A short description of M.U.L.E.
I’m working on a Commodore 64 game that is a tribute to a 1983 game. It has been nearly 35 years since that game came out so I can’t expect everyone to still remember it. (I recently completed work on the Character Select screen)
There are much to say about the development and publishing of the game, as well as stories of other people who have been inspired by M.U.L.E. This post will focus on the game itself, I’ll share what I’ve learned about its development later! I also apologize for any factual errors about how the game works, it’s been a very long time since I played it. I’ve been avoiding playing this game while working on my current project in the hope that it brings new ideas.
M.U.L.E. is an abbreviation of Multiple Use Labor Element, a sort of robot donkey that can be used to extract smithore to build more M.U.L.E.s or run farms to create food or generate energy to keep other M.U.L.E.s running.
The premise of the game is to have four planeteers take off to planet Irata and compete in the settlement of a planet for being the richest at the end of the game, although the total team score also counts towards the ending.
The game begins with a game mode selection, then each planeteer selects a character and color to play as. After the game setup the planeteers fly to the planet Irata where each player is given rations and some money to get started.
After landing the status summary is shown which shows the current ranking between players. The status summary is also shown prior to each turn.
The first part of the turn is the land grant, a cursor moves left to right, top to bottom and each player presses their button to select one free land lot per turn. Make sure to pay attention at this point as you miss out on land if the cursor reaches the bottom right before your selection!
Each land type is indicated by the icons in the square, there is a river that runs from the top to the bottom through the center town. The river squares are good for food production.
Squares with mountains are good for smithore production, which is used to build new M.U.L.E.s when the initial stock runs out.
Empty squares are good for energy production, each turn each installed M.U.L.E. uses one energy unit except for energy M.U.L.E.s that can take care of themselves!
In more advanced games above beginner level there is also crystite production which sells for more money but most squares produce no crystite!
Occasionally there may be one or two land squares available for auction after the land grant, if you can spare the money it is usually a winning move to buy some extra land!
Following the Land Grant the Development phase of each turn begins. CPU players play their rounds without showing what is going on which adds some mystery to the game! The normal Development begins by entering the town and purchasing a M.U.L.E. and then outfitting it for whatever production is desired.
Once the M.U.L.E. is outfitted the player can leave the town and head to a land lot to install it. Walking across different types of terrain can slow you down, mountains are particularly slow. Once installed you can return to town to enter the pub for some cash winnings and end the development phase.
If playing an advanced game there is also a Land Assessment office open that can help you identify squares that may be rich in crystite but doing that will cost you development time.
After all planeteers have taken their turns it is time for production! Each land produces some amount of each type of item and the key to success is placing the correctly outfitted M.U.L.E. on the land squares you’ve claimed.
During production one of many global or player events may occur! This can have devastating effects on production or cause improved production for the current turn. It can also affect single players rather than the whole group.
Once the production is over the item auctions begin. In each auction all the players trade produced items with each other and the town store. The store has a fixed amount of items and sometimes runs out.
Before the game starts and between each turn a status screen helps inform players about their ranking.
This game loop repeats for a fixed number of turns, depending on the game type selected.
During the game turns keep an eye on the energy and food amounts, if you run out of energy during a turn your M.U.L.E.s will produce less and if you run out of food (3–4 units of food is required for each turn) your development time is reduced! You can even starve your planeteer and abandon the game if too careless.
The game shines when all four players are human! This works great as a multi-player game, with a fairly low intensity. The rules are simple and there is plenty of time to sit back and relax while other players set up their development. Fairly often the auctions get a little stressful!
To learn more about the game, the most comprehensive web page is the M.U.L.E. entry on C64-Wiki, I admit to refer to that page occasionally when I’m uncertain how things should work! You can also check out World of M.U.L.E.’s facebook page.
My previous post about the game is here, and I occasionally tweet updates at @sakrac