Planet M.U.L.E.

I just got my copy of the M.U.L.E. boardgame (it's called 'Planet Steam') and started looking for M.U.L.E. clones online. Of course, I didn't find any good ones. When I found out about this project here, I got really excited. Guys, guys, thank you for making this dream come true! Hooray for Planetmule!

(And it's not even out yet. It better not suck or I'm gonna look stupid :P )

yeah, the same here :) thanks for bringing back a classic like this. ...and i still have hope that the game is not only playable online but offline too! i remember gaming sessions with friends back in the old days, sitting in front of my C=64... that was great fun!

...and still 10h 26min to go...

wow... I grew up with the atari comps and this game, mega kudos =D

yes I'm that old =b haha, can't wait to give it a try...!

I've been waiting for a good M.U.L.E. remake for years. I hope this one is awesome. Thanks guys :)

I am pumped about Planet Mule too.  And Planet Steam is on my BoardgameGeek.com wishlist!

Just wanted to say Thank You to all who were involved in making this happen.  I've always felt like MULE was my game, and to see it brought back to life is like a personal gift to me.  You can never please everyone and even I will probably notice some things I preferred in the original, but this was obviously the result of a lot of time and effort and I, for one, would like to say thank you.

ditto here. :-)

Thanks, fellas. Makes it all worth it. I'll make sure to tell everyone who was involved :)

Great game ,  had lots of fun !

Karl from brantford, ontario

I am sitting at the initial "Colony Status" screen grooving to the remix. Guys, I cannot tell you how awesome this is. (Additional props for making it in Java so those of us in the Linux Arm of the galaxy can play!)

This is great! The best part about it, I don't have to play against 3 computer players!! I haven't played MULE against a human being for 19 years!

edit: And thanks a bunch for staying very true to the original game play (including those wacky situations that happen to players at the beginning of their turn) -- it works very well. If you do end up adding a "newfangled" game play that would be great but keep this one as a "classic" option. :-)

well, played this now, and confirm the status! it is awesome without a doubt. some minor stuff needs polish (see my ai post) but you brought back a classic that was always worth a game. well done and thanks a lot for the return of m.u.l.e.
great work!

Agree with everything said here, I think this is very awesome and everyone involved should win the lottery or something for all the positive karma they just gained themselves.

Just like to add my thanks, a gaming classic that's just as good to today as it was in my original Atari 800 days of playing it :)

Thanks!!

Thanks!

Hear hear! Glad to see this classic reborn. And very hopeful that it will continue in it's advancement.

Still a couple bugs to work out ... but I must agree with everyone.

I waited for a site like this for years!  Big props to everyone involved with bringing this site to reality!

Ditto!  Thank you so much for everyone who worked hard to make this happen!

-Jara

Yeah, just wanted to chime in and say this is really really awesome. I grew up playing M.U.L.E. as a kid, and now that I make part of my living in the games industry I sort of view it as one of the building blocks that got me to where I am today. Seeing such a great remake after so many years, especially with the blessings of the Bunten family, really brings a big smile to my face  ;D

Thanks guys!

I agree, Thanks!  Seems like most people here are avid mule players, but I'm completely new to the game and I think it's great (except I just lot 68 smithore to those darn pirates!) so thanks for all the hard work.

I just wanted to throw in a thank you, too... I know you guys are being bombarded with complaints: "this should work like that, I don't like this, blahblah"..but I think everyone appreciates the hard work you've put into this project. I know this isn't easy - I've tried making my own MULE remake - started out by playing loads and loads of games on an emulator and recording data regarding events and prices...That right there was a good deal of work, yet it's maybe about 1% of the total.

Anyway, we're all very lucky to be able to play an awesome revision of a classic game, and for free to boot! So THANK YOU!!

Seconded, this is addicting even with the flaws (and really, the slow speed in places is really the main thing that bugs me, although I'm heartened to hear the smithore hegemony will be getting more competition with the next release.) It's a very good thing we just got a bunch of snow dumped on us... gives plausible deniability for spending days off. ;)

I didn't think it possible, but it almost seems like you might have improved on the original. Only played one game, but have almost nothing negative to say about it other than a few quibbles (which look like they are to be addressed in 1.1 anyway!). Ain't been this excited about a remake since Ultima V Online :)

I also agree...

