Digger (computer game)

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Digger
Studio Windmill software
Publisher Windmill software
Erstveröffent-
lichung		 1983
platform IBM PC
genre Maze
Game mode Single player
control keyboard
medium 1 floppy disk
language English

Digger is a computer game that was developed in 1983 by the Canadian company Windmill Software and published for IBM PC-compatible computers . The game was programmed by Rob Sleath and is a clone of the games Dig Dug and Mr. Do! .

Game description

The player steers a wheel loader , which has similarities (at least on the cover of the game set) with skid steer loaders from the company Bobcat , through an underground labyrinth. The character is not limited to the already created paths of the levels , since you can dig new paths. The aim of the game is to reach the highest possible place in the highscore table . To do this, the player can complete eight different levels, in each of which a certain number of emeralds must be collected. From the ninth level, the cards are repeated five to eight until the player has no lives left. In addition to emeralds, there are also sacks of gold that open from a certain depth of fall (at least two lines). If a monster is hit by a falling sack, it cannot move and is killed as soon as it hits the ground. This gives bonus points.

In addition, the player must try to avoid opponents that will steal a life from the player when touched. There are two types of opponents: Nobbins can only move through existing corridors. But when two nobbins meet and “mate”, two hobbins are created that can dig their own passages. Hobbins can also eat sacks of gold and emeralds.

From time to time it is possible to fire a shot that is fatal for the enemy. As in the game Pac-Man , the player can collect a bonus item (cherry), which then allows him for a few seconds to destroy even opponents when touched. This bonus item appears when you have killed as many monsters as there are simultaneously in the respective level. The cherry appears where the monsters usually appear. The reward mode can be recognized by a much lighter background. Shortly before the end of the bonus mode, the background flickers. During these seconds, you should carefully consider whether you can still eat a monster. For every 20,000 points you also get a new life.

As the game progresses, the speed and the Nobbin density increase slowly.

The piece of popcorn is used as background music in the game . After collecting the bonus item, Gioachino Rossini's overture to his last opera Wilhelm Tell will be played. If the player loses a life, the third and fourth bars of the third movement (“Funeral March”) of Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor sound .

Roman Tomczyk from Poland holds the current official record with 3,333,300 points and the 353rd level.

Shortcomings in PC implementation

  • The graphics card is not initialized via the BIOS, but programmed directly. It must therefore be compatible with the CGA card at the hardware level . The game therefore no longer ran on VGA cards.
  • The keyboard interrupt was reprogrammed.
  • The program could only be left with Ctrl-Alt-Del. It then performed a warm start .
  • The execution speed of the program depends on the CPU speed. The game was harder to play on faster PC- XTs , but it was practically unplayable on PC- ATs .

Conversions

In 1984 Sleath developed a version for the IBM PCjr . After Andrew Jenner disassembled the binary file back to source code in 1998 and published a new version of the game under the GPL for MS-DOS , Digger Remastered , a large number of different, and in some cases commercial, ports were carried out for other systems. (Among others for Windows , Unix / Linux , Mac OS , AmigaOS , Dreamcast , KC 85 and in Java )

In folk culture

  • Digger appeared in an episode of the crime series SOKO 5113 in the episode: The Client

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hall of Fame ( English ) Andrew Jenner. Retrieved March 13, 2019.
  2. ↑ http://mpm-kc85.de/html/C0169_Spl_07.htm