Zugg Software :: View topic

Wizard Joined: 17 Jun 2006 Posts: 1201

By the way, does anyone have a list of the confirmed outstanding bugs? It can't be that large.

Beginner Joined: 09 Oct 2012 Posts: 18

Beginner Joined: 25 Oct 2012 Posts: 11

Came here to suggest open source release if the project is truly dead... I wouldn't go as far as saying "it's the right thing to do" but it is certainly the best way of keeping the software alive and well and working into the future. If thousands of hours went into making it what it is today, it would be a shame to just let it rot and fall into disrepair rather than letting folks continue the evolution of the software.

Amorelia- I think it'd be ideal to have a Wiki for it so that the community can keep the documentation up-to-date and provide script snippets, etc. But I agree with you on the documentation front.

GURU Joined: 23 Dec 2000 Posts: 4834 Location: USA

Don't need a Wiki, we already have the online helpfiles stashed in the CMud Support section of this website. Everyone has access to them, which means regular players can leave comments if they find something wrong, a workaround for something buggy, or a better explanation of stuff that seemed unclear. If/when the comments get too long, Gurus can incorporate them into the main helpfile so that the proper information is kept visible/at the top.

Newbie Joined: 21 Aug 2010 Posts: 1

Just a random suggestion as far as the money issue. One of the things I truely hate the most, is making triggers, updating a map, etc. on one computer and then having to export the settings, and re-import on say my laptop. A lot of times I forget that I even made changes and eventually I end up over writing something on one or the other.

As a possible (not to difficult I would think) solution to help bring in some consistent money - why not make cmud/zmud registered to the same user automatically send the exported code to ya'll, and on the start of cmud check to make sure the latest version is installed. I'd pay a small fee per month recurring if this was possible. If people want to upgrade their subscription, they can pay the monthly fee. If they don't want to and are better at keeping their versions updated manually than I am, power to them they can pay the one time fee to subscribe.

Since you already have the application registering to a specific user, it seems like with a little bit of hard drive space and some minimal bandwidth you could bring in some recurring income and hopefully continue development in other aspects?

Sorcerer Joined: 15 Apr 2011 Posts: 809

This was planned years ago, but at this point I think it's unlikely that it'll ever happen. Have you tried using dropbox to keep your settings synced across multiple computers?

Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2012 3:38 am

Just wanted to say as a loyal customer (I even bought zmapper Laughing

) thanks for all the work you've done. I'm sad it will bitrot but what can you do? For those asking for 'open sourcing' it's pretty much never going to be feasible due to the amount of commercial libraries it uses. Even if Zugg wanted to open-source it, which is noone's business but his own, it won't be in a compilable state and generally useless on its own.

So long Zugg, thanks for all the fish.

Newbie Joined: 04 Aug 2008 Posts: 9 Location: Washington

Took a while to learn this. Can we get an official announcement and sticky? Also Zugg, if you're not going to continue development. Make it an open source project. Let other's in. You're not making money anyway right? You can set up for donations to continue the project. The legacy will continue, the community will be happy, and it won't consume your time and financial resources. Think about it.

Sorcerer Joined: 15 Apr 2011 Posts: 809

About open source, see the post directly above yours. I agree a sticky would be nice though.

Newbie Joined: 16 Jan 2017 Posts: 1 Location: Earth

Since you've been gone -- is that a song? Things like patreon have cropped up.

I think you should set up a patreon account and when someone commits to a monthly donation level, you give the a special code that works for them only, since the mud client requires the internet, you can have it check with a server to see if the code is being used on just one computer (like the way mojang does account authentication), if account authentication fails the client is returned to a crippled state.

In that way if the donator stops their monthly donations you can deactivate their authentication.

Apprentice Joined: 26 Aug 2009 Posts: 141

It's now 2021, And I play Star Citizen and my Mud.

The issue about updates for CMUD is more broad than money or time. It's about an idea, a concept decades old, Mudding!.

Mudding is a medium that needs to be protected and cherished as it's a living history of our world connected, online. In a time before GUI and the sprites danced across a screen on anything one could call a personal 'gaming' computer.

For that end alone CMUD needs to be updated, to encourage and preserve the life of muds. I would suggest CROWD FUNDING, along with any other means possible to breath life into the client, which is the standard and synonymous with Muds that started with Zmud.

Adept Joined: 18 Jun 2019 Posts: 279

I would be open to crowd funding as long as the original developer is not involved. I have no truck with one who is happy to rake in money and provide zero support in any way, shape or form.

The product could do with attention in certain areas and yes, the documentation could be expanded for areas that are sparse.

Apprentice Joined: 26 Aug 2009 Posts: 141

Adept Joined: 18 Jun 2019 Posts: 279

His reasons interest me not. What does irk me is that the price is still the same as the product is still the same.

