How to play Dig Dug online
- Dig and move: arrow keys. Dig Dug tunnels in whatever direction you push.
- Pump: Z or X (either button works)
- Choose one or two players: up and down on the arrow keys, or F2 (Select), on the title screen
- Choose one of the two difficulty levels: left and right on the arrow keys, or F2 (Select)
- Start the game: F3 (Reset)
- Full screen: F9
Both the USA (NTSC) and European (PAL) releases are on this page; use the switch to choose.
Gameplay
Each round hides a few monsters in pockets underground: Pooka, and Fygar, a fire-breathing dragon. Dig into a monster’s tunnel and it chases you; one touch costs a life. Fygar’s fire even burns a short way through the earth.
Tap the button once or twice and your pump stuns a monster so you can slip past; keep pumping, or hold the button, and it inflates until it bursts. Or dig under a rock and let it fall on whatever is following you. Take too long and monsters turn into ghosts that drift through the dirt towards you, and then only a falling rock can stop them. After two rocks have fallen in a round, a vegetable or fruit appears in the middle of the screen for ten seconds.
The last monster in each round flees to the surface and off the left of the screen, so race up after it for the points. Dig Dug starts with five lives and earns more at 20,000 points, at 50,000 points and every 50,000 after that. The flowers at the top of the screen show the round number: small ones count one, large ones count ten.
| Action | Points |
|---|---|
| Each chunk of dirt dug | 10 |
| Pooka or Fygar pumped from above or below | 200–500 (more the deeper it is) |
| Fygar pumped from the side | 400–1000 (more the deeper it is) |
| Rock on one / two / three monsters | 1000 / 2500 / 4000 |
| Bonus vegetable or fruit | 400 (carrot) to 8000 (pineapple) |
Tips
- Go deep. Monsters in the bottom layer are worth more than twice as much as those near the top.
- Take Fygar from the side. It doubles the points, but only when he is not facing you, or his fire will reach you first.
- Collect a crowd, then drop a rock. Lead two or three monsters into a tunnel under a rock. One rock on three monsters is worth 4000 points.
- Drop two rocks every round. That is what makes the bonus item appear, and later items are worth thousands of points.
- Continue where you left off. When a game ends, press a fire button before the demo starts and the next game begins on the level where you stopped, instead of level 1.
The story behind Dig Dug on the 7800
Dig Dug was designed at Namco by Masahisa Ikegami, with help from Galaga creator Shigeru Yokoyama, and came out in arcades in 1982. It was one of the most successful arcade games in Japan that year. Atari released versions for the 2600 and 5200 in 1983.
The 7800 version was converted by General Computer Corporation and was announced in May 1984 as one of the console’s launch games. Changes in Atari’s management delayed the launch, and it finally reached shops in May 1986. Among the bonus items is a nod to Namco’s past: a Galaxian ship worth 7000 points.
