Dig Dug

Dig Dug is a classic retro video game that has secured its place as one of the greats of the golden video game age. The arcade game was released in 1982 and instantly became popular with gamers. The concept of the game was easy, though much different from other video games that gamers had seen before. When the game begins, a player begins in round one. Dig Dug is centered in the middle of the screen and is under soil. The soil is made up of four different layers with each layer having a different color to it. Dig Dug digs tunnels through the soil and must blow up, or pop, the enemies that are also in the soil. These enemies are in dead end tunnels when the round begins and cannot get out unless Dig Dug digs a tunnel to their tunnel cave. If a player takes too long to get to them, these enemies will turn into ghosts and fly their way out of the cave into the main tunnels that Dig Dug has made. When a player gets close to an enemy, he will have to inflate them to destroy them. After destroying all enemies, a player will proceed to the next round.

About Dig Dug

Dig Dug is a blue looking character that is dressed in white. He is equipped with a weapon that is like an air pump that is used to inflate the enemies. When a player shoots an enemy one time, they will inflate one time, but will not die as they will just be stalled and will return to normal. Shooting an enemy two times will stall them even longer but still will not pop them. Three shots and an enemy will inflate a lot and will be stalled for a long time. When enemies are stalled, Dig Dug can walk right past them without being killed. A fourth shot will pop an enemy, and they will die. To do this, a player will have to continually shoot the enemy. Taking too long to repeatedly shoot an enemy will take more shots as the enemy will deflate if not continually shot.

Enemies

There are two enemies that a player has to worry about. Pookas are red round looking guys that have goggles that are worn. Fygars are dragons that can throw flames from their mouth when they are horizontal. These enemies will try to get Dig Dug during game play. If either a Pooka or a Fygar touches Dig Dug, he will die, and a player will lose a man. If Fygar shoots fire at Dig Dug and hits him, a player will also lose a man. Round one begins with three Pookas and one Fygar on it. They are in tunnel caves and only get out to attack once a player digs tunnels that connect with those caves. Another way that they can get out is by becoming ghosts. When they do this,, they will fly through the soil until they find another tunnel to roam around in. Usually, this is the long tunnels that Dig Dug has created. As a player gets to farther rounds, there will be more enemies to start a round, and they will be much faster and more aggressive. When there is one enemy left on a round, he will try to make a quick escape and will not want anything more to do with Dig Dug. The music of the game will intensify and the last enemy will try to make his way to the surface (the top of the soil) and get away on the left side of the screen. If a player does not blow up this last enemy, nothing is lost.


Rocks

There are rocks in the soil of every single level. Round one will have three rocks, rounds two and three will have four rocks and round four will have five rocks. As a player gets farther in the game, some levels will have more rocks to help them with their strategy in the game. many players find it very important to use the rocks to kill the enemies. This is especially true in farther levels as it becomes difficult to blow up lots of enemies when three or four are attacking at the same time.

When Dig Dug is directly under a rock, it will become unstable but will not actually fall until Dig Dug moves out of the way. Once this happens, the rock will fall and kill anything that is underneath its path. A good player can take out many of the enemies with one rock. A player must also remember though that the rock can also crush Dig Dug. Many times, a player will accidentally get crushed right along with the enemies. The enemies will notice the rock once it starts falling and will try to get out of the way if they can.

Rounds

When a player begins a new round, it will be displayed on the screen before game play starts. A player can also look at the top right side of the screen on the soil. There will be a flower displayed on top of the soil to indicate the round a player is on. For example, if a player is on round one, there will be one flower on the soil. If a player is on round five, there will be five flowers. Round seven, seven flowers, etc. Once a player reaches round ten, there will be one very large flower. Round eleven will display that large flower and a small regular flower. Round twelve will have that very large flower and two regular flowers, etc. The big flower is always used to represent ten levels completed.

