Mr. Do! (Arcade)

Mr. Do! is an arcade game that was released by Universal in 1982. Game play is somewhat similar to Dig Dug. In Mr. Do! you play the role of a circus clown who digs tunnels and collects cherries while avoiding or defeating red monsters called creeps. Progressing to the next level can be accomplished in various ways. You can collect all of the cherries, destroy all the creeps, collect a diamond, or collect all the letters to spell EXTRA which you do by scoring enough points. Creeps can be defeated by digging under apples to crush them or by throwing your "power ball" at them.

Mr. Do! was very popular at the time of its release leading to a quick sequel, Mr. Do!'s castle. That game actually started life as a non-Mr. Do! game but was modified to reap the benefits of Mr. Do!'s popularity. Interestingly, the game is somewhat similar to Dig Dug and the games were released at almost the same time. Both were popular games at the time though Dig Dug seems to be the more widely recognized today.

Mr. Do! was ported to a wide variety of systems, including the Atari 2600, ColecoVision, Atari 8-bit computers, Commodore 64, Game Boy, Super Nintendo, Neo Geo, and Game Boy Color. The arcade version also found its way to the Wii Virtual Console in 2010.

Computer + Video Games (April 1991)

Computer & Video Games was the longest running video game magazine that I am aware of. It was published in the U.K. and seemed to avoid the fate of magazines like Electronic Games in the U.S. during the video game crash. Issue number 113 from April 1991 includes:

Computer Video Games (April 1991)

Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (293-296)

None of the photos in this set are labeled or dated but I'm guessing they were all taken from the late 1960s to early 1970s, probably in the Lansing, Michigan area. This is based on previous photos in this batch.

The first photo features some flowers, probably at the house of the photographer.

Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (293-296)

Centipede (Atari 5200)

Centipede (Atari 5200)

Centipede was another genre defining game by Atari. It was similar to Space Invaders in that you operated from the bottom the screen at things coming towards you. The differences are higher speed, more varied objects and the ability to move vertically to some degree. It was one further step towards the vertical scrolling shooters that would soon come along.

In Centipede, the goal is to destroy centipedes and other bugs that infest your garden. The centipede weaves its way back and forth across the screen, changing directions whenever it encounters a mushroom. Periodically other menaces will come along like the spider that bounces across the screen, the scorpion that crawls across or the flea that dive bombs you. To make things more difficult, the centipede breaks into multiple pieces any time you hit a part other than the head or tail. As levels progress, the bugs get faster and faster.

There were many home ports of centipede. The Atari 5200 version, which is essentially the same as the Atari 8-bit computer version, is a very good port and was a nice step up graphically from the Atari 2600 version. For the best experience you can use a trackball instead of a joystick to mimic the arcade experience.

There have been a number of releases of the arcade version of Centipede and the Atari 7800 version has been released via the Atari Flashback consoles. However, as far as I am aware there has never been a re-release of the Atari 5200 or Atari 8-bit versions. To play these you will have to track down some original hardware and software or resort to emulation. If you have never played centipede (and I can't imagine there are that many people who call themselves gamers that haven't), you should definitely try at least one version. The arcade version is best of course but the vast majority of home ports are very good as well. Even the Atari 2600 version plays well even if the graphics are a step down.