meshmud

It's 1986. You're in a queue.

meshmud is a multiplayer text adventure from the days of the ZX81, set in a Polish block of flats in 1986. You play over SSH with everyone else: trade a sugar ration coupon, rescue a bunny, and climb inside a computer that runs... the same game.

ssh -p 2222 yournick@play.meshmud.pl

Replace “yournick” with your nick. A new nick means sign-up, which takes a minute.

This is what it looks like. Really.

What your ration card gets you

The queue

You stand and wait. Someone is saving places for the in-laws, someone jumps the queue, and at the counter there are Cuban oranges. One per person.

Barter

A sugar coupon for a phone token, waste paper for toilet paper, toilet paper for a jerrycan of petrol. Your pockets have holes, so you'll have to be clever.

A ZX81 in a ZX81

Load the tape and climb inside. Deeper down the accents vanish, then you're left with 32 columns, and at the very bottom a stack overflow is waiting.

One block for all

Every player is in the same world. You meet in rooms, talk, and rescue the same bunny. And sometimes someone bumps into you.

How to start

  1. Open a terminal

    Terminal on a Mac or Linux, PowerShell on Windows (ssh is built in). On a phone, any SSH app.

  2. Pick a nick

    Your nick is your SSH username: 3 to 16 characters, letters, digits and underscore. Put it before the “@” in the command above.

  3. Key or passphrase

    Have an SSH key? The game pins your nick to it and nobody else can log in as you. No key? A passphrase of 8 characters or more will do. Don't reuse your bank password.

  4. Answer the computer

    On your first visit the ZX81 asks one simple question to keep the bots out. Pick a language and you're in the “Bajt” computer club.

To skip the port every time, add this to ~/.ssh/config:

Host meshmud
    HostName play.meshmud.pl
    Port 2222
    User yournick

From then on, ssh meshmud is all it takes.

Safe by design

The game runs its own SSH server. Once you're in, you only talk to the game: there is no system shell, no port forwarding and no file access. Passphrases are stored only as Argon2id hashes, and keys are pinned to nicks.

On your first connection, check the server's key fingerprint:
SHA256:uaOqrZIH1an5bD+r//uyYS9gBJS+ZemKH02ADsFzvrI

Questions

What does it cost?
Nothing. The game is free.
Is there a phone app?
An iPhone app is on its way. Until then, any SSH app works.
Can I play in English?
Yes. Type language en in the game.
Is my progress saved?
After every command. You come back where you left off.
I'm stuck.
Type help. If that doesn't help, talk to people. Everyone here is working an angle.