The Sound of the Underground

An actual piece of gaming royalty joined the Arcade Archives this week, as Hamster introduced us with certainly one of Bandai Namco’s most iconic and seminal releases of gaming’s golden period: Dig Dug, now obtainable to obtain on PS4 and Nintendo Swap.

Developed in 1981 and launched to the burgeoning arcade market in 1982, Dig Dug is likely one of the most recognizable, memorable, and most profitable releases of gaming’s formative period. Gamers information an intrepid miner via a sequence of single-screen underground caverns, digging out tunnels and battling the monsters that dwell inside. In a mechanic that simply appears so blackly comedic to fashionable eyes, our hero defeats his opposition by injecting them with a gasoline line, then inflating their sorry our bodies till they actually explode! Eat your coronary heart out, Mortal Kombat!

Try the subterranean shenanigans within the video under, courtesy of YouTuber Hirudov2d.

Dig Dug was an enormous hit for Namco, changing into the second highest-selling arcade machine for 1982. It will go on to obtain a slew of house ports and several other sequels, and would finally function the inspiration for the equally cute and equally panic-inducing Mr. Driller sequence. Moreover, Dig Dug villain Pooka would turn out to be one of many writer’s most acknowledged mascot characters, and ranks just below the Pac-Man posse as certainly one of Namco’s most beloved creations.

On a private be aware, Dig Dug is kind of presumably my favourite of the early arcade line. I really like the character design, the sprites, and the usage of coloration, and the music all the time brings a smile to my face, (a gimmick wherein the music stops taking part in when the protagonist stands nonetheless all the time tickles me). At present, Dig Dug continues to be a compelling (if simplistic) title, and presents as a lot of a problem to fashionable gamers because it did to kids all of these many years in the past. It’s wholly deserving of its spot within the annals of gaming historical past.

Dig Dug is out there to obtain now on PS4 and Nintendo Swap, priced at round $8. It is usually available on quite a few Namco compilations, together with Namco Museum Archives Vol. 1.