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

CITY OF AGES [as of May 2026, 57671 downloads, approximately 6300 a year, retro gaming is clean fun]  !
WHY PLAY THIS MULTIPLAYER GAME?
DO YOU ENJOY COMMAND LINE DRIVEN GAMING?

LIKE TO LEARN COMMANDS THAT DO SOMETHING MAGICAL and COOL like WIZARDY?

MINI DOOR GAMES INSIDE THIS PACKAGE!

CoA HAS ONE OF EVERYTHING: GREAT JOKES, EVERY RANDOM ITEM TYPE, mini GAMES get offered to you !

THIS IS THE GAME YOU ALL BADLY WANTED and NEEDED THAT RUNS ON ANY LAPTOP !

YOU CAN USE YOUR TABLET or PHONE and dial-in with TELNET to this SERVER and play a family safe game !

HOMEWORK? YOUR RELATIVES WANT YOU TO PLAY THIS GAME, its Textcraft, no graphics, no arguments, right?

GET YOUR LAST COLLECTORS RETRO ASCII GAME  - PERSISTANT WORLD - OPEN WORLD - OPTIMIZED CODE - STABLE CODE - FAST SQL CODE - BUILT IN TELNET SERVER - BUILT IN SQL SERVER [select statement report ability] - SUPPORTS BITMAP and TEXT - MINI-DOOR GAMES - FULLY INTEGRATED BITMAP GRAPHICAL CLIENT - and we are another earner of the Title: 'Titan of Text' due to the contribution level of this game.
This is a highly stable computer game that comfortably supports 46 players without relying on instances. Our multi-user dungeon includes everything you’d expect from other MUDs, plus features found in many 3D graphical games. With no instances, it offers a world that feels as real as current technology allows, while maintaining low system requirements.

2026 - THE CLIENT AND SERVER ARE FINISHED [Original release: 1998]
- ALPHA BETA phases are completed - thanks to all your email suggestions over the years!
** If you want to join us at our Official server - go over to our Discussions Section. Zerotier and/or direct IP connect!

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 imagination over 3D and dive into a real text adventure within a powerful RPG engine every modern RPG text MUD should have! With movement of your mouse and keyboard build within this Textcraft environment!
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 bitmap and Ascii graphics retro game ever created, and yes its 3D designed mathematically, but no wired or textured graphics. This way the game will run on all laptops and computers under any 32 bit windows emulator or a specialized 32 bit compatibility layer of a future operating system. This Role Playing Game with mini-door games built in, will also be your Immortal as you play, and help advance up to three characters in your party following group. 

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 46 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
NPCs go on 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, alien visitors attack, players can attack with starships, bombs

Base to base missile attack simulations

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
Atmoz Sniper Game, forces lightning in the cloud to build up before it releases upon its player victim

Bulls and Cows, easy and hardmode combination game

Armageddon, attack many evil npcs in a relaxing peroid of time

Guess Word, unscramble a word with extra letters in it

Showtime, guess the value of one to many items

Packmon arcade, you carry a backpack so does this one, a lone leaving a trail behind save our friend

Horse racing, a really realistic and strait forward gold simulation

Roulette, this is double zero using gold

Fishing, catch everything around this fishing hole that is in the area, a different way to find items

Dice & cards, fun toys while you play

Mini‑casino, using gold

Social & Multiplayer
Supports up to 46 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 application], optional to activate

The game now comes with a Universe of Ages' 3D flying simulator, learn your cos sin tan math

Compatible with Blowtorch, Mudrammer, Mudmaster, Mudlet 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. take your  earned gold to the Red Planet, or one you can create in a few hours. Dream your way into quests. And discover why text RPGs still captivate players after decades.
City of Ages — imagination required, graphics optional and is a persistent, server-driven ASCII RPG where your actions truly matter. Wonderful true to life realism: Drop an item, log off, reboot the server—and it’s still there. Our door games are addictive to play while you play Textcraft RPG world!
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 sc