Planet M.U.L.E.

I first starting playing this game way back when it first came out.  I was a kid at the time, and spent alot of rainy days playing this game.  I would always hope for a 'fire in the store', so I could jake up the price of food and energy and leave my computer oppenents in misery for a while.  Since, they often seemed to conspire against me, it was only fitting to do the same!

A few times, when I got a four play game going, with actual humans, we would try to maximize the final score.  So, we kept prices for food and energy down.

1989 or 1990 at a friend's house, on a Commodore 64. I was in high school.

Must've been around 1985 or so.  I used to play with friends or by myself, or with my brother.  I rented the Nintendo version when that came out but it wasn't the same.  I am so stoked for this I can't even tell you.  I predict many a wasted hour in front of my iMac, playing MULE.  This is so exciting@

Have loved M.U.L.E. since I had my trusty Commodore 64 back in the '80s. Have searched all over for a C64 simulator version but to no avail. I am so psyched that thewy kept the SONG! Happy Wumpus hunting all!!

maybe it was '87 or '88 on my good old C=64... m.u.l.e. always rocked!
i remember some clone version that has snails in it... but i forgot about it (the clone) long ago^^
it feels so good to play m.u.l.e. again! and i hope that i get my friends online to join for a session!

I started playing in 1983. I played in in college with my roommates EVERY day for 3 years.

1983......nuf said.

7th grade at Bloomfield Jr. High School -- 1987 -- it was this and 'Below the Root'.  M.U.L.E. has held up much better over time.

....I never actually played it. But I HEARD About it...wanted to play it back in the day.  I didn't have a PC (NES/SNES) so..there you go.

I guess I can say *Today* is the day I get sucked in...right? :)

the day it was released I was at the store to pick it up!

1983 on my olde Atari 800 :D

I was raised with this game :P so I can't really remember the day when I wasn't sucked into it. I still love the commodore 64 version. Best version IMO.

That was Traders.  ;D

I loved Traders! Incidentally, it was the game that sucked me into the M.U.L.E. style games. Around 1995 that was, I think. Got that thing in some sort of game compilation. It was the lowest profile game in the compilation, but the one I played for the longest. I still prefer it to M.U.L.E. to this day, unlike most people. Planetmule probably beats it, though, simply because of net support.

On an Atari system at a friends house in 1984. The Atari had 4 joystick ports for game play. Then when it was released for the Commodore 64 I had to get it. Played it through the college years. Still have (2) copies with the original packaging and an SX-64 that we get out occassionaly to play. Also had it on the Nintendo but it was not the same. This should be fun!!

I was a late bloomer with this one.  A friend showed me this game in 1990 on a 64.  Knowing about this now made my night!

Just found out about this game. Can't wait to get home and try it!

Originally played on the c64. More recently, I have it on my N-Gage via a c64 emulator. And I also tried my hand at making a turn based version for the net about 5 years back. This and Little Computer People has always had a place in my heart.

I play A LOT when I was a young lad in the 80's :-)
Can't wait to harvest crystite again.

Good job in making this happen guys.

M.U.L.E. was *the* game of choice at my buddy Mark's house.  He had a giant TV for the standards of the day, so four of us would gather around and ruthlessly contend for the best scores.  (Sometimes we even cooperated.  But not usually.)

This game more than any other showed me that video games could be serious business.  I came to learn that Dan Bunten's games were always a good bet.  Modem Wars opened up the world of multiplayer, Global Conquest was a kick, and Command HQ had a stoic charm of its own.

I still think about M.U.L.E. to this day.  A few weeks ago I included a graphic of Irata in an article I wrote about video games and graphic detail (http://longtailgamer.com/118/updates/beautiful-lingering-death-impressionism-and-emotions-gameplay/) -- video games from this era put the art mostly inside the player's head, but it was usually evocative in its own right.

Thank you for bringing M.U.L.E. into the 21st century with panache!  I really look forward to playing this game -- and reviewing it for my site, Long Tail Gamer (http://longtailgamer.com)!

I too first found M.U.L.E. on the C64 in the 80s, as a kid, and had a lot of fun playing it with my family back then. More recently, within the last year or so, before I heard of PlanetMule, I managed to convince one of the people I knew online to play the NES version through an emulator over the internet. We spent the majority of our time making a fortune catching the Wampus repeatedly, as it was apparently far, far too easy to catch him on the NES. :P

I am not sure of the exact year, but it must have been around 1984 when I got a disc for my Atari XL with that great game.

Still play it on my real Atari 8 Bit hardware.

I was born in 1990, and playing this on the NES with my sister is my first memory about video games. Playing this really makes me feel like a little kid again.

This is my answer exactly. Scott Lawson, old school friend and current man of the world, introduced me to it. Thanks Scott! I still pimp this game to people 20 years on. That's VFM right there.

I played in the 80's on a Commodore 64 with the family--all four of us played, though my dad usually helped me because I was only 5 or 6. I'm so excited to find this!! I can't wait to tell my brother!

Mid-80's! Pirated version for the C-64 was all I could get my hands on. Pirating back in those days by "sneaker-net", aka copying floppy discs at school and seeing what random stuff we'd get. Best part was that the hacker cracking most of the games was the son of the local District Attorney. Never knew there was an Atari version. Would have bought that in a second.

Played it mid-2000's via C64 roms. Incredibly stoked to find this new version. Absolutely love the updated music. Graphics are great fun, too. Very well done job, guys.

My father had bought the game m.u.l.e. and was hooked!

