The M.U.L.E. Machines: Atari 800

M.U.L.E. was originally written on the Atari 800 computer in 1983. The Atari 800 was a real dinosaur that had already been released in 1979 and was discontinued in 1983. It was powered by the MOS Technology 6502 processor and had 48KB RAM as well as four joystick ports which M.U.L.E. was designed for.

Successor of the Atari 800 was the Atari 800XL which was released about the same time as M.U.L.E. in late 1983. The XL came with 64KB of memory but unfortunately had only two joystick ports.

The Atari 800XL with its two joystick ports

We played M.U.L.E. from 1985 to 1999 solely on our Commodore 64 computers, until I found my first Atari 8-bit computer on a flea market and acquired a copy of M.U.L.E. for the Atari on eBay.

Today we use both systems alternately, the Commodore C64 and the Atari 800 or an Atari 800XL.