I remember getting a pirated copy of this game many years ago. A friend at school would give me bootlegged disks and this was one of the games. I would just get the disk, and no instructions. I think I played it a little, but didn't get into it. I didn't really understand how to play. Maybe I had seen a review in a magazine with some details.

My Dad was an economist. When he saw this game, he was really impressed by the interface. He thought it had some really interesting ideas, like the auction mode. If I remember correctly, he thought it could help as a teaching aid.

Nice to see it back. I'll have to try it again.

We had an extra metagame where if nobody was doing business with you you could try to wrestle the controller from their hands and make your own deals.

Yeah the 4-player realtime auction really made the game. The two best Atari games I remember playing are Archon and M.U.L.E.

Agreed. It so perfectly modeled supply and demand to me as a kid

Absolutely! A simple, visual, intuitive, and interactive way to perform an auction.