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Games Entertainment

Hall of Fame Game M.U.L.E. To Be Ported To PC 199

Posted by Hemos from the not-the-man-from dept.
DebateUSA writes "If you ever played the game M.U.L.E. on the Atari or Commodore computer systems in the early 1980's, there's a company producing a new version for the PC. " Ah, resource allocation.
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Hall of Fame Game M.U.L.E. To Be Ported To PC More

Hall of Fame Game M.U.L.E. To Be Ported To PC

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  • NES version? (Score:4, Informative)

    by shadowcabbit ( 466253 ) <cx@thefurry o n e . net> on Monday April 15, 2002 @07:00AM (#3342352) Journal
    If I recall, there was a version of MULE ported to the NES back in its heyday-- actually, I'm sure of it [gamefaqs.com]. It was one of the flagship 4-player titles for that system. Anyone play it?

    • Re:NES version? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by coupland ( 160334 ) <dchase@ho[ ]il.com ['tma' in gap]> on Monday April 15, 2002 @07:31AM (#3342448) Journal
      Unfortunately I've never played the NES version, but I do have a copy of it, still in the original shrink-wrap. Back then all the box art was elaborate artist conceptions that bore absolutely no resemblence to the "ball-and-paddle" graphics of the time. I doubt anyone would have bought the game if the front cover had included screen shots. :P
      • Uhm. Dude.... they STILL use elaborate artist conceptions. All these 3d games that feature the lead characters on the cover? Even those use re-worked models that are far more extravagant than the in-game versions. Then there's the inclusion of scenes and characters that are often cut from the final versions of the game, or completely off-the-wall art ("Sonic Adventure", anyone?).... A whole lot of bargain PSX titles that are just now being released by groups like AgeTec skip the art department altogether and head straight for stock photography. A pool game? Get a stock photo of a pool table. A BMX racing game? Stock photo of a biker jumping a hump.
        • Uhm. Dude.... they STILL use elaborate artist conceptions

          Right, but back then it was common for the back of the box to have no screen shots, or screen shots from a different (better looking) version of the game (like the C=64 version rather then the Apple II version...)

        • Nice troll, but you quoted me out of context. I didn't say "Back then they used elaborate artist conceptions." What I said was:

          Back then all the box art was elaborate artist conceptions that bore absolutely no resemblence to the "ball-and-paddle" graphics of the time.

          The cover art for "Serious Sam" is a stylized rendition of gameplay. The cover art for M.U.L.E. for NES is a painting of a man standing over his vanquished foes with an American flag in his hand with an alien landscape as a backdrop.

          Quoting out of context is fun and all for free karma points, but your logic is still flawed.

    • Actually, yes I did. I forget all the details, but I remember spending many an hour playing the game.
    • Yeah, I remember wasting 3 or 4 hours a day on this
      interesting game when I was a kid. It's too bad my NES
      dosn't work anymore.
    • Yep. incredible game, probably my favorite NES game ever, I never got to play it on any other system, so I don't know how it compares but we used to play the hell out of the NES version. I still play it on Dreamcast now and again, and it's still good. I'm glad to see that it's being re-done, I've wanted to find time to port it to linux for a couple of years now.
    • I remember loving this game. One of my friends discovered it, and we never knew this was a remake of a classic computer game. I had the NES Satellite, so we could take advantage of the 4-player fun (along with Kings of the Beach, Super Off-Road, Gauntlet 2, etc). The M.U.L.E. graphics were pretty basic, but they were enjoyable anyway. The game itself was what was so great.

      It was a great change of pace, very different from the NES games at the time... good to see the game living on.

      mark
  • I played that game (M.U.L.E.) for hours on end on my C64. However, I dont think I could do that anymore, I need a little more to keep me interested.

    • I find it interesting that this got posted so near the C64 streaming audio story as there were a few mentions of M.U.L.E. in those threads.

      Last time I played M.U.L.E. was about 4 years ago at the GenCon Game Fair [wizards.com] in Milwaukee, WI (the RPG convention that TSR started); and it still holds up rather well. It may be simple, but it is a blast to play.

      However the highlight games for Atari machines has to be MIDI Maze for the Atari ST. 16 player networked multiplayer first person shooter over the MIDI port. Basically you ran around a maze as a giant brightly colored smiley face and shot other smiley faces. Simple, but a lot of fun. I don't know if the are doing it anymore but the Milwaukee Atari club was maintaining a collection of Atari's just to run a MIDI Maze competition at GenCon almost every year.

      If you go to GenCon see if you can hunt them down in the computer concourse.

      • MIDI Maze rocked!


