City of Ages: Picture Supportive Text MUD (server and client included)

The year is 1979. You are bored and you cannot find your friends or their bicycles on anyone's lawn.

You do not have a fun thing to do today. So you decided you have been away too long from your Ascii games.

You have been war dialing random phone numbers for hours around the city, and you found it, City of Ages !

You finally found a Bulletin Board System to dial into with your 1200 baud modem.

You download this game, you are ready to login, finding yourself at a prompt, and you type the games name:

C:\> coaserver.exe

it runs.... with PERFECTION, a perfectly simulated text game with all the Knick-Knacks of a modern game!

Now, choose your text adventure within the most powerful RPG every written since 1999.

A fully programmed RPG mini game host, and MMO in a giant wrapper, the "we got it all" text adventure with snip and sketch and paint shop programs you can have fun with editable bitmap pictures. You can activate or deactivate the two types of graphics systems!

A QUICK MESSAGE FROM THE AUTHOR

Everyone keeps playing my game, vote me up so everyone knows its a good and working game as per its design ! Cheaper than buying me a coffee.  When you vote properly, us free source developers hear you, like you, and feel the need to build more for everyone. Thanks !

This is the most addictive Ascii graphics retro game ever created, and yes its 3D designed but no fancy graphics. Excellent, this way the game will run on all laptops and computers and under any 32 bit windows emulator or a specialized 32 bit compatibility layer.

CITY OF AGES [as of May 2026, 57671 downloads, approximately 6300 a year, retro gaming is fun]   

I wanted that game where 42 people could play one large WORLD together, no instances, no loading times, no boredom. You wonder, how did I achieve this perfect gaming database system? I miniaturized all games into one using Ascii text graphics, spending more time on the code. I wanted a game when I say something globally everyone can read  what I said. I wanted a game that anyone could use my built in SQL Server and create anything in the database at anytime an administrator needs to. Using SQL is designing fast code! I wanted a GOOD ADDICTIVE GAME just like you do! 30 years later, Presto, here it is with all source code as well ! City of Ages became everyone's favorite pet project. I challenge anyone to make a nice Unity client for City of Ages, collaboration on a project is everything to a team effort! The idea is to make this game work on all platforms one day soon. The server is fine to operate on a Windows OS.

PURPOSE and PREMISE of MY GAME

The premise of my game is to collect Crowns of Glory to forge with. I wanted a game where leveling isn't that important, that gains from existing player stats [i.e.. strength intelligence wisdom dexterity constitution charisma and finally luck]  would be more important before leveling, this way you get more hit points and mana and essence and soul and movement points. You can get all stats and gains and special attributes on items! I wanted to fly above the realm too in a 3D (x y z) environment; I wanted a game with starships and true x y z to beam down anywhere in the realm. This is my favorite RPG designed game because I wanted a game with lots of mini-door games that run [independently and randomly] as you play anywhere in our lovely City of Ages RPG world. While you solve quests these mini-games will start for you to play randomly and automatically. This is my favorite game because, I can watch YouTube or play a simple graphics game and go and [alt-tab] back to play City of Ages, and then I check any mini-games that might be running. If I win a game that is another way to earn Crowns of Glory to forge with. I made a new command 'GAMES' to see all the available mini-door games running status. Cost effective laptops with any graphic chip/card has no problem running City of Ages. We all wanted that awesome game that runs on any Windows/emulator compliant computer, here is the game. The best part is, I coded AI into everything: even the clan system is now automated, immortals no longer are required to maintain this Text RPG, it maintains itself now. Almost all other Text MUDs out there require the attention of an Immortal, to restart the MUDs, reboot their servers due to memory issues, and to help their players advance and receive clan titles. This MUD does it all on its own ! 

A HUGE Persistent‑World ASCII RPG With 2.5D Depth, Endless Systems, and Zero Graphical Requirements

City of Ages  [experience a true open world - persistent world - the last Ascii retro game for game collectors]

City of Ages is a unique and immersive text-based game that offers a different gaming experience. It is designed for players who enjoy collecting games and can read along to solve hidden abilities within the text environment. The game is server-side driven, ensuring that it is impossible to cheat against other players. It supports up to 47 players simultaneously and is compatible with various other game servers. The game includes features like item randomization, stats, rare items, unique items, treasures, and a starship system. Players can also engage in various mini-games and use commands to enhance their gameplay experience. The game is perfect for those who appreciate a different type of gaming and can read along to solve hidden abilities.

