Just re-read a very thoughtful review of the retro M.U.L.E. It reminded me of a concept that Will Wright talked about called Emergence (in the evolutionary sense) where a game with a simple set of rules results in a much deeper experience. In plain English – it doesn’t take long to figure out what you can do in the game, but nailing the strategy isn’t so simple.
http://www.racketboy.com/retro/nintendo/nes/retro-masterpiece-mule
Matt
Atari 800 version was my favorite. loved the 4 joystick multiplayer the most and the 4 channel sound!
Just a thought: not to have to resolve the balance issues, you could take the original Atari version as a starting point and then “skin” the new graphics on top of it, that’s how you can avoid the complaints of the old-schoolers and save a lot of playtesting time. 🙂
Yes – we’re doing that with the C64 version (which should be the same, no?).
@Matt: Almost… 😉 I grew up playing the C64 version (in my country Atari 8-bit was very scarce), but nowadays I prefer emulated Atari M.U.L.E. fix. There are slight differences (C64 version has even a bug, you can’t catch the wampus in the topmost mountain) well discussed around many sites, and in case you don’t have the original source code, the Atari version’s quite well documented reverse-engineered source code is floating in the internet. So, as a late Atari convert, I would prefer the very first version as a starting point, but this small detail won’t be a deal-breaker for me! 🙂
Not surprising, after all Will *DID* dedicate the Sims to Dan…