Do! Run Run

Do! Run Run is the last game in the Mr. Do! series, unless you count the incredibly late Neo Mr. Do! for the Neo Geo. Copyrighted 1984 by Universal, this game is probably the most overlooked of the four, although the entire group of games starring the clown who often carried a big white ball were pretty obscure way back when. This particular spot on the series sports rather impressive pseudo-3d graphics from a top-down perspective, at least for it's time. Aside from that, it's a dandy game to play, probably the least frustrating of all of the odd clown/monster games. Good luck finding a machine, though. Do! Run Run was only produced as a modification kit to Mr. Do's Wild Ride, an incredibly rare arcade cabinet in itself.

Do! Run Run was an old arcade game released by Universal way back in 1984 (in Japan this game is known as Super Pierrot).

Because of the video game crash of 1983, Universal decided to release their final Mr. DO! game as a conversion kit only, because the market for dedicated cabinets had all but dried up at this point. This was the last of the classic Mr. Do! series, coming after Mr. Do!, Mr. Do's Castle, and Mr. Do's Wild Ride. Although many years later the original was ported to the Neo Geo MVS (as Neo Mr. Do!).

Whoo hoo, this game is nothing but dot eating fun. You play the game one screen at a time, and each screen will be covered with dots, baddies, and will have a few logs thrown in to boot. What you are trying to do is either eat all the dots, or kill all the monsters.

There are two basic kinds of enemies (plus a few more that will sometimes escort the bonus letters). The first kind is a sort of green clam, these are slow moving and pose little danger to your Mr. Do!. But the second kind is fairly dangerous, it is a purple cartoon snake, and it will make quick rolling attacks at your poor little Do!, you must dodge these, as your powerball is ineffective against a rolling snake. Both enemy types will sometimes transform into a purple sightless unicorn if they manage to remain alive long enough, shoot the unicorns as soon as they appear, because you cannot outrun them over long distances.

Mr. Do! has two things to defend himself with. The first is the superball, he starts out carry this, simply toss it at an enemy, and they will vanish (you can also bounce the superball off of walls for a higher score). Your superball regenerates as you eat dots and fruit, and it is often a good idea to use it as soon as it regenerates (to take out yet another baddie). Your other weapon is the logs that are scattered around the game board. Simply push them, and they will roll down the screen, taking out anything in their path (including Mr. Do! if you are dumb enough to get in their way).

You leave a line behind you as you walk, when you meet your own line (creating a box), any dots inside the box will be upgraded to cherries, while cherries upgrade to apples, which upgrade to lemons, which finally upgrade to pineapples. You don't have to do any of this fruit upgrade stuff at all, but is the best way to rack up a lot of points.

You can collect letters to spell "EXTRA" to get a free man (just like all the other Mr. Do! games), although I have never actually been able to spell "EXTRA" before my game was over, who knows, you may have better luck.

This title was available only as a conversion kit (but it was a full kit that would fit any cabinet, not just a kit for other Mr. Do! games). This kit is fairly rare, and is almost impossible to find today (at least you probably won't find an uninstalled one). The kit contained a new PCB and a new graphics for the machine, the graphics were purple themed, and the marquee had a "DO! Run Run" logo superimposed over a purple geometric landscape with a blue line running randomly about it.

Do! Run Run ran on three Z80 processors, and actually shipped on an identical PCB to the one used for Mr. Do's Wild Ride, simply swapping the program ROMs will allow you to convert either one of these into each other. Bootleggers also ported this title to the very similar Mr. Do's Castle hardware, although that version is fairly rare. Several people online can make you new program ROMs to do these simple conversions (when converting Mr. Do's Castle, be sure to specify that you want "Do! Run Run (Do's Castle hardware)" ROMs, as the normal ones will not work).

As far as controls go, this game had a single 4-Way joystick mounted in the center of the control panel with a fire button on either side.

You will probably have to play this title with the MAME emulator, as original machines are rather hard to find.

If you want to add this game to your arcade game collection then your best bet is to put a kit together to convert another game, rather than trying to find an actual machine (as they will be expensive). Remember that you can cheaply convert the fairly common Mr. Do's Castle boardset if you are unable to find a Do! Run Run PCB.

I personally own a very nice Do! Run Run machine that is in an imported Japanese cabinet. It is almost flawless, and incredibly clean. It is very likely that it is the nicest example of this rare game left in the world.