        Even more fun was that people didn't understand the concept of different ground from different sockets .. I was at more than one "copyparty" where people fused their MIDI-ports due to that "little problem" ... hehe

  • fond memories (Score:3, Insightful)

    by bluecalix ( 128634 ) on Monday April 15, 2002 @07:05AM (#3342369) Homepage Journal
    M.U.L.E. is truly one of my favorite things in the universe. (Hopefully Dani is in one of the places in heaven reserved for true genius.) This could signal the appearance of a new black hole in my schedule. I just hope they keep the same music.

    • Re:fond memories (Score:2, Interesting)

      by ackthpt ( 218170 )
      There's the possibility I've logged more hours playing M.U.L.E. than anyone else on Slashdot, along with Impossible Mission (which I usually finished but just kept trying to better my time).

      I've installed CCS, the C64 emulator on my laptop and have recently logged several more hours in pursuit of Crystite and the Mountain Wampus, too bad the sound is cruddy and blanks out from time to time. So conditioned was I to playing M.U.L.E. and eating spaghetti, I pretty much have to have a plate of noodles and pasta sauce to make the experience complete.

      I've also explored the code and data areas of the game, back in the day and recently, to extend gameplay to beyond 12 months, where it starts to get interesting, if you play hardball with your fellow planeteers.

      I'm planning my own take on M.U.L.E. this summer. I'll take a stab at doing it in Java to make it available to more than just the Wintel crowd. I'll probably be asking for playtesters, on a variety of platforms, and some assistance when I get there.

      One last thing, the theme music was and still is the best ever for any video game. Ever found yourself humming it? :)

      • Hum it? I frequently find myself falling into live improvisations based on it, on the piano and synth.
      • So, don't leave us in the dark. How do you extend game play beyond 12 months? If I theoretically had a copy of the 64 game, and I theoretically had a disk/hex editor, what would I need to change?

  • It's not a port, it's a remake (Score:5, Informative)

    by Flounder ( 42112 ) on Monday April 15, 2002 @07:09AM (#3342373)
    The article covers a game called Space HoRSE, which has multiple species and multiplayer support via hotseat.

    If you're gonna report a story about a port, then make sure it's actually a port, and not a remake. Remakes, even using the same title (re: Hasbro Asteroids) aren't the same as the original, they always monkey with it, and it's never the same.

    • DebateUSA writes "If you ever played the game M.U.L.E. on the Atari or Commodore computer systems in the early 1980's, there's a company producing a new version for the PC.

      From where do you go from "new version" to port? The article doesn't say it will be a port either...

    • If you're gonna report a story about a port, then make sure it's actually a port, and not a remake. Remakes, even using the same title (re: Hasbro Asteroids) aren't the same as the original, they always monkey with it, and it's never the same.

      FYI the old "Foo 2000" series on the Atari Jaguar always had a "classic mode" that was fantastically close to the original - as close as anything that didn't just emulate the arcade hardware was going to get at any rate....

  • Check out Terra 2200 [terra2200.com]. This one's dev status hasn't changed recently, but I keep checking the site anytime I've got an inclination for M.U.L.E. in 3D.
  • But does Space Horse actually look worse than M.U.L.E. on the Atari? I'd rather drag out the ol' 800XL and play it in its original format.

    (Gets M.U.L.E. theme stuck in his head) oops.

  • And why did they change the name? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by wowbagger ( 69688 ) on Monday April 15, 2002 @07:14AM (#3342386) Homepage Journal
    I have to wonder - why change the name, and the name of the resources? What was wrong with "Multi-Use Labor Element", chrystite, and smithore?

    OK, I could understand if they changed the name of the planet (irata) for obvious reasons, but do they think the rest of the changes will protect them if EA decides to press the point?

    • Re:And why did they change the name? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Rogerborg ( 306625 ) on Monday April 15, 2002 @07:42AM (#3342481) Homepage
      • why change the name, and the name of the resources? What was wrong with "Multi-Use Labor Element", chrystite, and smithore

      "Inspired by the 1980's classic, M.U.L.E" [shrapnelgames.com] they say, which is just about the most stupid thing they could have done. It's clearly not licensed, it's a commercial product, and they've just tried to make money off of EA's trademark. Arguably, they are flat out passing off, something that Slashdot has just happily contributed to by calling this a "port". Note that Gamespot are very careful not to do this.

      It is possible to produce a commercial "inspired by" version of a classic game if you're careful to not make any claims about what you're emulating. It doesn't matter if every magazine in the world calls your version a "XYZ clone", as long as you don't try and leverage someone else's trademark, you're safe. But it looks like Shrapnel reckon that the M.U.L.E trademark is abandonware, or they just don't understand what they've done. EA's nose has been tweaked, and now they can either throw a lawyer or ten at protecting their trademark, or they can admit that it's lapsed. Which is more likely?

      At the very least, EA will be able to get Shrapnel to stop mentioning M.U.L.E. And if EA can show that they have any plans to produce their own port, they can ream Shrapnel for cutting into their market, even their potential market.

