Mr. Do's Castle
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| Mr. Do's Castle | |
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| Developer(s) | Universal |
| Publisher(s) | Taito |
| Release date(s) | 1983 |
| Genre(s) | Retro/Puzzle |
| Mode(s) | Up to 2 players, alternating turns |
| Platform(s) | Arcade |
| Input | Joystick |
| Arcade cabinet | Upright and Cocktail |
| Arcade system(s) | Main CPU: Z80 (@3.9 MHz), 2 × Z80 (@4 MHz) Sound Chips: 4x SN76496 (@4 MHz) |
| Arcade display | Raster resolution 192×240 (Vertical) Palette Colors 258 |
Mr. Do's Castle is an arcade game created by Universal in September of 1983. The Asian title of the game is Mr. Do versus the Unicorn. Though marketed as a sequel to the original Mr. Do! released one year earlier, the game bears a far closer resemblance to Space Panic, one of the earliest arcade video games. It is the second of the Mr. Do series of video games.
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[edit] Gameplay
The same clown introduced in the original Mr. Do! returns, only this time, instead of dwelling in a subterranean cherry orchard, he inhabits a seven-story castle, using ladders to travel between floors. Some of these ladders have a vertical orientation and are fixed in place, while others have a diagonal orientation which can be changed, from the left to the right or vice versa, by kicking them at the top, much the same way as one would flip the kick stand of a bicycle.
At the beginning of each level, or "scene," six Mini-Dinos generally characterized as unicorns, move from the top story of the castle toward the clown, who is situated on the ground floor when play begins. On every floor except the top and bottom floors, there are blocks, with different symbols on them. Some of the blocks have a cherry on them, three of them are adorned with keys, and pairs of skulls also appear, with two or three cherried blocks in between. The clown is armed with a hammer, the primary use of which is to knock the blocks loose, after which the block will fall to the floor below (and then disappear), or more than one floor if the block(s) directly below had also been previously knocked out.
There are many different scenarios for the destruction of the Mini-Dinos, The simplest way is to wait for one or more of them to pass directly beneath where the clown is standing; the player then pushes the button on the console which controls the hammer (a joystick is used to move the clown up, down or sideways), and the block falls on the Mini Dino, crushing it. When a Mini-Dino encounters a hole left by a previously knocked-out block, it will stop to fill the hole back in (however the replacement block will not have a cherry, key or skull on it even if the block originally situated there did), taking several seconds to accomplish this; thus it is possible for the player to knock out a vertical of row of blocks, climb the ladders to a point one floor above the highest knocked-out block in that row, wait for a unicorn to move into each hole to fill it in, and then swing the hammer, thereby destroying multiple Mini- Dinos with one swing. The horizontal row of blocks flanked by a skull at each end is also used for this purpose: The player knocks out one skull first, followed by the two or three intervening blocks, then waits for the unicorns to start filling these blocks back in; finally the other block marked with a skull is knocked out, and any and all unicorns on that platform, whether they were in the act of filling in a hole or not, are destroyed (except that a unicorn very close to the clown could survive, especially in the more advanced scenes).
Besides destroying the Mini- Dinos, there are three other modes of defense: One is to flip the top of a diagonal ladder to make it go up in the other direction; this detours the Mini-Dinos. Another is to swing the hammer at a Mini-Dino; while this does not bring about its destruction, it does force the unicorn to retreat momentarily; however it causes the Mini-Dino to change from its original red color to a lime green, which also enables that Mini-Dino to move faster; and swatting a lime-green Mini-Dino with the hammer causes it to turn blue, and makes it even faster and more aggressive (hammering a Mini-Dino that is in the act of filling in a hole will dislodge it from the hole and cause it to fall). The clown can also escape the Mini-Dinos by jumping down from one floor to the floor below; or even fall multiple floors through holes left by previously knocked-out blocks — without losing a life, unless the clown happens to hit a unicorn during the fall (and not even then if this unicorn was the last one remaining on the board, in which case the scene successfully ends).
When all three blocks bearing keys are knocked out, a large set of double doors on the top floor of the castle swings open, and inside is a magic shield. If the clown then runs over the shield, all Mini-Dinos still on the board turn into Alphamonsters, each wearing one of the five letters in the word "EXTRA." The player then has approximately 10 seconds to chase down as many of the Alphamonsters as possible (they change back to Mini-Dinos at the end of this interval), with each one successfully destroyed causing a flag bearing the corresponding letter in the word "EXTRA" to be raised on one of the five flagpoles at the top of the castle (the Alphamonsters are also easier to destroy than the Mini-Dinos, as they can be destroyed by whacking them over the head with the hammer, in addition to the other methods outlined above). Once all five different letters are collected (either in the same scene or in multiple scenes) an extra life is awarded, plus the player advances to the next scene. Advancement to the next scene is also achieved by knocking out all of the blocks with cherries on them, or by destroying all of the Mini-Dinos. Rarely, as in the original Mr. Do!, a diamond will appear somewhere on the board; running over this diamond results in a free game being awarded, and also ends that scene.
The player begins the game with three lives, and acquires additional lives as described above; a life is lost when any of the Mini-Dinos comes into contact with the clown. Sometimes an extra life is also given out for earning a certain number of points, most commonly 10,000 (this score will usually be attained either late in the first scene or early in the second).
If the player takes too long to clear the board, the remaining Mini-Dinos will turn into Driller Dinos, even if they had not yet turned lime green from being hit with the hammer; and soon after turning blue, the Driller Dinos begin to multiply, making completion of the board extremely difficult. In the more advanced scenes, at least one of the Mini- Dinos will already be Driller Dinos when the scene starts; the Mini-Dinos also move steadily faster with each scene.
At the end of the game, if the player's score was one of the ten highest since power to the machine had last been turned on, the player's initials may be posted beside the score, which appears in the appropriate position among the top ten scores.
[edit] Ports
Given its popularity, Mr. Do's Castle was ported to even more systems than Mr. Do was. It was ported to the ColecoVision,MSX , Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Commodore 64 and others. Just like with the original, however, it was made by a fairly minor gaming company, so it has not been included in classic game compilations.
[edit] Legacy
Mr. Do's Castle had two games ahead of it, both of which were fairly unsuccessful. Mr. Do's Wild Ride and Do! Run Run were both released in 1984.
