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This game is a homage to Dig Dug, an arcade game developed by Namco in 1982.

In this version, the playfields are procedurally generated.

The game runs perfectly on both PAL and NTSC models of the Commodore 64.

Gameplay

Dig Dug is a maze video game. Controlling the titular character, the player's objective is to eliminate the enemies on each screen; these being Pookas, red tomato-like creatures with comically large goggles, and Fygars, green dragons that can breathe fire. Dig Dug can defeat these enemies by using a bike pump to inflate them with air until they explode, or by crushing them under large falling rocks. Bonus points are awarded for squashing multiple enemies with a single rock, and dropping two rocks in a round will cause a bonus item to appear in the middle of the screen, which can be eaten for points. Once all the enemies have been defeated, Dig Dug will progress to the next round.

The enemies can travel through solid dirt to reach the player, where only their eyes will be shown. Inflated enemies pose no threat to the player, allowing Dig Dug to pass through them without harm.

The game will play a short jingle when Dig Dug moves, abruptly stopping when he becomes idle.

If the player takes too long to clear a round, the enemies will become faster and much more aggressive, indicated by a short jingle.

Later rounds feature variations in the color of the dirt, while increasing the movement speed of the enemies.

At 20000 points and then every 50000 points (70000 for the Expert difficulty level; 90000 for the Master difficulty level), the player earns an extra life, for a maximum of 7 lives.

Options

There are 5 difficulty levels to choose from: Easy, Normal, Hard, Expert, Master.

On PAL models, you can choose to play the game at native PAL speed (slightly slower than the original arcade game) or at NTSC speed (matching the speed of the original arcade game).

Controls

Joystick in port 2.

Joystick lever = Move Dig Dug in the four directions.
Fire button = Use the pump.

While playing, press F7 to pause or F1 to stop the game and go back to the title screen.

While the best scores are showing, press F1 to reset the ranking.

History

Version 1.0

  • First release.

Version 1.1

  • You now break through thin walls slightly earlier, allowing for faster use of the pump in the next tunnel.
  • Fixed a collision issue between the pump and an incorporeal enemy when it was about to enter a tunnel.

Version 1.2

  • Sometimes, when a Fygar stalked you closely and flamed, it didn't kill you.
  • Added the Master difficulty level.
  • Some minor graphics fixes.

Version 1.3

  • Now, on PAL models, you have the option to play the game at NTSC speed, which matches the speed of the original arcade game.

Version 1.4

  • In rare cases, the player's score was not increased by the correct amount.
  • There are now separate score rankings based on whether you choose to play at PAL or NTSC speed.
StatusReleased
Rating
Rated 4.8 out of 5 stars
(13 total ratings)
AuthorLC-Games
GenreAction
Tags2D, Arcade, Commodore 64, dig-dug, maze, Pixel Art, Procedural Generation, Remake, Retro, Singleplayer
Average sessionA few minutes
LanguagesEnglish
InputsKeyboard, Joystick

Download

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Click download now to get access to the following files:

digdugrevival.d64 170 kB

Comments

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Greetings LC-Games,

we hope you doing great. I am Areeba Malik (aka Titania) from the BrewOtaku-Team, we are launching our first homebrew gaming magazine soon. We loved your work and we have mentioned your game "Dig Dug Revival” in our very first issue.

Please share your contact details if you would like to have a digital copy of our magazine. As we intend to sell the magazine at a very affordable price, you would need to keep it confidential for you only, of course you would get a free copy.

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Kind regards

Areeba Malik (Titania)

Same thing done for Santa's Troubles. ;)

(1 edit)

sorry, need to tell titiana to be more careful ;-) -koj

Nice update Luca !

Thank you!

Many thanks for this - a really fun game... ...but is it actually possible to get 10K on sheet 1 as the default hiscores say ?

Great! As always. 👍😉

The scores in the ranking are only indicative, but if you dig all the dirt (digging gives you points) and crush the 4 enemies at the same time under a rock, you will reach a score of over 8000 points.

It's a great game!

Thank you as always!

Thanks

Thank you for appreciating

Hello,

thank you for your phantastic game. Is there any option to keep/transfer the highscore when I switch the version (for example 1.2 to 1.3) ?

Thank you for letting me know your appreciation for the game.

When moving from version 1.2 to 1.3 you should simply copy the TOPSCORES file from one disk to another. However, the same thing will not be done with the future version 1.4 which will have separate rankings based on the chosen game speed (PAL or NTSC), because the file will no longer be compatible. But if you are not interested in having separate rankings for the two different speeds, you can stick to version 1.3.

Good job! :-)

https://c64universe.wordpress.com/2023/12/27/classic-game-remakes-for-commodore-...

(+1)

Thank you! 👍

(1 edit)

Hey man, this port it's outstanding!!! Music it's almost the same as I remember from the arcade game!!! I just missing the flowers on the top right corner surface. Great job!!!  Bought at once!!!

Thanks so much for the appreciation!

Quick heads up - I am changing my name, account and C64 cover distribution

New name is reFLEX64, see https://reflex64.itch.io/

this old account will be deactivated shortly!

Good to know!

I like it a lot! Great job. Thanks

(1 edit)

I'm really glad you like it!

Fantastic - the game is perfect and the music is spot on - Excellent work - love it.

(+1)

Thank you so much!

(+1)

Brilliant conversion for sure! The audio is SSSSOOOOO much better than the original C64 Dig Dug! It is actually accurate! Great job.
A mini review of it is going up on my YouTube channel today.

I saw your review and loved it. I appreciated how you highlighted the fact that the audio is so similar to the original arcade version. Many take it for granted but it is by no means a trivial thing. And thank you very much also for the good publicity you have given me in general.

