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First post, by Kerr Avon

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Oldbie

Finally! After only twenty-seven years, the ZX Spectrum gets a port of the arcade classic Mr Do! And it's *brilliant* 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀

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Like most home computers of the 1980s, the ZX Spectrum received many ports, both official and unofficial (or 'rip-offs', if you prefer) of popular arcade machines of the day. But for some reason, the Speccy never received an official port of Mr Do! (my all time favourite arcade game), instead only receiving a few half-hearted clones that weren't even remotely as good (and most were absolutely dire). A couple of decades later, a good imitator called Famer Jack in Harvest Havoc was released, but it still differed enough from Mr D! to not fill the void.

But now we have a port (albeit unofficial) and it really is Mr Do! the arcade game but in Spectrum format! It couldn't be more authentic and still run on the ol' Spectrum. The gameplay is identical, the graphics and sound have been expertly 'Spectrumised' from the arcade game, the speed and 'feel' of the game are spot on, and the only possible change I could wish for is that the game had been released back in the day as it would have been one of my most played games back in the Speccy years.

Of course, if you like Mr Do! but never had a Spectrum, then you'll just stick to running Mr Do! on MAME, and if you don't like Mr Do! then you're weird ( 😉 ).

The game is free, and can be downloaded from:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cvHHPKFey7gc … vvhfVHFrm2/view

If possible, play the game in 128K mode, so you have the continuous music.

The game isn't difficult to play (though it's difficult to get too far, in common with arcade games of the day), you have to either collect all of the cherrys, or if you prefer, kill all of the enemies, to advance to the next screen. You can kill enemies either with your bouncing ball, or by pushing/dropping an apple onto them (which doesn't kill all enemies). Kill the letter-enemies to spell 'EXTRA' to get another life. If you like, you can eat the food item at the centre of the screen, which releases the more capable enemies (which means potentially more points for you). The enemy AI seems straight forward enough, but occasionally one of them will do something that's either clever or lucky (fans have debated which it is, since the 1980s), and you'll pick up the game's rules as you go along.

For a review of the game, see:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COevHclenjM

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