Category:Dig Dug

Dig Dug
Developer(s)	Namco
Publisher(s)	Namco, Atari Games
Year introduced	1982
Genre(s)	Action

Dig Dug is a series of three maze arcade games that were released by Namco between 1982 and 1996. They all focus on a vegetable gardener named Taizo Hori (whose name is a pun on that Japanese phrase "Horitai zo", lit. "I want to dig"). The first game in the series runs on Namco's Galaga hardware (three Zilog Z80 microprocessors, run at 3.125 MHz), the second runs on their Super Pac-Man hardware (two Motorola M6809 microprocessors run at 1.536 MHz), and the third was released as part of the compilation Namco Classics Collection Vol. 2.

• Dig Dug (1982): The original title in the series was the first game from Namco to be licensed to Atari Games for US manufacture and distribution, and featured a song that would only be heard as long as the main character was moving. The Galaxian flagship also made its third cameo on the fifteenth and sixteenth rounds, after Pac-Man (1980) and Galaga (1981).

• Dig Dug II (1985): The second title in the series was released directly by Namco and gifted Hori with a new weapon in the form of a jackhammer to drill on the fault lines in the islands. It also featured a pseudo-three-dimensional view, that Namco later re-used for Hopping Mappy (1986) - which was the first game from the company to allow scores not ending in "0".

• Dig Dug Arrangement (1996): The third and final title in the series was released as part of the compilation arcade game Namco Classics Collection Vol. 2, along with a carbon copy of the original, and carbon copies and "Arrangement" versions, of Pac-Man and Rally-X (both 1980). It may have relieved Hori of his jackhammer, but it also introduced eight new types of enemies, eleven new types of bonus vegetables, eighteen different types of powerups, and two different robotic bosses. A second player could also join in here as yellow-suited Hori.

• Mr. Driller (1999): This spin-off game was released towards the end of the 20th century, ran on Namco's System 12 hardware and featured Hori's young son Susumu in the title role.