Any Dig Dug masters out there, now WITH PATTERNS!!!!!

[Lutus]

After the help obtained from the "calling all donkey kong masters" topic I thought I would ask for a little help in my 2nd favorite title Dig Dug.

I am NOWHERE near as good at dig dug as donkey kong but I am ready to tackle it.

I cannot find anywhere on the net where someone has documented common patterns for Dig Dug. 

I DO know all the basics of loopy-loop digging then making a long tunnel underneath a rock and trying to smash them all at once.  I also know how all the points work with different dirt levels and pumping from the sides vs the top.

I would just like some direction for general patterns that work, or quirky point pressing techniques.

Thanks!   


My did dug was down for a week.  I rebuilt the ARII/01 and the PCB fingerboard/ repinned edge connector and played 1 game before bed. 

Score = 62,000

[CheeseSndwch]

I’m not a master but I do have all the XBLA achievements. 

If there is a pattern I sure haven’t noticed it. I guess my only tip would be that if you keep two of the enemies alive you can dig out the entire level. The dig points add up quick. This technique gets harder as the levels go on.

[jonnyv1000]

Each level has it's own pattern but for the life of me I can't remember that far back when I used to play this game at the local arcade.  You were able to drop both rocks to get the fruit to appear and easily clear level after level

Good luck!

[Lutus]

The dirt eating is ok, but not really necessary if you can't reach the kill screen.

I believe there are common patterns, more general, not specific like pacman.  For example, on the first screen I usually walk to the right and make a giant clockwise circle by going down the right side of the screen, along the bottom to the left and making a long tunnel up to the rock on the left to get all the baddies in one drop.

More along those lines.

[Donkey_Kong]

Could you elaborate on what you mean by the difference of pumping the enemies from the sides vs the top & bottom?

Let's see, thinking back...pumping a fygar from top or bottom you have no chance of being torched. Are points the only difference?

[ark_ader]

There is and I have most of the patterns from the books of the day.  I will be able to post them in a couple of weeks.  Dig Dug is my fav, and most of the time you try to clear the board of nasties as fast as you can.

I'll PM you when I get to those "books" out.

[TheShanMan]

I'll PM you when I get to those "books" out.

Hey! Don't just PM. Post your tips so everyone can benefit please.

[Lutus]

ANY help would be great!

Ark_ader, that would be awesome, maybe we could get those "books" uploaded somewhere for download or something.  If there is anything I can help you with it, let me know.

I played another game last night.

80,450 or something like that.  Only made it to board 11.

I think I should check the dip switch's on the game also, as there are a couple of different difficulties settings.

[freon1200]

patterns on digdug, i never would have even considered that. that would be awsome. i suck at digdug, but love the game
yeah ark_ader
share the wealth with all of us please

[Matthew Anderson]

You are right... there are some patterns at least until you hit my best score which is about 250000.... Then the little suckers start speeding up and I start losing all my men 

The boards repeat and I use the same pattern for each board...

Now if I could only remember the patterns 

[Lutus]

I PM'ed a guy named Donald Hayes, not sure if you have heard of him.  He is just the world record holder on Dig Dug.

Anyways, I PM'ed on another forum and got a response!!  I will post some of his tips tomorrow morning, as I am falling asleep as I type this.

[Lutus]

Ok, below is the edited response (removed any personal hello's etc.. I got from Don Hayes on Dig Dug)



   You already know that Dig Dug is basically pattern-based.  The patterns
   aren't always exact, though, and they can break down with even minute timing
   differences.  The first 11 screens are unique from each other so do those
   however you feel most comfortable.  You can set up decent rock drops on most
   of them but I'd suggest concentrate on surviving those boards without losing
   any men.

   Starting at board 12, the game throws the same sequence of 4 boards at you
   over and over.  So, board 12 repeats at 16, 20, 24, etc.  As you progress
   through the levels, the enemies get faster and behave slightly differently
   and this will cause the starting patterns to change.  The board 13 layout is
   the easiest one, the other three are pretty close on difficulty.  I use
   several different starting patterns on the early boards (from 12 to the low
   30's).  After that I use my primary patterns to start each board with a goal
   of maximizing rock drops and points.  You'll probably want to concentrate
   more on not losing men, though, as that's the first key to starting to get
   better.

