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 title: Vibe Mapping
 date: 2026-01-15 16:39:20
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Some of you know this, but I got into computing after being exposed
to MUDs in the late 90's. For the uninitiated, MUDs were the
text-based precursors to MMORPGs like Everquest and World of
Warcraft—in fact, Everquest was even sued by one of the progenitors
of the entire genre because the game, while graphical, had elements
that were so eerily similar.

I've been in love with the genre ever since, and quickly taught
myself C just so I could hack on my own. MUDs are the reason that I
not only learned how to code, but how to type, how to use Linux,
how to run a server, how to write, and so many of the other skills
that kicked off my career.

MUDs, like Linux, have variants, distributions, and derivatives. My
favorite "family" was called DikuMUD [0], which was originally
created by a group of nerds at the department of computer science
at the University of Copenhagen.

The game I grew up playing and hacking on was a
great-great-grandchild of Diku called "Entropy of the Soul", or
EotS for short.

The way the data for Diku MUDs was structured was through text
files using a proprietary file structure. No CSVs or JSONs or XML,
just whatever the random assortment of developers chose to do
throughout the years. Here's a little snapshot of what an "area"
file looks like:

```
#ROOMDATA
#25000
Temple of Bethaven~
Within this chamber stands the great and ancient Oracle.  He has
stood in
this spot since long before the dawning of the Storm, and shall
continue
into eternity.  Standing directly in the centre of the room is a
huge altar
carved from one solid granite stone.  It's surface is carved with
intricate
designs and symbols.  It is here that the citizens of Bethaven come
to heal
and rest, and to share in the glory of eternity.  There is a door
set into
the northern wall, with an inscription carved upon it.
~
0 1076102152 0
Rd     0
E
door~
The door bears an inscription which reads:
&BTo the Bethaven Botanical Gardens
~
D0
~
door~
3 0 14000
D1
~
~
0 0 25120
D2
~
~
0 0 25001
D3
~
~
0 0 25119
D4
~
~
0 0 25132
S
```

Hard to read, right?

As you can see, this proprietary format means that reading the
files without the game code can be a pain in the ass, and writing
them even more so.

So I decided to take Google's Antigravity [1] for a spin by putting
it to the task of creating an "area explorer" that takes these
files and makes them visual. Like a family tree explorer,
Antigravity generated a beautiful and highly usable system for
importing area files, rendering the maps and other data in a
meaningful way, and even created an export functionality.

Image: http://flower.codes/assets/img/posts/eots-explorer.png

The craziest part? The bulk of the work of understanding the files
was done entirely by the agent. All I did was point it at the EotS
source code, tell it what to build, and it got about 80% of the way
on its own.

About an hour's worth of prompt work later and I ended up with a
gorgeous tool that I would have killed to have when I was just
starting out.

I'm still in awe at how well this entire thing turned out.

If you're interested in checking the project out, you can get to it
on my projects [2] page, or find it directly here [3].

---
[0]: http://flower.codes//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DikuMUD
[1]: http://flower.codes//antigravity.google
[2]: http://flower.codes/projects.html
[3]: http://flower.codes/experiments/eots-explorer/index.html
---


EOF