LOVE THE music and game!! THANK YOU!!!!   ;D

Yes, THANK YOU for this! I'm really glad you've brought this classic back, and even tweaked it a little in ways I really think the original creators would have approved of.

Looking forward to putting this on my netbook and seeing how it plays there.... probably quite well.

 :D I waited for decades for this and it was worth the wait - this is SOOOO fun!!!! What an amazing job you did on maintaining the exciting gameplay and retro feel of the original, I am so happy to be able to play this wonderfully updated version of my favorite all-time computer game! Plus the music is an awesome remake of the best computer song ever. Thank You!!!!!!!

Yep, many, many thanks! This is truly a stunning restoration of the original game, brought gracefully into the 21st Century and onto the Internet. Honestly, if you'd told me back in 1985 that someday I'd be able to play MULE with people in Europe and Australia in real-time, I think my head would've exploded.

Not to be a brown noser; but I just wanted to say thanks. This was my favorite C= 64 game of all time. I still have the C= 64 and I was getting it out a couple of times a year to play this. Now I suppose I will play Ghostbusters instead on those occasions.

This is a very nice adaptation and I am extremely impressed by what you have churned out. I appreciate the forum and the responses concerning bugs and updates.

Bravo Turborilla for a job well done!

Akai

Development Team and Mrs. Stark,

I can not thank you enough for putting this together for Mr. Bunten's fan base.  M.U.L.E. has been a constant game played with my friends for the last 25 years.  We've shared memories of being crowded around a console Zenith TV with our Dads to our most recent game where college friends flew in from 2000 miles for a weekend where the M.U.L.E game was the highlight.

Mostly, thank you for staying true to the game that Dan Bunten created.  While the small changes might be necessary, please always keep a version as close to the original available for play.

Again, thank you for creating a game for the fans.

Thanks for a great game! This game would probably be #1 M.U.L.E. remake even without the online option. Very nice work altogether.

Indeed, I played the original game that I bought from a store and played It on a modified Atari 400 w/48k ram, better keyboard and an Indus GT 5.25" fdd endlessly back in the 1980's, Thank You so much, You've brought an old friend back to life.  ;D

The update was spot on! It has become a lot closer to the original. :-) You are doing a fantastic job on this. What a joy to be playing M.U.L.E. again!!!   

Would just like to add my thanks.  (And angst... think I've been up to 3:00am every day since this version came out!  Good thing I'm on holiday.)  ;D

Cheers to Planet M.U.L.E. team.  You've done an outstanding job.  Can't wait to see what you do in the next version.
-S

I just want to thank everyone who made this possible.  Even though its not a perfect replica of the original,  I am extremely happy with it, and I am confident that the "kinks" will be worked out.   I have always had the desire to play MULE over the internet and this project has satisfied that desire in every way.  I had tried to play the original game over the internet with the Atari emulator and Kaillera, and it was just too complicated to set up and to get working properly, and any amount of latency caused an annoying controler delay.  Frequently games would de-synchronize.  Space Horse was a very good attempt at bringing MULE to the internet, but it's network play ended up being unstable as well.  Anyway, thanks again for this and I hope that the community keeps growing!  I look forward to making many new friends!

Thank You!  My Addiction has been satisfied!  No more C64 Emulators!  This passes my review!

Great job, a faithful recreation of the original and the enhancements were welcome as well!! Thanks for bringing a great classic back for so many people to enjoy!

Yes, thanks.  This is a great game to remake and it has sure enough been more than a success!

Thanks for making this remake!  :)

My brothers and I had fun playing it this weekend in our semi-annual get-together.  We had a local network going with Windows XP.

Version 1.2.2 works well with Ubuntu 9.04 (Linux Mint 7) on my Acer 5315 laptop.

Congratulations, you have done an AWESOME job with recreating M.U.L.E.!!! And the improvements with each version show. Thank you thank you thank you, M.U.L.E. rocks!!!

I just realized that I hadn't given yet any due praise to this effort.

