Traders - The Intergalactic Trading Game

M.U.L.E. from 1983 is one of those games spoken about in gaming history with sacred reverence — yet hardly anyone has actually played it. Traders from 1992 by German developer Lineal is a direct attempt to claim a piece of that legacy. Without apology, without pretense. And you know what? It could have easily been a quiet hit if more people had known about it back then.

It's a multiplayer economic strategy game for up to four players on one computer, set in a space environment. Missing players are replaced by the computer, so you can play solo — though that's probably about as fun as playing Snakes and Ladders by yourself. The basics are classic: buy raw materials or goods where they're cheap, and sell them where they fetch a higher price. Meanwhile, keep an eye on what everyone else is doing, and try not to run out of money by the third round.

The game is built from several recurring phases — production, trading, auction — and this rhythm bears a strong resemblance to M.U.L.E. Controls with mouse or keyboard work smoothly, and the interface is clear by the standards of the time. Where the game slightly stumbles is in depth. The computer opponents aren't strategic masterminds, and if you don't have live competitors on hand, some of the magic fades away. This has always been the problem with the entire genre — without the human element, economic strategy is just an optimization exercise.

I remember how these turn-by-turn-at-the-monitor games could devour entire afternoons because each round brought different results depending on what anyone happened to try. Traders has that. Visually, it sits solidly in the middle of the era — VGA graphics, nothing that takes your breath away, but nothing that hurts your eyes either. Musically, it's probably AdLib or Sound Blaster backing that does its job and then fades from memory. The game has aged decently — the mechanics still work, you just can see they didn't have much room for tutorials or help for newcomers back then.

Today Traders appeals mainly to those who know M.U.L.E. and want something closely related, or nostalgics hunting for simple multiplayer economics without fifty tutorial screens. Anyone can fire it up in a browser via DOSBox, even those who've never sat at a command line. Four people at one monitor is a rare discipline these days, but for this game it's worth making an exception.