
Dan Bunten and M.U.L.E.  - evo_9
http://www.filfre.net/2013/02/dan-bunten-and-m-u-l-e/
======
burmask
It's fun to compete with two or four friends. Typically everyone fights and
there's little progress made by anyone. I think it's interesting to control
the market and see how many collective points can be achieved by all players.
Playing all four players cooperatively, I choose plot installations based on
maximizing the plot of land, not out of necessity. I shared food and energy so
all four players had some, every turn. Smithore was used to create mules, so I
would grab mules, without installations, and drop them in the middle of no
where to drive the price up. I can remember in one turn with four players, I
could drop a whole pen of 15 mules. Naturally, since I owned all the Smithore
and drove the price up, it payed well every turn. Crystite, however, is tricky
to figure. I could never determine what drives the price fluctuations with
Crystite. Seemed to be random.

Best part of the game, is the auction view. Cool UI. Buyers on the bottom and
seller on the top. Moving up and down changes the price as the auction timer
ticks away. Every turn, there's a lot of action in the auctions depending on
the type of play going on, needs of the other players, and prices of the
commodities being traded.

As +fidotron states, it is profoundly brilliant. Please check it out.

~~~
ansible
My friends and I in college had a blast playing it on the C64. One of them
would occasionally buy and release mules, more to screw over the other players
that wanted to deploy them for production, but I'm sure driving up the price
of smithore was also a benefit. Good times.

~~~
bane
"One of them would occasionally buy and release mules, more to screw over the
other players that wanted to deploy them for production"

I believe Apple has even used this approach at various times with memory and
displays.

------
MCRed
I don't know what the protocol is, but she transitioned and was named Danielle
Bunten Berry. She died in 1998.

I guess since the article considers a time when she used her male name, I
believe most trans people consider their real gender to have been set at birth
and would generally prefer to be referred to by their chosen name. Since she's
deceased, I prefer her chosen name.

Certainly one of the early pioneers in game development.

~~~
dalke
The protocol by the series author is explained in more detail at
[http://www.filfre.net/2013/08/seven-cities-of-
gold/](http://www.filfre.net/2013/08/seven-cities-of-gold/) , which I copy
here:

> That said, you’ve surely noticed that I continue to refer to Dani as “Dan”
> and “he” in the article above. I understand the logic of those who would say
> that Dani was always a woman, merely one who was by an accident of birth
> born into a man’s body. Certainly this is the argument most advocates for
> transsexual rights would make. For myself, I am all for transsexual rights,
> but also believe that gender and sexual identity may be more fluid than much
> transsexual rhetoric would have it. In the end, I have continued to opt for
> clarity and reality as all of Dani’s friends and colleagues knew it in the
> 1980s: of her being the man Dan Bunten. Referring to “Dani” and “she” in
> these articles would be confusing to the reader and at least at some level
> anachronistic, opposed to the consensus reality shared by everyone around
> her. I understand that this decision may not seem ideal to everyone, and
> even that it runs counter to some journalistic style guidelines. If you
> disagree with it, I can only ask you to believe me when I say it was made in
> good faith, with no intention to slight. For what it’s worth, reports are
> that post-op Dani was never offended in the least about being referred to as
> a man when conversations came around to her years of living as Dan.

~~~
MCRed
Yeah, this is a guy who says reality is she wasn't a she, which sounds pretty
much like transphobia to me.

