This brings back memories. I developed the "JoTrivia" mIRC script back around 2000/2001 as a way to kill time when I worked nighttime tech support and got maybe two calls a night. The scripting language syntax was completely bonkers, e.g.,

on *:JOIN:%jt.triv.chan:{ .notice $nick Welcome $nick! }

Loads of fun, though, and IRC was nice venue back then to build a community out of strangers who had similar blocks of free time.