The history of the classic digging and inflating enemies until they die game from Namco Please visit my Patreon at / pdbowl Follow me on Twitter at / pdqc1971 Follow me on Facebook at Patmanqc-His...
That was the best part of growing up in that age of arcades, was that you never knew what was going to be there any given day of the week. I found new games in 7-11's, liquor stores, and even in a clothes boutique by my house had a Wizard of War machine, it was just insane. There was no internet, no news source for up coming coin-ops, so each new trip to an arcade meant walking each isle to see what new had arrived. Sadly those days will never happen again, but I'm glad I got to experience it first hand during it's peek.
I wish I was lucky as you I love arcades and still have fun playing the classics I'm glad there are classic arcades out there so I can experience what it was like playing on the original cabinet but I wont ever have the experience of what you had
I miss the days when they had arcade machines in gas stations, supermarkets, and diners 😪. It really was like an adventure, not knowing what you would see each trip. Nowadays it's lucky if I can find an retro arcade in my travels, i usually gotta pay a $15 cover charge (60 quarters!), and maybe there will be two or three games I kinda like but none of my favorites 😕
@@swampdonkey4919 Pizza places were good for playing arcades too. I loved going to Godfathers pizza and playing Galaga and whatever Beat em up type game they'd have at the time. The pizza was pretty great too.
While I was too young for the first boom (born in 1980) I still remember the first time I saw Street FIghter 2 arcade cab in a smoke shop cigar store as a kid. It blew my mind. Then about a year later I saw the hacked version of SF 2 Rainbow in a comic book/sports card shop and it blew me away. Same with NBA Jam and Mortal Kombat and then years later Crazy Taxi. My grandma had candy store in the early 80's so I played Pacman and they had this other game called Omega Race by Midway. Based on photos of me playing it's safe to say my first two videogames I played was Pacman and Omega Race. My teenage uncles gave me an Intellivision they had and that was a blast. I miss the games of the 80s and 90s. Not knocking modern stuff. I know some great games are here. Just was a different vibe and of course I was younger.
I have to say how much I enjoy all of these 80's arcade vids 👍 I'm 52yrs young so grew up playing these, and even now after all this time I still learn things I never knew! Thank you so much for continuing to produce these fantastic documentaries of games from my childhood 👍 Dave
Fantastic review!!! I have a special love for "Dig Dug," I am severely visually impaired but I can see some color, well the color scheme for "Dig Dug" was perfect for me and was one of very few titles I could play in the arcade. PLEASE keep making these videos they are awesome!
Man I remember the NES port of Dig Dug and Galaga blew me away, I was thinking at the time "it's freeplay forever!" I remember asking my dad for Dig Dug and Pac Man for my birthday and he's said something like "What are you? 50? You don't want new games?" IIRC Metroid and Zelda came out that year and I passed on them because I wanted Arcade games I can play at home lol.
Dig Dug is one of rhe first arcades I remember playing at a bowling alley, probably in 1982 when I was 5. Still one of my favorites from the Golden era.
PatmanQC you sir are absolutely fantastic. So happy you’ve got round to Dig Dug…oh and that TV commercial 😮 is freaking awesome. I’m in the U.K. and never knew they had made any adverts,especially like that. Thx again for another great video 🙌❤️🙏
A true classic. I remember a row of these coin ops when going to Venice Beach as a kid. They were always full of players. It's also one of the games that also has a kill screen.
Dig Dug is one of my all-time favorites. I had it for the TI-99/4A (mid-80s) growing up and loved it. Later found it for the PS2 and it was also fun. Thanks for doing the research and posting this video about such an awesome game 😺.
@@AngryCalvin Just to make sure I wasn't misremembering, I looked around a little and found two videos showing Dig Dug on the 99/4A: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-GxWXwBFJgGA.html and ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-BHUOFmlvBhI.html . It doesn't look the best, but I remember loving it, and I was a bit young (between 8 and 12) so probably didn't have the most discerning tastes ;-)
I'm elated you did another great documentary and this time on Dig Dug. It's in my top 3 of all time 80's arcade games. The myriad of adaptations on various gaming and computer systems was surprising and informative. Once again you have delivered a comprehensive history of this game. I don't remember seeing those commercials but they were wild! The Gameboy sp advance version is still enjoyable to play. But I need to get past rd 11! Keep up the superior content.
I played the game back then but was never a big fan. One thing I can get behind though is the passion that went into this video. We need more recognition for underrated games and for namco as a pioneer in the games industry.
A while ago I commented on another one of your videos, asking if you could review a couple of my favorite arcade games. Congo Bongo and Dig Dug. Now you've done both! This was one of my FAVORITE games when I was a kid! Still love it to this day!
