Using the latest version of slime (2004-04-02), and SBCL 0.8.9.6, I get problems with repl variables. To whit:
; SLIME 2004-04-02 CL-USER> (find-package "CL") #<PACKAGE "COMMON-LISP"> CL-USER> * T CL-USER> + (LOAD "/opt/cvs-trees/slime/swank-loader") CL-USER>
I'm not sure where to start looking for problems here, since adding FORMAT statements in LISTENER-EVAL seems to set *, **, and their brethren correctly. Evaluating the same forms in a command-line SBCL give's me the expected results:
(find-package "CL")
#<PACKAGE "COMMON-LISP">
#<PACKAGE "COMMON-LISP">
*