A key element in the story for Crystal Caves: Slugging it Out is the MULE War of Irata 6 - The Galactic Medical Conglomeration is in dire need of medicinal slugs to aid those in the War on Irata 6 - and Mylo's planning to cash in on this need by raising Medicinal Slugs, only, he needs to buy a farm to raise them on, which is the reason he is mining this time around. It should be noted that the MULE war does not involve Mules (i.e, the animal). Something you may have thought true, not knowing it's refrence.


A game called M.U.L.E was released in 1983 by Electronic Arts' team lead by the then Dan Bunten - it was the first mass-marketed multi-player game - ever. And is considered to be the most pirated game ever, too. M.U.L.E was originally for the Atari 800 and the Commodore 64 systems.

The point of M.U.L.E is to colonize the planet Irata with the help of a M.U.L.E (Multiple Use Labour Element). Up to four players (with the computer substituting if there's less than four people playing) must compete against each other to be the first to colonize Irata (which is, as stated in many MULE related places, 'Atari' spelt backward). The player with the most points at the end wins, but only if their colony survives.

M.U.L.E has won many awards for its achievments, some of which are: the GOTCHA (Gaming Obsession Throughout Computer History Award) for Best Strategy Game of 1983, Electronic Games Magazine's "Best Multi-Player Game of the Year" award, and in 1998, Dani Bunten, the creator of M.U.L.E. was given the Computer Game Developers Association's Lifetime Achievement Award. Will Wright even dedicated The Sims to her.

Frank Maddin, author of Crystal Caves, has confirmed that George Broussard was responsible for the M.U.L.E. refrence.


You can read more about M.U.L.E and Dani Bunten in the links below:

http://weber.ucsd.edu/~amany/mule.html
http://www.digitpress.com/reviews/mule.htm
http://www.texaschapbookpress.com/magellanslog48/mulebackstory.htm

http://www.happypuppy.com/features/editorials/danibuntenb-ed-1.html