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MULE Decompilation


Kroah

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Hello everybody,

 

If you are a fan of the game MULE, on the Atari 800 XL, i've made a website about its decompilation:

http://bringerp.free.fr/RE/index.html

 

There, you can find an english document (software translated from french until i finish it) explaining the algorithms used in the game, the AI of the computers, the hidden rules and secrets...

 

If you have some questions about this game, its decompilation or for another Atari game, you can leave me a message on my decompilation forum.

 

I hope you are still a lot to play this wonderful game.

 

Regards,

Kroah

Edited by Kroah
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One thing I still dont understand is how the Colony is 'valued' at the end and why the Computer players dont buy or sell anything in the last round?

Yeah, i haven't put this online in the document yet.

 

For the score of the colony:

success = round of ( (total score - 10000) / 20000 )

success | score            | message
--------+------------------+---------
   0    |      0 to  19999 | OVERALL, THE COLONY FAILED... 
        |                  | DISMALLY.  THE FEDERATION DEBTORS' PRISON IS YOUR NEXT HOME
   1    |  20000 to  39999 | OVERALL, THE COLONY FAILED...
        |                  | THE FEDERATION WILL NO LONGER SEND TRADE SHIPS.  YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN
   2    |  40000 to  59999 | OVERALL, THE COLONY SURVIVED...
        |                  | BARELY.  YOU WILL BE LIVING IN TENTS.  FEW TRADING SHIPS WILL COME YOUR WAY
   3    |  60000 to  79999 | OVERALL, THE COLONY WAS A SUCCESS.
        |                  | YOU HAVE MET THE MINIMUM STANDARDS SET BY THE FEDERATION, BUT YOUR LIFE WILL NOT BE EASY
   4    |  80000 to  99999 | OVERALL, THE COLONY SUCCEEDED.
        |                  | THE FEDERATION IS PLEASED BY YOUR EFFORTS.  YOU WILL LIVE COMFORTABLY
   5    | 100000 to 119999 | OVERALL, THE COLONY SUCCEEDED...
        |                  |  EXTREMELY WELL.  YOU CAN NOW RETIRE IN ELEGANT ESTATES
   6    | 120000 to    +oo | OVERALL, THE COLONY DELIGHTED THE FEDERATION WITH YOUR EXCEPTIONAL ACHIEVEMENT.
        |                  | YOUR RETIREMENT WILL BE LUXURIOU

 

For the fact that the computer don't sell any good at the last round, is because the good value is lower if you sell than if you keep it. It's a bit long to explain here why, it will be online in a few days.

 

Regards,

Kroah

Edited by Kroah
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One thing I still dont understand is how the Colony is 'valued' at the end and why the Computer players dont buy or sell anything in the last round?

1017389[/snapback]

 

The computers don't do anything on the last round because the game assigns the store's current value to whatever goods you're holding anyway. You could sell everything, but you'd end up with the same score.

 

-Bry

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The computers don't do anything on the last round because the game assigns the store's current value to whatever goods you're holding anyway. You could sell everything, but you'd end up with the same score.

Yeah, it's almost correct.

 

* In fact, if no one sell anything:

- it's true for Crystite

- almost true for Smithore (because of the modulo)

- almost true for Food and Energy, because the value of the good is equal to the Buy@ price of the store + 15

 

* And the value of the good if someone sell at least 1 unit is equal to the average price of the units traded.

 

At the last round, you can try to sell some units at a high price to a friend, you'll see the good value to rocket.

 

You can find more informations of this in this thread:

http://atarimule.neotechgaming.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=57

 

Kroah

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I heard something else about this game where the C64 is more 'random' than the Atari version?

Yep, the C64 version is quite different from the Atari. For example, the Wampus can be caught several times on C64, but only one on Atari. I've never play on C64, so i can't tell more, but i've heard the same thing you said.

 

Kroah

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The document seems to indicate that doing an assay can help crystite production, where a plot is adjacent to one containing "high" levels.

Can you be a little more specific or paste some text please ?

 

The Assay don't change anything to the value of the deposite. It can help to choose a better plot with higher deposite and to know its neighbors (with the cross shape).

 

Maybe the translation has made mistakes on some words ?

 

Kroah

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The document seems to indicate that doing an assay can help crystite production, where a plot is adjacent to one containing "high" levels.

1017524[/snapback]

 

I don't think so. The computer players start out the game not knowing where the crystite is, but if they see an area with medium or high crystite, then they will know to expect crystite deposits in the adjacent areas. The actual amount of crystite won't change--just the computer players' expectations.

 

BTW, I know a little French, so if you find something in the translation confusing I can try to help. Another thing that may help is looking at the original document--some of the goofier parts of the translation are things that are originally in English.

 

"Standard gold Tournament with any race drank Flapper gold Human" is really "Standard OR Tournament with any race BUT Flapper OR Human".

 

"YOU JUST RECEIVED A RELATIVE PACKAGE FROM YOUR HOME-WORLD CONTAINING 3 FOOD AND 2 ENERGY UNITS." is really "YOU JUST RECEIVED A PACKAGE FROM YOUR HOME-WORLD RELATIVES CONTAINING 3 FOOD AND 2 ENERGY UNITS."