Thanks to this channel, I am discovering these great titles. I was recently able to purchase this but I am not good at it. But I enjoy the challenge. And those retro commercials were so great...LOL. Thanks and I am looking forward to seeing more of these great games.
arcade games were always have a special place in my heart..going back to the days where you have some coins..you can go to every places that has some arcade machines..also i love Dig Dug..I played both Arcade and NES Versions..which these were my favorites...everytime when I play..the jingle already headed straight to my mind, I began dancing while playing. Advanced Merry Christmas, Mr. Patman..Hope you have a wonderful day..😊
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries your always welcome, my friend..have a happy holidays..hope to see more of the good ol' arcade classics from 70s, 80s and 90s..I have a lot of my favorite arcade games such as Mario Bros., Donkey Kong, Street Fighter (1987), Psycho Soldier and even Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1989)
Thank you for this delightful documentary on one of my most memorable childhood memories. Please keep being awesome. I truly appreciate all that you do.
Thanks a lot for another excellent arcade documentary. I love them all! Dig Dug is one of my all time favourites as well. Didn't know anything about the nice DS-version, thanks for mentioning it, happy to try it out.
I never played Dig Dug but I played Digger (1983 PC, same age as me) millions of times , it was my favourite game full stop. I can now see the improvements it brought especially the digging although Dig Dug is clearly the originator and clearly a fantastic game. Another great video Patman 🙂
16:00 I love the Namco Classic Collection version of Dig Dug. But I especially love the "pop" sound this version used when one of the enemies popped. I laugh every time.
Awesome! Was one of my favorite to play back in the arcade. Seeing the Apple II version made me think you should do a video on Moctezumas Revenge. Always enjoy your videos
one of the downsides of being so busy during the holidays was falling behind on Patman videos. the upside is being able to marathon a month's worth of new Patman videos at a time :)
Dig Dug is the cab I decided to build from the ground up, not my favorite game but always felt too iconic not too, plus I love the artwork.. That commercial played a lot during my childhood, more than most, I have a feeling that played a part in my decision without me even knowing it.
"Ask for it where you play coin video games". Not in the tiny arcade I went back in the day. You had to be happy with whatever they put up there. There I never saw Dig Dug, Gorf, Qix, Bosconian and others. These I saw only when on holiday where others lay on the beach to get some tan. I always came back pale from holiday for some reason... As for the Fygars: I used to pump them a little from top or below just before bursting, then positioned left or right to finish the blow job and scored (higher). Umm, that doesn't sounded right? 😗 Thanks for this video. I didn't even knew there were sequels in the following years until when I watched it. Always learning something new thanks to your channel. Even if it takes 40 years. 😀
How dare you bring back horrific memories from my childhood. This is how we lost our Trailer when I was a wee tot. Oh such memories of living with those crazy lizards within the subterranean landscape.
I always thought Dig Dug looked like a Smurf. Thank you for confirming it Patman! One of the best games ever made IMO. Buckner & Garcia never made a Dig Dug song, so that commercial fills the gap. DDArrangement is awesome. I didn't know Mr. Driller was linked to Dig Dug. Thanks!
What game is this: the enemy is in the middle like the DVD logo that bounces around the screen. You are on the border of the screen and when you walk into the middle where th enemy can get you, the path you walk draws a line and when you get back to the safety of the border, the area within the lines you walked get filled in making the playing field smaller for the enemy. You basically shrink the danger zone bit by bit by walking in and out of the enemies playing field. It's kinda like Dig Dug 2 where he makes parts of the island collapse by connecting the lines.
Dang Pat, they have pills for that green hose 😆 i never seen that commercial before, it's crazy and i bet expensive for the time. I've been playing Dig Dug since it was in the arcade and Atari 7800. I own it for the PS2 on the Namco treasures. A true and fun classic game. 2 hands for possible documentary Xenophobia and Quartec. Good job as usual bro💪🏆 - Pantyeatr1
21:55 "For some reason, the walking tune has also been changed as well." My perspective on this as someone who grew up in those years. Arcade ports were inherently downgrades, but at the same time, there seemed to be an unwritten *law* that demanded arbitrary, unnecessary changes that further differentiated ports from their arcade originals. One look at the 2600's Space Invaders, with the completely reconfigured aliens, is all the evidence you need for this weird phenomenon. Even as a kid, I knew they could have done better with even a trifle of care. You grew accustomed to this and took it for granted back then. The fact that the music is completely different here is quite simply part and parcel of that unwritten law.
