About This Game

CITY OF AGES      [since 2017 approaching nearly 57000 epic downloads]                 ...as of March 2026

A 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 !

🗡️ Key Features

A True Persistent World

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

• Houses and starships act as permanent storage

• Fully server‑side logic makes cheating impossible

Massive 2.5D ASCII Realm

• True X/Y/Z coordinate system

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

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

Deep RPG Systems

• Crafting, forging, spellcrafting, and transmutation

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

• Morphs: Vampyre, Werewolf, Plantform, Cyborg, Witchlocke, and many animal forms

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

• Realm wide events: Raid System, thief Treasure System, Oracle personal quest system

🚀 Exploration / Movement / Waypoints

• True X, Y, Z coordinate system

• 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 starport 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:

  • Nebulas (damage, healing, or static zones)

  • Weather system

  • Realm-wide events

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 & Cows

• Armageddon

• Guess Word

• Packmon arcade

• Horse racing

• Roulette

• Dice & cards

• Mini‑casino

Social & Multiplayer

• Supports up to 47 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

• No graphics card required

• Instant boot—play while your 3D games load

• Screen‑reader friendly modes for visually impaired players

• Customizable bitmap graphics

• 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.

🎁 For Collectors & Creators

• Fully open source

• Built in Visual Basic 6 + SQL with twinBASIC support

• Stable, bug‑free, and endlessly moddable

• 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.

⚙️ Core Features

🌍 Persistent World

• Items remain in the world after server restarts

• Use DROP to leave items behind

• Use BURY to preserve them even longer

• Houses and starships act as permanent storage zones

🖥️ Lightweight & Efficient

• Runs instantly—no loading screens

• Works alongside other games or servers

• Minimal system impact

• Server auto-sleeps when inactive to save resources

👥 Multiplayer

• Supports up to 47 simultaneous players

• 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

🎮 Gameplay Experience

📖 Imagination-Driven World

• ASCII + text-based environment

• 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

• Dynamic events and evolving gameplay

• The world reacts to player actions over time

🚀 Exploration & Movement

• True X, Y, Z coordinate system

• Travel methods:

  • Waystones

  • 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

• Oracle-generated personal quests

• NPC and object tracking

• Guard and thief missions

• Random world events

• High-risk “revenge” systems

🎲 Mini-Games & Systems

• Roulette (realistic simulation)

• Horse racing

• Stock market (Red Planet)

• Dice and card games

• Arcade-style mini-games

🐉 Creatures, Morphs & Pets

Morph into:

• Vampyre

• Werewolf

• Cyborg

• Plantform

• Witchlocke (special triggered form)

Pets:

• Train and evolve them

• Use emotes to control behavior

• Abilities include:

  • Trap disarming

  • Combat support

  • Dragon breath

🎭 Roleplay & Emotes

• Advanced emote system

• Pet and mount interaction

• Special emotes during events:

  • New Year’s

  • Halloween

  • Azzie Day

🏠 Player Ownership

• Houses (rare and valuable)

• Fully functional starships:

  • Travel

  • Combat

  • Storage

  • Mobile base of operations

🧪 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 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.

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

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.