The first realtime 8-bit MMO infrastructure

Imagine a persistent online world running not just on modern machines, but directly from your Commodore 64.

Yes, really. 😉

V8id ("Void") is a fully functional multiplayer game world, designed to run natively on retro 8-bit hardware, starting with the C64 as our default client. But that's just the beginning.

This is not a game. This is a protocol. This is an API. This is a world.

V8id is an open multiplayer infrastructure with a real-time backend server and a fully documented binary networking API, optimized for old and slow machines. Any client can connect. Any system. Any interface. Your old Amstrad CPC? A Linux terminal? A VR headset? If you can speak the protocol, you are part of the world.

The C64 client is not a gimmick, it's the current reference implementation. A full-featured tilemap game with tree planting, resource gathering, and crafting, running on actual vintage hardware over a modern internet connection.

If that doesn't make your palms sweat, oh boy, you're probably dead inside.

But that's not where it ends. V8id is deliberately minimal. The world starts as a blank wasteland. No lore. No quests. No gods.

Only the players. Only what they build.

Want to write your own client in assembly for your Apple II? Go ahead.

Want a graphical isometric renderer in Python? Do it.

Or build a Discord bot that lives in the world and trades wood? No permission needed.

Anything is possible. This world is yours to inhabit however you want.

 

The idea behind the project

This exists mainly because… why not?

All the pieces have been lying around for decades. We know how to talk to old machines. We know how to build online worlds. We have the hardware, the tools, the emulators, the protocols, the infrastructure and the documentation. We even have the nostalgia and the need for new content for our well loved machines.

So why hasn’t anyone done this yet?

And because I didn’t know it’s impossible, I just started doing it 😄

Do I really think I can write and finish this alone?

Yeah. I know how that sounds 😂

Another random guy who thinks he will make an MMO from scratch alone. Arrogant and naive. But for years, I haven’t been able to find a single reason to say this whole thing is impossible. And if it’s not impossible then why the hell shouldn’t I just do it? Or at least try it?

Will I finish it alone? Probably not. But I’ll get far enough that others will want to help and participate. Others maybe will want to join, connect, play and build a new world together.

And that’s how all impossible things start: someone just does the first line of code, the first tile, the first step. And suddenly it’s not impossible anymore.

The idea of an online 8-bit game has been stuck in my head for years. It started to materialize here, but the core was here in my thoughts since around 2017.

And it keeps coming back. For over three years now, I’ve been constantly circling around it: digging up old docs, code snippets, relearning C64 coding, reading about C64 networking solutions, buying physical books, making my own cheap C64 WiFi modem, obsessing over how to make it real.  No matter what I try to work on, I always end up here again. Same vision, same spark. 

At some point, you just have to stop resisting and start building. So here we are.

Yes, I’m cheating

A lot, actually. 😉

I don’t have to write fancy clients. I don’t need complex or beautiful graphics. There won’t be millions of players or downloads. The communication protocol is minimal so I'll probably never have to worry about scaling. The community is small, the playerbase is niche, and that means much fewer headaches.

Half the game, I’m basically outsourcing to the world, because anyone can write their own client. I don’t need to build it for them. My job is just to define the world’s rules and make sure they run.

If you’ve ever heard of Dwarf Fortress, you know this isn’t some fantasy. Two guys built a living, breathing, evolving world. Of course, I’d never dare compare myself to that kind of miracle, but it proves one thing: living worlds are possible.

You just have to strip away the noise, ditch the AAA fluff, and focus entirely on the actual game experience.

This isn't the first 8-bit MMO

Text based multiuser games have been around since the 70's, so nothing new here.

You may have heard of Lucasfilm's Habitat, often called the very first graphical MMO from 1985.

It was groundbreaking. But V8id is something else entirely.

This is the first fully open MMO world designed from scratch for real-time interaction between wildly different systems with different speeds and architecture. Anyone can connect with any device.

This is the real crossplay.

There is no frontend. There is no official client. There is only the world. And what you choose to do in it.

Come plant a tree. Or burn one down.

Write a client. Leave a mark. Be the part of this.

Welcome to V8id.