M.U.L.E.

1001 Video Games

M.U.L.E. appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Cancelled successor

Despite the popularity of M.U.L.E. and the game's cult status, an official sequel or remake was never released. At least one version was in development, however. Developed by the German programming team Infernal Byte Systems exclusively for the Amiga, Deluxe M.U.L.E. was in the works in 1990. Aside from updated graphics and sound, the gameplay would remain mostly unchanged, with two exceptions: the terrain would be randomly generated, and players would be able to build weapons arrays to defend against space pirates. Deluxe M.U.L.E. was never released, because of both programming troubles and Electronic Arts revoking the license.

Sources: Power Play magazine 8/90 and 10/92

Inspiration

The game was inspired by the novel Time Enough for Love by writer Robert A. Heinlein. The book describes among others colonists using genetically engineered mules.

References

M.U.L.E. was originally released for the Atari 400/800 home computer system. This fact explains the name of the planet your intrepid planeteers cultivate: IRATA. Spell it backwards. The planet name appears in both the C64 and Atari versions.

Awards

• Computer Gaming World
  • March 1988 (Issue #45) – Introduced into the Hall of Fame
  • November 1996 (15th anniversary issue) - #3 in the “150 Best Games of All Time” list
• GameSpy
  • 2001 – #25 Top Game of All Time
• GameStar (Germany)
  • Issue 03/2013 – One of the "Ten Best C64 Games“

Information also contributed by FatherJack, Indra was here, PCGamer77, and Terok Nor