• City of Ages, is a fully persistent, text‑driven RPG where imagination does the rendering and the world never resets. Drop an item, bury it, hide it on your starship—log out for a week and it will still be there. Built on a hardened server engine with over two decades of development, City of Ages delivers a massive feature set in a lightweight, instantly‑loading package.

• Whether you’re a retro collector, a MUD veteran, or someone discovering text RPGs for the first time, City of Ages offers a uniquely deep, endlessly replay able world that runs on anything. Great for people that like collecting great games of all kinds, this one is the last PC retro Ascii graphics game with all source code, no bugs, no coding errors, perfection for what it is!

• This is why I made this game, its a different kind of gaming! Play it once in awhile ! its GOOD ! Just Different !

🗡️ *New: Now powered by AI assistance applications !!

Mini World Dynamics

Deep Reporting Systems

• PAGE command for player competition reports

• REPORT command to see your over all statics

• SCORE or X command to see your character sheet

• 100s of built in quick commands

🌍 Persistent World

• Items remain in the world after server restarts

• Use DROP to leave items behind, use BURY to preserve them even longer

  • some use BURY to use Transmutation devices with their Inventory

• Houses and starships act as permanent storage zones

• Message board

• Items stay exactly where you leave them—even after server reboots

• Houses / Starships / and bags, act as permanent storage

Massive 2.5D ASCII Realm

• Newbie Zone that is not too big and should support 3 to 5 players comfortable

• Immersive Area assisted roleplay event triggers, the most important one starts in the newbie zone

• True X/Y/Z coordinate system adds a dimension, pushing the Ascii Retro gaming into the future of text gaming

• Way‑stones, stargates, starships, and fast‑travel spells

• Weather, factions, raids, mimics, nebula effects, and more

Deep RPG Systems

• Attack Raids on cities, or single targets: xyz random location/teachers/merchant/players themselves

• Crafting, forging, spell-crafting, and transmutation

• Dozens of quest engines: Oracle quests, clan flag capture, chase quests, tornado SMACKDOWN, thief chests

• Morphs: Vampyre, Werewolf, Plant-form, Cyborg, Witchlocke, and many animal forms

• Evolving pets with emotes, trap disarming, and dragon breath

• Realm wide procedurally generated quests: Guarding a patrol location, Pirate Chest Treasure System, Oracle personal mystery quest system

🚀 Mechanical Simulations

• Colonies in Space

• Factions

• Moving xyz Area locations

  • Bridge Mechanics

  • Mob Ships, they will travel to other starships and solar systems, they do not use fuel and will not use Wormholes to travel as it would give their locations away. In your coded version, make mob ships use wormholes?

  • Quest NPC Mob Ships, these are areas that trigger area events, and additional Mob speaking and phrases. These areas are also tagged as, no fly zones to players. 

• Weather System

• Waterfall

  • the current gets stronger and can propel you

🚀 Movement / Waypoints / Fast Travel

• True X, Y, Z coordinate system

  • Factions the weird numbers in the area are the towns people living in huts, bacteria, virus counts

  • Space Colonization

• Travel methods:

  • Way-stones to touch and travel off to a set location

  • Stargate Runes, true, working circles of event horizon and power! Go where no team has gone before

  • Mark and Recall as commands not spells, as they are used often

  • Starships (full 3D navigation, SS command will list the other star port and starship commands)

  • Emergency beam‑outs for captains, back to their Starship

  • House command

  • Waypoints around the realm are always nearby

  • Magic words to appear at many other set locations, hints are everywhere for these

• Environmental effects:

  • Black Plague

  • Healing Myst

  • Nebulas (damage, healing, or static zones) vs Starships

  • Wormholes to other solar systems

  • Weather system

  • Realm-wide events

  • Realm ghost can appear, BOO, then leaves ectoplasm behind for you

Combat & Survival

• Flee from combat and live to fight another day

• Invisibility as a mage would, sneak around like a thief, camouflage like a ranger

