The Month of M*U*L*E

[+therealbountybob]

The Month of M*U*L*E

OK MULE fans it's time, MULE time, so pack up your things and head of to planet IRATA for the biggest MULE Tournament of the century (so far at least)!

 

For new players* this is a great time learn to play MULE, it's the best ATARI game ever, and it's official - see Atarimania's ratings

 

RULES:

play Single player on Tournament Mode

each player plays each of the 8 characters

So that's 8 games in total

The first go must be on FLAPPER and the last go must be on HUMANOID.

No practice or other games in between

Post all you scores here, as you play them (not all at the end!), stating which character you played - screenshots optional

Individual scrores are totalled to decide the winner

No trading on the 12th turn.

 

*If you've never played MULE before you get an extra two games on FLAPPER which will boost your total score, play this at the start (so you have ten games instead of eight)

 

The contest ends Sunday June 30th 10am UK time - we can extend this if anyone needs a bit longer

 

Download ATR from Fandal (on some versions emulator users may need to set the firmware to OS/A Atari 800). Atarimania's ariola (UK) version has the instructions. Other links: Czech version, Multijoy M4 Version

DjayBee has scaned the manual and reference card

 

Hope this makes sense, I think we have at least 4 players so that's good enough to start with. Play the Atari 8-bit version if you can, otherwise other systems are welcome just tell me when posting.

 

Have Fun!

Any questions just ask

[+therealbountybob]

The Month of M*U*L*E Tourney
see post above for info

 

Contestant    Flapper Bonzoid Gollumer Leggite Mechtron  Packer Spheroid Humanoid    Total

tompateus   28,175  37,836   47,549  36,773   30,007  33,778   38,915  29,710  282,743

bluecat        34,156  36,832   29,631  30,695   37,974  29,118   33,346  28,302   260,054

Preppie        29,212  30,823   44,481  25,477   28,312  35,574   42,272  23,166   259,317

trbb           34,940  39,806   19,515  28,280   28,612  32,150   42,492  26,530   252,325

carlsson       25,021  33,855   18,206  20,406   32,484  28,864   22,326  26,527   207,689

zzip           21,910  17,777   13,978  23,764   33,277  21,307   26,687  24,546   183,246

CaptainClassic 36,875                                                               36,875

spookt         23,720                                                               23,720

slx                    22,027                                                       22,027

devwebcl       19,033                                                               19,033

[Preppie]

My first game was going great until I found the wumpus and the emulator crashed I hope I can get my 800xl working properly soon.

[carlsson]

Download ATR from Fandal

That link of course should be: http://a8.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=4190

[carlsson]

Ok, I'll start of this monthly long challenge with my Flapper game. Playing as the beginner species means one has to rethink the initial strategy: in the auction phase you likely won't be able to buy food and energy from the store as the computer players have precedence. Thus securing some of that seems important. For a long while I thought I would not even win the game, when the smithore hit the top price and computer players were selling like crazy, but somehow I managed to get back into the lead and retained it into the end.

 

I'm sure some of you will be able to do better with the Flapper, but as a one-off game it can go any direction. Now I suppose the order of species is free as long as I end with the Humanoid, will see which to try next and when.

 

Carlsson (Violet Flapper) - 25021 pts

Colony Total - 87487 pts

Rd Land Auction       Event              Smit Crys Food Ener  Order
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1 772RC 712VH        Acid Rain Storm      50   --   15   10  VH GC BC RC
 2 652NS              Planetquake          50  116   57   12  VH GC RC BC
 3 394VH (lost it!)   Fire in Store        43   52   42   55  GC VH RC BC
 4 506GC 446NS        Pest Attack VH       50   72   58   61  GC VH BC RC
 5 --                 Acid Rain Storm      57   52   59   16  GC VH RC BC
 6 --                 Meteorite STrike     43   92   41   10  VH GC BC RC
 7 --                 Crazy Mule GC        51   80   67   10  VH BC GC RC
 8 215VH              Pirate Ship         133   --  129   17  RC GC VH BC
 9 771RC              Pest Attack RC       64  112  115   41  RC GC VH BC
10 --                 Planetquake          50   80  116   53  RC VH GC BC
11 --                 Crazy Mule RC        57  120   68   50  VH RC BC GC
12 --                 Transport Ship       57   76   77   63  VH RC BC GC

 

[tompateus]

1. tompateus (blue flapper)

28175 points. Colony 79872.

 

(Crap)

 

[bluecat]

Really enjoyed playing against 3 Mechtrons instead of 2 and TRBB who always messes up my strategy!

I was a purple Flapper and scored 34156

[+therealbountybob]

My first game was going great until I found the wumpus and the emulator crashed I hope I can get my 800xl working properly soon.

Try OS/A emulation (see first post) or perhaps another ATR might be some on Atarionline.pl but the 800XL is good of course

 

That link of course should be: http://a8.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=4190

Thanks carlsson, i've updated all the links here and on the main MULE thread where I had copied them from (was Fandal's old web site name)

 

OK after watching bluecat's impressive Mechtron bashing earlier I had my first go...

Fairly steady game, playing the Red Flapper - bagged all the good crystite plots, including the metiorite strike one, loads of time and fast movement on the Flapper so you can sell more food etc - In the end it was getting close to her score but I had a second lot of Pirates... but I just did it and I mean just: 34,940 I was less mean to the Mechtrons so a slightly better colony score (89,316) I lost a plot and had 2 go crazy. similar to bluecat I made no use of smithore and good money on the food and energy throughout.

 

 

Now we have a few players I'll post something on the main forum to see if anyone else wants to join in, I hope playing 8 games is not too much and they are not too similar, posting the screenshots is nice and may help others to see what we have been up to.

