Digging for gold, gems and memories
There’s a virtual gold mine of old games that you can play on your computer’s Internet browser—and even Digger has not been spared. Don’t get me wrong. I’m thankful someone has come up with the idea of “remastering” an old PC game and turning it into something that future generations can still enjoy.
Digger is a (duh!) PC game released by Windmill Software in 1983. Its first incarnation was playable on the old IBM PC with CGA graphics card. Sadly, the game is unwieldy on computers that run faster than the original IBM PC 4.77 megahertz. Yes, your Intel Core2Duo may end up ripping the game to shreds due to its speed.
In 1998, Digger was resurrected by fan Andrew Jenner through reverse engineering. He made it run on Pentium-based computers. Wow.
Digger is similar to the arcade game Mr. Do—the player’s avatar is placed in an underground maze, and can dig horizontal and vertical tunnels. At least one tunnel already exists at the start of each map or level. At various points in the level are emeralds and bags of gold. Digger’s enemies, in the form of obnoxious critters, appear the top right-hand corner of the screen. If the area under a gold bag is excavated, the bag will wobble for a few seconds and then drop. If the bag falls more than one row, it will break open and release its contents, which can then be collected.
These bags can also be pushed left or right onto vertical paths. Needless to say, these bags can squash not only Digger but the monsters chasing it as well. Fortunately for Digger, the gold bags are not its only weapons. It has a weapon which it can fire in a straight line. Enemies caught in the projectile’s path are automatically obliterated. A level ends when Digger “eats up” all the emeralds on the map.
As I mentioned earlier, Digger has already been remastered once, by Andrew Jenner in 1998. This remastered version has been ported to other platforms, including Windows 95, Linux and Java.
Speaking of Java, you can find a Java version of the game here. Time to dig up those memories and try to master this game again.
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POSTED IN: Arcade Games, DOS Games, Emulation, PC, Re:Retro
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