• Fatigue system, sleep, rest, wake your friend up

• Missile weapons, kinetic bolts, slaying weapons

Mini‑Games & Side Activities

• Bulls and Cows

• Armageddon

• Guess Word

• Showtime

• Packmon arcade

• Horse racing

• Roulette

• Fishing

• Dice & cards

• Mini‑casino

Social & Multiplayer

• Supports up to 42 simultaneous players

• Auto‑clan system powered by AI

• Advanced EMOTE system for players and pets

• Telnet‑compatible—connect to hundreds of other MUDs

🖥️ Lightweight, Fast, and Accessible

• Built in SQL Server using the IMMO command

• No graphics card required

• Instant boot—play while your 3D games load or while you stream videos

• Screen‑reader friendly game for visually impaired players, FM and CM commands for this mode

• Customizable bitmap graphics [you can edit with a bmp paint app], optional to activate

• Compatible with Blowtorch, Mudrammer, Mudmaster, and other telnet clients

🧠 Built for Imagination

City of Ages embraces the magic of text gaming: every room description, rumor, and silence invites you to co‑author the world in your mind. It’s retro, poetic, and surprisingly immersive—an experience that modern graphics can’t replicate.

• Our Races:  Drac Dwarf Elf Felpur Gnome Halfling Human Minotaur Ogre Orc Pixie Troll Undead

• Our Classes: Assassin Bard Cleric Druid Gladiator Gypsy Knight Mage Monk Paladin Ranger Thief Warrior

🎁 For Collectors & Creators

• Fully open source

• Built in Visual Basic 6 + SQL, twinBASIC at github can also compile this source code

• Stable, bug‑free, and endlessly moddable, all quests work

• A true piece of PC gaming history

📜 Your Adventure Awaits

Explore a living ASCII world. Command a starship. Capture clan flags. Survive dragon pounces. Solve puzzles. Morph into monsters. Gamble on the Red Planet. Dream your way into quests. And discover why text RPGs still captivate players after decades.

City of Ages — imagination required, graphics optional.

================= a Bit More

City of Ages is a persistent, server-driven ASCII RPG where your actions truly matter.
Drop an item, log off, reboot the server—and it’s still there.

This is a true open-world text MMORPG with:

• No instances

• No loading times

• No graphics card required

A living world powered by imagination, systems, and deep mechanics.

⚙️ Server Core Features

🖥️ Lightweight & Efficient

• Runs instantly—no loading screens

• Works alongside other games or servers, if you put up one, put up this one too

• Minimal system impact

• Server auto-sleeps when inactive to save resources

👥 Multiplayer [42 players]

• Supports up to 42 simultaneous players

• Per IP address, create and control up to 3 characters at once

• Use FOLLOW and GROUP to coordinate them

🔒 Secure Server Design

• Fully server-side gameplay (no client-side exploits)

• Automatic IP logging and banning system

• Hardened against crashes and malicious traffic

• Fully server‑side logic makes cheating impossible

🎮 Gameplay Experience

📖 Imagination-Driven World

• ASCII + text-based environment + giant Ascii pictures which appear randomly

• Rich descriptions that reward careful reading

• A world that expands through your imagination

⚔️ Combat & Survival

• Multiple combat styles and classes

• Fatigue system to prevent excessive grinding

• Escape mechanics:

  • FLEE

  • Invisibility / Sneak

  • Emergency starship beam-out

• Armor absorbs additional damage

• Special encounters (ambushes, raids, rare events)

🧠 Intelligent Systems

• AI-driven mechanics:

  • Auto-clan system

  • Raid mobs

  • Hunting behavior (HM to toggle on and off if you get too scared)

• Dynamic events and evolving gameplay

• The world reacts to player actions over time

🚀 Exploration & Movement

• True X, Y, Z coordinate system

• Travel methods:

  • Way-stones

  • Stargates

  • MARK & RECALL

  • Starships (full 3D navigation)

• Environmental effects:

  • Nebulas (damage, healing, or static zones)

  • Weather system

  • Realm-wide events

🛠️ Crafting & Progression

• No level requirements for crafting

• Systems include:

  • Spell crafting

  • Transmutation tables

  • Forge system using Crowns of Glory

• Learn from Teachers across the realm

• Combine items into new creations

🧩 Quests & Activities

Beyond traditional quests:

