This is some fantastic news!
I am very happy to say that Dusk is online! Dusk has been revived by Andy Weaver after 10 years of being offline. Except for a couple small up times by Lou and Libernullmal, more on that below.
Thank you Andy for your love of MUD's and will to host Dusk.
Here's a quote of what Andy said on Google+:
"Ok, so I had to mess with a few more things but it is now up at http://dusk.weavercrazytown.com:8080
Let
me know if you are able to see images. I updated to the latest java
and it said it wouldn't load. If things work for you feel free to add
the link to the blog and invite your friends. It is running off a
separate ubuntu server now from my regular home machine.
Andy"
I had the latest version of Java 7 installed and it worked for a bit but all of a sudden it quit working and crashed firefox when I tried to load the Dusk applet.
So I've purged the Java version off my Ubuntu machine and installed Sun Java 6 with the following command.
sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin sun-java6-fonts
Or I installed Java6 through the Ubuntu Software Center. I forget because I was failing a bunch of times and finally got it to work once I had Java6 installed and the icedtea plugin.
Zabin@Zabin-laptop:~$ java -version
java version "1.6.0_21"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_21-b06)
Java HotSpot(TM) Server VM (build 17.0-b16, mixed mode)
Then I was having a hard time getting Java enabled to work the browser plug-in. I've said in a earlier blog post that icedtea won't work but here I used the icedtea plugin and now Java is working applets in firefox. Here's the command:
sudo apt-get install icedtea6-plugin
Andy sent me that message on April 26 and I've been quite busy lately with work and was having this issue with Java. I finally got a couple hours to sit down and play with this hobby. So I got Java enabled finally and checked out his site. The Dusk applet poped up and Dusk was online! Yay! The images loaded for me and I was running around in Dusk online. Looks like it's been up for the last few days and is still up. Thanks again Andy for hosting my Dusk demo game. I will make more game-play I promise as soon as I have more free time.
More interesting Dusk news:
An old Dusk player commented on my first Dusk video I uploaded to YouTube. He asked for some old Dusk files, I imagine he wants to play the old Dusk world's to bring back old memories. So I've added 'NewDusk' and 'DarkStarDusk' to my DuskFiles on github. I thought about doing this before but now I'm being asked for those files so there you go ;) I also emailed 'Wildern' (whom I recieved all these files from) asking him if he has a copy of the OldDusk world.
Here's the email I just wrote to him today. I haven't herd from him in a year or so, so lets hope he gets it and has some free time for this old Dusk game hobby.
Hey Wildern,
I haven't herd from you in a while and wanted you to know I finally got around to making the Dusk files I got from you available on gitbub. https://github.com/ZabinX/DuskRPG
I also wrote a Dusk blog http://duskrpg.blogspot.com/ and started collecting/creating pixel art at opengameart.org
I've inspired a Java developer 'Michael Zucchi aka NotZed' to create a fork of the server called DuskZ and he's implementing everything I could imagine that would make the game look more modern looking. Animation, layers, and a lot more cool things. He's still in a early stage of his developments so it's interesting watching his progress. I wanted you to know about this exciting Dusk developments because if it wasn't for you keeping the project alive (by sending me your files and teaching me what you know), this wouldn't have been possible.
I've herd from a few of the old Dusk players who would like to host/contribute to a new Dusk as well as play some of the old Dusk games. You've gave me NewDusk, and DarkStarDusk files. I'm curious if you have OldDusk? I was a god on that one and would love to play it (bring back some memories). If you have any other interesting Dusk files I've love to include them in my DuskFiles on github.
Another Java developer 'Andy Weaver' has been kind enough to setup a server for Dusk and it's been online since April 26 just a few days ago. I've been busy and had issues with Oracle Java 7 and finally got around to installing Sun Java 6 today (it's a pain since Ubuntu quit including it in the synaptic package manager because of some licensing issues) and logged into Dusk online (the world I've put together with new images). There's not much in my Dusk world ATM but at least I've started the first town, a cave, and lava caves for when you die and go to hell. Hopefully Andy hosts a Dusk-Server for awhile and has shell protection so maybe Dusk will be on-line again after 10 years of downtime. Dusk was online a few months Lou worked on his Dusk Ataxia (his Dusk upgrade which he lost the files for) back in 2005 and Libernullmal hosted NewDusk for a month or so in 2008.
I plan to make more game-play in my Dusk demo game and have enough mobs and quests to get to 1000cp which should be at least 10+ hours of game-play. Right now I think I only have enough to get to lvl 100 without doing too much serious grinding. When I have some free time I'll get around to polishing that up.
Looking forward to more of NotZed's Dusk developments and eager to see a play-able version as I'm excited to map a new Dusk world utilizing layers and seeing new animations.
Thanks for your help keeping this old project alive!
Zabin
