Dig Dug

Genre:

Arcade

Year:

1983

Developer:

Namco

Publisher:

Atarisoft

Perspective:

Side-view

Releases:

MAME 2003 (1982), DOS (1983), Atari 2600 (1983), Atari 5200 (1983), Commodore 64 (1983), Atari 8-bit (1983), Apple II (1984), NES (1985), Atari 7800 (1986), Intellivision (1987), Game Boy (1992), Game Boy Advance (2004)

Also known as:

DIG DUG for 6000, Dig-Dug, Arcade Game Series: Dig Dug, ディグダグ, DigDug

Dig Dug is an arcade game for 1 or 2 players, where you control Dig Dug, a gardener defending his field from two monsters: Pooka (a mutated mushroom) and Fygar (a fire-breathing dragon). Pooka and Fygar relentlessly pursue you both underground and across the flower bed, with your sole weapon against them being an air pump. You must inflate the invaders until they burst, which requires pumping three times. If the inflation is incomplete (1-2 pumps), the inflated monster will deflate slowly and resume its attack. The underground contains rocks that can be undermined and used to eliminate enemy monsters. If the monsters cannot find you for an extended period, they transform into ghosts capable of freely moving through the earth, usually taking the shortest path towards you. A monster reverts to its material form upon encountering a tunnel dug by you, which is the only state in which it can be destroyed. As the game progresses (indicated by the flowers in the upper right corner), the number of attackers and their speed increase significantly. Occasionally, vegetables appear in the middle of the garden, awarding bonus points when collected. The game's immense popularity is evidenced by its release on almost all gaming platforms (21 in total, including 8-bit and 16-bit systems), as well as ports to the Xbox 360 and Wii consoles more than twenty years after its original debut.