We use to play the atari 800 version for many years.   I last played this about a year ago and see nothing has changed.

1.  Smirthore can be raised from 60 to 230 in one round.   Could not be done in real version
2.  Wampus too easy to catch
3.  Racking up land auctions to 1k plus round 1 is way too fast.
4.  Skipping food plots in original was more painful to the players that went smithore with no food.

As before just making it exactly like the original should have been the target vs reinventing the wheel.

I think players that have never played the original can just adjust to the new quirks.  But as a old die hard mule player I think I'll try back in another year and see if this has been updated.

I suggest playing the Atari Version like 50 times then go back to this one and you will have a better understanding.

Its got potential, and it 2011 I would think copying a 1980s 8 bit game would not be that difficult.  Apparently the original programmer was exceptionally gifted.

"Its debatable if the C64 is improved over the original atari version. "

The Atari 800 is the defacto standard for MULE.  The c-64 did have an extra 16k or ram. But it only had two joystick ports not four like the 800. 

I subscribed to all the Atari Mags in the day and remember all the interviews with the programmers.
The atari 800 had better hardware for sprites and colors than the c64.  The c64 had better sound.

I remember Bunten wanting to add more maps.  I think MULE only had 128 (Maybe 256) map variations.  They were not randomly generated.   This means a really good player might figure out all 128 maps and then know were the high crystite was.  But only after enough plots were out to see the possible pattern.

So the c64 might have more maps (Not verified)

MULE is a 4 player game, anything less well is not really MULE.   The AI is so bad in the original and worse in this version  that playing with 3 ruines the game.   

I was in a group of 8 that loved the game and we tried 3 player (No AI) etc.  And it just did not work.  If there were only 3 people we would rather find the 4th vs playing at all.   

I'll have to check out this Oct 5th 2010 release.  The previous version was so unlike the original I stopped playing.

maybe this latest patch fixes some things.

I think a console port would be great.  Game cube or any console that support 4 controllers would work.

I still have 4 atari 800s (I need parts just in case something breaks)
Setting them up for MULE is not so easy, lots of mess. 

The bulky 800,
Two power supplies
Large Floppy Drive
Crossed fingers that it boots (Floopies go bad easily)
Wait for the boot (It takes like 3 min and if it errors have to reboot)
Finding 4 working joysticks.  It seems like one of them has a problem with a button and the game has to be rebooted.

The N64 would be the perfect MULE system because it had 4 joystick ports and it takes cartridges.  Carts last longer than CDs or floppies.   All my old carts from 1980 still work.  I'm going to try to get MULE working on the 800 via programmable ROM.

All I can say is you guys have done an amazing job in bringing this classic up to date. You don’t fancy remaking all my other 8-bit favourites do you?

Someone else in this thread mentioned porting the game to other platforms, but they didn’t mention the Xbox 360 or PS3, imagine sitting around the TV with your mates playing Mule, just like the good ole days! I would pay good money for that!

Keep up the fantastic work!

By the date of your post you may have played the new Oct 5 2010 release of MULE.
I have not. 

In the original game you could get smithore to 250 dollars only if the store was low on mules and/or there were empty plots.   You could stop this by getting smithore and selling it to crash the market.

The other players could buy it up but if they went past holding 50 units any unit past 50 would rot.

Buying it at 250.00 per share will drain all their money.  Now they will loose Land auctions, they will be forced to sell crystite low for extra cash.   If they are low in FOOD or Energy they are in trouble too.

The programmers of this do not have the source code from the original so getting the FEEL of the original has not been as easy one might think.  Yes its 2010 and you would think with todays technologies we could make a cruddy 1980s game easily.   Humans still have to write the code though.

I think they can get the FEEL of the original with time.   One way would be for them to buy an old Atari 800 with Joysticks and actually play it over and over. 

That is how Atari wrote Donkey Kong for the 800.  The Atari version was the best and they did it without the source code from the acade version.   How they did it was, and you won't believe this.
They gave the programmer and bag full of quarters and told him to go play the arcade Donkey Kong.

