Please help me find a story about a MUD with a wandering pack of Barneys.
January 13, 2011 2:59 PM   Subscribe

Please help me find a story about a MUD with a wandering pack of Barneys.

Back in the 90's I remember reading a story about a MUD that created a barney (big purple dinosaur) that would run around, only killing it created two more so they made a barney gun and... I don't know, it was a big mess and it was hilarious.

I made a joke about it today at work and everyone gave me a poker face so I went online to find it and had no luck.
posted by the_W to Computers & Internet (7 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Oh god, I read this abomination. Or an abomination much like it.

The one I read was in the form of a Hypercard stack of all bizarre things. I don't know if adding that into your googling might help.
posted by nebulawindphone at 3:21 PM on January 13, 2011


Yeah, I remember this too; it was terrible. My memory plus google-fu leads me to this ("Day of the Barney")...is that it? I have to admit I don't have the time or fortitude to check if it's about a MUD, but this is definitely the one I remember.
posted by threeants at 3:29 PM on January 13, 2011


Best answer: From 1997, A Plague of Barneys was the first result for MUD 'purple dinosaurs'. Is that it?
posted by iconomy at 3:30 PM on January 13, 2011


Ah, Day of the Barney is the one I'm remembering. (I'd misremembered the title as "Night of the Barneys.") But threeants has a point, I don't recall any MUD tie-in on that one, so maybe it isn't the one you want.
posted by nebulawindphone at 3:42 PM on January 13, 2011


Sorry, not sure why that link I used earlier leads to a log in when the page is cached. Try this or this.
posted by iconomy at 6:37 PM on January 13, 2011


Best answer: Looks like that book excerpt in NYTimes ("A Plague of Barneys") is from Bots: the Origin of the New Species (1998) by Andrew Leonard, now writing the blog How the World Works at Salon.
posted by Prince_of_Cups at 7:08 PM on January 13, 2011


Response by poster: Ha! I have that book at home! I must have read it in the book and thought I read it on the internet.

The original story was not as funny as I remember, but thanks!
posted by the_W at 7:43 AM on January 14, 2011


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