Museum of the Game ®

International Arcade Museum® — Killer List of Videogames®

Dig Dug

Description

Dig tunnels underground and use an air pump to inflate and blow-up your enemies. You can also drop rocks on your foes. Dislodge two rocks and a bonus fruit or vegetable will appear in the center of the screen. A level ends when all the enemies have been destroyed.

Dig Dug was produced by Atari in 1982.

Atari released 137 machines in our database under this trade name, starting in 1972. Atari was based in United States.

Other machines made by Atari during the time period Dig Dug was produced include: Neutron Star, Tempest Tubes, Tempest, Triangle, Maze Invaders, Akka Arrh, Atari Force Liberator, Gravitar, Black Widow, and Kangaroo

Specs

Name	Dig Dug
Developer	Atari (United States)
Year	1982
Type	Videogame
KLOV/MOG #	7581
Class	Wide Release
Genre	Labyrinth/Maze
Monitor	Orientation: Vertical Type: Raster: Standard Resolution Color: Color
Conversion Class	Namco Galaga
Game Specific	Dig Dug Pinout
# Simultaneous Players	1
# Maximum Players	2
Game Play	Alternating
Control Panel Layout	Single Player Ambidextrous
Controls	Joystick: 4-way (up, down, left, right) Buttons: 1 - Pump
Sound	Unamplified Mono (requires one-channel amp)
Cabinet Styles	Upright/Standard Cocktail Cabaret/Mini
Control Panel	Dig Dug Control Panel Image
Side Art	Dig Dug Side Art Image
PCB	Dig Dug PCB Image

Video Clips

Digdug

Dig Dug shortplay by Ivan Paduano

Atari DIG DUG Arcade Video Game Rare IRELAND CABARET

Game Introduction

The game has an amusing cast of characters. The two enemies are Pooka and Fygar. Pookas are animated red tomatoes with yellow sunglasses and Fygars are green dragons who can breathe fire. The player character is Dig Dug, a blue and white robot equipped with a shovel and a pump.

Game Play

If you want to be extra greedy and get more points, eat all the dirt on the level. Leave only two enemies because they will speed up, and three is too hard to handle. You do not need to eat every little bit of dirt you can leave long passageways to slow down the enemies. Also leave only Pookas, since the Fygars can burn you through the dirt.

After level 12, the screens repeat in waves of four. There are patterns for these levels. Also, after level 36, all the enemies will speed up. You will have to use new patterns for all the other levels again.

This game does not award extra man after 900,000 points. The score will flip over at 1,000,000. It is very easy to get a score of 999,990 by eating dirt for ten points per section.

At level 256, the game begins with a Pooka on top of the player character. Since there is no way to escape, your game is basically over, no matter how many lives you have left.

Dig Dug KLOV/IAM 5 Point User Score: 3.88 (26 votes)

Fun Factor: 3.82

Overall Like	4.08
Fun (Social)	3.13
Fun (Solo)	3.96
Collector Desire	3.62

Technical Rating: 3.96

Gameplay	4.27
Graphics	3.88
Originality	4.19
Sound/Music	3.35

Personal Impressions and Technical Impressions each account for half of the total score. Within the Personal Impressions category, Like carries a little more weight than the other factors.

Cheats, Tricks, Bugs, and Easter Eggs

Get either a Pooka or Fygar right on your tail, then pump him up but not so much that he explodes. Do this right near a rock but be warned that this is rather tricky. The idea is to loosen the rock when the enemy is almost fully inflated, get out of the way, then do a quick reverse and finish off the enemy at exactly the same time as he is crushed by the rock avoiding the rock yourself, of course. This will confuse the game and all enemies on the current level will disappear leaving you to aimlessly dig tunnels through the dirt. You will not progress to the next level until you drop another rock.

If you scoop away ALL the dirt on screen while keeping one Pooka alive, and afterwards blow up the remaining enemy, the game freezes up and leaves you forever stranded on a black screen. Amusingly, you cannot die or progress anywhere, so the machine has to be turned off.

Hacks

ULLIIBubBobI Changes the graphics to make them look more like those from IBubble BobbleI.LIIMr. DigDoi An amalgam of IMr.DoI and IDig DugI.LIIZig ZagI Has different colors.UL

Images

Cabinet Information

The cocktail version features two control panels, each with a fourway joystick and a Pump button on the left and righthand side of the stick. The 13inch Electrohome color raster monitor is mounted vertically and the screen image flips for each player. The top glass features the game instructions, point values and cartoon renditions of Fygar, Pooka and Dig Dug.

Miscellaneous

LICENSOR NamcoBRWWW httpwww.zxscreens.i12.comzxscreensdig_dug_arcade.htm

VAPS Arcade/Coin-Op Dig Dug Census

There are 15,239 members of the Video Arcade Preservation Society / Vintage Arcade Preservation Society, 9,659 whom participate in our arcade census project of games owned, wanted, or for sale. Census data currently includes 166,875 machines (6,994 unique titles).

Very Common - There are 687 known instances of this machine owned by Dig Dug collectors who are active members. Of these, 551 of them are original dedicated machines. 19 of them are conversions in which game circuit boards (and possibly cabinet graphics) have been placed in (and on) another game cabinet. 111 of them are only circuit boards which a collector could put into a generic case if desired.

For Sale - There are 20 active VAPS members with a Dig Dug machines for sale. There are 18 active VAPS members with a Dig Dug circuit boards for sale.

Wanted - Very Popular - There are 68 active VAPS members currently looking for Dig Dug. There are 2 active VAPS members looking for Dig Dug boards sets.

This game ranks a 90 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census ownership records.

This game ranks a 83 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census want list records.

Rarity and Popularity independently are not necessarily indications of value. [More Information]

Flyers

Community Awareness Program

1982 / 2 Pages

Technical

The game uses three Z80 microprocessors and a Namco 3channel PSG for sounds.

Legacy

Dig Dug
Dig Dug II

Manuals

Operation, Mainteance and Service Manual - Dig Dug Manual — **Operation, Mainteance and Service Manual**
(95 pages, 5.4 MB File)

Manual - Dig Dug Manual — **Manual**
(6 pages, 662 kB File)

Foto-Finder® (Books)

The Encyclopedia of Arcade Video Games Kurtz (ISBN 0764319256) Page: 128; Color photo Price guide: No
Arcade Fever Sellers (ISBN 0762409371) Page: 90; Color photo
Encyclopedia of Arcade Video Games Kurtz (ISBN 0764319256) Page: 128; Color photo

Additional References (logged in members often see more)

3D Model (External): Upright (a88ee2d3ac174f55d06e6be4f8954ac)

Arcade Map - Play This Game

Our members have reported that Dig Dug is playable at 5 locations:

Name	Location	State	Country	Details	Check-ins
Bartari	101 Adams Ave, Scranton	Pennsylvania	United States	Bar	0
Bit Bar	278 Derby St, Salem	Massachusetts	United States	Unknown	1
District 82 Pinball Arcade	800 O Keefe Road, De Pere	Wisconsin	United States	Arcade	0
Sting Rays Bar And Grill	3112 East State Road 60, Valrico	Florida	United States	Unknown	0
Upstate Pinball & Arcade Museum	109A West Trade St, Simpsonville	South Carolina	United States	Arcade	2

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