 

"WITH WANDERING SPACE TRAVELER REPAID YOUR HOSPITALITY BY LEAVING TWO BARS OF SMITHORE." is really "A WANDERING SPACE TRAVELER REPAID YOUR HOSPITALITY BY LEAVING TWO BARS OF SMITHORE."

 

"THE COLONY COUNCIL FOR AGRICULTURE AWARDED YOU $? FOR EACH FOOD STUD YOU CUTS DEVELOPED. TOTAL THE GRANT IS $?." is really "THE COLONY COUNCIL FOR AGRICULTURE AWARDED YOU $? FOR EACH FOOD PLOT YOU HAVE DEVELOPED. THE TOTAL GRANT IS $?."

 

"WITH CHARITY FROM YOUR HOME-WORLD TOOK PITY ONE YOU AND FEELS $?." is really "A CHARITY FROM YOUR HOME-WORLD TOOK PITY ON YOU AND SENT $?."

 

"WITH DISTANT RELATIVE DIED AND LEFT YOU A VAST FORTUNE. AFTER TAXES YOU ONLY GOT $ DRANK?." is really "A DISTANT RELATIVE DIED AND LEFT YOU A VAST FORTUNE. BUT AFTER TAXES YOU ONLY GOT $?."

 

"MISCHIEVOUS GLAC-ELVES BROKE INTO YOUR STORAGE SAW-TOOTH AND STOLE HALF YOUR FOOD." is really "MISCHIEVOUS GLAC-ELVES BROKE INTO YOUR STORAGE SHED AND STOLE HALF YOUR FOOD."

 

"DOES YOUR MINING MULES CUT DETERIORATED FROM HEAVY USES AND COST $? EACH TO REPAIR. TOTAL THE COST IS $?." is really "YOUR MINING MULES HAVE DETERIORATED FROM HEAVY USE AND COST $? EACH TO REPAIR. THE TOTAL COST IS $?."

 

"YOUR CHILD WAS BITTEN BY A BAT LIZARD AND THE HOSPITAL BILL COST YOU $?." is really "YOUR CHILD WAS BITTEN BY A BAT LIZARD AND THE HOSPITAL BILL COST YOU $?."

 

Mostly pretty clear, but some odd-seeming changes.

Edited by supercat
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Another thing that may help is looking at the original document--some of the goofier parts of the translation are things that are originally in English.

Mostly pretty clear, but some odd-seeming changes.

Yeah, at first i was using google and babel tanslation service (for www). But the length of the document translated was limited. This solution was good because it didn't try to translate the sentences already in english.

 

Now, i use a software from Systran, it's not limited in length, pretty fast, but it try to translate the english part. To avoid this, i can put some tags in the document, but i should remove them when i'll translate it manually.

 

That's why for now you'll find very strange things like double-translated sentences... Next week, i'll translate it manually.

 

Sorry for the convenience.

 

Kroah

Edited by Kroah
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  • 6 years later...

Very interesting - You can see how much thought was put into every part of that game!

 

One thing I still dont understand is how the Colony is 'valued' at the end and why the Computer players dont buy or sell anything in the last round?

 

As I understand it, it's because your "Goods" are worth more than their monetary value. If you sell it you loose that goods score. Crystite you pretty much hold onto and pray that pirates don't show up.

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It's one of those loose ends that they could have gone various ways with.

 

For me it seemed sort of odd playing it that even though it was "game over" the colony still continues and as such the buy/sell phase should go normally in the last turn, even though of course you don't need anything for the not-happening 13th round.

 

I made a hack some time ago where it went to 16 months but IIRC it didn't play real well after 12 since obviously a lot of the behaviours don't cater for the added time.

 

Like others I also tried and experienced the influence of buy/sell in the last round on the overall value, so it's good to have this stuff documented.

 

There's a thread around somewhere re an intended TI-99a conversion - that'd be an interesting project, especially if someone does as a direct translation from the 6502 code. Hellish job for sure, but has been done e.g. with Z80->6502 code for ZX/Spec games.

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I guess the last round just let's you see how you've done and what the final prices were - no need to trade anything...

 

Hey it's the 30th anniversary of M.U.L.E. this year and to celebrate I've started a thread in the High Score Club for all M.U.L.E. Scores from 2013 - It's just a bit of fun all the details are on the post, everyone is welcome to post their M.U.L.E. scores at any time :)

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I'd not seen this thread first time around, the deciation to the 'decompilation' was extreme, the game must have had a huge effect on him :)

 

I really liked the game, it was one of my Atari User reviews and I played the pants off of it.

 

Odd Trivia: The first game where I'd heard of a designer having a sex change, Dan Bunten became Danielle Bunten (Berry)but sadly died in 98.

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Wow, William Mataga......I must have missed that on the Giant Book of Programmers..(Not that I go searching for sex changes on lists like that :) )

 

Really must read a manual for Zeppelin after all these years to work out if I'm doing stuff right :)

 

Cheers for the info Rybags..

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There's a thread around somewhere re an intended TI-99a conversion - that'd be an interesting project, especially if someone does as a direct translation from the 6502 code. Hellish job for sure, but has been done e.g. with Z80->6502 code for ZX/Spec games.

If the rules/math is well documented, I think it would be easier to implement from scratch.

Since the graphics hardware is very different you'd be doing that a lot anyway.

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