Fruits, vegetables and other edible bonus items

On every round, there is a prize that will appear in the middle of the screen that Dig Dug can get for extra points. Each round will have its own prize, and it will appear after two rocks have been dropped on a round. It does not matter if a player kills any of the enemies with the rocks. All that matters is that they are dropped, and then the prize will appear.

Points

The point system in Dig Dug can be though of as pretty unique. This is because of the different layers in a screen.

Blowing up the Pookas and Fygars:
If enemies are blown up in layer 1: 200 points
If enemies are blown up in layer 2: 300 points
If enemies are blown up in layer 3: 400 points
If enemies are blown up in layer 4: 500 points

When a Fygar is blown up horizontally, a player will get double the regular points. The reason for this is that a player takes more of a chance killing a Fygar this way as the Fygar can breath fire at them.

Killing Pookas and Fygars with Rocks

During game play, Dig Dug can kill enemies by dropping a rock on them. By dropping a single rock on multiple enemies, a player can earn big points.

Killing 1 enemy with a rock: 1000 points
Killing 2 enemies with a rock: 2,500 points
Killing 3 enemies with a rock: 4,000 points
Killing 4 enemies with a rock: 6,000 points
Killing 5 enemies with a rock: 8,000 points
Killing 6 enemies with a rock: 10,000 points
Killing 7 enemies with a rock: 12,000 points
Killing 8 enemies with a rock: 15,000 points

Prizes

Round one - Carrot: 400 points
Round two - Rutabaga : 600 Points
Round three - Mushroom : 800 Points
Rounds four and five - Cucumber : 1000 Points
Rounds six and seven - Eggplant : 2000 Points
Rounds eight and nine - Bell Pepper : 3000 Points
Rounds ten and eleven - Tomato : 4000 Points
Rounds twelve and thirteen - Onion : 5000 Points
Rounds fourteen and fifteen - Watermelon : 6000 Points
Rounds sixteen and seventeen - Galaxian : 7000 Points
Round eighteen and up - Pineapple : 8000 Points

Digging

Each block dug - 10 points

Dig Dug Strategies

When a player gets to advanced rounds, the enemies will attack very fast and aggressive. This will mean that many times a player will have three or four enemies chasing him at one time. When shooting them with the air pump, sometimes it is good to inflate one of them a few times, inflate the second and then kill the third. The other two will then deflate and attack again. A player needs to inflate one of them to stall them again and then kill the other. When there are too many enemies, this an sometimes be an impossible tasks and using rocks would be much better.

The rocks are a very valuable tool to use for advanced players of Dig Dug. There will be times when there are a gang of enemies on Dig Dug's trail. The only way to get rid of them all is to strategically drop a rock on them. A player can take out many of them with one shot.

Watch out for the enemies when they fly at you as ghosts. They like to come at weird angles that may not seem fair since Dig Dug can only go left, right, up and down.

If you turn into a great Dig Dug player, you may get to round 256. If you can't pass it, don't be too hard on yourself as nobody can. As the round begins, a Pooka is right on top of Dig Dug and a player dies right away.  Consider this the end of the game.

My personal experience playing Dig Dug

Dig Dig was always one of my favorite games as a kid. It is an old school classic retro video game that I will always remember. I was always an alright Dig Dug player. I would never consider myself to be an expert at the game,, but I certainly did not suck. I was able to get into the hundreds rounds on a regular basis. I remember getting to round 130 as a kid. It amazes me that so many years have went by since those days. Funny to think that Dig Dug, like many of the other games on this blog are classic video games now. Back then, they were just regular games that we had and played at the arcades, liquor stores, etc.

Play Dig Dug online right now

There is a cool online version of Dig Dug that you an play right now. It is as close as it gets to the real thing. The difference in playing here is that you will have to use the arrow keys instead of a joystick. A joystick is always best with Dig Dug, but you can get used of using the arrows. I experimented with the game and got to round 16. Of course I'm blaming the fact that I don't have a joystick. That, and the fact that a window popped up on my screen after hitting an unknown key that disabled me from moving. I lost two men like that. Will try again soon.

Play Dig Dug right now!