Just now saw this. Great video. I do remember seeing Zigzag out in the wild once. I remember it looking and sounding very close to Dig Dug except that you could pick up a pick axe and smash the enemies similar to Donkey Kong hammer. I also remember a clone on Windows years ago that had an interesting wrinkle. Your hero would get bombarded with lethal radiation if you hung around the surface for too long, forcing you to dig underground. Otherwise it was the same game. Another knockoff of this game I got pretty good at was made by Centari called "The Pit". You had a limited amount of time to grab jewels and make it back to your saucer before a tank blasted through the mountain to your saucer.
Another great one here. It's a game I really started playing in later years via emulation, a superb arcade game but so well converted, again so interesting to see a comparison here. The Atari console ones all play really well, the VCS conversion is impressive, they nailed the gameplay. A bonkers game, those green 'dragons' are so amusing, and it's some of my favourite ever arcade game music, along with Fantasy Zone. A classic!
I remember back in 1988 I was five and I got the Atari 2600 with Mario brothers, Pac-Man and dig dug and I was so good at Dig dug. So good in fact that one time I got to level 50. Best moment of me and my friends life.
If I am not mistaken, Here in the US, we were only treated to Dig Dig II: Trouble in Paradise for the NES, and it was Japan who saw the releases of both Dig Dig & Dig Dug II for the Famicom
If I had to pick just one arcade game to be my favorite, it would be Dig Dug. It was the only game that I was genuinely quite good at. Could beat multiple levels of it even as a kid. Later, I became a fan of Centipede, Defender, Qbert, etc, but will always love Dig Dug most. I love, love how you literally blow up enemies in a very different way than other games blew stuff up. Love the banjo sounding music when you are digging too. So great. I love that you make your own maze instead of having to follow a pre-made maze too. The enemies are cute and iconic. It's neat how it keeps track of what level you've reached by how many flowers have grown in the upper right corner. I can sometimes get up to six flowers before I run out of lives. It's great that you can collect a bunch of different vegetables. Wait... Galaxian is a vegetable?!? I've never gotten far enough to come across that one. I liked it much better than Pac Man. The commercial makes me surprised that someone hasn't made a live action movie or cartoon based on it yet. Dig Dug II is a great example of making a sequel that innovates on a game's design without losing the key aspects of the series that made the first game so popular. Mr. Driller is a great example of what not to do. It was popular, but had very little to do with Dig Dug to the point that I didn't realize that it was a sequel to Dig Dug back when it came out. Never seen the DS game. I'll have to look for it. Hopefully, it hasn't achieved 'rare collectible' price status yet. The Atari 2600 version is quite good. Might not look and sound arcade accurate, but given the system's limitations, and the crazy short development time, it's very good. Quite fun. It ranks right up there with Defender as one of the very best Atari 2600 games. I agree that the Atari 5200 had terrible joysticks. So did the Intellivision. I'm so glad that my grandma got me a 2600 and I never 'upgraded' to a 5200. I still love the 2600, but have never cared for the 5200. The GBA version illustrates well why I was glad to skip the Game Boy and wait to get a GBA instead. Some great ports on the GBA. The version I got from the eShop for my 3DS must be the NES version as it looks and sounds just like it. It's quite good. That plug n play system that Namco put Dig Dug on is fantastic! Every game on it is very good. Bosconian doesn't get the love it deserves, so I was glad to see it was on here when I got mine. I got it mainly for young visitors to play when friends and family with kids came over, but I play it quite a bit myself. Turns your TV into an arcade cabinet for a fraction of the price if you sit it on a slip proof mat on a sturdy coffee table. Pooka is great! I've managed to find a little figurine of one in one of those blind box things that my wife gave me as a stocking stuffer a few Christmases ago. She gets me.
Very fun arcade game that I still play every now and then! And as a kid, the Atari 2600 version was the very first video game I ever bought using my own money!
I was just playing this at a local arcade bar last weekend, and I got the high score at that arcade bar there! It must've been that I knew about making the vegetables appear, after letting two boulders fall in each level, and getting a good amount of points after getting said vegetables. It was such an impromptu session of Dig Dug with no intention of getting the high score, just more of a casual play.
4:50 Those Atari cinema featurettes were the best! They did several, also including Pole Position, Centipede, and Yar's Revenge. They were shown before movies amongst the trailers, and especially at the drive-in. There was one to promote the Intellivision as well, which looked like a furutistic newscast, with a pixelated video game look... all achieved with painstaking hand-drawn animation
First time I played this was in namco museum vol. 3, I also remember 1 of my older sisters playing it in a namco gba collection game. I only played dig dug 2 once, my 8th grade english teacher was giving away computer discs full of emulated NES games. I never got past level 1. I also remember having that particular plug & play, I won it at sum Xmas themed raffle. I hated that the sound was off
