Is it just me, or did the "new game open" sound disappear when anyone else upgraded to 1.2.4?  And, any idea on how to get it back?

I've never seen another user logged in to the game with an umlaut in their name.  You may have something there.  Since noone else has chimed in, I'd suggest creating another login without it to see if it works.  At least then you would know if you can rule it out...

What about Atari XL, could you play a 4-player game on it since the game was originally written for a 4-joystick port model Atari (pre-XL)?

I played an Atari 1200XL - always went 2-player.  Don't recall if we ever tried to get 4 going.  Wonder if a splitter on the joystick port would have worked...  Don't recall ever using the keyboard - seems like that would have gotten a little crowded. 

I think that sounds like a fine suggestion too.

I don't recall seeing this suggested previously, but along the same lines...  I may remember my color long enough to grab a plot, but then lose my place in the auction phase - especially if there is another player with the same character (and sometimes even when I'm the only one   ).  How about setting each user's view such that they always appear in the first position on the far left on their own client?