). "TinyFugue 1.1.4 released to anonymous FTP". TinyFugue is, I believe, the most advanced TinyClient to date, incorporating most of the features of TinyWar 1.2.3, the features of GrimJim's TT 1.1.jwl-2 beta, many of my own enhancements (such as extensive re-entrance, trigger priority, and trigger probability), and input/output windows.
  10. ↑ Mulligan, Jessica; Patrovsky, Bridgette (2003). Developing Online Games: An Insider's Guide. New Riders. p. 453. ISBN 1-59273-000-0. 1990 [...] The MUD client tinyFugue is available now in version 1.4 Beta.
  11. 1 2 Shah, Rawn; Romine, James (1995). Playing MUDs on the Internet. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. p. 257. ISBN 0-471-11633-5. TinyFugue [...] Commonly known as tf. Designed primarily for TinyMud-style Muds, although will run on LPMUDs and Dikus. Features include regular expression hilites and gags, auto-login, macros, line editing, screen mode, triggers, cyberportals, logging, file and command uploading, shells, and multiple connects.
  12. ↑ Busey, Andrew (1995). Secrets of the MUD Wizards. SAMS Publishing. p. 200. ISBN 0-672-30723-5. The TinyFugue system has long been a popular client interface for players of MOO, MUCK, and many TinyMUD-derivative systems. With a robust feature list supporting multiple sessions, macros, triggers and automation, command history and other functions, TinyFugue offers users maximum control over their environment. Although more recent programs such as Tintin++ have gained large followings, many MUD players continue to use TinyFugue because of its power and flexibility in the hands of an experience client programmer.
  13. ↑ Cheong, Fah-Chun (1996). Internet Agents: Spiders, Wanderers, Brokers, and Bots. New Riders. pp. 256. ISBN 1-56205-463-5. There are also front-end client programs, such as TinyTalk, TinyFugue, and Tintin, that provide an easier interface to the MUDs for their human players. They can handle some of the more routine work—for example, automatically greeting anyone who enters the room.
  14. ↑ Peter Unold (1992). "TINTIN - a dikumud client". (T)he K(I)cki(N) (T)ick D(I)kumud Clie(N)t (hell I simply wanted it to be called TINTIN....)
  15. ↑ Peter Unold (1992). "TINTIN III released". TINTIN III is a mud client special designed to help dikumudders. It runs under various UNIX implementations.
  16. ↑ Bill Reiss (1993). "where to get tintin++". Since Berkeley removed its diku base, I have put a copy of tintin++ 1.0 beta on flipper.pvv.unit.no in the pub/mud/diku directory. From here on, I will most likely be putting the updates to tintin++ there.
  17. ↑ Mike Potter (1995). "New Winsock MUD Client: zMUD". zMUD is a powerful client, with many features of TinTin++, as well as graphical interface features such as customizeable buttons.
  18. ↑ Mike Potter (2006). "About Zugg Software". Sep 1996 zMUD v4.0 is released as Shareware -- Zugg Software officially formed
  19. ↑ Dodge, Martin; Kitchin, Rob (2000-09-02). Mapping Cyberspace. Routledge. p. 153. ISBN 0-415-19884-4. One interesting approach that attempts to achieve this is, is one which automatically records movement through MUD space, using this information to dynamically map the spaces visited. Such an approach has been adopted by the zMUD client, from Zugg Software, which includes the automapping tool shown in figure 8.5. zMUD can be configured to decode the room descriptions, and to record the standard cardinal walking directions, teleports and one-way links.
  20. ↑ Bartle, Richard (2003). Designing Virtual Worlds. New Riders. p. 481. ISBN 0-13-101816-7. Some clients (zMUD is the best-known) constructed for use with generic textual worlds can automap arbitrary room connections, exploring a virtual world exhaustively to produce an accurate map.
  21. 1 2 3 "AudioGames, your resource for audiogames, games for the blind, games for the visually impaired!".
  22. 1 2 "MUSHClient". Materia Magica. Archived from the original on 19 February 2015. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
  23. 1 2 3 "MUSHclient « The Twilight Sun". jonathan.com. Archived from the original on 4 July 2010.
  24. ↑ "MUSHclient source". GitHub.
  25. ↑ "Mushclient resources".
  26. ↑ "RandyLaptop: MUSHclient: - accessible, powerful MUDding". Archived from the original on 2008-02-23.
  27. ↑ "Getting started with Mushclient - Online Games".
  28. ↑ gifre.org
  29. ↑ "WineHQ - MUSHclient". appdb.winehq.org.
  30. ↑ Bobbiac (2007-05-18). "MUSHclient in OS X (Mactel Only. Sorry PPC People.)".
  31. ↑ "CthulhuMUD". cthulhumud.com. Retrieved 2026-03-16.
  32. 1 2 3 4 "QMud". GitHub. GitHub. Retrieved 2026-03-16.
  33. 1 2 "Savitar v2.0". GitHub. Retrieved 31 July 2026.
  34. ↑ "Savitar 2 license". GitHub. Retrieved 31 July 2026.
  35. ↑ Waitzman, D. (October 1988). "Telnet window size option". tools.ietf.org. Retrieved 8 August 2017.
  36. ↑ Postel, J. (December 1983). "Telnet end of record option". tools.ietf.org. Retrieved 8 August 2017.
  37. ↑ Postel, J.; Reynolds, J. (May 1983). "Telnet Echo Option". tools.ietf.org. Archived from the original on 7 July 2017. Retrieved 8 August 2017.
  38. ↑ "MUD eXtension Protocol (MXP)". Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  39. ↑ Gonzalo Hurtado Nuño (2009). "Creación de un mundo virtual e interfaz gráfica como plataforma de investigación de agentes/robots autónomos" (PDF). etiquetas MXP{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  40. ↑ "MXP (Mud eXtension Protocol)". God Wars II. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016.
  41. ↑ "How to add MXP support to your MUD server". Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  42. ↑ "MXP design notes". Retrieved October 15, 2013.