This guy hated the game but he had to get so good he saw all the levels.   So he does this and then recreates the Atari game from playing the coin op version.   It worked and is still the best version. next to the arcade version and it was done without the source code.

Buy an 800 and play MULE only then will they get the FEEL of the game.  They will need 4 people which makes it a bit harder task than single player Donkey Kong.

I don't  know how many more changes will occur in planet MULE but it would be informative to have a link to a change log file.   A company called Slysoft does this with every program it makes.  It basically gives the user a run down of the changes that were made in each revision. 


An example: Change log file

AnyDVD History
3.5.2.1, 2004 02 19

- Bugfix: fixed access violation, if ALT Key was pressed
  in settings window
- Some minor fixes and improvements
- Added Indonesian and Turkish language
- Updated languages


3.5.1.1, 2004 02 15

- New: Added default regions 7 & 8
- New: Added export of CSS Keys
  Exported Keys can be edited with Notepad
  and can be imported with Windows Regedit
- New: Improved application / driver communication
- Bugfix: Warning, if CSS Keys were guessed by AnyDVD,
  was issued too often
- Some minor fixes and improvements
- Improved support for InterVideo WinDVD
- Reduced flicker of tray icon
- New: Added greek language
- Updated languages


3.3.2.1, 2004 01 26

- New: Added warning, if CSS Keys were guessed by AnyDVD
- New: Added display for archived CSS keys
- New: Added option to delete archived CSS keys
- New: Added Unicode support for non-ASCII (e.g., Japanese)
  registration names
- Improved IDE driver compatibility
- Improved behaviour on wakeup from stand by
- Improved I/O subsystem
- Improved CSS cracking
- Bugfix: Installation problem with Windows 98/ME
- Some other minor fixes and improvements


3.2.1.1, 2003 12 10

- New: Re-Authentication by opening / closing drawer.
  Now Philips / Ricoh DVD Burners work with AnyDVD!
- Important Fix: Authentication problem with some drives (e.g., NEC) introduced
  in AnyDVD version 3.x
- Important Fix: Wrong CSS keys were archived, if a problem prevented key extraction
- Updated languages


3.2.0.1, 2003 11 30

- New: Improved "brute force" CSS title crack, much faster with some titles
- New: Rewritten Windows 2000/XP/2003 driver, "Safe Mode" should no longer be required
- New: Reduced kernel memory fragmentation (Windows 2000/XP/2003)
- New: Driver tested with Microsoft Driver Verifier
- Important Fix: Driver compatibility problems, which might cause crashes
  or BSOD on Windows 2000/XP/2003 Server
- Updated languages


3.0.0.7, 2003 11 21

- New: AnyDVD includes now AnyCDDA:
- New: Added option to hide multisession and to repair the Table of Contents on AudioCDs
- This amazing new feature allows you to play, copy and rip protected Audio CDs!
- Note: This feature does not work with all drives, and not all protections are supported!
- Note: Multimedia content on Audio CDs will be invisible, if this feature is enabled!
- New: Improved "plug & play" behaviour
- New: Improved scanning & decrypting, much faster with many titles!
- New scanning strategy, now works with some wrongly mastered titles (e.g., Crouching Tiger UK)
- Many parts completely rewritten and optimised
- New: Improved pattern search, titles like X-MEN2 work now with region mismatched drives
- New: Better key substitution with region mismatched drives
- Important Fix: BAD_POOL_CALLER BSOD with certain configurations
- Important Fix: Bug introduced in 2.1.0.9, decryption of some titles failed
- Fix: Playing CDDA did not work, until AnyDVD Tray was started on Windows 9x/ME
- Fix: "Read error" window could be displayed on non Video DVDs
- Updated languages