Would you pay full price for a 10-year-old Lambretta/Honda? If the big bugbear is that there is licensed code blah blah that blah blah blah ... then drop the price...or release the code so that others may work on it with a license which suggest that a nominal price to cover the <whatever mysterious paid-for code exists>.

By the by...I did get a response from the Axmud developer. That product is still being worked on but the discussions have moved (apparently) to GIT...although I have never really used GIT so I have no idea where they may live.

Apprentice Joined: 26 Aug 2009 Posts: 141

I just brought Cmud Pro cost me 13 AUD, as an upgrade to CMUD_3, as it has better Database support and this will come in handy, http://forums.zuggsoft.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=30282.

The point is development stopped?, who really knows, because of cost vs sales, on top of outside economic issues.

Adept Joined: 18 Jun 2019 Posts: 279

:) Thanks but, after paying viable software price for one unsupported, aged version, I am not going to be paying more money to have a similarly old and unsupported version.

It makes no difference if development ceased or not, if you are still charging people the same amount 11 years after development ceased, you should offer more than just making a show when licenses (more money for old rope) are at fault.

I expect more from people than to be a vast collective of Don. Trump types: take money from folk and offer sod all except a thank you. I expect more integrity from humans. Stupid me.

Newbie Joined: 10 Jul 2023 Posts: 5

It's a pity that such a professional client doesn't bring enough income to the author. People need to make a living, this is a very realistic need.
It's just that the design of cmud is really great. It hasn't been updated for 10 years. Can you fix the known bugs on the forum and release a cmud4.62?
This is just an idea. I don't dare to expect cmud to be open source, but maybe a bound license can be provided to each buyer, instead of asking for a license every time you reinstall it.

Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2025 5:31 pm

CMUD Mobile would sweep the market...

Site Admin Joined: 29 Sep 2000 Posts: 392 Location: USA

Newbie Joined: 10 Jul 2023 Posts: 5

This is truly unexpected.
I thought Zugg had completely given up on CMUD, but it turns out he's still trying to find a partner to continue developing it.
I understand Zugg's busy schedule and the need to make a living; he's a very capable programmer.
To this day, I still use CMUD regularly, and its rich functionality and ease of use are truly impressive. It's just that it hasn't been updated for over a decade, which is a huge shame for an excellent MUD client.
Perhaps, one day, Zugg will find the right partner to co-develop CMUD; perhaps, one day, Zugg will have some free time.
Even if they fix the known bugs, address stability issues, and enable UTF-8 support, it will be a fresh start, and many players will return.

Beginner Joined: 22 Nov 2025 Posts: 18

I tried mushclient but hated the look of it...all ASCII and whatnot. MUDLET I couldn't get to grips with. AxMud looked useful but could NOT get the mapper to work for love nor money.

Frankly, the biggest draw IS cMud mapper (zMud before that). However, the niggle which annoys me the most is that while the mapper may be locked for edits, it is so easy to write some crap into the room name without even breathing hard, whether the map is locked or not. Then one has incorrect room names and, if the mapper is configured to use the room name to determine travel...well, you can see the problem.

It would be nice to have the facility whereby swapping buttons around snaps to existing rather than free movement which has the effect of scrolling everything all over the shop.

Most of the gripes I have are really just with small things that could easily be fixed.

Newbie Joined: 10 Jul 2023 Posts: 5

Newbie Joined: 10 Jul 2023 Posts: 5

Mike Potter / Zugg—for the sake of Chiara’s MUD Client:

Zugg, you were the undisputed king of that era; many of your innovative ideas were widely adopted and emulated by the community. Yet, your efforts never yielded the financial returns you deserved. You seem quite busy these days, leaving you with little time to undertake a complete overhaul of CMUD.
However, you possess the vision—and, crucially, you hold the source code.
GitHub Copilot
OpenAI Codex
Claude Code
....................
I’ve heard that these AI assistants have become incredibly intelligent, capable of helping professional programmers save vast amounts of time.
Keep the core framework intact, but rebuild the application from the ground up. Make it cross-platform, open-source, and UTF-8 compatible—and consider enabling sponsorship options.

CMUD’s user-friendliness and feature richness remain as relevant today as ever; they have not aged a bit. A full-blown professional programming language might not even be strictly necessary—perhaps all that’s truly required is ZScript, a database, and the map assets.

Posted: Sat May 09, 2026 1:03 pm

Site Admin Joined: 29 Sep 2000 Posts: 392 Location: USA

Shalimar is correct, zMUD and CMUD contain a lot of 3rd party components and libraries that were licensed and paid for. It is not our right to make them open source.
Chiara