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HSC18 Round 5: DIG DUG


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Dig Dug "Wide"

We'll play the atari 8-bit version this time. Plsy on default "carrot" skill level. [Space] is pause. [Select] will return you to the title screen. The difficulty [option]s skip you ahead to various levels (don't use this for this round!).

 

Atari 1982 released ver (not the prototype)

Wide playfield, Title screen should match this:

post-19705-0-19271600-1320233215_thumb.gif

dig_dug_1982_3.gif.8fc09cd46fe6fe944087853425c9472b.gif

http://a8.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=1738

http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-dig-dug_s10791.html

atarionline.pl (v1) ATRs & XEXs

 

Bug Alert!

trbb>> playing "wide" the last baddie was escaping, I was firing along the top expecting to kill him and he seemed to leave but the game kept making the warning noise and I could carry on with the empty screen!

Scalak>> Bug is in atr version in xex not.

 

Fun Challenge Highest score screen 1 in 1 man

 

Round ends Sunday 28th March 10am UK time.

 

EVERYONE WELCOME TO PLAY, JUST POST A SCORE. SCORES  FOR ANY MISSED ROUNDS OK TOO :party:

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First Run: 24,490 for me

Best: 27,290

I'm assuming I was on level 8 (there are 8 flowers anyway).  I definitely need to work on a strategy on that last level.  I can barely move before they're all over me it seems.

Edited by 8BIT 1337
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While having a few practice runs this morning, I encountered a little bug.  I had a rock pass right through me without killing me!  I was completely in the channel with the rock and it went completely through me.  So, I attempted to recreate it, wondering if the rock would pass through you if you were facing a certain way or what.  Unfortunately, I was unable to replicate the bug, so I guess it was just a fluke.

 

No score worth reporting as of yet...can't seem to get past the first couple of levels yet.

Edited by Deteacher
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Dig Dug: 29,940

20210314_233818.thumb.jpg.edc05bd09bde8f2bde29af3a174b05c3.jpg

 

First level challenge: 4,760

20210314_233317.thumb.jpg.4cd6c9380d8d7f83e299234c94871799.jpg

 

Wow, I'm not sure I've ever given this version a serious try. It seems much more difficult than the other ones! (Or maybe I'm just not used to it.) I don't remember the version that I played when I was a kid having a title screen.

 

I'm having a hard time getting into the pumping rhythm in this one... normally you can kind of walk toward the enemy and continuously tap fire to blow them up quickly, but that doesn't work very well here. They also seem to "ghost" and converge on you VERY quickly.

 

Why are there so many (slightly different) versions of this on the 8-bit? Was there a version with no title screen, multicolored enemies, AND the dirt texture? That's what I thought I remembered playing in my youth, but now I can't find it. Maybe I'm just getting old and conflating different versions in my tired brain...

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No, I was surprised that there were so many versions, and that the 8-bit version of Dig Dug was not as good as I remembered (or maybe I have played the arcade Dig Dug more since.)   Yeh they converge on your quicker, and the pump, which would generally bring them out of their ghost state easier they tend to stay in that state longer.

 

Interesting.  Anyway, my new score...

 

46,080

20210315_005842.thumb.jpg.2985bae9bafc00d575820bb77d18c31b.jpg

 

And the first level challenge...

 

While not a record 5,130

20210315_010952.thumb.jpg.a0efbef6f638db4dbf9e861bc0a0af95.jpg

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4 hours ago, graywest said:

Why are there so many (slightly different) versions of this on the 8-bit?

It appears to me that A8 and 5200 games development were done separately, probably as an attempt to make the 5200 look like something else than it was. Perhaps due to diminishing sales of the 5200, Atari determined to re-release it for the A8 on tape, disk as well as cartridge, in particular if it played better/differently than the version already put out on cartridge a year earlier. The two cartridge versions though share the same article number.

 

Remember that the 400 originally only had 8K RAM whereas the 5200 and 600XL had 16K. I wonder if the earlier version of Dig Dug (which we play this time around) requires less RAM in order to be playable on the 400, while the improved version from 1983 utilizes all 16K RAM. It should indicate on the packaging which models it supports, or perhaps the last remaining 400 by then were upgraded?

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Was looking at some of the graphically improved Dig Dugs out there, and found the color fixed version:

dig_dug_1983_color_fix.zip   (Looks like this is the improvement for the 5200 version)

 

Are there any other versions that get this version we are playing closer to the arcade look?

 

 

 

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Update to what I posted above: If Altirra is to trust (I suppose it is accurate, but one never can be sure enough), I found the following:

 

Dig Dug 1982: Boots OK on Atari 400/800 with 16K RAM or more. With 8K, the graphics are horribly corrupted, flicker badly and the game is unplayable.

Dig Dug 1983: Boots OK on Atari 400/800 with 16K RAM or more. With 8K, it doesn't even get to the title screen.

 

It means that not even the first version of Dig Dug would run on an original 8K machine, though it would start with corrupted graphics. I don't know if it ever was intended to work. I saw a reference to that the source code to the 1982 version was posted here on AtariAge so unlike the case of Frogger, the sources probably never were lost. Perhaps it was a matter of outsourcing the first version, and Atari only had limited rights to republish it so they just as well begun to reissue the 5200 version for A8, in particular if it was considered more accurate?

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My Pro(c) Atari goodies arrived today from Germany, missing T-Shirts but I think they are being sent separately?!

HSCers will recognise some of the games I have reviewed, please support this if you can and write something too - just send text to me here on atatriage :party:

https://proc-atari.de/en/index

 

Photo3480.thumb.jpg.8571c02b7ddb78f3c01ce4c9aa3192f8.jpg

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A tip or two!

 

It's not always easy, but try to use the stones in the game!

When you hit an enemy with a stone, you will get 1000 points instead of a 300-400, and if you manage to hit two at the same time with a stone, it's 2500 points, 3 enemy is 4000 points.

 

And the bonus item that shows up once in a while are worth a coupple hundred points the first time and then increase quite fast!

One time, late in the game, i got 7000 points!

 

 

Edited by tompateus
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