MULE

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MULE
Studio United StatesUnited States Ozark Softscape
Publisher United StatesUnited States Electronic Arts
Senior Developer United StatesUnited States Dan Bunten
Erstveröffent-
lichung		 May 1983
platform Atari 800 , C64 , IBM PCjr , MSX2 , PC-88 , NES , X1
genre Resource management
Subject Space colonization
Game mode 4 players in the competition, missing players will be taken over by the program
language English

MULE (for Multiple Use laboratory element ; an acronym for mule , English for mule ) is a multiplayer - computer game , the Ozark softscape ( Danielle Bunte designed etc.) and has been programmed. It was first published by Electronic Arts in May 1983 for the Atari 800 home computer . A port for the C64 appeared in October 1983. This was later followed by implementations for IBM PCjr , Nintendo Entertainment System (1990, MicroProse ) and versions only published in Japan for MSX2 systems (1988, Bullet Proof Software ) and PC-88 .

MULE is extremely important for the history of computer games. Not only was it one of the first multi-player strategy games, it influenced a whole generation of games. Many of today's most famous computer game designers such as B. Will Wright or Sid Meier described MULE as a role model and source of inspiration - often even as "the most important game of all time".

Gameplay

The game is a real-time construction and economic simulation.

Four settlers are deposited on the new planet "Irata" ( Atari read backwards) and have one year (12 rounds) to build up their colony. Then the spaceship returns and the richest settler is the winner - depending on how strong the colony was, there are five levels of possible success.

Up to four players can take on the role of these settlers ( four joysticks can be connected to the Atari 800 , with the other systems up to two players control their actions with the keyboard, in the normal game round they then take over any joystick, as these game rounds follow one another be played). The vacant positions are managed by the computer.

The map is generated anew for each game by randomly distributing plains and mountains, but there is always a river valley in the middle. Likewise, the settlement with the shops and the pub is always in the middle of the river valley.

A MULE is a mule-like working robot. These are equipped for a task, installed on a plot and, depending on the equipment, produce food, energy, “smith ore” or “gemstones” (crystite).

Each player needs a certain amount of food and energy each round. The food supply determines the time a player has for land development. The energy required depends on the number of installed MULEs (however, no energy is required for the energy production itself). Blacksmith's ore is used to produce new MULEs. Gemstones are intended as an investment or for speculation, but these are also sought after by pirates.

The following actions take place in each round:

  • Land distribution - one parcel is free
  • Land auction - every now and then a parcel is auctioned
  • Land development - the players act individually in turn (in the order of the preliminary rounds) on the map; each player can receive personal bad and good news beforehand
    • Buying, equipping and installing MULEs on the plots
    • optional: show land sale
    • optional: expertise of a parcel on gemstone deposits
    • optional: wumpus hunt
    • Pub - end of turn
  • Production - all MULEs produce (if enough energy is available)
  • Events - e.g. B. particularly good harvest, fire or pirate attack
  • Trade: one auction per type of goods
  • Round end result: Round ranking with value results, this usually results in the game order for the next round.

In the distribution of land and the auctions, all players are involved at the same time and mark their desired plot of land or adjust their prices. However, if two players are timed at the same time, preference is given to the economically worst performing player.

In the case of auctions, in addition to trading with the shop, private trading between two players is also possible.

The terrain is differently suitable for production: there is mostly blacksmith ore for example. B. in the mountains, food on the other hand in the river valley, energy on flat land and with precious stones there are three plots with high deposits per game; the parcels that are vertically and horizontally adjacent to these parcels have medium occurrences and those that are in turn vertically or horizontally adjacent have low occurrences. Basically, contiguous plots with one type of production are always more successful than individual plots.

The prices fluctuate according to supply and demand.

There are also many small nasties possible, e.g. B. building a monopoly on one type of goods and then buying up all the supplies in the store to drive up prices; or hoarding the blacksmith's ore to shorten MULEs.

Cult status

The cult has MULE achieved that it is very balanced and therefore always guarantees new gameplay. The multiplayer ability and the economic simulation were formative for the genre of computer games.

The first in the preliminary round (1st and 2nd place) have to be prepared for bad news, while the bottom of the preliminary round (3rd and 4th place) can hope for good news.

Others

  • The name MULE comes from the novel "Time Enough for Love" by Robert A. Heinlein .
  • Electronic Arts actually wanted to name the game Moguls from Mars . But when management saw the title screen, it stayed with MULE
  • Due to the discontinuation of the 800 series at Atari , only about 30,000 pieces of the game are sold. MULE is one of the three most copied games in history.
  • You rarely hear the theme music from MULE as background music for EA's Spore game .
  • There is also the MULE mineral extraction unit in the StarCraft II computer game from Blizzard. The player can request this with the help of the so-called satellite center.
  • According to Danielle Bunten's daughter, the original source code was considered lost for a long time. In an interview in 2020 in the Stay forever podcast , Julian Eggebrecht says that he backed up the source code from the original disks a long time ago and that it is not lost as a result.

Clones

MULE has been cloned several times , including a. with Traders (1992, PC and Amiga) and Subtrade (1993, PC and Amiga).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Scott Mace: Electronic Arts' Music Program Scores a Hit. In: InfoWorld , October 10, 1983, pages 1, 4, 5. (English) - In the wording: “This month, Electronic Arts is shipping its first five games for the Commodore 64. Those games are Hard Hat Mack , Worms, Pinball Construction Set , Mule and Archon . "
  2. ↑ MULE for NES in the GameFAQs database. (English)
  3. ↑ MULE for MSX2 in the GameFAQs database. (English)
  4. ↑ MULE in the generation-msx.nl database. (English)