Hi all,

Accordong to the assembly code, buttons are checked for selection every jiffy during land grant, so players order is only used if 2 players push the button during the same Jiffy. The game level does not change anything, the cursor only stays longer on the plot.

I will add that computers push the button at the first Jiffy. So if you are behind a computer rank, the only way to beat him is to push at the first Jiffy when the cursor appears on the plot (read here impossible).
If 2 computers choose the same plot, the last one get it.

So basically all it does is raise the crystite to very high, kill the existing mule on it and erase any production that happened for that turn.

Exactly, and only for a random plot picked among the non-store, non-river, non-high & non-very high crystite.

Is a mountain plot in the original still displayed with mountains after the meteorite that hit that plot vanished?

I can only contribute information on the Atari 800 version. The pseudo-code of the "Meteorite Strike" is the following (according to 6502 assembly):

Code:

printTitle "METEORITE_STRIKE";
if (level = tournament) {
  printMessage "_METEOR_MAKES_NEW";
  printMessage "_CRYSTITE_DEPOSIT";
}
Plot plot = null;
while (true) {
  plot = GetRandomPlot ();
  if (plot.Type != Store) {
    if (plot.Type != River) {
      if (plot.CrystiteBPV < 3) {
        break;
      }
    }
  }
}
DoAnim_MeteoriteStrike (plot);
plot.CrystiteBPV = 4; // VERY HIGH
plot.RemoveExploitation ();
plot.RemoveProduction (); // because production is computed before round event
plot.Redraw ();

To sum up, steps are:
- choose a random location with the contraints: no store, no rivers, no high or very high crystite
- set the crystite BPV to 4 (very high)
- remove the exploitation and production

Smithore BPV (mountains) aren't affected at all, so mountains are still here and visible after a strike.

But i should have asked this question before: what's your goal?
You want to:
- keep the vanilla Mule behavior
- or adapt it according to the majority feedbacks and feelings?
If a "planet mule" author can answer this, i'll be glad .

It should be a plain with the mentioned BPVs and High Crystite.

This is debatable.

It depends if you want to keep original rule (that's what i was used to) or to give an other meaning to the meteorite strike.

Personally, i see the strike as a meteorite fall which destroys the installation, but not strong enough to wipe out the whole land. So, only the Crystite deposit should have the BPV updated (and the mule installation removed). But i can understand you want to adjust some rules.

Was the "Debtors Prison" message ending available on the original MULE?  I saw all of those end-game messages at one time or another (some more than others *Cough*) but never that one.

Yes, this ending is available on the original Atari MULE.

I just lost three mules in one game, so that obviously doesn't work.

Losing a mule is a round event, not a player (personal) event. So it can happen several times a game.

PS: I talk about the radiation event "MULE GOES CRAZY!" of course.

Is your mule page down?

I removed the document i wrote because it wasn't fully translated. After my remake of Colonial Conquest, i will open the section back with the full translation, but i have no date set for this. Real life is a big time hog...

Hello,

Zach pointed me to your remake last week. It seems very promising.

I've worked several years ago on the reverse engineering of the Atari 8bit version.

I haven't fully translated the document i wrote and I don't know if you aim using the original game behavior, but if you have any questions I'll be glad trying to help you (here or at my forum).

I wish you all the best with Planet M.U.L.E.,
Kroah