      I don't necessarily think that's right or fair, it's just what's going to happen. EA can make Shrapnel dance like organ grinders' monkeys now just by throwing a few lawyers at them. It looks like Shrapnel doesn't have any big corporate backers to fight their corner for them. Damn shame, but they've kind of brought it on themselves.

      And incidentally (or otherwise), isn't that an AT-ST walker [shrapnelgames.com] they're using for cover art? Now they're tweaking the nose of Lucasart? Oh dear. :(

      • So what if we put a space ship on the cover that had nacelles on it, is it then a cruel attempt to steal from Star Trek. Or what if we put a mechainzed robot with big guns, oh no we're trying to steal the Mech Warrior license. Give me a break it is an original peice of art done by the developer of Space HoRSE. We give credit to the original game, if websites make a mistake and call something a port, that is not something we can control. Todd Gillisie (the author) intended for this to be a true M.U.L.E. clone at the start but in the end he ended up with a game that is in the same vein but has his own tweaks as well. If your expecting a true M.U.L.E. port you'll have to wait until EA decides they want to do something like that in the future. I mean otherwise how many mid 90's FPS games were basically DOOM with a few new skins, or how many early RTS games were Dune II or Warcraft with different units.
          • Give me a break it is an original peice of art done by the developer of Space HoRSE

          Sure, if you like. You're saying that this [shrapnelgames.com] isn't just one of these [starwars.com] with the guns removed and little shoulderpads added? OK, I believe you. Really, I do. No, really. Look at the straight face.

          Please, if you do work for Shrapnel, ask your lawyers about the Lanham Act, specifically the snappily named "Title 15, Chapter 22, Subchapter III, Section 1114" [cornell.edu]. Specifically, do as another poster suggested here, and quote Gamespot as saying that H.O.R.S.E. is a M.U.L.E. derivative. Don't claim it yourself!

          Sure, EA might overlook it, but you don't want to be worrying about that, right? You just want to develop great games. Fine, develop a great game and then sell it on its own merits. Don't try and piggyback sales off of EA's trademark, which is really what you're doing here.

          • Since EA only owns the name "M.U.L.E.", and doesn't currently own any of the game's content or design, I don't see that they would have any case. Shrapnel isn't calling it by EA's trademarked name, so I think they're in the clear. As for the AT-ST thing, well, as I said in my reply to your other post, that's because the original M.U.L.E. used the AT-AT as its inspiration for the look of the M.U.L.E.

      • One tactic often employed is to make your game a hell of a lot like another game, especially if that game invented or defined the genre, and (hopefully) refine/improve the gameplay, etc. Then when the critics compare your game favorably to the game you were trying to emulate/improve upon (and you can always find at least one who does), you make sure to place that quote in large letters in your ad.

        For example, back when MYST clones were all the rage, every adventure game had at least one critic's quote on their ad saying "better than MYST!". Same for DOOM clones or, more recently, Civilization clones.

        Oh, and for what it's worth, Dani Bunten said in an interview just prior to his/her death that he/she had pitched a remake of M.U.L.E. to EA for the modern systems of the day, but when EA insisted that there be some sort of weapons in the game (M.U.L.E.'s with frikkin' laser beams attached to their heads!) Bunten balked and the idea was abandoned.

        Oh, and this isn't the first attempt to (re)make M.U.L.E. for the PC, this page [eidolons-inn.de] has a metric ton of them.

    • Proposed changes to deflect criticism:

      Name the planet "swodniw".

      Instead of a random pirate attack, antitrust lawyers will invade, reducing the settler's "freedom to innovate". At that point, collusion becomes illegal.

      Instead of the MuLEs randomly going rogue, large chunks of the environment will inexplicably stop producing resources, requiring a visit from an expensive Multiphasic Seismic Cascade Emitter before production will begin again.

      Small, flightless seabirds known as "xunil" will appear after a predetermined number of turns. This will greatly increase production (especially of food and energy), but will drastically reduce the ability of any one race to amass ore. This threat can only be controlled or eliminated vi a single player constructing and controlling a "NET", and somehow persuading all other players to agree to participate in the "NET's" useage. However, if those players do so, they will find that their productivity will decrease markedly, while the player controlling the "NET" will go on to rule the world.

      Of couse, there will be random, persistant and frequent instances of viral outbreaks, worm attacks, etc...

      The game will end at after a random number of turns, upon which the planet will explode for no adequately explored reason, forcing a reboot.

      *That* should be good enough to protect them agains any possible lawsuit...

    • (I'm not a lawyer yet, and I don't know the facts of this particular case. This ain't legal advice for anyone.)

      If EA sues, they'd have to show that their copyright or trademark has been infringed. You can't copyright game rules (as opposed to the textual expression of the rules), but you can copyright the text, graphics and music in the game. This is why Linux can have things like Freeciv and that Warcraft clone. "M.U.L.E." may still be a trademark of EA, in which case they can't use the name.

