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Happy Birthday to M.U.L.E.<\/em><\/a>, which turns 25 today! Interestingly enough, M.U.L.E.<\/em> was actually SKU #1 for EA, marking quite an impressive debut. Although the game was essentially a flop – selling around 30,000 copies for the Atari 400\/800 and Commodore 64 – it is remembered today as one of the most innovative, compelling, and fun<\/em> social games ever made. I have made<\/a> the comparison before, but M.U.L.E.<\/em> and its designer (Dan\/Dani Bunten) are our industry’s Velvet Underground<\/a>. The old joke about the Velvets was that only a few thousand people ever bought their albums, but all of them went out to start their own bands. So it is with Bunten. Will Wright dedicated The Sims<\/em> to her. Sid Meier inducted her (posthumously) into the AIAS Hall of Fame. Warren Spector revised his top 10<\/a> to include M.U.L.E.<\/em> Raph Koster routinely references it as the perfect multiplayer game. The list goes on and on.<\/p>\n Tragically, there is no way to play M.U.L.E.<\/em> on modern systems. Emulators (or old computers) are the only options. Personally, I’ve been able to get it working on the CCS64<\/a> Commodore 64 Emulator. Here are some links for further M.U.L.E.<\/em> reading:<\/p>\n M.U.L.E.<\/em> Strategy Wiki<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n The Gamer’s Quarter interviews M.U.L.E. developers<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n Salon article on Bunten’s career<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n Dani’s game design homepage<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Happy Birthday to M.U.L.E., which turns 25 today! Interestingly enough, M.U.L.E. was actually SKU #1 for EA, marking quite an impressive debut. Although the game was essentially a flop – selling around 30,000 copies for the Atari 400\/800 and Commodore … Continue reading