2.1.0.9, 2003 10 27

- New: Added option to start external programs on disc insertion of non-Video material
- New: Added option to start external programs if material has 60 Hz refresh rate (NTSC)
- New: Added option to start external programs if material has 50 Hz refresh rate (PAL)
- New: Added option to start external programs on disc removal
- The above options are useful to adjust the screen refresh rate to the inserted media contents
- New: Added utility "SetDisplayFrequency" to set and reset the refresh rate of your monitor or beamer
- External tools like MultiRes or PowerStrip can be used as well!
- New: Removed "Information" Menu Item, added "About" Tab in settings window
- New: If a DVD drive is added or removed, the drive selection list will display this change immediately
- Bugfix: After settings were changed, changes did not become effective before a media change
- Bugfix: AnyDVD accidently started a rescan, if non CD/DVD drives/volumes were added or removed (e.g., USB Sticks)
- Bugfix: If a DVD-ROM didn't had a drive letter assigned, the settings dialog could display a "Index out of bounds"
  error message!
- Bugfix: If AnyDVD was enabled, DVD-RAM was read only
- Removed ElbyCheck.exe from distribution
- Added Swedish language, updated many other languages


2.0.0.4, 2003 09 29

- Bugfix: AutoInsertNotification was broken in 2.0.0.3


2.0.0.3, 2003 09 29

- New: Improved User Interface, while keeping memory consumption low
- New: Shiny look on Windows XP
- New: Optional Speed control of your DVD drives
- New: Optional Manual language selection
- New: Tray Icon can be disabled
- New: Context sensitive right-mouse-button help for all controls
- New: Added RegAnyDVD.exe, a tool for easy installation of AnyDVD registration keys
- New: AnyDVD driver will now completely shut down, if no Video DVD is inserted
- Completely reworked for higher compatibility and speed
- Improved startup speed, if only Region Code / Analog protection patch is enabled
- Fixed problem with VIA IDE Miniport drivers
- Transfer size is now dynamically adjusted to the capabilities of the hardware drivers
- Important fix: Authentication problem with some drives (e.g. Ricoh, Benq) causing the read error dialog to appear
- Important fix: Audio CDs did not play, if AnyDVD was enabled on Windows 9x/ME
- Updated ElbyCDIO


1.6.3.7, 2003 09 15

- Minor Fix: Dialog Boxes could be displayed twice
- Minor Fix: Autorun Patch didn't work on its own
- No longer removes Pinnacle Driver Check
- Added slovak language
- Updated Russian, Portuguese and Danish languages
- Updated ElbyCDIO
- Windows 9x/ME: It was possible, that the driver files were not updated by the installer


1.6.3.3, 2003 09 05

- New: Added removal of "PC-Friendly" (Autorun on Video DVD)
- Important fix: AnyDVD did not work at all with DVDs without a volume label.
  This caused wrong behaviour of all programs trying to access these discs,
  e.g. CloneDVD showed an error "Scheduler 0 ...: read error TCSectorReader TCE"
  Some of the discs with this problem were Batman, Batman & Robin, Contact, Postman, Frantic and many more
- Improved: better handling of Dialog Boxes
- Improved: faster response to media change
- Improved: better handling of power saving / hibernation
- Windows 9x/ME: It was possible, that the tray of a drive was locked
- updated English, German, Japanese, Finnish, Dutch, Spanish, Hungarian, Italian and French languages


1.6.2.3, 2003 08 31

- added removal of Region Code Scripts (RCE)
- if safe mode was disabled, downstream data was processed twice
- fixed invisible drive region setting in device manager
- fixed false detection of CSS on DVD-RW Media with certain drives
- on first install, all drives were disabled
- Settings window now opens after any install of a new version
- Improved "region free" support for InterVideo WinDVD 5
- added Hungarian language
- updated Japanese language


1.6.1.6, 2003 08 24

- added support for Windows 95/98/SE/ME
- added "Safe Mode" for people, who have problems
- updated ElbyCDIO
- more conservative startup to avoid crash
- removed Pinnacle Driver check for better compatibility


1.5.4.3, 2003 08 22

- added workaround for nasty bug in Patin Couffin engine by VSO Software causing a "blue screen of death"
- as a result fixed crash with applications using Patin Couffin (DVDXCopy Express, BlindWrite Suite)
- added retries, if AnyDVD detects a read error


