DIG DUG (ディグダグ) is an arcade machine made in 1982 by Namco in Japan. It ran on the Namco Galaga hardware, and it was called a "strategic digging game" by Namco. DIG DUG was later published outside of Japan by Atari, Inc. In Europe by Orion.
Developers[]
DIG DUG was programmed Shouichi Fukatani and Shigeichi Ishimura, DIG DUG was designed by Shigeru Yokoyama, the composer for the game is Yuriko Keino.
Objective[]
In DIG DUG you control the playable character Taizo Hori, a man dressed in white and blue with a red drill who can dig tunnels through the ground. The objective of the game is to destroy ground-dwelling monsters by either inflating them with air until they pop, or by dropping rocks on them. By doing these things you would gain points, there are two kinds of enemies in the game, Pookas and Fygars. Inflating a Pooka can score you 200 to 500 Points and Fygars can score you 200 to 1,000 Points. Digging under a Rock can be used as an attack and crush any enemies under it which will multiply your score.
The enemies normally crawl through the tunnels, but can crawl through the dirt, which makes them invisible except for their eyes. The last enemy in a round will try to escape off the top left of the screen. If it succeeds, points are lost If one isn't careful, Taizo can be killed if he runs into a Pooka or Fygar, burned by a Fygar's fire breath, or crushed by a rock.
After the player drops two rocks, sometimes Bonus Roots will appear as a way to get more Points, these fruits, vegetables, and other edible bonus items appear in the center of the play field, and can be collected for points if the player is able to reach them before they disappear. These edible bonus items will appear even if the rocks fail to crush any enemies. In the original arcade version, the most points attainable from a single bonus fruit (or vegetable) is 8000 from the pineapple, which appears in every round of the game from the seventeenth round onwards.
Gameplay Elements[]
Taizo's controls: 4-way movement, Harpoon button
Taizo can make tunnels which monsters can move freely in, Every so often monsters can "fly" through the solid ground (This is ability known as "Ghosting") in order to catch Taizo, If Taizo is touched by a monster he loses a life.
Pooka | ![]() |
Pookas attack in Groups. |
Fygar | ![]() |
Fygars can breath fire, Fire can also go throught thin walls. |
Monsters each have there own unique point networth. Killing a monster on a lower layer also increases the worth
Monster | ![]() |
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● | Killed Vertically | Killed Vertically | Killed Horizontally | Killed Horizontally |
Layer 1 | 200 | 200 | 200 | 400 |
Layer 2 | 300 | 300 | 300 | 600 |
Layer 3 | 400 | 400 | 400 | 800 |
Layer 4 | 800 | 800 | 800 | 1,000 |
When digging the player will score 10 points per square of dirt. Digging out each square is will score 210 points.
Vegetable Treats can appear in any level after dropping two Rocks (whether they crush something or not).
Ports[]
DIG DUG would receive several ports over time, each one having slight differences from the original on the arcade.
Famicom/Nintendo entertainment system[]
The Famicom port of DIG DUG is the most well known despite not touching not American soil until sometime around 2008 on Wii U and 3DS, A common Mandela effect is people thinking the game was on the NES when it was never released on that console in the west, It has a significant difference in gameplay DIG DUG on Famicom has a 192 Horizontal by 208 vertical pixel playfield on a 256x x 224y pixel screen compared to the Arcade's 224x by 248y playfield on a 224x by 288y screen. Because of a much smaller playfield enemies and rocks are moved closer together to make up for screen limitation.
Other then screen sizes the Famicom port has more duller colors and incorrect sprites. The sky was made black instead of blue making it look more like the game takes place at night.
one small incorrect on Taizo's drilling animation one pixel on his arm is missing, in his walking animation his entire head is moved back by one pixel.
The music in the Famicom version is also a much lower quality, The Namco Galaga hardware used a Z80 CPU and a custom 3 channel Namco WSG, the waveforms on both hardware we're also very different.
Atari 2600/5200/7800[]
DIG DUG on the Atari 2600 is a much lower quality game only using 1 color per sprite (if you even want to call it that). It only used 1 channel for sound and music. The game has trouble with making characters move vertically making maneuvering much more difficult.
The Atari 5200 version has more colors and improves slightly. And the music was altered
The Atari 7200 has more colors and quality was improved greatly, however the music was changed back to the 2600 version.
MSX[]
The MSX version is very close to the Famicom version, only having even lower quality sprites because it's a 1-bit console.
Gameboy Advance[]
DIG DUG had 3 ports on the GBA, one was a part of Namco Museum along with Ms.PAC-MAN, Galaga, Galaxian and Pole Position. It is an accurate recreation of the game with some small differences, the first one is the scrolling screen. The Gameboy Advance has a 240 × 160 which can't fit everything on-screen, to make up for this a camera is fixed to Taizo, A common complaint about this version is that you can't see the monsters of screen, or that there isn't a full-screen option (Which Ms.PAC-MAN has)
The second version is apart of Namco Museum 50th Anniversary which has the same first two games as Namco Museum except it includes PAC-MAN and Rally-X instead of Galaxian and Pole Position. This version of DIG DUG is emulated on the GBA hardware in full screen, the GBA cannot handle arcade emulation sprites are crushed to fit everything on screen, and the music quality has been lowered very very low and only uses 2 channels, The tunnels are also smaller then the characters including Taizo which makes it very hard to move and navigate.
The last version on Gameboy Advance is a part of the Famicom Mini series. It is the Famicom version emulated GBA which isn't as bad as the Namco Museum 50th Anniversary version but still has all of the same quirks and problems as the Famicom version.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- In the UGSF timeline, DIG DUG takes place in the year 2382, how ever a Driller Card in Mr.Driller Drill Land states it takes place in 1982. (Thus making it not cannon)
- Holding Up on the control panel will make Taizo stop while facing right and continue to play the walking melody
Reference[]
Games | ||
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Main | DIG DUG (LCD Game) • DIG DUG II (Trouble in Paradise) • New DIG DUG • DIG DUG: Digging Strike | |
Sub-Main | DIG DUG Arrangment (Remix) • DIG DUG Island • DIG DUG S • DIG DUG Mini • DIG DUG Deeper • DIG DUG Puzzle • Namco All-Stars PAC-MAN and DIG DUG | |
Spin-Off | Baraduke • Baraduke II • Mr.Driller • Star Trigon | |
Cross-Over | DIG DUG BB • Tinkle Pit • Namco x Capcom • Namco Super Wars • PAC-EIGHT • Pac-Man (Series) • Super Smash Bros. • Party Land • P Namco Collection | |
Slot Machine | DIG DUG (Slot Machine) • DIG DUG: Fygar • DIG DUG: Pooka • PAC-EIGHT | |
Canceled | DIG DUG Wii • DIG DUG 3 • DIG DUG: Burst of Adventure • DIG DUG Dungeon |