      (If you're a Slashdot DMCA troll, go crawl back under your bridge. Doesn't apply here.)
  • There was also one that was out on the original Nintendo. If you bought a 4 controller adapter for it (and had 4 controllers), you could have four people all playing MULE.

    MULE seriously was an awesome game, I can't begin to count the number of hours I lost to it!
    • You could also play up to four players with one controller. My family was so addicted to it that we kept and paid for the copy we rented from the video store. By the time I got an NES, you couldn't find M.U.L.E. in the stores anymore...

      M.U.L.E. is the reason I my GPA dropped to ~2.0 in middle school!

  • A clone, not a port (Score:4, Informative)

    by Lumpish Scholar ( 17107 ) on Monday April 15, 2002 @07:15AM (#3342396) Homepage Journal
    http://www.shrapnelgames.com/gilligames/Space_HoRS E/index.htm [shrapnelgames.com]
    Inspired by the 1980's classic, M.U.L.E. ... Original music from Data-Regeneration Project [so, no, *not* the original theme, sigh] ... Mature gamers will instantly recognize the similarity between Space HoRSE and the classic PC game M.U.L.E., developed by Ozark Softscape and published by Electronic Arts in 1983.... EA has no intentions of giving up the rights to the brand name M.U.L.E.
    It does have the "multi-player on one computer" feature that was so much fun. All in all, though, we'll see. (Maybe Cowboy Neil could review it for us?)

  • A bit obvious... (Score:3, Informative)

    by carm$y$ ( 532675 ) on Monday April 15, 2002 @07:15AM (#3342397) Homepage
    ... but the old game is avalable in a lot of places, like this [c64.com].
    Combined with vice [t-online.de], you can relive your childhood... :)
  • so ppl. with sdl out there why hasnt anyone stepped up and made a remake of mule with better graphics than this graphically sucking commercial game.

    dont let mule end like this...
    • don't worry, it's in the process. SDL + openGL and IRC-like networking layer under it. The IRC stuff is taking a bit longer than I thought it would. (Been working for almost a year @ 30kloc so far).

      metric
    • so ppl. with sdl out there why hasnt anyone stepped up and made a remake of mule with better graphics than this graphically sucking commercial game.

      I would love it if the new one also came with a clone of the original. Yes, I know it won't happen. But you say "graphically sucking" and I say "differently rendered." I have such a fond affection for the old graphics... the way the M.U.L.E. moved, the way the aliens moved... Even the blocky font of the "OVERALL YOUR COLONY WAS A SUCCESS"

  • L.A.M.B. (Score:4, Informative)

    by reynaert ( 264437 ) on Monday April 15, 2002 @07:23AM (#3342423)
    Josh Cogliati is working on a reimplementation in Python called L.A.M.B. [montana.edu] -- Land Access Mechanized Bot. There's still a lot of work to do, tough.

  • Joysticks (Score:3, Interesting)

    by gotan ( 60103 ) on Monday April 15, 2002 @07:28AM (#3342435) Homepage
    One thing that was putting me off from playing M.U.L.E on a PC (via emulation) was the lack of proper joysticks. I don't think the (analog) PC-joysticks are up to the job (they are unwieldy and don't have clearly defined directions), ideal would be an atari type joystick (i prefered the competition pro [amigasuperbit.com] with microswitches for directions and metal contacts for the buttons), a game-pad would be the closest equivalent, but i find them too fiddly. There are some adapters out there to connect atari-type joysticks to a pc, and also some do-it-yourself-pages, but then i could just dig out my old C64 and see if it still works ...
    • Three and four player modes were one of the main attractions in my opinion. Can this be handled on a PC?
      • Nope, the nintendo version could, but today's pc's are just not up to it. ;) Of course they can, the NES version allowed you to play up with up to four people using the same controller, no reason pc games can't. Plenty of them did back in the day. I remember games where both players used different sides of the keyboard to play multiplayer.
    • I have a Gravis gamepad.
      On/off inputs, uses the analog joystick port
      left or right handed switch, 4 buttons, or 2 buttons and 2 auto fires.

      Even came with 2 extra sticks for the thumbpad, and a copy of Commander Keen (can't remember which one)

      • > I have a Gravis gamepad. ... came with ... a copy of Commander Keen (can't remember which one)

        That would be Keen 4, part one of the "Goodbye, Galaxy!" triology: Episode Four, Secret of the Oracle. I've got the Gravis disk right here...

        Remember, 12 inches make a foot, and the time to commit forbidden acts is when the moon is shining....
    • Ok, I never played M.U.L.E., but I've never understood why people whined about PC joysticks... yes, they generally sucked. The analog joystick port stinks. But if you want clearly defined directions, the keypad has 8 very clearly defined ones and is pretty darn intuitive to use.

