Designer Danielle Bunten Berry (credited as Dan Bunten) took advantage of the four joystick ports of the Atari 400 and 800 to allow four-player simultaneous play. is a seminal multiplayer video game written for the Atari 8-bit family of home computers by Ozark Softscape. Because the players only need two buttons at most (up/down in auction) in auction, it's easy to play with four people around the computer.Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64, IBM PC, MSX2, NES, PC-8801 MKII, Sharp X1 The game always has four players, with 1-4 human players possible and the rest played by the AI. Meteor strike - destroys the M.U.L.E on the plot it strikes but creates a very rich crystite plot. Pest attack - eats all food on one plot.
Sunspot activity - increases energy production. Acid rain storm - affects the plot under the storm and below it by boosting food production and decreasing energy production. Nasty if you happened to have a lot of them waiting for better prices. Pirate attack - pirates steal all crystite from stores and players (in the easiest level they steal smithore). Fire in store - all stock in the shops are destroyed (which means prices will skyrocket, but if you needed to buy something, you are at the mercy of other players). Planetquake - production of smithore and crystite is much lower.
#M.U.L.E. EMULATOR C64 PLUS#
on one of the plots runs away losing production for that round plus the money to replace it. Some affect one player, usually the one winning gets small penalties and the losing player(s) get small rewards. There are a number of random events in the game. Hoarding goods also has a drawback in the form of surplus where each turn a percentage of goods is wasted. If there is no food, others don't have time to change their production types, if there is a shortage of energy, their land won't produce and if there are no M.U.L.E.s they can't change production type on their plot. This allows for various tactics, especially if one player manages to monopolize food, energy or smithore production. So if there is a shortage of food, the price goes up and vice versa. The shop also has prices that depend on how abundant or scarce the goods is. Players negotiate the price by moving up and down on the screen. Here the players buy and sell their goods on open market. Three plots of same production type anywhere on the map by the same player also gives a bonus. Also, if the same player has plots producing the same goods next to each other, they gain a bonus. Finally the player goes to the casino and wins a small amount of money, depending on how much time was left.Īfter the cultivation phase is the production phase where each land produces an amount of goods depending on a number of factors such as if the player has enough energy in storage, what type of land is used, and some random events such as sunspots that increase energy output. The time to do these things depends on if the player has enough food. They can buy M.U.L.E.s to start production on their land, sabotage other players by buying M.U.L.E.s and letting them loose, try to catch the Wumpus for cash and try to find crystite veins. Crystite is hidden and must be first found by taking a land sample to the town.Īfter the land claim each player takes turns in cultivating their land and do other tasks.
River is best for producing food, plains for energy, mountains for smithore. If two players choose the same spot, the player with less money wins. Each player gets to choose a spot of land for themselves from the map. Crystite is not available at the easiest level.Įach turn starts with land claim. There are three levels of difficulty, in the easiest the game only lasts 6 turns, but the real game is 12 turns. You start the game by selecting your race. Crystite is the big earner that can make or break your game. If enough smithore isn't produced, there will be a shortage of M.U.L.E.s. If you don't have enough energy, your output will be lower. Each of these goods have their uses: if you don't have enough food, you will have less time during your turn. This is done by producing various goods (Food, Energy, Smithore, Crystite). is about four hopeful explorers trying to make a fortune on a virgin planet.
#M.U.L.E. EMULATOR C64 PC#
Atari 8-bit, MSX, NES, PC-88, PC Booter, Sharp X1īoard Game, Managerial / Business Simulation