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  • M.U.L.E.

    From magnusfalkirk@21:1/5 to All on Sat Apr 15 10:48:00 2023
    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

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  • From Joshua Bell@21:1/5 to magnusfalkirk on Sat Apr 15 19:58:39 2023
    On Saturday, April 15, 2023 at 10:48:02 AM UTC-7, magnusfalkirk wrote:
    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

    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?

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  • From fadden@21:1/5 to Joshua Bell on Sun Apr 16 08:20:53 2023
    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).

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