Had a weird situation before starting where a player already in the game was announced as entering for the second time and it automatically kicked the second instance.   However, despite still showing up as being in the game, the player wasn't able to get back into the game screen.   I kicked the first instance and he was able to finally get in.  Never saw that happen before.

http://www.planetmule.com/hi-score-game/game?game_id=17116

Damn space pirates froze another game I was in just now with the same symptoms:

http://www.planetmule.com/hi-score-game/game?game_id=15666

This time I wasn't hosting it, but the other players said the game said my client was unresponsive.  All of us were still able to chat.  I'm not sure if kicking me fixed it since the game is marked "abandoned" and I no longer see the game or the players in the lobby.

I'm on ubuntu linux 9.04 if that makes any difference.

Are you sure someone didn't drop out of the game when they saw the pirates?  Usually that is what causes the game to freeze....

No, no one dropped out.   Everyone was still in chat and everyone was there to join the second game.  There were no warnings from the game of anyone timing out or leaving the game.

Space Pirates made a second visit to this game I was hosting on Ubuntu Linux and froze it before they could make their getaway, leaving only a solid black circle hovering over the looted colony:

http://www.planetmule.com/hi-score-game/game?game_id=15267

Although the game became unresponsive, the chat window remained active.  A new game was started and Space Pirates dropped by twice without freezing it.

I'd seen this issue several times in the past on earlier versions of the game.  This is the first time I've experienced it with 1.2.0.

I downloaded a new tar file and installed it.  The problem still occurs.  This is the game:

http://www.planetmule.com/hi-score-game/game?game_id=14126

Land auction didn't work either.  I was hosting the game and it only allowed me to bid and awarded the land to me.  I understand that other players were also bidding, but I couldn't see them moving.  Same as in the other auctions.

Is this issue limited to the linux version?

Same thing happened here:

http://www.planetmule.com/hi-score-game/game?game_id=13927

Could only buy 1 unit before auction froze.

This was the first game I bought for my Commodore 64 in 1983 or 1984.  It remains one of the best ever!  I also had Seven Cities of Gold and Heart of Africa.  Kudos to the Planet Mule team for bringing this game back to life!   I haven't played it in 20 years.