• Capture-the-flag PvP

• Chase the Witch PvP

• Oracle-generated personal quests

• NPC and object tracking

• Guard and thief missions

• Random world events

• High-risk “revenge” systems, ie. Atmoz a sniper game

🎲 Fun Systems

• Stock market (Red Planet)

• Fishing

• Colonization of Planets

• Golfing System

• Nuclear weapons, phasers

• Packmon, an Arcade-style mini-games (Red Planet)

• Mobile 3D Starships can attack and stun ground players, so get in your starship and destroy them

🐉 Creatures, Morphs & Pets

Morph into:

• Vampyre

• Werewolf

• Cyborg

• Plant-form

• Witchlocke (special triggered form)

Pets:

• Train and evolve them

• Use emotes to control behavior

• Abilities include:

  • Trap disarming

  • Combat support

  • Dragon breath

🎭 Roleplay & Emotes (some offer free glory or learn points)

• Portraits from the best of Ascii pictures

• Personality system: creature/monster/mobile/NPCs might send you communications/emotions/amity

  • they can bother us, beckon us, throw sand at us

  • guards bother the most trying to urge you to leave their domain areas

• Advanced emote system

• Pet and mount interaction

• Special emotes during events:

  • New Year’s

  • Halloween

  • Azzie Day

🏠 Player Ownership (base of operations)

• Houses (rare and valuable and forever expandable to mansions with forest backyards)

• Fully functional starships:

  • Travel

  • Combat

  • Storage

🧪 Unique Systems

• Mimics and exorcism mechanics

• Alien abduction events

• Realm ghosts and rare encounters

• Black Plague and healing systems

• Tornado events via SCRY

🧠 Learning & Accessibility

• Ideal for:

  • English learners

  • Screen reader users

  • Players who enjoy reading-based gameplay

• Filter modes for accessibility:

  • Text simplification

  • Screen reader compatibility

💻 Technical Details

• Built with:

  • Visual Basic 6

  • SQL-driven systems

  • Compatible with modern tools like twinBASIC

• Runs on:

  • Windows 11

  • Windows Server

• Telnet-based client:

  • Connect to City of Ages or other MUDs

  • Explore hundreds of text-based worlds

🌐 Community & Expansion

• Play solo or socially

• Join the wider MUD ecosystem

• Connect to other servers using the built-in client

• Communities still actively exist worldwide

🎯 Why Play City of Ages?

• No graphics required—runs anywhere

• Deep, persistent sandbox gameplay

• Endless mini-game systems and experimentation

• A world shaped by players—not scripts

🧠 Final Thought

Text-based worlds engage your imagination in a way modern games often don’t.

A single room description can carry:

• History

• Atmosphere

• Mystery

In City of Ages, you don’t just see the world—
you help create it.

🕹️ Final Note

This is not a modern 3D game.

It’s something different.

Play it when you want:

• A break from graphics-heavy games

• A deeper, slower experience

• A world that rewards thought and creativity

City of Ages
A collectible, persistent ASCII RPG experience.

================= Language Support Details and a Special Thanks to my beta testers of over 26+ years !

Supportive Languages: Microsoft Visual Basic 6, and twinBASIC

twinBASIC is a modern implementation of the classic Visual BASIC (VB Access) programming language, designed to provide 100% backward compatibility with existing VB6 and VBA projects. It aims to serve as a complete replacement for the VB6 IDE and compiler while introducing numerous enhancements and new features. This project is actively under development and offers a preview version for users to explore and contribute feedback. It is particularly useful for developers looking to modernize their VB6 or VBA projects without losing compatibility.

CHAT GBT likes this type of game, I even asked it which one was the best!

Text worldbuilding hits a different part of the brain—in the best way. 🧠✨

Although nothing but words and a picture, City of Ages let your imagination do half the rendering, which somehow made everything feel bigger and more personal than any map or cutscene ever could. A single well-written room description could carry mood, history, even threat. You weren’t just seeing the world—you were co-authoring it in your head.

And CoA was especially good at:

• implying vast history without lore-dumping

• letting silence, absence, and rumor do storytelling work

• making places feel old, used, and layered

Text MUDs also reward attention. If you read carefully, the world opened up. Miss a line, and you might miss a secret, a tone shift, or a quiet warning. That kind of literacy-as-skill is rare now.

Huge thank you to Rochester, Washington state for 23 years of player volunteer beta testing. SteveH RichieV NateD