1.5.3.2, 2003 08 20

- fixed problem when writing DVDs with Nero
- fixed many problems with CD/DVD writing applications


1.5.2.1, 2003 08 19

- drives can be disabled separately (left mouse button)
- added support for applications using Padus ASPI Shell, e.g. InterVideo DVD Copy
- added support for applications using ASAPI, e.g. Pinnacle Instant CD/DVD and Instant Copy
- double-clicking tray icon shows settings dialog
- many compatibility fixes
- added Spanish, Danish and Finnish languages
- improved look of icons
- introduced "busy state" of tray icon
- fixed crash of Nero Info Tool, if AnyDVD is installed
- fixed interference with Windows XP Taskbar menu
- reduced time delay of nag requester
- removed ControlElbyCDIO.exe from distribution


1.4.4.1, 2003 07 14

- fixed "no drives found" message on Windows 2000
- updated Russian, Dutch and Italian languages


1.4.3.1, 2003 07 13

- fixed compatibility problem with Virtual CD 5
- fixed "read error warning" with Game Jack / Movie Jack virtual drives
- fixed problems when burning CDs or DVDs
- CD-Roms no longer get a region code
- updated Japanese, Portuguese, French, Italian languages


1.4.1.2, 2003 07 11

- added warning dialog, if no dvd drives are found
- added warning dialog on read error
- added Russian language


1.4.1.1, 2003 07 10

- fixed problem "encrypted Data detected" with DVD2One and CloneDVD
- fixed various minor problems
- added Japanese language
- added Dutch language


1.3.2.4, 2003 07 08

- if inserted media is no video dvd, all patches will be disabled
- updated portuguese language


1.3.2.2, 2003 07 07

- Improved Driver/Application communication
- Added portuguese help file
- Added portuguese language file


1.3.1.1, 2003 07 06

- Improved Region handling
- Default Region buttons are now disabled, if Region Code Enhancement is switched off
- If Region Code Enhancement is disabled, normal drive Region will be used (Region Killer function off)
  (useful with Panasonic/Matshita/RICOH RPC2 drives)
- After first install, Setting window is shown automatically
- Default Region setting was broken with RPC2 drives
- Removal of user prohibitions is now switched on by default
- Archive is now deleted from registry on uninstall
- fixed startup problem with certain configurations
- added italian help file
- updated italian language file


1.2.1.3, 2003 07 03

- First public release

If this has already been suggested in the past I apologise, but during the other player's development phases, we are unable to plan what we would like to doo apart from the intermiittent brief looks when the pther players comes out of the store, wich soon ends when they go back inside.

There's alot of blank space on either side of the main screen, and i was wondering if this could be used to show the colony map

thanks

Good suggestion for a new version, part of the challenge of MULE is not having too much time to study the map.  You snooze you lose.  One can go too far with these things, next one might suggest that it would be nice for the computer to make the move for them and even choose what move to do. 

I'd really like a way to 'pause' a single-player game (unless this is already a feature I am not aware of) I realize it brings up concerns of not being 'true' to the original game, but it's a simple pause button for one player -not a whole new mechanic.

Or are there exploits and concerns pausing could bring to the table?

What concerns?  You could pause the original in all modes.   Online pause might need a 3 or 4 player agreement but it can be done of the programmer wants.

Well, collusion and land auctions are pretty much things joined at the hip. I cannot think of any circumstance in which you would willingly part with a piece of land OTHER than an intentionally orchestrated deal with another player to achieve adjacency or other similar purpose. As you've seen from the "true value of land", it's basically impossible for you to randomly sell land to a random person at anything close to its true worth, so you'd never actually DO it unless you were trading plots with someone.

A time where you would want to sell some land is when you get screwed out of food in the early rounds via pest attack or mule gone crazy.  The player can rot on the vine for 3 rounds and end up with no money and a bunch of dead plots.  The only way he will get some cash is by selling one of his plots.   This has happened many times in 4 player gamesl.