      That said, most of the good joysticks nowadays are USB, not analog gameport. They're digital, but generally have enough resolution so that they function as well as a traditional analog joystick (or steering wheel, or throttle, or whatever). Look at Gravis, ThrustMaster, Saitek, and even Microsoft for some good joysticks. No, they're not as simple as the Atari joystick, but I always found the classic Atari 2400 joysticks to be rather dodgy myself (easily broken, not exactly accurate, etc.)

  • DunhtDuhDuhDUH...DUHDuNaDuhNaNa..DunhtDuhDuhDUH (Score:5, Funny)

    by somethingwicked ( 260651 ) on Monday April 15, 2002 @07:44AM (#3342491)
    If my text rendition of the theme doesn't do it, you might get your head pulsin' groove fix here

    M.U.L.E Theme [vgmusic.com]

  • PLaTYPUS (Score:3, Funny)

    by pomakis ( 323200 ) <pomakis@pobox.com> on Monday April 15, 2002 @07:44AM (#3342495) Homepage
    MULE was good, and I'm sure HoRSE will be even better, but personally I'm going to hold out until someone implements PLaTYPUS (Personalized Labor Tool Yeilding Previously Unavailable Smithore)!

  • Buncha clones, including one open source one. (Score:3, Informative)

    by CrazyDuke ( 529195 ) on Monday April 15, 2002 @07:45AM (#3342498)
    There are actually several M.U.L.E. clones out there. I recall one called M.U.L.E. 386 that was looked promising (when you could get it to work) but was discontinued in the early 90's. Apparently there is one that was developed buy a guy, but dropped in 2000 because he did not have the time to finish it, and it is open source. Anyone want to adopt it?

    Here [eidolons-inn.de] is a link to a page that lists multiple clones, including the open source one.

    • Niftykeen. It's the entry that says
      Overall, Toni Räsänen has programmed a very nice clone. Moreover, he is willing to share the sourcecode with everyone who is interested in continuing the project (under certain conditions, of course)! Hence, if you'd like to continue his excellent work, you should visit Imagination's homepage (http://www.ee.oulu.fi/~taur) to get the sourcecode and all further details.

      I downloaded the code to get the "further details". The file opensrc.doc has info on its license, which seems to be basically "You may do any modifications you please, as long as we (the original authors) are credited for original work, and end user is informed of your modifications. ... Do feel free to use any code of the game for your own programs, as long as I am (or, if not me, the author responsible for the code you use, is) credited." This file also mentions that the game is written in DJGPP C.

      ok, now somebody port this puppy to Linux and PalmOS... ;-)
  • Does this port have the dreaded planet Tfosorcim instead of Irata? Or even better, the paradisiacal planet Xunil?
  • You can play MULE on everthing from a Dreamcast [boob.co.uk] to the NUON DVD player [nuondev.com] using a trusty Atari 800 emulator. I don't see how getting a PC version with gee whiz graphics is news or stuff that matters.

    D

  • Does it have the theme song? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15, 2002 @08:00AM (#3342569)
    This project is pointless unless it has the theme.

    pooka-POOKA pooka-POOKA pooka-POOKA POOKA POOKA

    It's actually better looking than I assumed it would be. I assumed a remake would be a 3-D RTS with FPS elements and first person perspective, featuring the voice acting talents of several third-rate and/or Star Trek actors.

  • mmm, progress (Score:2, Funny)

    by yatest5 ( 455123 )
    System Requirements:

    Then: Atari or C64

    Now: Pentium 200 MHz, 32MB RAM, no more than 120MB HD Space, DirectX 8 Compatible 16MB Video Card, CD ROM, DirectX 8 compatible Sound System, Mouse
    • You mean more like 1.1Ghz, 256MB ram, 700MB HD space, 32MB geforce2, dvd-rom.

      I've actually seen MINIMUM system requirements similar to above for new games.

  • clones (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Jacek Poplawski ( 223457 ) on Monday April 15, 2002 @08:05AM (#3342599)
    First of all - M.U.L.E. is one of the best games in history, just like NetHack or Civilization.

    You can find few clones in the net - but it's for DOS or Windows. I couldn't find any clone which will run in Linux. I thought about writing SDL clone myself, but this is a lot of work (the hardest parts for me is AI and drawing sprites) - and I am not sure if arcade parts should be still in game.

    Do you know any Open Source M.U.L.E. project I could join?

    To find information about game, and clones list enter page:
    World of M.U.L.E [eidolons-inn.de]
  • I still have some deep-rooted sticker marks on my old tv to mark the positions of resources.

