Mr Do coming soon to Spectrum

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Einar Saukas
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Re: Mr Do coming soon to Spectrum

Post by Einar Saukas »

Colour clash in these pictures seem to work just fine. As if the player's lamp is casting a bright light at the dark tunnel walls nearby...
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Blerkotron
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Re: Mr Do coming soon to Spectrum

Post by Blerkotron »

This is one of my all-time favourite arcade games! I wanted a Speccy conversion so much back in the day but alas it was never to be. And yet somehow, here it is - 36 years late, granted, but better late than never. :)
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Morkin
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Re: Mr Do coming soon to Spectrum

Post by Morkin »

Will be interested to try this when it's done.

I guess it would have been pretty much impossible to avoid colour clash on this port, as long as it plays nicely I'll be happy.. :)
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Adrian_Singh
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Re: Mr Do coming soon to Spectrum

Post by Adrian_Singh »

Just to update this thread...

After many many hard spent hours it's finally completed and available to download from here https://t.co/82KLCDSsOZ

Note it's primarily for the 128K Spectrum but will play on the 48K (but with a much more muted experience!)

Image

It's been one hell of a steep learning curve going from simply making pokes all those years ago to writing an actual full game. I have a lot of respect for anyone who undertakes such a task on the humble ZX Spectrum!

Hunting down and fixing bugs in Z80 code is painful and I have to thank Mark Woodmass ([mention]Woodster[/mention]) for his excellent SpecEmu which I used all the way through development.

A special thanks to Mark R. Jones my old school friend for all of the encouragement and the wonderful graphics he provided taking great care over every pixel!
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arkannoyed
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Re: Mr Do coming soon to Spectrum

Post by arkannoyed »

Remarkable achievement. Well done! Can’t wait to play this later.
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Ast A. Moore
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Re: Mr Do coming soon to Spectrum

Post by Ast A. Moore »

Adrian_Singh wrote: Sat Jun 15, 2019 9:20 am Just to update this thread...
This looks great! I gave it a quick go (and learned that I was miserable at it). Will test it properly later.
Every man should plant a tree, build a house, and write a ZX Spectrum game.

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PeteProdge
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Re: Mr Do coming soon to Spectrum

Post by PeteProdge »

I can say with absolute authority that this is a very faithful recreation of the arcade Mr Do... in that I'm still bloody hopeless and can't get off the second level.

Well done Adrian. Northants represent!
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Ast A. Moore
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Re: Mr Do coming soon to Spectrum

Post by Ast A. Moore »

PeteProdge wrote: Sat Jun 15, 2019 11:50 am I can say with absolute authority that this is a very faithful recreation of the arcade Mr Do... in that I'm still bloody hopeless and can't get off the second level.
I got to Level 3. Yay, me?
Every man should plant a tree, build a house, and write a ZX Spectrum game.

Author of A Yankee in Iraq, a 50 fps shoot-’em-up—the first game to utilize the floating bus on the +2A/+3,
and zasm Z80 Assembler syntax highlighter.
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Re: Mr Do coming soon to Spectrum

Post by Ralf »

Thanks a lot!

When I was maing this thread, maybe I shouldn't say "coming soon" ;) But it's great to see it finished
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Juan F. Ramirez
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Re: Mr Do coming soon to Spectrum

Post by Juan F. Ramirez »

Mark R. Jones has been publishing a lot of pics of the game these days on twitter.

Seems a very good conversion, in any way: graphics, fonts, ... great work. I'll try it later.
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Alessandro
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Re: Mr Do coming soon to Spectrum

Post by Alessandro »

A very good conversion of the historical arcade coin-op. Well done Mr Singh.

For the Spectrum, there had been an unofficial clone available for years, but this is the first "real" rendition.
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Morcar
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Re: Mr Do coming soon to Spectrum

Post by Morcar »

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Woodster
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Re: Mr Do coming soon to Spectrum

Post by Woodster »

This is brilliant! Although obviously I died quickly just like in every other game!
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Pegaz
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Re: Mr Do coming soon to Spectrum

Post by Pegaz »

Definitelly awesome port!
Animation and playbility are really great.
The occasional colour clash seemed inevitable, I wonder if this type of game might have been done in the Nirvana engine?
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DouglasReynholm
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Re: Mr Do coming soon to Spectrum

Post by DouglasReynholm »

Pegaz wrote: Sat Jun 15, 2019 8:06 pm Definitelly awesome port!
Animation and playbility are really great.
The occasional colour clash seemed inevitable, I wonder if this type of game might have been done in the Nirvana engine?
I had the exact same thought when I saw it, aren't Nirvana/Bifrost supposed to be used with static screen games? If so then great.

Not an expert on this so maybe someone else could chime in but I expect the size of the engine code itself could be a limiting factor..?
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Re: Mr Do coming soon to Spectrum

Post by dfzx »

I had no idea what anyone was talking about. Mr Do? Never heard of him! Then I gave it a try - it's Digger! Why did no one say so?! I played that for hours when the free version came out on UNIX platforms.

This is a fantastic achievement, really playable, despite the limitations of the humble Speccy. Congratulations and thanks to everyone involved!
Derek Fountain, author of the ZX Spectrum C Programmer's Getting Started Guide and various open source games, hardware and other projects, including an IF1 and ZX Microdrive emulator.
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R-Tape
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Re: Mr Do coming soon to Spectrum

Post by R-Tape »

Superb game! Well done fellas.

Plays really well, looks great, and a nice plinky plonky AY tune. As we hoped, the colour clash of the white player sprite works perfectly as a miner's torchlight.
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Morkin
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Re: Mr Do coming soon to Spectrum

Post by Morkin »

Great conversion..! :)

I only played Mr Do (the arcade version) a few times. It's one of those games that looks incredibly easy but can be deviously tricky.
My Speccy site: thirdharmoniser.com
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MarkRJones1970
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Re: Mr Do coming soon to Spectrum

Post by MarkRJones1970 »

Thanks for all the great comments. Makes all the hard work worthwhile
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Juan F. Ramirez
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Re: Mr Do coming soon to Spectrum

Post by Juan F. Ramirez »

MarkRJones1979 wrote: Sun Jun 16, 2019 5:47 pm Thanks for all the great comments. Makes all the hard work worthwhile
Thanks to you and Adrian for the game!

And welcome to these forums, [mention]MarkRJones1979[/mention] ! :)
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Cosmium
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Re: Mr Do coming soon to Spectrum

Post by Cosmium »

What an excellent conversion!

Plays just like the arcade game. I can't really imagine a better version being done for the Spectrum. :D
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R-Tape
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Re: Mr Do coming soon to Spectrum

Post by R-Tape »

Aye, I was playing this earlier, managed level 6 so far. It seems easy in theory but hard in practice.

It's not a bug as such, but one of the ricocheting bullets got semi-stuck bouncing between the same opposing corners. Is that a 'feature' of the arcade game too by can't chance?
Adrian_Singh
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Re: Mr Do coming soon to Spectrum

Post by Adrian_Singh »

R-Tape wrote: Thu Jun 20, 2019 9:13 pm It's not a bug as such, but one of the ricocheting bullets got semi-stuck bouncing between the same opposing corners. Is that a 'feature' of the arcade game too by can't chance?
Yes in the aracde game the ball can sometimes end up bouncing back and forth between opposing corners in close proximity, however if the ball does not hit an enemy within a certain number of bounces the ball will self-destruct and be returned to the player.
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arkannoyed
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Re: Mr Do coming soon to Spectrum

Post by arkannoyed »

I must say, this game is bloody hard!!!
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