Digger

The excavator in Digger carves its own path through a mine of emeralds, sacks, and creatures that won't let it work in peace. The arrow keys let you move through existing tunnels or dig new ones. Collecting a row of gems seems simple until an enemy shows up in the passage you just dug.

Windmill Software published the game for IBM PC in 1983. The executable in this copy identifies the studio in its copyright, although the name of the RetroBat ZIP mistakenly mentions Millennium Interactive. Gameplay confirms that this is Windmill's Digger: a digging vehicle, green emeralds, and Nobbins enemies, with CGA graphics and PC speaker sound.

Digging also changes your escape routes

A new passage can bring you close to several gems and leave you trapped between a sack and a pursuer. Before turning, look at what is above you and where you will be able to get out. Sacks fall when they lose their support; using them against enemies requires stepping aside in time. The F1 fireball works as a defense, but it doesn't regenerate instantly.

Levels are cleared by collecting all the emeralds or eliminating the enemies. Here, deciding on the route matters as much as carrying it out. In our test game, we started with the keyboard, dug in several directions, collected gems, and used F1; the open tunnels remain visible and the points go up as you collect them.

Original, DOS copy, and documentation

The original commercial edition started from its own floppy disk. What RetroBat contains is a DIGGER.COM executable that runs under DOS, set up here to start directly in DOSBox. It has not been replaced with Digger Remastered: that later recreation adds features that should not automatically be attributed to the 1983 copy.

The ZIP also includes a DIGGERS.DOC file devoted to another game, Diggers. We keep it inside the original download, but we do not use it as a Digger manual or as a source for its controls. Nor do we associate the Amiga title of the same name, which describes a different adventure with a character named Bob.