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last updated May 23, 2009 10:41 PM |
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Universal
Mr. Do!
Names are usually linked
to K.L.O.V.1.
Flyer links go to GameArchive's flyer database.
Marquees and machines are sometimes linked to larger images.
![[Mr Do! marquee]](images/mrdo/mrdomarqueered.jpg)
(click on the marquee for some other Mr. Do! marquee images)
I think what I'll do with some of this space is describe WHY I feel Mr. Do! is so much superior to Dig Dug. Do not interpret this as Dig Dug or Atari bashing. I recognize the appeal of Dig Dug, and, as many of you know, I LOVE Atari!
Meanwhile,
here are the ROM's...
and the pinouts...
and the dipswitch
settings...
Why is Mr. Do! Such an Excellent Game?
1) EXTRA MEN:One of the things that made Mr. Do! greater than
MOST other games was its
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On the one hand you had the Pac-Man family, the Donkey Kong family and many others that gave you an extra man at one predetermined score. Usually that score was low enough to reach on the second screen, if not the first. At that point game play no longer had anything to do with extra men. Sometimes you were notified of your new player by some audible signal while game play was going on. Some games, like Dig Dug and Battlezone, would have a second predetermined score where you could gain another man.
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The other method popular at the time, especially with William's, was the Joust, Robotron, Defender, Galaga and yes, even the Centipede and Gyruss way. These games would give you a free man at predetermined intervals in the scoring, such as every 10,000, 12,000, or 20,000 points. Gyruss and Galaga gave an initial freebee at a low score like 10,000, and then at larger intervals such as every 50,000 or 70,000. |
| The creators of Mr. Do! handled this quite differently. Gaining extra men became an intricate part of the game play. Something that was always on your mind as you played and that you could strategically plan for. Your extra man strategy could make or break your game. |      |
by defeating certain enemies that had letters in their stomachs. You
could shoot them...
or 
just like all the other bad guys.These characters would enter the screen from the letter box
at the top. This would happen every 5,000 points, or whenever Do ate the treat in
the middle of the screen. By timing it right you could get up to 3 letters on the
first screen without dying. You had to time it right though, because a moving
pointer 
would indicate which letter was coming out next.
You really have to play the game to fully realize how much this element adds to the game play. For instance, spelling EXTRA would automatically end a scene (providing you with a stunning cut-scene), so you didn't always just want to shoot that last letter right away...
Also, if you got your last letter but died in the attempt, your little clown would come back to life... Nice touch!
2) INFORMATION:
| After every third 'scene', instead of your typical intermission, Mr. Do! displays statistics for the previous group of 'scenes'. This includes how many points were accumulated and how much time was spent on each screen. Also an indication of how each scene came to an end is given by an icon. In the screen shot here we see that scene 6 ended with a diamond (more on that later) and that scenes 4 and 5 ended by destroying all enemies. |  |
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After every tenth scene, we see the same stats for
the previous scene and also an average score and time per screen! What other game
comes close to providing this kind of information to the player? Most don't even
give this info to the machine owner! (Centipede gives
average time per game during machine testing.) You'll notice here that scene 10 ended with receiving an extra Do. Also, the high score board shows 10 scores, including scene level and time duration of the game.
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3) FREE GAMES 
| How many video games can you name that award a player with a free game? I can think of two... Tehkan's Pinball Action (of course trying to mimic a pinball machine, and man, was it hard to get!), and our friend, Mr. Do! |  |
 |
 Every
once in awhile a diamond would appear at random from the center of a bursting apple.
If our hero was able to get the diamond before it disappeared or the scene ended
the player was awarded with a  ! Yes, an
actual CREDIT! This was a total random occurrence though, and may not happen in a
whole night, or, as was the case when I was preparing these screen shots, you could win 2
in one game! I'll have to check my MAME settings! :) |
4) MISC. OTHER FACTORS
The music is great, the colours are great, and on and on it goes...
My machine looks like this...
and game-play looks like this...
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Things I still would like
for this machine:
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