As a matter of fact, I can't find the right words to describe how happy I am being able to play my favourite game ever against human opponents. I have played this game at live tournaments until 2006 (when I moved out from my country and away from my Mule-playing friends), and after that quite frequently on a C64 emulator (trying to make ai's play the way I want them to ;) )

I hope that the number of games I have played (and will play) speaks for my appreciation.

What Piete said, plus a big thank you to the Buntens, Mr. Watson, Mr. Rushing, the Turborilla team & Big Head Zach.

Happy trails and happy "Mule'in"!

"O MY GOD" is all I have to say.... when I heard that wicked theme again I actually started to well up... where can I get that _ song? haven't even played yet, excited as hell. great _ job, THANK YOU!

It is an incredible recreation, with awesome net performance, cool music and graphics, and compelling game play.

Amazing remake of the classic. the music and sprites are a perfect update. Gameplay is exactly like I recall.

Much appreciated to all the team on all the work on this project.

Can I just say, if there is nothing blocking the rights to do so, why not delve into porting this to the  iphone / wii / ds-download and make some bucks, too. I for one would pay for this on any portable platform.

I think this updated M.U.L.E would make an amazing couch multiplayer game for wii. Shake those wii-motes frantically to raise/lower your bid. point and click to grab lands...first come first served. that sort of thing.

anyway, just dreaming about the potential. But until then, thanks for making it possible to play M.U.L.E. again (without an emulator!)

M.U.L.E. is great. You brought M.U.L.E. into an easily accessible form for the 21st century -- no more emulators. But, the gravy is you brought multi-player games using the internet -- M.U.L.E. as it should be with real human players.

I praise Turborilla and Blue Systems. I also praise all the players who have spent time playing and writing feedback to try to make Planet M.U.L.E. as good as it can be... an authentic reproduction of our beloved classic Atari 400 and 800/Commodore 64 M.U.L.E. (without the 8-bit graphics, of course). Our feedback may sometimes look like petty complaining, but it really shows how much we care.

Long live, M.U.L.E... Praise Turborilla and Blue Systems!

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!

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.

Like many of the others here, I owned this way back when (on the NES) and loved to play it, even though this was perhaps odd for a young boy to like so much.

I just discovered this project last week, and I want to say that I'm very excited about this and will be passing it along to many friends. 

Thanks!

I searched on EBay the other day and found a full atari 800 system with floppy and lots of games. Mule was included along with 4 joy sticks. I think the entire system was going for around 300$

I think it's safe to say that I am addicted to the game once again.  I have been playing "Planet Mule" since Nov 11, 2010 and have since logged 157 games - 237 hours!  That is approximately six 40 hour work weeks!!

Cheers!
FI

If I could get paid to play mule, I would play all day ;)

hello i am leonard. i am intersted in M.U.L.E.and I've been waiting for a good M.U.L.E. remake for years.
tehkas

I just found this site yesterday and registered almost immediately; left the following message in Player Introduction:

I recently dug out my "antique personal computer", an Atari 800, and after at least 10 years of sitting in storage, not only did the computer still work, but my MULE disk still worked... then started searching the web for any info as to development of a new version and found this site... I have registered, and hopefully, soon, will try playing against some of you...

I have played two rounds of a practice game against 3 computer players, and found it to be exactly like the game I remember. To all who had a hand in programming this version, BRAVO! Beautifully done!

Again BRAVO to the people who set this up, did the programming, and maintain the site. I have been a huge fan of this game for decades, and used to play often with several of my friends. Needless to say, I have let them know about this site.

Cause of the problems with the server:

Its great that it runs again!
If there are some lost of data - doesnt matter...!
Its really great thats possible to play this aweome game - and to play it for FREE!

Anyone who complains, should always remember that! :)

To all the people who are spending their free time to mule! you do a really GREAT job! :)

Mule is a group of buddies Thanks for bringin it back. This really still is my favorite game. Call me simple, but Mule is all I could want in a game and now that it's an on line multi player

I've always said that there are four classic games that are real masterpieces and will never be bested:

1) Archon
2) Murder on the Zinderneuf
3) Monster Rancher (Mail Order Monsters held this place until Monster Rancher came out, and well... it was bested)
4) M.U.L.E.

That puts you guys in great company. Thanks for bringing it back.

Ummmm, didnt adept best archon??? please update this list!

2015 and still plays good..

Needs another update tho...