It was a lot different back then. There were two DB available. Mobs didn't move in any of them - which was fine since the server code didn't work. It was one of my early fixes, before I even became a developer.
It broke again when Sony changed it client side and I fixed it again.
I did a lot of code fixes on our server, then when they were tested I passed them on to EQEmu. On the plus side, our players got the fixes/new stuff first. On the minus side, how do you say guinea pigs nicely?
Historical note: there was someone named tcsmyworld who started a third DB. He wanted to have moving NPCs and that became the unique offering initially in his DB. It's still around, they call it PEQ now.