How to play Mr. Do!’s Castle online
- Walk left and right: left and right arrow keys
- Climb up or down a ladder: up and down arrow keys
- Swing the hammer: Space bar (Mr. Do! has to be standing still)
- Start a game: Space bar. The manual says to press the fire button to begin, and again to play another game.
- Save and load your progress: Ctrl + 0–9 saves to a slot, Alt + 0–9 loads it
Gameplay
Each scene is a castle with six floors joined by ladders. The floors are made of blocks, and Mr. Do! can hammer them out. Unicorns roam the floors and climb after you. Hammer out the block directly above a unicorn to drop it on its head, or wait until one gets stuck in a hole and hammer it through. A unicorn you knock through a hole comes back at the top of the screen in a tougher colour: red ones become yellow, and yellow ones become green. Unicorns that fall into a hole also like to fill it in, so your traps do not last forever.
Some blocks are special. Cherry blocks are Mr. Do!’s favourite: clear them all and you move on to the next scene. Skull blocks come in pairs, and knocking out both drops a whole section of floor, taking any unicorns on it with it. Key blocks open the castle door at the top. Once all three keys are out, the music changes. Reach the door without being caught and you earn a bonus and a chance at the Bonus Letter unicorns. Unlike the others, these run away from you. Each one you get gives you a letter of EXTRA, and spelling the whole word wins an extra life.
You clear a scene by getting rid of every unicorn or by knocking out every cherry block. There are four scenes, from the basement to the top of the castle, and eight difficulty levels. You start with five lives, and the game ends when you lose the last one.
| Target | Points |
|---|---|
| Any floor block | 20 |
| Red unicorn | 500 |
| Yellow unicorn | 1,000 |
| Green unicorn | 1,500 |
| Bonus Letter unicorn | 500 |
| Opening the castle door | 1,500 in scene 1, then 500 more each scene, up to 3,000 |
Tips
- Stop before you swing. The hammer only works when Mr. Do! is standing still, so plan your position before the unicorns arrive.
- Go for the keys carefully. Knocking out the first key can make some unicorns change colour and speed up.
- Use the skulls. Wait until several unicorns are on a floor section between two skull blocks, then drop the whole section at once.
- Kick ladders away. Some ladders swing to the side when Mr. Do! kicks them. Swing one away from a floor to stop a unicorn following you.
History
Universal released the arcade Mr. Do!’s Castle in September 1983. It started life as a different game called Knights vs. Unicorns, and in Japan it came out as Mr. Do! vs. Unicorns. Parker Brothers published the Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 8-bit, ColecoVision and Commodore 64 versions. AtariAge rates the original 2600 cartridge as very rare, and reviews of it have been mixed. Universal followed the game with Mr. Do!’s Wild Ride and Do! Run Run in 1984.
Similar games to play next
- Mr. Do! – the original, with digging, apples and cherries
- Donkey Kong – the classic ladders-and-platforms arcade game, with a hammer too
- BurgerTime – climb ladders and drop burger parts on the enemies below
- Mario Bros. – knock enemies over from the floor below
- Lady Bug – another maze game from Universal