[carlsson]

The linked ATR works great on my 130XE so I don't think OS/A is required. However some form of real Atari ROM might be preferred, instead of Altirra's own, legal but not entirely compatible ROMs.

[tompateus]

2. tompateus

Blue Bonzoid 37836 pts.

Colony 105100 pts.

 

Thought this was gona be a crapgame again, but high prices exept smithore last few months made the colony to reach over 100 k

[tompateus]

The linked ATR works great on my 130XE so I don't think OS/A is required. However some form of real Atari ROM might be preferred, instead of Altirra's own, legal but not entirely compatible ROMs.

What is an ATR..?

[+slx]

Wow, what a lot of stats carlsson! Wasn't as meticulous plotting (and still not finished, has to wait until I come home from work).

 

Wouldn't it be interesting to have a second scoring system as we'll based on overall colony growth? I haven't played in a long time but IIRC the computer doesn't really play "foul" and there is something in the manual about what makes a good or great colony score.

 

That would basically involve no hogging of resources and no denying resources to players who need them (but would not prevent selling at high prices). A kind of "overall society value" score rather than "me, me, me first".

[carlsson]

What is an ATR..?

ATR: Nick Kennedy's SIO2PC Atari Disk Image format. This is the defaco standard disk image, used by APE, SIO2PC, and all Atari emulators. There are minor differences in the header use between these programs, but the images remain compatible regardless of what program they are created with.

https://www.atarimax.com/ape/docs/DiskImageFAQ/

 

@slx: In the other M.U.L.E. thread we've been running since 2013, we counted both individual and colony scores so I suppose it is worthwhile to consider here as well. However as we're playing 8 games, one of each species and a bit of random can affect scores quite a bit, I think an average individual score will be competitive as well.

[tompateus]

?

[+therealbountybob]

various replies for above:

 

An ATR is a bootable disk image in a single (PC) file, effectively a virtual floppy disk

 

my comments about using OS/A for emulation must be gleaned from somewhere so it's worth a try (yes it works on 130XE etc without this)

 

atarionline.pl have a dozen versions

 

OK guys, we're NOT! playing for colony scores this time - just individual scores, otherwise we would all play differently (and would be harder for any new players). We can do that for future Tourney

[carlsson]

I'm falling behind on the average/total but hey it is for fun...

 

Crystite all the way, baby! Well, a little food and energy on the side but I mined for crystite through all 12 rounds. Interestingly enough, the store ran out of smithore and nobody got any production of it so twice that phase of the auction was skipped.

 

Carlsson (Violet Bonzoid, 1st place) - 33855 pts

Colony Total - 89829 pts

 

 

Rd Land Auction       Event              Smit Crys Food Ener  Order
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1 --                 Planetquake          43  120   15   10  BC GC RC VH
 2 636GC 576VH        Sunspot Activity     --  112   15   10  VH RC GC BC
 3 --                 Meteorite Strike BC  58   64   39   10  VH RC GC BC
 4 516NS              Pest Attack RC      101  132   78   74  VH RC GC BC
 5 982RC              Fire in Store        --  104  147   82  VH GC RC BC
 6 922VH              Pirate Ship          69   --  100   63  VH GC RC BC
 7 1174GC 1334VH      Acid Rain Storm      50   92   37   65  VH GC RC BC
 8 --                 Crazy Mule GC        50  124   15   55  VH RC GC BC
 9 1274NS             Sunspot Activity     57  128   28   10  VH RC GC BC
10 --                 Pest Attack RC       50  124   42   10  VH BC RC GC
11 --                 Acid Rain Storm      50   72   60   10  VH RC BC GC
12 --                 Transport Ship       36  112   27   10  VH BC RC GC

Edited May 28, 2019 by carlsson

[+therealbountybob]

I suspect carlsson the voileNt bonzoid will finish his 8 games this week and have to wait a month for us all to catch up

 

It's all good fun, might have another go later

[carlsson]

I could always post my excess scores in the old thread...

[Montrealer]

A M*U*L*E* Thread!?!?! Ok I'm not playing. But can anyone confirm that the game ends with the colony abandoning you on the planet? Like, I wasn't doing anything wrong as a kid?

[+therealbountybob]

A M*U*L*E* Thread!?!?! Ok I'm not playing. But can anyone confirm that the game ends with the colony abandoning you on the planet? Like, I wasn't doing anything wrong as a kid?

Sort of - you become the "First Founder" and it gives you a rating based on how well it thinks the colony will do such as "Live in Tents"

[+slx]

1st round 19.722

 

Tried to speculate in Crystite in round 11 but lost about 70$ on about 40 units....tried to buy up all Crystite but slipped on the stick which let the red player sell his Crystite to the store for 136 instead of my 60-something in round 12....

 

[carlsson]

I think the idea is that you get a "development" period of 6 (beginner) or 12 (standard and tournament) months, and after that the federation will evaluate your progress and let you keep going forever. Note that the IBM PC version, which was specifically ordered by IBM but not developed by Ozark Softscape, lets you run a game over 24 months. I understand that the amount of plots are not much more, so you get to play twice as long by fine tuning your plots and run actions. Honestly I never tried to play that game (though someone else did in the main M.U.L.E. thread) so I don't know which challenges you'll meet during the second half of the game.

[spookt]

Hmm, maybe it's time I learned how to play this game ...

[carlsson]

I'm sure there are tutorials on the web, otherwise someone might write down a few words? I held a talk on M.U.L.E. about ten years ago, but I'm not sure my audience understood very much of what I described.

[zzip]

A M*U*L*E* Thread!?!?! Ok I'm not playing. But can anyone confirm that the game ends with the colony abandoning you on the planet? Like, I wasn't doing anything wrong as a kid?

If you do poorly, it will tell you life will be hard and few trading ships will come your way