The month it came out.... but I don't really remember when that was.  :>

Found the game on Gamespy the other day, glad it did

I am a high school teacher in New Zealand, and introduced it to a few colleagues, and am hoping they will be able to use in the Business Studies area, for some fun representation of supply/demand

My Dad owned an Atari 800 with 4 joysticks.  I remember the day he brought home M.U.L.E. (I was 8 years old then -- 34 years old now) it quickly became the favorite game for the 5 of us (Dad, 3 Brothers & Sister).  Not to mention all of our mutual friends!  

I think growing up we played this game more than any other game and I still have my Dad's working Atari 800 (and MULE).

-Jara

PS: To this day M.U.L.E. holds the title of "My favorite game of all time".  I suspect it helps that I'm a big fan of German style board games, which M.U.L.E. reminds me of.

I got sucked into it about 3 days ago, had never even heard of it before then  :P

I was first introduced to the game in 1988 when my Father brought home a C64 with several games. Being a wee fella at that time I didn't grasp the concept to well. Fast forward a few years when the Sega Master took pride of my living room, bored of Alex the Kidd, Sonic the Hedgehog and the like it was time for the C64 to return from the closet. After taking in a few classics, Commando, spy hunter and kung fu I came across the old copy of Mule. After sitting down and studying it complexities I became hooked. It has been several years since I last played MULE and I can't wait to have another round of obsession.

about 86 / 87,  maybe.

It was my favorite game of the C64, with Spindizzy, Blue Max, Fort Apocalypse and Wizars of Wor.

I had the Atari 800 as well, and at that time in high school, we were also playing Diplomacy and Dune nearly every weekend. So most of our MULE games were cutthroat, with the colony "barely surviving" ... how else can you sell your opponents a few units of energy at over $200/ea?  Play often saw use of the "collusion" feature.

Like economic games in general. Used to play a lot of 1830 and these days its the occasional game of Power Grid. However, most my gaming now is 2-player wargaming. Maybe with MULE online that will change a bit?

On a Commodore 64, at home. My brother, father, and I all played together against each other. It was the only game we've ever played together, aside from a little Monopoly now and then. One of the greatest games I've ever played, and I'm really happy to see it back. Just sent the news to my brother and father! Maybe I can get my wife into it...

1983 on an old Atari 800. I've been looking for a decent remake of the game to run on my PC ever since. I even used an Atari emulator for a while to keep playing the game.

I'm 90% certain I was in the same dorm as Scott. I remember being invited to play a few times, but never as much as I wanted. I almost bought an Atari just to play this game.

I grew up with the C-64 version.  I know I watched Dad play it a couple of times when I was VERY young, as I have a very dim remembrance of causing somebody (I think him) to lose a mule by pressing a button on a joystick at the wrong time and him being angry about it, heh.  Unless that was an odd dream or something.  But yes, probably late mid-to-late 80s here.

I was "mulested" in the late 80s with my Atari 800XL ;D

Well I've never acutally played it too - although I had a C=64 (shame on me!  :o)

But I guess it's never to late to start playing M.U.L.E. 8)

I've never played before, but it sounds interesting.

Time for one of my long and winded stories...  ;D

We got a C64 in the mid-eighties, but I never heard of the game until my 8th grade math teacher (in 1989 or 90) told me it was such a fun game.  I wanted to play it ever since.  I first heard the actual tune in the 90's using SidPlay for DOS, and found it in a collection of SID files I downloaded from a BBS with a 2400 baud modem.  :)  I thought it was the "Chilly Willy" tune at first (it sounds alsmost exactly the same at first).

I actually had a chance to play the game when C64 emulation became popular, but didn't get the concept right away.  A FAQ/online guide, and an NES copy later, I learned to play the game quite well.  (Although the NES version was not the same).  Still the NES version had its interesting quirks, like catching the wampus 3-4 times per turn, and chasing a buyer down the screen to make them buy more than they wanted.  It was enough to make me learn all the ins and outs.

I have been watching World of M.U.L.E. for the past few years, playing the occasional incomplete clone.  I was happy with progress on OpenMULE for a short while, but it eventually died and went stale.  Still, I played the HELL out of the OpenMULE prototype.  It only made me more hungry for a full version.  I waited with baited breath, as I saw Dan's daughter's announcement about working on a new Internet version.

Then came last week - A friend sent me a SlashDot article on Planet M.U.L.E. and here I am.  I have played a few games, and am in the frenzy to play more, along with teach friends how to play.

Back in '85 on our C64s. Had to learn everything the hard way, ranging from the need of growing food & energy to the pleasure of a good smithore gambit since we didn't have no manual for some reason ... we even discovered the Wampus as an important economic factor by chance then.  8)

I got it when I was 36 as one of the first four games from EA for the C=64 and fell in love with it immediately. When I graduated to an Amiga, I pined for it, and then when I (finally) went to Windows I got Space H.O.R.S.E, but it wasn't the same.

THIS version, however, is the great old game resurrected, and I can go Smithore mining again at 61! ;D

Aw, Space Horse deserves some credit. It is a great rendition of MULE.  The only problem is that he didnt finish fixing the netcode.

I first played in 1986 or '87 played it on my Attari 800. (I still have 2 800s) I played it sooooo much I fell asleep while playing with 1 of my friends!! It took him awhile to realize that I was asleep!!!! Those were the "GOOD OLD DAZE"!!   ;D 

Would have been when I was in grade 8, about 1983 or so, on a friends C=64...... I was an Apple ][ guy, so there was always the rivalry.

Now I'm dating myself aren't I?

Cheers,
xyst