  • Man I hope they don't screw it up (Score:4, Interesting)

    by eison ( 56778 ) <pkteison@h o t m a il.com> on Monday April 15, 2002 @08:21AM (#3342666) Homepage
    The official remake/sequel/port of MULE got canned because the company doing it insisted on adding weapons, and the author (thankfully!) wouldn't allow it. ( Source: Read in a game mag interview that I can't find now, and mentioned separately at Retrogaming Times [tomheroes.com] )

    But, if the original designer's new version had to be scrapped due to unacceptable monkeying with it, what are the odds of this knock-off *not* monkeying too much, especially given that sufficient monkeying might give them some legal protection? So, I'm not getting my hopes up.

  • I'll pay for this, if it is as good as the orgional.

    Note however that it must work with WINE [winehq.com] Best would be a native linux version. Just so long as I can play it on my systems without paying theMicrosoft tax

  • I see all the mentions of MULE being a classic game and especially a decent multiplayer game

    What I don't see is anyone really commenting on what made MULE a classic game ?

    For those of us who've never played it can someone summarise what made it so special?

    Oh well in a few weeks I'll have the time to boot up my old Amiga and see what its really like

    To my shame I have an Amiga version of MULE that, I've never got round to playing, roll on holdiay time !

    Well to be hoest I took one look at the screenshots on the box and it didn't look very exciting. Guess the illustrations can't have done the game much justice as I never bothered to play it (doh).

    • Re:MULE passed me by (Score:4, Informative)

      by cmpalmer ( 234347 ) on Monday April 15, 2002 @10:08AM (#3343267) Homepage

      My friends and I were addicted to M.U.L.E. for quite a while. To me, what it had going for it was:

      • simple mechanics -- you do everything with a four position, single button joystick, including the auction.

      • great multiplayer -- we would make under-the-table deals with each other to help out or team up against another player. It was like mini-Diplomacy. The fact that it could get your blood boiling while involving no violence whatsoever (unless you got in a fist fight with your friends) is amazing. Double-crossing, deliberate sabotage, "let's team up and beat the computer", etc.

      • just enough randomness -- to make you cuss like a sailor when your MULE wandered off or a storm disrupted your production on a crucial turn. That's actually what I remember most, cussing the game and cussing each other - there was more trash talk than an Unreal Tournament marathon.

      • the auction -- the cleanest implementation of an auction I have ever seen. It was great to run the price up on commodities and listen to everyone bitch and moan, or step back and starve the other players.

      I'm sure I'm looking back at it through rose colored glasses, but if it has network multiplayer, I may lose my job :-)

      • Don't forget that it was different. As far as the NES world went (that's where I played it) it wasn't the same old platform game, or top down shooter. It required strategy, and cooperation of the other players. Not only did you want to come in first, you wanted to do so while making the colony as a whole successful.

    • Re:MULE passed me by (Score:5, Informative)

      by Nurlman ( 448649 ) on Monday April 15, 2002 @10:27AM (#3343406)
      You make a good point-- for all the nostalgia being thrown around on the topic of old computer games, it might be nice once in a while for someone to summarize for those of us who weren't there.

      MULE, however, was a game I recall from my childhood. Both the idea and the execution were quite simple-- the premise was that you were part of a 4-person colony on a distant planet called "Irata." (Get it?) The game proceeded in 12 rounds-- each round began with a land grab, in which each player would select a parcel of land on the planet's surface, although some parcels were more desirable (and thus, more contentiously sought after) because of the natural resources they contained. Once the land grab was completed, each player would have the opportunity to exploit the resources on his or her plots of land by purchasing, equipping, and deploying MULEs ("multiple use labor elements"-- i.e. robots). Each parcel could be used to either grow food, generate energy, or mine Smithore.

      After each player had his or her turn to deploy MULEs, the game yielded a harvest on each parcel, depending on the suitability of each parcel for the use it was put to, various economies of scale, and random events that increased or decreased the production of certain goods planetwide or on a local level. Phase 2 of the round-- the auction-- then began.

      Each commodity was placed up for auction, and a player could either elect to buy or sell that commodity in that round. Thus, if you produced only food, you'd need to buy energy during the auction, since you need energy to run your MULEs. While the colony maintained a store which bought or sold excess quantities of each commodity at fairly reasonable prices, because of supply and demand, predatory buying or selling, or a disaster at the store, players would often find that the store was out of stock and their fellow competitors were the only source of necessary commodities. Consequently, you would wind up paying exorbitant prices demanded by the monopolist with the goods. In this regard, the game rewarded, at least on the surface, highly cutthroat play. I say "on the surface," because the game also required the players to achieve a colony-wide level of success by the end of the game, and a player who extorted his fellows might become the richest player in the game, but the colony might be declared a failure overall, making the victory phyrric.