So, he doesn't get to set protocol.

~~~
dalke
I believe you are reading the text too lightly. "Consensus reality shared by
everyone around her" and "reality as all of Dani’s friends and colleagues knew
it" is an explicit way to say that this was not "reality" but only what people
believed was reality in the early 1980s.

I thought I understood what you meant by "set protocol." Now I don't. Could
you tell me what it means? Why doesn't he get to set the protocol? (You may
disagree with it, but that's different, no?) If not the author, who does? The
subject? If the author is correct, then "post-op Dani was never offended in
the least about being referred to as a man when conversations came around to
her years of living as Dan."

The blog series is a historical progression of the evolution of computer
games, with an emphasis on adventure-style games. It tries to place the reader
in the context of the times, and include quotes culled from various
references. At that time, she was known as the man Dan Bunten.

Consider the quote "(Speakeasy’s founder Brian Beninger: “Dan called out of
the blue one day and spoke to Toni [Brian's wife]. She had never experienced
an accent from the southern United States and had trouble understanding
him…”)". Should the author rewrite the quote to use "Dani"/"her" instead of
"Dan"/"him"?

BTW, are you basing your response only on the first essay and the single
quoted paragraph from the second essay I linked to? Because the author goes
into more detail which I didn't quote but might be relevant. Based on the
paragraph previous to the one I quoted, I believe the author has decided the
protocol will be to include a bit of explanation of future events, before
settling in on a non-anachronistic telling. For example, Bunten is not the
only important trans individual in gaming. Consider
[http://www.filfre.net/2014/03/10/](http://www.filfre.net/2014/03/10/) :

> According to Hales, it was he and another of Wolosenko’s favorite
> programmers, William Mataga, who planted the idea of doing adventure games
> in Wolosenko’s head in late 1983. (William Mataga had a sex change some
> years ago and now lives as Cathryn Mataga. I refer to her by her previous
> name and gender in this article only to avoid historical anachronisms.)

I think this is similar to, say, a history of Malcom X which covers the
historical period when he was still called by his slave name of Little, or of
"many young women [in the feminist movement of the 1960s who] changed their
patronyms to more descriptive ones or dropped them altogether", quoting from
Jo Freemen's description of her movement name Joreen.

------
300bps
I don't care about Dan Bunten's sexuality any more than I care about President
Obama's or a billions long list of other people.

What I do know is that M.U.L.E. Is one of the greatest games I played as a
child on my Commodore 64. Unlike many other games of the era, I still have fun
playing it when I fire it up in an emulator. Saw in a comment in the site
about www.mulereturns.com. Will have to buy that for my kids today.

~~~
PhasmaFelis
> _I don 't care about Dan Bunten's sexuality any more than I care about
> President Obama's or a billions long list of other people._

Then why mention it?

~~~
muhuk
Perhaps because the author of OP was flamed in the comments for using the male
identity.

See:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7929436](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7929436)

------
fidotron
I need to just say M.U.L.E. is profoundly brilliant. If you have not played it
leave HN now and work out how to do so, play it, then come back. It is one of
those games that teaches you about things, in this case economics, brilliantly
indirectly.

~~~
phaggocytosis
It's been recreated/ported recently to iOS and I think they did a great job:
[https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mule-
returns/id629126149](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mule-returns/id629126149)

~~~
cstuder
It's a great port, but unfortunately multiplayer isn't yet implemented and
"will be coming soon" for almost a year yet.

I haven't given up hope, though. Some of my favorite gaming memories in my
family are due to M.U.L.E.

------
Pxtl
Born in the wrong era, I guess. Today we have the resurgent boardgaming
industry embracing innovative designs for social gaming, and in the late '90s,
the N64 made 4-player group gaming into a booming genre.

Not to mention the progress with transgendered life.

------
MakeMake
There is a OpenGL (3.3+) remake for Linux/OSX available here:
[http://www.yousry.de/c-o-o-l-the-game/](http://www.yousry.de/c-o-o-l-the-
game/).

Multiplayer mode with up-to four players. Gamepad support and almost original
ruleset for auctions. The land exploration is crea

The Linux version is free.

------
GeoffreySteven
M.U.L.E is my one of my all time favourite game of the 80s. It inspired me to
dive into technology. It is still impressive even by todays standards.

I am proud to say that I still own a Commodore 64 and my original floppy still
works after 30 years. Shocking frankly.

Ironically, my teenage son become so good he can beat me fair and square. :)

------
Flynn
What an amazing game. I still play it from time to time with my kids. It does
teach a lot of things, including a taste for gambling (and not at the pub.)
When you learn to hold crystite to wait for a high price, but the pirates
haven't hit yet....

