Dig Dug

Dig Dug is a fondly-remembered game from the early days of the arcades. The game featured bright colorful animation, and a catchy tune that was only heard as long as Dig Dug was still in motion. After creating an international sensation with Pac-Man, Namco tried to cash in on other maze game concepts, but none of the succeeded quite as well as the original. As an alternative take on the genre, Dig Dug examines how much fun it might be to allow the player to make his (or her) own mazes. It turned out that many people thought it was a lot of fun. It runs on Namco's Galaga hardware (three Zilog Z80 processors run at 3.125 MHz).

Another more imaginative aspects of the game was the way in which Dig Dug eliminates his enemies. He attaches a pump to the body of an enemy and pumps them full of air until they explode. Dig Dug has recently been reinvented by Namco due to the popularity of the Mr. Driller series, casting Dig Dug as Taizo Hori, the father of Mr. Driller. But it is yellow goggle wearing tomato character named Pooka, that has received the lion's share of popularity in Japan, who has cameos and guest appearances in several other Namco games (including Sky Kid, Sky Kid Deluxe and Tinkle Pit - the last one also features many other cameos).

To bring this game over from Japan to the United States, Namco turned to Atari instead of Midway Games, to whom Namco had licensed their rights to distribute Galaxian, Pac-Man, Rally-X, and Bosconian. Atari did a good job promoting the game as one of the highlights in their licensed library, and they brought the game home to several systems to answer the considerable demand.

Dig Dug's vegetable garden is being invaded by pesky Pookas and fire-breathing Fygars. He must dig underneath the garden's surface and pump them full of air with his trusty pump, and exterminate all of the nuisances before moving on to the next patch.