Previous Next

It's quite rare, in the post-mortem era of a system, that we get an arcade port. With the ability of emulators and re-releases, we've been able to play the original 'real deal' rather easily. But what if a game deserved to be remade? What if it was a game that was never ported and there were only a handful of sub-standard knock offs? Would that warrant someone to spend copious amounts of their spare time in creating a deserved conversion? Mr Do! on our beloved Speccy, believe it or not, never saw the light of day. Let's look at this little gem to see if all the blood, sweat and tears was worth it.

Mr Do! Was released in the arcades, way back in 1982, by Universal. It has a simple premise of digging tunnels in the dirt, collecting cherries and avoiding the creeps that lurk in the subterranean levels. I remember being a nine year old lad and in awe of the bright colours, conceptually simplistic gameplay alongside the loud tunes and sound effects. This was a magnet for my 10p coins. It was a sure-fire hit and in the USA alone, it sold 30,000 units.

It was ported across to many systems, with Mr Ee! on the BBC Micro being one of the best out there. I had to contend with a cheap substitute called Hard Cheese on my Spectrum. This clone was as good as it got back then and I was deeply envious of the aforementioned BBC masterpiece. I remember scuttling up to my mate's house often as he was one of the rare few I knew who owned such a device. It was sublime. Sadly, for the Spectrum, this felt like the ultimate game that got away.

Two years in the making, in their valuable spare time, Adrian and Mark have worked tirelessly away (in near secrecy) to try and bring the best possible conversion that the Speccy can manage. Best of friends since school, they've used their close bond in being able to work together in creating a game that can be easily scrutinized by the fan base. Mark R Jones is formerly a graphics artist from Ocean and has games such as Wizball and Gryzor on the Speccy on his C.V. Adrian previously released a text adventure called Gone Missin' way back in 1986.

A game of this stature needs no introduction, but if anyone out there has been living under a rock all his life, the concept is simple. You control Mr Do, who is a little clown fella. He likes to harvest cherries and safeguard them from the guzzling baddies. Each level can be completed in a number of ways; collecting all the cherries, or defeating all the monsters on the screen

Mr. Do dies if he touches one of the baddies or an apple falls on his head. The latter happens if the stable dirt is removed from the underside of the perilous fruit. This can also act as a weapon, crushing all creatures in its way as it plummets down. Creatures can also be killed by the player firing their powerball. There's quite an amount of strategies and nuances to the gameplay. Extra points are awarded for chain collection of cherries, different ways the player kills enemies and collecting the 'EXTRA' bonus, to name but a few. Each level gets progressively harder and obtaining a high score is easier said than done.

This conversion is remarkable in every way; the graphics, the sound and it's overall ambience. It plays like the arcade original and is highly addictive because of this. Yes, the colours aren't as garish as its coin-guzzling counterpart, but it looks so Spectrum-like - as in it looks of the era when the Spectrum was at its peak.

Every pinch of the essence of what made the original so good is captured here. I closed my eyes when playing this, I was convinced with those sweet sounds that I was back in the arcades. Audibly outstanding. The graphics tell the world that Mark Jones is back in the house. I genuinely think he's one talented artist and I was a big fan of his work back in the day. The sprites are all brilliantly animated and excellent replicas of the arcade.

There's very little to dislike in this game as it is as near a facsimile to the original as the Spectrum can possibly allow. I find there is a slight latency in the controls, but that is a minor niggle - I'd just be looking for excuses to mark it down.

This is one seriously faithful remake. This is also a remake of a game that the Spectrum should have had all those years ago. It amazes me, the dedication of programmers and artists alike who strive to give the 'as near as the arcade as possible' mindset. Mr. Do on the Speccy is 'Class in a glass' awesomeness!