MrCunningham
Member
This is a bit of an odd Kickstarter project, but I thought it was worth making a thread for... Two different developers have joined forces to fund two completely different games based on the original 1983 Atari 400/800 classic computer game, M.U.L.E.
More information here:
Link: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1547218311/alpha-colony-a-tribute-to-mule
(Click on the images to go to the individual websites.)
What is M.U.L.E. you may be asking? Well...
M.U.L.E. was a 1 - 4 player resource management turn based video board game developed by Dan Bunten and Ozark Softscape and published by Electronic Arts. It was released in 1983 for the Atari 400/800 home computer system. But was also ported to many other classic home PC's as well as the Nintendo Entertainment System.
Each player controlled a settler on a distant planet called Irata (Atari spelled backwards). The objective was to farm, harvest, mine and buy and sell various resources to earn money and provide services for the main colony that all players are jointly a part of. Each player would achieve this by purchasing robotic creatures called Multiple Use Labor Element's, or M.U.L.E.'s for short. The M.U.L.E.'s would be put to work on various plots of land that the players owned, collecting valuable resources. But sometimes problems would arise like being raided from Space Pirates, runaway M.U.L.E.'s, meteorite showers or dreaded sun spots. The winner was decided by who had the most resources and money by the end of the game.
The original M.U.L.E. is generally regarded as PC classic, and has inspired many later resource management styled games in the genre.
Though to be honest, I have never actually played the original M.U.L.E. myself. But I do have good memories of the version that was released on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Which I assume was more or less the exact same game. It was all good fun.
So where can I purchase or play the original game?
Well, as far as I know, you can't purchase the game anywhere. It probably hasn't been sold in retail for nearly two decades. But there are still a few options available to play it legally:
More information here:
Link: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1547218311/alpha-colony-a-tribute-to-mule
(Click on the images to go to the individual websites.)
What is M.U.L.E. you may be asking? Well...
M.U.L.E. was a 1 - 4 player resource management turn based video board game developed by Dan Bunten and Ozark Softscape and published by Electronic Arts. It was released in 1983 for the Atari 400/800 home computer system. But was also ported to many other classic home PC's as well as the Nintendo Entertainment System.
Each player controlled a settler on a distant planet called Irata (Atari spelled backwards). The objective was to farm, harvest, mine and buy and sell various resources to earn money and provide services for the main colony that all players are jointly a part of. Each player would achieve this by purchasing robotic creatures called Multiple Use Labor Element's, or M.U.L.E.'s for short. The M.U.L.E.'s would be put to work on various plots of land that the players owned, collecting valuable resources. But sometimes problems would arise like being raided from Space Pirates, runaway M.U.L.E.'s, meteorite showers or dreaded sun spots. The winner was decided by who had the most resources and money by the end of the game.
The original M.U.L.E. is generally regarded as PC classic, and has inspired many later resource management styled games in the genre.
Though to be honest, I have never actually played the original M.U.L.E. myself. But I do have good memories of the version that was released on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Which I assume was more or less the exact same game. It was all good fun.
So where can I purchase or play the original game?
Well, as far as I know, you can't purchase the game anywhere. It probably hasn't been sold in retail for nearly two decades. But there are still a few options available to play it legally:
- Planetmule.net :
planet MULE is a free remake of the original MULE that can be played online against other people. There are clients available for Windows, Mac and Linux at the site. So check it out here: Link - Download the unreleased DOS version: From what I understand this version was originally planned to be released by IBM in the year 1985, but due to various reasons was canceled and never saw the light of day until 2012. The DOS version can be found here along with instructions on how to install it using DOSBox: Link
