Dig Dug. Do you dig it?
Dig Dug or ディグダグ is a timeless Namco classic that was released in 1982. Now I wasn’t born back then but like any gamer I know the game well. I don’t know when I first played Dig Dug but it’s always been one of my favorite old school arcade games.
Dig Dug is a simple little game where you play as your little blue guy and dig around underground. You try to get to the enemies and shoot them with your air hose. After the appropriate shot is taken you can tap the button to pump up the enemy and make them explode. Popping your enemies feels really nice every time. If you have the skills you can also dislodge rocks and have them fall onto the enemies heads, squashing them in the process.
Dig Dug is a damn good classic game and it would have taken all my quarters were I a teenager in the heyday of arcade games. The golden age of arcade games seems like a magical time that produced so much good stuff and this is one of them. Perhaps it was this that later inspired Namco’s puzzle game Mr. Driller. Certainly it inspired Dig Dug 2, which I’ll get to another time. It’s influence is felt nowadays in broader games like Terreria and Steamworld Dig, but maybe Dig Dug will be back in the future. Who knows?