      That's the general outline of the game, although there were lots of little touches that made it more complicated. The reason most people recall t fondly was because it was because it was a game that required some critical (and fast) thinking, but was designed to support lots of different strategic approaches-- you could be a land baron, keeping other players from obtaining important parcels, even though you never developed them yourself; you could focus your strategy on one commodity and hope to control the market; you could play a balanced approach; you could screw people surreptitiously, etc. The game was simple to learn, and primitive in its execution, but was conceptually rich and rewarded those who planned ahead. It also introduced a lot of interesting competitive economic concepts like economies of scale, supply and demand, monopolies, etc., that had not been incorporated into computer games before. And although the graphics were primitive, the characters involved had a whimsical feel to them and it had a funky little theme song that was catchy.

  • Wumpus (Score:2)

    by akiy ( 56302 )
    Will we get to hunt the Mountain Wumpus again?
  • Hi, my name is Richard Arnesen, and I work for the publisher of Space HoRSE. Just wanted to say thanks for the mention of the game. Youu can find out more about out company at www.shrapnelgames.com. P.S. Just now looking through the comments, if you have any questions besides that just drop me a line anytime...

  • Links to the disk image and an Atari 800 emulator (Score:3, Informative)

    by madmancarman ( 100642 ) on Monday April 15, 2002 @08:58AM (#3342823)
    A couple months ago when I dug out my trusty Atari 800 from storage (running consistently for 21 years now) and started playing M.U.L.E. again, I did a little searching via Google and found a good write-up at ClassicGaming.com [classicgaming.com] that included an Atari disk image for M.U.L.E. [classicgaming.com], the manual [classicgaming.com], and a decent PC emulator [cris.com] (Mac folks can get an Atari 800 emulator [emulation.net] at emulation.net [emulation.net]). It's not perfect, but better than not being able to play at all. (Don't forget to grab the Atari system ROMs as well! [classicgaming.com])

    While I've often dreamed of an update to M.U.L.E. (or Archon [eidolons-inn.de]), I question whether simply updating the graphics and adding new cutscenes can really enhance the excellent gameplay. M.U.L.E.'s gameplay was such that the random events every turn could throw off the balance of the game just enough to give any player the opportunity to take the lead within a couple turns (there were only 12 turns in the game, each representing a month). There's nothing quite like making the richest players pay over $200 per unit of food because they're starving. Besides that, it had arcade and strategic elements (try figuring out which plot of land you're going to grab at the beginning of each turn can be somewhat stressful) along with a certain 8-bit charm that probably won't translate very well to the modern PC.

    I'll definitely grab the demo, but that's only if EA doesn't sue them out of existence first...

    First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. -- Gandhi

    • There's nothing quite like making the richest players pay over $200 per unit of food because they're starving.

      Ah, you were one of THOSE people, eh?

      I was one of the people who would keep holding the food out of their reach. LET THEM STARVE! I was even known to take the last M.U.L.E. out of the pen during a Smithore crisis, and just let it run free.
      • Ah, you were one of THOSE people, eh?

        I was one of the people who would keep holding the food out of their reach. LET THEM STARVE! I was even known to take the last M.U.L.E. out of the pen during a Smithore crisis, and just let it run free.

        That was one of the best parts about the tournament level - people (especially the computer) usually tried to produce Chrystite, and if you could get enough of the mountain ranges, you could choke them on M.U.L.E.s pretty easily. Personally, I always liked producing plenty of energy after buying all of it up from the store so that no one could produce anything.

        I've been trying to teach some of the nastier tricks to my girlfriend, but usually when we play, she's the Flapper so she has a bit of an advantage.

        I spent 10 minutes in class one day trying to explain it to my students, and a couple of them downloaded it and started playing it. I wish the Atari 800 emulators had multiplayer over TCP/IP, but then I probably wouldn't get any work done.

        God I love that game.

        First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. -- Gandhi

  • Let's all hope to god that they get the mosic right (not to mention the Mountain Wumpus).

    -Turkey

  • Pentium 200 MHz, 32MB RAM, no more than 120MB HD Space, DirectX 8 Compatible 16MB Video Card, CD ROM, DirectX 8 compatible Sound System, Mouse

    I'm screwed! I've got way more than 120MB HD Space! Going to have to install more stuff to make less room for it.


  • How many hours you spent on your commodore 64, amiga, atari ST, on a LAME game by today's standard? I can't count how many hours I played M.U.L.E, or speedball, pinball fantasy or star control.

    Why? Simplest idea sometimes are the coolest. Some games have a high level of complexity and are awesome simulators (Mech warrior series to name one), PC titles aren't all bad and some are quite addictive and are a good investment (i.e. Quake 3, you pay once, you get a zillion of mods after), but in comparison with the "pre-PC-DOOM" age, the % of titles that are addictive today are way lower than it was before.

    How many people did it take to code something like burger time, how many people did it take to code a game like SOF for example? I'm sure there are more total hours played on burger time than on SOF, and forget about the "it's been there for 20 years", let's see if people are even going to remember that game in 20 years.