   Here's a couple general thoughts:

   -- it is relatively easy to keep ahead of two enemies that are following
   you.  three can be done too but it is actually much harder so try to avoid
   this
   -- when a rock drops, the enemies run away from it.  if they're below the
   rock this usually means going down.
   -- related to this, it's usually a good idea when digging a vertical tunnel
   under a rock to dig a small dead-end channel down first and then head up to
   the spot underneath the rock to drop it
   -- the quickest way to blow up an enemy is to tap the pump button several
   times while running towards the enemy.  If you simply hold the pump button
   down it takes WAY too long to actually kill the thing
   -- another fire button trick is when you want to stun an enemy, hold the
   pump button a split second longer than normal.  If done right, the enemy
   will get two pumps instead of one which gives you more time to do what you
   want.

   Hope that helps, and good luck with your practice!

   Don



Basically, I haven't even gotten to the part of the game that holds the patterns yet.  I am only at Level 11 or so.  Hope this helps.

But we still need the patterns.  Don also said that over at MARP he has some Mame .inp Dig Dug recordings, but I don't know how to playback these game files.

[fatfingers]

I would be very interested in the .inp files.  Usually playbacks are pretty easy to get configured (I just cannot remember exactly how I've done it in the past -- for mspacman and sinistar).

[Ginsu Victim]

Thanks for the Donald Hayes reply! A few of things are well known (like vertical rock drops, and tapping the button....I didn't know some people held it!), but definitely some good tips.

I've got to check out that INP sometime....

[Lutus]

Dig Dug MARP page link

Don is in 2nd on this page, his record on the actual arcade hardware is over at twin galaxies.

NOTE:  if you know how to view this and could write up a quick how to, with links, including everything but the ROM itself (for ovbious reasons) that would be very helpful.

[Ginsu Victim]

Never done it myself, so I'll have to figure it out as well.

[Ummon]

You are right... there are some patterns at least until you hit my best score which is about 250000.... Then the little suckers start speeding up and I start losing all my men 

I thought they started speeding up by perhaps the eighth level!

  Don also said that over at MARP he has some Mame .inp Dig Dug recordings, but I don't know how to playback these game files.

I suggest using Mame32/UI. It's really easy. Download the inp file. Put it in the INP folder. In Mame32, click once on the game in the list to highlight it. Then got to File>Playback Input and click. It should start right up.

[freon1200]

ive only gotten inp files to work a few times. you need whichever version of mame that is listed next to their marp file. thats the version they did it on.

[fatfingers]

Yeah.  I tried today and was unsuccessful getting those to work.  I think mainly because I don't have the same ROM as they used to record it (but in reality, I'm not sure).

[scotthh]

Here are instructions to play back the imp files. Here's another set.

I placed the inp file in H:\mame\inp
I called up the command prompt and typed the following: H:\mame>mame digdug -playback dbh.inp
It responded with: Playing back previously recorded game digdug
But the game kept resetting itself.

[freon1200]

if it keeps resetting itself, its probably the wrong version of the emulator. they act weird when using the wrong emu. keep coining up, resetting. and junk like that.

[Lutus]

Well, I got around to playing some more this weekend and got a top score of 103,450 on Round 13.

Round 13 looked very similar to round 1 but the enemies were much faster and I made stupid mistakes as usual.

Anybody have any looking viewing those files, or finding your old pattern notes?



By the way, the "top score" music when you place first on the machine is hilarious.  And it also says "now go for the world record".  Yeah right!

[Lutus]

Found a website that breaks down the patterns and they are all on VIDEO baby.  Only problem is the site is in Japanese I think.

Dig Dug Patterns

The patterns you want are the "4n" "4n+1" "4n+2" and "4n+3".  Then you click on the next links and scroll to the bottom for a quick youtube embedded video of the level played with that pattern.

This is what I am talking about.  Let me know if these look familiar.

[tommyinajar]

You cal also use something like "Bable fish" to explore the site a with a hint of complete English sentences

[Lutus]

The hint of a translation was hilarious.

Attached you will find part one of a word document that has a 1st picture and last picture of each level 1-9 i think.

You can use this to chart out your approach to each level.  You can also watch the video on the above site and mark on your chart the path the guy took to kill the enemies.

It is too large for one post....

[Lutus]

10-15 levels

[Lutus]

Using new patterns and technique.....

310,280  NEW HIGH SCORE


went from 131,000 to 310,280 in one game.

[TheShanMan]

Awesome Lutus! One of these days I am going to put these tips to use and get good at DD too!