I've been using zMUD for 10 years or so now, admittedly not to its fullest potential. I've been keeping up with the news on cMUD's progress. It has a list of features yet to be coded that I'm waiting on, but with it being in a constant beta state now with a bunch of new bugs with each revision, I'm not planning to buy it any time soon. I'm really waiting for the full SSH support, some of which it has now in the cMUD Pro version, but it again still has bugs.
I'm not a bit bothered by the fact that there are no more planned versions of zMUD. I figure I paid about $20 for some software nearly 10 years ago and I've used it daily ever since then I've gotten my money's worth out of it. I don't think I've used any other piece of software as much or as long that cost so little.
I have, however, gotten a bit curious about other MUD clients. One that I'm fiddling with now is MUSHClient written by Nick Gammon. This program makes me with I had known about Lua and MUSHClient years ago. I'm not saying that I would use it over zMUD, but that I would have had seperate uses for both programs. The native ability to use Lua in MUSHClient seems to have been there for several versions now. I don't know how long ago this began, but with the list of "plugins" and other scripts posted on Nick's site, it would appear that it has been quite a while.
There are so many built-in functions and different terms and syntax for MUSHClient that I feel a little overwhelmed by it. I think I felt the same way about zMUD when I first got it and was looking through the zScript functions in the help file. It'll just take some getting used to and experiment with the code. I'm not even sure I actually have a use for it yet, but it does look like something I want to learn how to use effectively. I've already found out that a few of our players use MUSHClient. A few also use zMUD too. For now, the zMUD users are really the only ones I'm able to help with scripts.
Other clients that some of our players use are WinTin95 and Portal. I've never used Portal, but WinTin95 is rather bland. It does the job, but I wasn't impressed with it. I've only used it when I really had no other option. Now I have lots of options and time to experiment with them all.
Keywords: cMUD, Lua, MUSHClient, scripting, zMUD
Comments
I use gMUDix myself, it's a free client that's still to be found on several independant web sites though the author's site itself went down some time back. The client works under windows with some minor quirks, but works flawlessly under Linux.
In the past I've tried out zMUD and MUSHclient and even MudMagic's client, though none of those really ever served me as well as gMUDix has so far. (Though I do think MUSHClient was the nicest of those three, but that may be partially personal bias.)
I've been a long time user of SimpleMU ever since Zmud turned into bloatware with all of the flashy new features. Unfortunately it's more or less halted development and has a few lingering bugs that aren't getting fixed. But it's a solid client.
Recently I started making use of dfclient which is built on top of the putty source. It's a very nice clean client and has removed a lot of the extra stuff putty has that isn't needed for mudding. Since it uses putty source the possibility exists for building in SSH support for connectng to a game, and for leveraging the existing proxy code if you need to proxy around a firewall. I'm not sure if they have plans to do that but it would be pretty cool if they did. :)
Mushclient is nice too but I only ever use it to see how the MXP support my codebase has is doing. I've also tinkered with Portal, Pueblo, and the Mudmagic client. I wasn't terribly impressed with any of them.
If I were in linux, hands down the best choice there is [url=http://www.kmuddy.com]Kmuddy[/url]
I've used GMUD, Portal, and dfclient. I use GMUD (a windows client) every time I log onto a MUD. The reason being its simple and most the MUDs I have played or play are already saved in the world window. Portal on the other hand I find nice, too. It has a decent design and I've used plenty of its features, which I though it had plenty of. The only down fall is I won't buy it when I can use GMUD freely. As for DFclient I first used it when I started playing the MUD it originated from Star Wars: Dark Forces RPG. I had played DF long before the client came out and still get on and tinker every now and then just to mess with the newbies, if there are any that is. The client though the DF team has developed gets the job done is something to try now and keep an eye on for later. If i remember correctly the individual who put it out is quite, hmm whats that word. Anyway if you want to give props or anything go to MudBytes or Dark Forces.
As for MudMagic's client its ok. Wasn't to impressed myself, but I tend to not like all the little gadgets. I would rather type it all than let a program do it for me. :)