Mr. Do
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Universal Co, LTD 1983
Atari 2600
Mr. Do is a pretty obscure arcade game released by Universal in 1982. The game plays close to Dig Dug, except instead of a little spaceman you control a clown with a ball, which you can throw at various monsters (called "Mini Dinos.") They ball goes ricocheting all over the place bouncing off walls and stuff so if you're slick you can nail a monster in a completely different part of the "maze." However the ball takes a sec to recharge inbetween throws and the dinos come back faster after you kill them. Instead of big rocks there are large golden apples that you can use to trick the dinos into squashing themselves. The point of the game is to dig various tunnels and collect all the cherries on screen. You get bonus points for collecting them all in a row without gaps (whereupon the musical notes from collecting them makes a little tune.) Occasionally one of the dinos will show up in the shape of a letter (called an "Alpha Monster.") Kill all of the letters in the word "EXTRA" and you get an extra life.
The translation looks pretty decent for an Atari 2600 game, there are some really heavy scan lines going on in the green background that look pretty ghetto (although this could have been an attempt to give the ground the same kind of "texture" that the arcade had.) The characters are decently sized and animated ok, although they seem to be made up of all one color. But they are describable for the most part, Mr. Do has a little floppy hat and even an eye on his face. The ball is just a few pixels that shoot out, but at least it acts like a ball does, i.e. bouncing around walls and stuff. Pretty much all of the elements from the arcade game are there, which is really all you can ask for. Sure the graphics and sounds are primitive, but the gameplay remains intact (which admittedly is pretty simple.) You can tell the attempt was made here for a quality translation which for the most part is successful.
Graphics: Well animated and detailed sprites for a 2600 game. True they are monochromatic, but at least you can tell what they are.
Sound: Bleeps, bloops, and the like. A nice rendition of the Mr. Do theme plays at the beginning of the rounds and when you pick cherries one after another.
Gameplay: Sort of like Dig Dug meets Pac-Man, derivative of both but the end product comes off well.