If being like the original is the ultimate goal, then:

1) The pirates should be able to show up in round 12.  They did on the C-64 version (dunno about the Atari version).  it would def ad an element of surprise :-)  I know it did when they hit the first time on the C-64 in round 12.  both the pirate ship and the colony ship could "land" on the store in the C-64 version at the same time because they actually landed in different spots.

2) anything else?

I have the Atari 8 bit version and have played hundreds of times and have never seen a pirate ship in round 12.  The pirates came 1 to 2 times per game.   

Not that the AI was that good in the original, its was broke with smithore.

in the new version 1.24 the AI cpus won't buy food or energy for much money even if they are low and have tons of money. 

I've played a few times with random low crystite with no med or highs in the area.

One thing they managed to copy that is not really needed.  On round 12 it does not matter if you sell or keep yet it still makes you wait for the auction.  Could put an option in to skip the timer on round 12 and just show the prices since selling makes no difference.

I like the new graphics but something needs to be changed with the icons for smithore and crystite.  It seemed easier to glance at the screen and see who has what in the original.  I don't know if its the color or shape.

Anyone notice a bug with random low crystites with no med or high near them?

Sometime I'll have to run the original Atari 8 bit (best version)  and get..

1.  Exact timings for a turn
2.  How high you can crank the money in a auction before time runs out
3.  How much lower the next plot auctioned is vs the previous selling pt.
4.  Price of wampus in each round

The AI right now needs some tweaking.  Even if the computer has 10,000 he will not pay more the 45.00 for energy even if he is down 10 units.   

Food and energy are non factors with the computers.  In the original the computer would pay big if he was down just as real humans will.

Actually the game would be a lot less interesting without the random events. It is already a "nice" version compared to the original: no events nor land auctions on first round. I have lost many times due to those last-round bad luck events but I didn't have to be 1st then, did I? Like rommager said, you should aim not being first before round 12. We all know about the events, they are part of the game.

Agreed, that is why I love MULE, the unexpected bad luck.   In the original the guy in first and second place would get bad luck.  Probably the worst is to get a plot taken away in the early rounds when everyone has just about the same thing in terms of money and land. 

jeez, I played a game with 15 auctions the other day. original version NEVER had that many.

I pray the programmers spend some time playing 4 player original MULE.  That is the only way they will get a feel for the timings of the game.  It makes you really appreciate how good of a programmer he/she was.  Only 48k to work with and the game still has not been duplicated with gigs of ram and i7 quad cpus.

The auctions are too often and the speed of the money increase is way too fast.

As for timings on plot selection they probably need to put in a lag timer so the person in last place gets the plit he wants.  Something like a .5 sec delay on people ahead of you.  The guy in first place should not be able to get the plot ahead of the guy in last place if they press their buttons at the same time.  This is probably due to internet lag.

Donkyhotay - good idea about user options for Classic and other versions. 

Data2008 - yes I agree the Zach guy comes of a little on uncouth side.   So sure ALL vertern MULE players won't appreciate lol.   Like there is a army of them.   I know a few like 10 or so in my area, I can only speak for them and myself.

Actually a little critiques, while not good on the ego can be more helpful than someone blowing sunshine just to get along.   If the current programmers are good enough to make it this far I think they can iron out kinks.

When did 1.2.3 come out?  Not sure the version I played last.   Is there a version update list somewhere which explains the changes in each?

I've known about 100 MULE atari folks from the past.  Atari club back in the 80s.   Hardly any of them ever played 4 player with 4 humans.   Also have a bunch of old Atari magazines that had interviews with the programmers.  I'd have to dig hard to find them but they went into detail on balancing issues etc. 
I do remember on regret was the 128 max board layout, sound, mechtron AI issues.
Not too many issues on balancing though.

You may not have the source code but you can play the original code on 4 way LAN PCs.   

The mountain wampus could not be caught by pressing the button.   You just had to time it and walk over it.  It seems to easy to catch it in the last build.