Thanks for this GREAT game! :)


Question... You do such great work, any chance of a C64 version of Time Pilot and/or Time Pilot '84 with high score saving as well? :)

Thanks Again for this great conversion. I asked about a C64 version of this a few years ago on the PC version's page and you said you felt the original Namco version for the C64 was well done and a C64 version was not planned. Glad to see that you decided to convertt and release it. :)

(+2)

Thank you very much for appreciating my work!

About Time Pilot, it has never been in my plans, even if I have to admit that I don't mind the arcade version at all. In the future who knows

(+1)

Complimenti davvero per questa ultima fatica. Davvero incantevole !

Leggevo però di alcuni che lamentavano divergenze nella meccanica di gioco rispetto alla macchina arcade. Questa sera ho avuto modo di provarlo su un Commodore 64 vero, andando un pò alla ricerca di queste differenze, forse trovandone una. Ovvero che non è possibile azionare la pompa durante il movimento nelle aree non vuote. Questo ti obbliga ad utilizzarla solo nei tunnel già scavati, togliendo quella anticipazione prima di entrare in una area popolata da nemici, trovandoci ancora con qualche millimetro di area scavabile, ma con la pompa che è in grado di penetrare la parete.

Mi auguro di essere stato chiaro e, magari, di aiuto.


Grazie ancora !

(-1)

Sono perfettamente consapevole che nella versione arcade c'è la possibilità di lanciare la pompa attraverso i muri sottili ma, come ho già risposto ad altri, personalmente ho sempre trovato questo comportamento più un "bug" che una caratteristica studiata, e di conseguenza ho voluto assolutamente correggerlo (così come ho corretto altre situazioni non convincenti) in entrambe le mie versioni per PC e per C64. Sono convinto di questo e non cambio idea.

Grazie comunque dei complimenti e del suggerimento!

Awesome - version 1.1

Thanks again!

(1 edit)

Once again a very nice game with fantastic arcade- and gameplay feeling like the original. Our German-language review can be found in our recorded livestream starting at 01:58:38. Subscription to our YouTube or Twitch channel is welcome. 🙂

(+1)

Thanks once again for the video and for the appreciation

(3 edits)

molto bene, 8.5/10

as usual, here is a nice cover for it (see post below)

Thanks, cute picture! However, I would prefer if it were labeled LC-Games instead of Namco

(10 edits)

I'd love to add the lc-logo, but I don't have it  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (& I'm too lazy to re-create it), so I just added the namco one

if you got a logo somewhere I can add it, np - it's all wip anyway (and mostly for my own amusement, it's not meant to be spread much)

(1 edit)

I just have a pixelated image, hope you like it

(1 edit)

hey thx, I got off my lazy butt and took the logo from one of your windows games (it's a bit larger), then downsized it so it now fits perfectly, here's the edited cover (it's only available for 1 week anyway before it gets auto-deleted, I don't share anywhere else so if it's gone here it's gone :)

https://ibb.co/D457dVG

Now it's perfect! Thanx

(1 edit)

Great conversion as the arcade with detailed sprites never seen before on C64

(33) (ITA-ENG) C64 DIG DUG REVIVAL - YouTube

Grazie Alex, per l'apprezzamento e, ovviamente, per la donazione! 😉

(2 edits)

Prego, sullo stesso stile stavo cercando su C64 il famoso Lock n' Chase (Atari, Intellivision), su C64 non è mai stato realizzato, magari un giorno qualcuno lo facesse....

A dire il vero, finora ho realizzato cloni di giochi che hanno segnato la mia gioventù e Lock n' Chase non è uno di questi, anzi non credo di averci mai giocato. Inoltre ho altre idee in mente, senza contare diverse altre richieste. Comunque, mai dire mai

(+1)

Certamente, io giocai credo alla versione arcade e sognai di avere un atari o intellivision per rigiocarci, averlo su C64 sarebbe bello visto che li' e' inedito, ma segui naturalmente le idee che hai, ci mancherebbe. Buon sviluppo!

Ciao Alex, se hai modo, tempo e voglia, contattami al mio indirizzo email (lo trovi nei crediti di qualunque mio gioco) per eventualmente cominciare a testare Lock 'n' Chase. Senza impegno comunque...

Awesome version !

Thanks so much!

(+1)

Awesome, so much better than the official port. Made some box art for it :)

 

Thank you for appreciating and for the cool image!

well done! this plays sooo good. more fluid than the original c64 version as well as eliminates some of the annoying quirks. just had a quick game and i can say that i'm really impressed. i don't remember how many monsters were on screen in the original, but here we got at least 9 moving sprites with no slowdowns and a lot of variation in the levels.

Thank you so much for appreciating my work!

(1 edit) (+1)

I love games straight from the living room 😊 Graphically the game looks sensational. Of course I'm taking it for review for the latest issue of K&A Plus #24 😊

Cheers

Retro Chlop 😎

(+1)

Thank you for the video!

thanks, very good game

I'm glad you like it!

Great game!

Thanks!

Great feature to add, now it's infinitely playable <3

I'm glad you appreciate!

(+3)

I played this in the arcade when I was a kid. This version feels good as far as I'm concerned. 
One little thing I did notice is that in the arcade version, when there's only the slightest wall left between the player and a monster you could still blow it up without it being able to reach you. For me that was a vital mechanic :)

(-2)

I know that in the original arcade version you can throw the pump through thin walls without enemies being able to pick you up, but personally I've always seen this behavior as a "bug" rather than a wanted feature, so I thought I'd fix it (in both versions for PC and for C64), as well as I fixed other situations that did not convince me.

Anyway, thanks for enjoying the game.