Dig Dug (Atari, rev 1)

Arcade Video game published 42 years ago:

Dig Dug (c) 1982 Atari, Incorporated.

Export version by Atari for North America. Game developed by Namco in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Namco version entry.

- TECHNICAL -

The Atari upright Dig Dug machine came in the same cabinet as several other Atari titles (such as "Kangaroo" and "Centipede"). The machine was decorated mostly with cartoon graphics showing scenes from the game, superimposed over a yellow background.

There was also a cocktail version. It had two control panels (one on each end). Each panel had a 'Pump' button on either side of the joystick, so left handed players can play equally well. This model used a 13-inch monitor (as opposed to the standard 19-inch in the upright), and the game image flipped for each players turn. The top glass is decorated with some cutesy pictures of Fygar, Pooka and Dig Dug.

Players: 2
Control: 4-way joystick
Buttons: 1 (PUMP)

- TRIVIA -

Dig Dug was released by Atari, under license by Namco, on Aril 1982 in the USA, selling at an MSRP of $2095.

20,504 upright units were produced by Atari. There were also 1,219 cocktail units and 505 cabaret units produced.

Dig Dug was NOT the first game that Atari licensed from Namco, as is common belief. That honor goes to "F-1", the 3-D racing game from 1976 that projected a race track on a screen using a rolling film. Hardly anybody in Atari coin-op liked Dig Dug except for Brian McGhie (who later joined Starpath) and Owen Rubin. It was McGhie who added the finishing touches to Dig Dug. Rubin still owns an upright prototype cabinet of Dig Dug with hand-drawn artwork, and still considers it one of his favorite games of all time. The ROMs in his prototype are the actual production ROMs.

The background graphics are slightly different in these Atari versions; the earth is less regular than the Namco versions

In 1982, Atari released a set of 12 collector pins including : "Missile Command", "Battle Zone", "Tempest", "Asteroids Deluxe", "Space Duel", "Centipede", "Gravitar", "Dig Dug", "Kangaroo", "Xevious", "Millipede" and "Food Fight".

A Dig Dug unit appears in 1983 movie 'WarGames'.

Michael Jackson used to own this game (Namco Upright model). It was sold at the official Michael Jackson Auction on April 24, 2009.

The main character, as weel as a Fygar and a Pooka, appear in the 2012 animation movie "Wreck-It Ralph" from Pixar.

- PORTS -

NOTE : Only ports released in North America [US] are listed here. For ports released in other regions, please see the original Namco version entry.

* CONSOLES:
Atari XEGS (1983)
Atari 2600 (1983) "Dig Dug [Model CX2677]"
Atari 5200 (1983) "Dig Dug [Model CX5211]"
Mattel Intellivision (1987) "Dig Dug [Model 9005]"
Atari 7800 (1987) "Dig Dug [Model CX7803]"
Sony PlayStation (jan.31, 1997) "Namco Museum Vol.3 [Model SLUS-00398]"
Nintendo 64 (oct.31, 1999) "Namco Museum 64 [Model NUS-NNME-USA]"
Sega Dreamcast (june.25, 2000) "Namco Museum [Model T-1403N]"
Sony PlayStation 2 (dec.4, 2001) "Namco Museum [Model SLUS-20273]"
Microsoft XBOX (oct.9, 2002) "Namco Museum"
Nintendo GameCube (oct.9, 2002) "Namco Museum [Model DOL-GNME-USA]"
Sony PlayStation 2 (aug.30, 2005) "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary [Model SLUS-21164]"
Microsoft XBOX (aug.30, 2005) "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary [Model NMO-2201A-NM]"
Nintendo GameCube (aug.30, 2005) "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary [Model DOL-G5NE-USA]"
Microsoft XBOX 360 [XBLA] (oct.11, 2006)
Nintendo Wii (oct.23, 2007) "Namco Museum Remix [Model RVL-RN2E-USA]"
Microsoft XBOX 360 [XBLA] (nov.4, 2008) "Namco Museum - Virtual Arcade [Model 21022]"
Sony PlayStation 3 [PSN] (jul.16, 2009) "Namco Museum Essentials [Model NPUB-30086]"
Nintendo Wii (nov.16, 2010) "Namco Museum Megamix"
Microsoft XBOX One [XBOX Store] (apr.20, 2016) "Arcade Game Series - Dig Dug"
Sony PlayStation 4 [PSN] (apr.20, 2016) "Arcade Game Series - Dig Dug [Model CUSA-03958]"

* HANDHELDS:
Nintendo Game Boy (sept.1992) "Dig Dug [Model DMG-DY-USA]"
Sony PSP (aug.23, 2005) "Namco Museum Battle Collection [Model ULUS-10035]"
Nintendo Game Boy Advance (june.10, 2001) "Namco Museum [Model AGB-ANME-USA]"
Nintendo Game Boy Advance (aug.30, 2005) "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary [Model AGB-B5NE-USA]"

* COMPUTERS:
Atari 800 (1982) "Dig Dug [Model RX8026]"
Commodore C64 (1982) "Dig Dug [Model RX8511]"
Commodore VIC-20 (1983) "Dig Dug [Model RX8510]"
PC [Booter] (1983)
Texas Instruments TI-99/4A (1983)
Apple II (1983)
PC [MS Windows 95, 3.5"] (mar.31, 1996) "Microsoft Return of Arcade"
PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (2000) "Microsoft Return of Arcade Anniversary Edition"
PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (oct.25, 2005) "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary"
PC [MS Windows, Online] (2009) "Namco All Stars - Pac-Man and Dig Dug"
PC [MS Windows, Online] (dec.8, 2010) "Namco All-Stars - Dig Dug"

* OTHERS:
Arcade (1996) "Namco Classics Collection Volume 2"
Namco Classics TV Game (2003) by Jakk's Pacific.
Mobile Phones (feb.8, 2005)
Arcade Gold featuring Pac-Man (2007) by Jakks Pacific.
Retro Arcade featuring Pac-Man (2008) by Jakks Pacific.
Arcade (2010) "Pac-Man's Arcade Party"
Pac-Man Connect and Play (2012) by Bandai.