Old Game Tuesday - M.U.L.E.
Apr 22, 2008 PC Games
M.U.L.E. holds the distinction of being the game I’ve probably played the longest. I was first exposed to it on my old Commodore 64, and though there are many classics from that era (which may be covered here in the future), this is the one that has kept my interest continually since then.
M.U.L.E. is a game of economic strategy. You begin as colonists on the planet Irata (it’s Atari backwards, you see). The goal is to build up the colony for a set period of time based on the difficulty level chosen, and individually, to build your wealth. Up to four players could participate, either human or computer, and there were multiple ’species’ to choose from with various bonuses or handicaps. Each pioneer picks plots of land (with an occasional auction of additional plots) and then takes turns working them. The M.U.L.E.s (Multiple Use Labor Elements) themselves are robotic assistants that are outfitted with equipment to harvest Food, Energy, Smithore (to make more M.U.L.E.s) and Crystite (in Tournament mode). After each player has their turn, their plots of land experience their growth cycle, assuming they have a M.U.L.E. on them that is outfitted properly. Oh, and there is a bit of game balance each turn. The player with the lowest score gets a boon (bonus money from an inheritance, etc.) and the player with the highest gets smacked down a bit (darn glak-elves).
Next up is the auction…and here’s where it gets nasty. Each player gets a chance to buy and sell the various commodities, either to other players or the store. The store runs out at times, though, forcing you to rely on the other players for what you need to survive. Not enough energy, some of your plots go fallow. No food, and you have very little time to work your plots. If the colony has no smithore, no more M.U.L.E.s, or the cost of them go up. There is a fine line, you want to be the winner, but if the colony collapses, you all lose. You can try and hoard all the energy and force your opponents to pay through the nose - they even provided a way to collude with another player as a feature - but an ill-timed global event (pirates stealing all the smithore!) could be disastrous.
The game was developed by Dan (later Dani) Bunten, who also made several other favorites of mine, Seven Cities of Gold and Command HQ. She pioneered several features that are commonplace in games now, including multiplayer and modem/network gaming. M.U.L.E. is widely available via emulation, with the original Atari 800 version being the most popular. I’ll link it up tonight if I get a chance. Now I’m off to hunt the mountain wampus…
edit: Here’s the link, just go to the download page and pick your version of Windows. Has everything you need. You can even play over the network or internet with a bit of work.
Tags: bunten, games, gaming, m.u.l.e., ogt, pc games, pc gaming, wampus
Three Games in Four Nights
Apr 22, 2008 NHL
With the Sabres’ season over earlier than the last two seasons, I thought I’d take a look at something that seems to happen to the Sabres more than other teams - playing 3 games in 4 nights - and see if there is any reason to fear it.
My unofficial count showed 14 instances of 3 in 4 for the Sabres (may have missed one), for a total of 42 games. They got 53 out of a possible 84 points in those games (63% of possible points). Buffalo’s record in those games? 25-14-3. The record in the other games was 14-17-9. Pretty surprising, isn’t it? Were all the 3in4’s making the team tired for the other games, then? Buffalo won all 3 games of these 3in4’s 4 times, and lost all 3 (in regulation, OT or SO) only once. They went 1-2 5 times (including an OTL in one of those) and 2-1 4 times (again, including an OTL for one of the losses). Didn’t see much correlation between home and away for these either, as some of the 3-0 series had 2 travel days (either home/away/home or away/home/away).
A bit later, I’m going to take a lot at some of the other playoff teams that squeaked into the Eastern Conference playoffs and see if they fared better or worse.
Tags: 3 games in 4 nights, 3in4, B-Lo Sports, Hockey, NHL, playoffs, sabres, three games in four nights
