https://www.carpeludum.com/m-u-l-e-40th-anniversary-special/
To mark the 40th anniversary of M.U.L.E., we are dedicating this special write-up to the history of the game's development, taking a look behind the scenes with reports and new 2023 interviews with those involved. As well as to all the original versions of the game, we introduce you to the officially licensed remakes and the 'clones' that excellent games inevitably spawn. Finally, we round off the anniversary celebrations with a test of the brand new M.U.L.E. Online.
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M.U.L.E. 40th Anniversary Special Posted on 2023/05/23 by Goethe
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(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday May 31 2023, @04:22AM (3 children)
I played M.U.L.E. a lot in the late 1980s. Great game.
M.U.L.E. could accommodate 4 humans on one computer, and it wasn't total hotseat either. On the Commodore 64, 2 humans used the 2 joysticks the computer could support, and the other 2 used the left and right edges of the keyboard respectively, so all 4 could participate in the auctions, which the game ran as a simultaneous event.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday May 31 2023, @04:11PM (2 children)
And in the Atari 800/400 all four players had their own joysticks and could participate in the auction on equal footing - unless, of course, their $9.99 joysticks' pressure-switch contacts had migrated under the adhesive film away from their PCB contact points, making for flaky joystick responses. Good joysticks that didn't suffer from this fate were on the order of $29.99 and up, and rarely did Atari owners have the budget to spring for four of those.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by owl on Thursday June 01 2023, @05:23PM (1 child)
According to Inflation Calculator [usinflationcalculator.com], that $29.99 in 1985 (had to pick a date) would be $84.55 in 2023 dollars, so yeah, four of those would have been steep to justify for many owners.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday June 01 2023, @06:47PM
Good guess, I bought my single good joystick in 1984, and it cost me the take-home pay from three closing shifts at Long John Silvers' fish restaurant.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Informative) by mechanicjay on Wednesday May 31 2023, @06:25AM (4 children)
M.U.L.E. is one of those games with such great game play that it actually holds up really well, even with it's clunky 8-bit graphics. In some ways it feels like a proto Settlers of Catan with production of resources and build out. The theme song is one of the great themes to come from the 8-bit era (Alternate Reality is the THE best, however).
The thing that really makes this game shine though, is how the win condition is met. In order to win, you not only have to have the most of whatever, but the entire settlement (consisting of all 4 players) needs to meet certain benchmarks. So if you screw your opponent too hard in one area, a total loss condition can occur as the settlement as a whole doesn't pass muster. So, it's strikes this REALLY fun balance between being cooperative and competitive at the same time.
My VMS box beat up your Windows box.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday May 31 2023, @03:54PM (3 children)
M.U.L.E. is really polished, too. Hoarding is hard to do, because perishable hoarded goods rot, and the most valuable one that doesn't rot is subject to theft should the random bad event be a visit from space pirates who will take it all.
Another anti-market manipulation feature we discovered when we were trying to deny a computer player some very badly needed food or energy. To explain to those who have never played M.U.L.E., the way auctions work, at the start each player decides whether to be a buyer or a seller. Sellers go at the top of the screen, and buyers to the bottom. The sale price is a function of the height on the screen. The store is always a buyer and almost always a seller, and it doesn't move, it stays at the top or bottom respectively. The buyers and sellers run towards each other, and when they meet, a trade happens.
But the game does a kind of "are you sure?" check before enacting a trade, and in those couple of seconds, either party can back away and thereby cancel the proposed trade. We were abusing this feature to screw the computer player, taking turns proposing a trade then backing away while the other moved up, switching back and forth so that the computer player was unable to buy anything at all, from us or from the store. In the midst of this, the game suddenly announced "Collusion!", froze the 2 of us out of that auction, and then the computer player was able to run up past us and buy from the store! We were thrilled with surprise to learn that the game designers had thought of this and implemented a remedy.
Another tactic was getting into the lead so you could go first, then waste mules by buying and trashing them, to drive up the price of the one commodity that was hoardable, and deny mules to the other players. Sure, it cost you, in the short term. But if you had prepared by stocking up on the commodity used to make mules, you could make a killing the next round, when the price of that commodity leapt through the roof. This tactic would be greatly aided if the random bad event was a fire in the store.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday May 31 2023, @04:14PM (2 children)
>the game suddenly announced "Collusion!"
Congrats! We played many hours of M.U.L.E. HvH and HvC, and never managed to trigger that.
You have a great future in corporate management.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday May 31 2023, @09:46PM (1 child)
Never triggered a collusion penalty? You haven't lived! ;)
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday June 01 2023, @02:24AM
Thinking back, maybe we did... I do remember running down to meet the computer as low as possible, then backing off a tiny step, then again, then again until the clock ran out, not sure if I ever saw a penalty for that or not - seems like we got away with it on the Atari version I played.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by jman on Thursday June 01 2023, @12:23PM
Another good EA game was Archon - animated chess with Mythological creatures where your piece would have to fight.