Dig Dug

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Dig Dug
Atari 8-bit, X68000, Game Boy, Mobile phone, Game Boy Advance, iOS, Xbox 360
Release
  • JP: February 20, 1982[1]
  • NA: April 1982
  • EU: April 19, 1982
Genre(s)Maze
Mode(s)1-2 players alternating turns

Dig Dug

maze arcade video game developed by Namco in 1981 and released in 1982, distributed in North America by Atari, Inc.
The player controls Dig Dug to defeat all enemies per stage, by either inflating them to bursting or crushing them underneath rocks.

Dig Dug was planned and designed by Masahisa Ikegami, with help from

Namco Galaga
arcade board by Shouichi Fukatani, who worked on many of Namco's earlier arcade games, along with Toshio Sakai. Music was composed by Yuriko Keino, including the character movement jingle at executives' request, as her first Namco game. Namco heavily marketed it as a "strategic digging game".

Upon release, Dig Dug was well received by critics for its addictive gameplay, cute characters, and strategy. During the golden age of arcade video games, it was globally successful, including as the second highest-grossing arcade game of 1982 in Japan. It prompted a long series of sequels and spin-offs, including the Mr. Driller series, for several platforms. It is in many Namco video game compilations for many systems.

Gameplay

Arcade version screenshot

Dig Dug is a maze video game. The player controls protagonist Dig Dug (Taizo Hori) to eliminate each screen's enemies: Pookas, red creatures with comically large goggles; and Fygars, fire-breathing green dragons. Dig Dug can use an air pump to inflate them to bursting or crush them under large falling rocks. Bonus points are awarded for squashing multiple enemies with a single rock, and dropping two rocks in a stage yields a bonus item, which can be eaten for points. Once all the enemies have been defeated, Dig Dug progresses to the next stage.[7]

Enemies chase Dig Dug through dirt in the form of ghostly eyes, only becoming solid in the air where his pump can stun or destroy them. Enemies eventually become faster and more aggressive and the last one then attempts escape. Later stages vary in dirt color, while increasing the number and speed of enemies.[7]

The game has 256 stages in all.

Development

In 1981, Dig Dug was planned and designed by Masahisa Ikegami,

Namco Galaga arcade system board by Shigeichi Ishimura, a Namco hardware engineer, and the late Shouichi Fukatani,[8] along with Toshio Sakai.[4] Other staff members were primarily colleagues of Shigeru Yokoyama.[5] Yuriko Keino composed the soundtrack, as her first video game project. Tasked with making Dig Dug's movement sound, she could not make a realistic stepping sound, so she instead made a short melody.[9] Hiroshi "Mr. Dotman" Ono
, a Namco graphic artist, designed the sprites.

The team hoped to allow player-designed mazes which could prompt unique gameplay mechanics, contrasting with the pre-set maze exploration in Pac-Man (1980). Namco's marketing materials heavily call it a "strategic digging game".[10]

Release

Dig Dug was released in 1982, in Japan on February 20,[1] in North America in April by Atari (as part of the licensing deal with Namco),[11][12] and in Europe on April 19 by Namco.[2]

The first home conversion of Dig Dug was released for the

Famicom Mini series.[13]

Dig Dug is a mainstay in

Wii Virtual Console was released in 2009.[22] Dig Dug is a bonus game in Pac-Man Party, alongside the arcade versions of Pac-Man and Galaga.[23]

Reception

Dig Dug was a critical and commercial success upon release, and was praised for its gameplay and layered strategy.

Famicom Mini release had 58,572 copies sold,[34] and the Xbox Live Arcade version had 222,240 copies by 2011.[35]

American publication

Killer List of Videogames rated it the sixth most popular coin-op game of all time.[38]

Electronic Fun with Computers & Games praised the Atari 8-bit version for retaining the arcade's entertaining gameplay and for its simple controls.[30]

Some home versions were criticized for quality and lack of exclusive content. Readers of Softline magazine ranked Dig Dug the tenth-worst Apple II and fourth-worst Atari 8-bit video game of 1983 for its subpar quality and failure of consumer expectations.[39]

Reviewing the Xbox Live Arcade digital re-release, IGN liked its presentation, leaderboards, and addictive gameplay, recommending it for old and new fans alike.[20] A similar response was echoed by GameSpot for its colorful artwork and faithful arcade gameplay,[28] and by Eurogamer for addictiveness and longevity.[27] Eurogamer, IGN, and GameSpot all criticized its lack of online multiplayer and for achievements being too easy to unlock,[20][28] with Eurogamer in particular criticizing the game's controls for sometimes being unresponsive.[27]

Legacy

Dig Dug prompted a fad of "digging games".

mobile games are clones or variations of Dig Dug, such as Diggerman, Dig Deep, Digby Forever, Dig Out, Puzzle to the Center of Earth, Mine Blitz, I Dig It, Doug Dug, Minesweeper, Dig a Way, and Dig Dog.[47]

Sequels

Dig Dug prompted a long series of sequels for several platforms. The first of these, Dig Dug II, was released in Japan in 1985 to less success,[48] opting for an overhead perspective; instead of digging through earth, Dig Dug drills along fault lines to sink pieces of an island into the ocean.[49] A second sequel, Dig Dug Arrangement, was released for arcades in 1996 as part of the Namco Classic Collection Vol. 2 arcade collection,[50] with new enemies, music, power-ups, boss fights, and two-player co-operative play.

A 3D remake of the original,

Infogrames in 2001 for Windows.[51] A Nintendo DS sequel, Dig Dug: Digging Strike, was released in 2005, combining elements from the first two games and adding a narrative link to the Mr. Driller series.[52] A massively-multiplayer online game, Dig Dug Island, was released in 2008, and was an online version of Dig Dug II;[53] servers lasted for less than a year, discontinued on April 21, 2009.[54]

Related media

Two Dig Dug-themed slot machines were produced by Japanese company Oizumi in 2003, both with small LCD monitors for animated characters.

Technic Beat.[13]

The character Dig Dug was renamed to Taizo Hori, a play on the Japanese phrase "horitai zo", meaning "I want to dig". He became a prominent character in Namco's own

WonderSwan Color and Namco × Capcom for the PlayStation 2, only in Japan.[13][57] Taizo appears in the now-defunct web browser game Namco High as the principal of the high school, simply known as "President Dig Dug". Pookas appear in several Namco games, including Sky Kid (1985), R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 (1998),[13] Pac-Man World (1999),[13] Pro Baseball: Famista DS 2011 (2011), and in Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U (2014). Dig Dug characters briefly appear in the film Wreck-It Ralph (2012).[13]

Notes

  1. ^ Japanese: ディグダグ, Hepburn: Digu Dagu

References

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External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dig_Dug&oldid=1219011740"