    Anyways, this is good news, put M.U.L.E with today's level of complexity, and you could have a kick-ass title.
  • Look, if you are going to ripoff one of the most forward-thinking games of all time, at least have the decency to credit the source.

    I'm not talking about EA, I'm talking about Dani Berry (who was known as Dan Bunten at that time). She created Modem Wars, Command HQ, Global Conquest, and M.U.L.E. She was an innovator of multiplayer online games in the 1980's. She was way ahead of her time, and it is a shame that just as the games business was ready for her again, she lost her battle with lung cancer (July 1998).

    • We are well aware of Dani's work and reputation. Global Conquest is one of my favorite games as well. It's an oversight that she is not mentioned on the product page, I'll look into correcting that, but the trademark is with EA so we have to mention them when we talk about the game.
  • I can play M.U.L.E. now? You mean I've wasted all these years not playing when I could have been?

    How does one go about setting up their PC to play M.U.L.E. ? Where are the programs I need?
  • I bought the game back on the C64. About a year ago I saw it on ebay for the NES. So I dusted the ole bitch off and have enjoyed it many times since. However the NES has become unstable. If anyone knows how to make it actually turn on when the game is inserted and pressed down. For some reason it clicks on and off several times and I have to keep playing with it before it EUREKA, and works.

    Also, I will look into how hard it would be to make a ROM for the cartridge..never tried it, but would be happy to pass it around if I can figure it out. The NES version was a little cleaner than the C64, but still had all the idiosyncresies of the old skool.

  • Space Empires IV (Score:2, Informative)

    by glinden ( 56181 )
    The publisher, Shrapnel Games [shrapnelgames.com], has a few other interesting titles. Particularly good is Space Empires IV [shrapnelgames.com], a Reach for the Stars or Masters of Orion II-like galactic conquest strategy game. There's a good review [gamespot.com] of it on GameSpot [gamespot.com].

  • 7COG? (Score:2)

    by ahde ( 95143 )
    The same dudes that made M.U.L.E. made a game called Seven Cities of Gold. The game rocked on C64 but playability was completely destroyed on the PC version which introduce some extra *ahem* features
    • Sid Meir once told me that his game "Colonization" was a tribute / sequel to "Seven Cities of Gold."

      (I actually noted the resemblance when I saw Colonization at a trade show booth. Meir, who was lurking nearby, was pleased that someone recognized the connection.)

      The official port of Seven Cities to PC sucked. Man, was that offensive.

  • Does anybody besides me have fond memories of another EA game for the C-64 called "Worms?"?

    Up to six players could play. Essentially, the game was played on a hexagonal grid. Each player's "worm" would start out from the origin point at the center of the screen. When a worm encountered a new situation, it would pause and wait for the player to pick a direction for it to go. From then on, the worm would remember that command and repeat it.

    At the beginning of a game, the worms are constantly pausing and waiting for instructions, but after a few runs through the order, the worms are self-guiding for a while. As worms travel through the points on the hex grid, the points turn into vertices. A worm claims a vertex by completing all the paths into and out of the vertex. A worm dies when it heads into a vertex and completes it without an out path, or when it collides with another worm at a vertex.

    At the end of the game, when all the worms are dead, the player whose worm has claimed the most vertices wins.

    I thought it was a pretty cool game and I've never encountered anything like it since.

  • There's been numerous attempts in the past to make MULE clones, but EA has always put the kibosh on them. Despite not having any obvious interest in doing anything with the property, they seem pretty adamant that nobody else can do anything either.

    Kinda like kids that outgrow playing marbles but refuse to give their old marbles to their younger siblings because "those are my marbles!"

  • I first played M.U.L.E. on my Atari in the 90s ;)
    Noone ever wanted to play it with me, though, so I never got into it. :^(

  • An update was planned by the original developer (Score:4, Interesting)

    by lightspawn ( 155347 ) on Monday April 15, 2002 @01:17PM (#3344603) Homepage
    (in an old article from Gamasutra.com) :


    There's a story about Dani that I know contains an element of slander, but it's too good to pass up: (I'll try to correct the slander afterwards)


    At one point Dani was negotiating to do a new version of M.U.L.E. At the same time, she was also in the middle of her transformation, which, of course, included the surgery, and everyone who knew her well was secretly wondering about it. Soon afterwards, at some industry function or another, Russell Sipe, then publisher of Computer Gaming World, came up to her. "Well?" he asked. "Did you go through with it?" "No," Dani said. "I decided not to."


    Russell was taken aback. "Really! Why not?"


    "Well, they wanted to put guns and bombs in there, and I just didn't want that."


    "WHAT??!!!!!" said Russell, utterly flabbergasted.


    Of course it was all straightened out a moment later. Russell had been thinking about the life- changing, utterly irrevocable business of losing one's genitals.


    Dani, characteristically, had been thinking about game design.

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