Atari Mule Online?

[DarkJMKnight]

Anyone know what happened to Atari Mule Online?
http://atarimule.neotechgaming.com/index.htm

Everything still seems available here for now, but... 
http://web.archive.org/web/20080804041122/http://atarimule.neotechgaming.com/index.htm

[beatthelastboss]

Why play the old when you have the new??? Exactly 

[DarkJMKnight]

Well, firstly I wasn't talking about playing the old one, just wondering what happened to the website. It seemed to disappear suddenly and I thought perhaps someone here might know why, perhaps it was related (people-wise) to this website somehow.

But, as far as why to play that version, the first version of any game that one plays is always the 'best'.

The only reason, tho, that I was looking for it was to compare some of the features I didn't remember as clearly with the current game. For example, every time a mountain moves during a planetquake in the original game, all MULEs on the plots of land involved are lost.

And I was thinking I might try hacking the old game to find it's secrets, exact game play values and variables and formulas, etc.

Finally, every so often I used to open up the AMO website just to listen to the flash animation of the title screen.

I grabbed the most important parts of the site from the Internet Archive (just in case that goes away as well for some crazy reason) but sad to see that resource disappear from the web proper.

[Big Head Zach]

And I was thinking I might try hacking the old game to find it's secrets, exact game play values and variables and formulas, etc.

This guy is way ahead of you on that front. Look for some articles I posted in Features & Suggestions with portions of his translated documentation.

[Intergalactic Mole]

Atari MULE Online has moved to a new web site: www.atarimule.com

[vox]

Kaillera good luck with this 4 player games are possible but you need to be local to stand any chance.More likely better sucess with WinVice for the C64.Two player games on this are pretty rock soild for net code.

[Intergalactic Mole]

The Atari version works well with 4 internet players provided they all have under 60ms ping, though its somewhat complicated to set up.  The Atari MULE package makes it a little easier.  It works great on a LAN.  Haven't tried WinVice but one would imagine that latency would also be an issue with that since the original MULE game had no mind of latency.

[vox]

The Atari version works well with 4 internet players provided they all have under 60ms ping, though its somewhat complicated to set up.  The Atari MULE package makes it a little easier.  It works great on a LAN.  Haven't tried WinVice but one would imagine that latency would also be an issue with that since the original MULE game had no mind of latency.

Over the net with 4 players all having pings under 60ms.Your still more likely to a game drop because Kaillera is not very good.Then you haved the added problem of Atari800WinPlus being very sensitive.Then added problem of the game not being designed for net play in the first place.It's also a very long long game with 2-4 real players we are talkin 2-3 hours at very least using only what we can being NTSC or PAL.

[Intergalactic Mole]

I've rarely had a game drop with all 4 players under 60 ms ...... Perhaps your internet connection is flaky.  If you dont touch any emulator options while playing and everyone has good latency and a solid connection, the game doesnt take any longer than it would if you were playing local.  The game should be played in NTSC mode since PAL is much slower.

[vox]

If you play in NTSC mode it's not much faster then PAL in terms of playing time your still talking 2-3 hours+ with four players that's without any relief breaks or pauses and that is unrealistic for flakey Kaillera client and over sensrtive Atari800WinPlusAgain.As for my connection nothing wrong there hosted well over 20 PlanetMule games.

[Intergalactic Mole]

I've hosted way more than 20 internet games of Atari MULE on the internet and, while it does have it's occasional problem which Planet Mule does as well, for the most part I've not had issues to the extreme degree your claiming.  I do not agree that the emulator "sensitive" and while I do think Kaillera could stand to be improved, it works well for me most of the time.  Also I've never had a 4 player game of MULE online take more than 2 hours at most with breaks.  Usually its around 90 minutes.  On an NTSC monitor the Atari800Win emulator plays slower in PAL than it does in NTSC.  Perhaps you are playing on a PAL monitor and so setting for NTSC has no effect on speeding up the game.  There is no point in trying to counter what I'm saying.  I have no reason to be lying about it.

[vox]

Counter what? Honstely people who played mule with Kaillera client will allready know it's not very good. That's why it's such roaring sucess with many games played and hosted*sigh*. Also I think that abandonware has never been legal.

[Intergalactic Mole]

I understand you are upset about having problems playing MULE online.  However, you hardly speak on behalf of all "people who played mule with Kaillera client".  As I've stated over and over, it plays well, in under 2 hours, provided everyone has a decent ping and a stable connection, and I still actively play it with several of my friends without major issues.  I have no reason to be giving false information.  Perhaps you really do need to have your internet connection checked again.  I'm sure you've hosted other games, but the Kaillera client requires a more stable connection than most other games since it uses strictly UDP and not TCP.  In addition, Melanie Bunten owns the rights of MULE and has approved of Atari MULE Online and so there are no legal issues with downloading and playing it.  The game is also available for download from Gamespy.  Gamespy is a reputable gaming site and is not known for hosting illegal files.

[Big Head Zach]

and we're done.