M.U.L.E.

[magnusfalkirk]

I have an Atari 800xl, besides several Apple II's, and have been playing the game M.U.L.E. I'm curious if anyone knows why this game was never ported to the Apple II back in the day? Would there be any chance of someone looking at this and attempting to port it now?

Thanks,
magnus

[Joshua Bell]

The author, Dan Bunten, mentioned this in an article on ports in Computer Gaming World, December 1984. "The approach can be difficult to implement in some cases (e.g. M.U.L.E. can't be done for an Apple)." (Page 40) The context is an approach to porting of designing for the highest capability system, then cutting features when porting to other systems.

Challenge made, I guess?

[fadden]

On Saturday, April 15, 2023 at 7:58:41 PM UTC-7, Joshua Bell wrote:
> The author, Dan Bunten, mentioned this in an article on ports in Computer Gaming World, December 1984. "The approach can be difficult to implement in some cases (e.g. M.U.L.E. can't be done for an Apple)." (Page 40) The context is an approach to porting of designing for the highest capability system, then cutting features when porting to other systems.

I have a vague memory of the concern being the lack of dual joysticks for input, to allow two-player games. Atari systems allowed up to 4 joysticks, and often had two. The Apple II originally shipped with game paddles, though by 1983 a typical Apple II had a single joystick instead. Apple IIs with two joysticks were rare (see: Sirius Joyport).