The Island of Kesmai

Island of Kesmai is a discontinued multi-user dungeon (MUD) online game. An early entry in the genre, the game was innovative in its use of roguelike pseudo-graphics. It is considered a major forerunner of modern massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs).

It was still text-based, with just a tiny ASCII view similar to that in a roguelike, but that simplicity allowed it to offer a depth that it would take years for graphical RPGs to rival. Up to 100 players at once could explore a large open world, killing monsters, doing elaborate quests and hunting “world bosses” that required a powerful party to take down.

Active from 1985 to 1995, Island of Kesmai received multiple expansions, adding new areas and challenges. A key feature was travelling from the Basic Game to the Advanced Game. Doing so would allow you to progress further, but it was a one-way journey to much more dangerous lands. And death in IoK could be permanent.

Thanks to a devout fan-base, Kesmai is one of the best-documented early online games, with multiple guides explaining its systems and the strategies to beat each boss. You can even watch replays from old players using Hunter, a fan-made graphical front-end.