Hello everyone and welcome to the latest installment of the Weekly Contests!  Gold-Digger Bimmy here to tell you about a special assignment I'm on and I could really use some backup.  Here's a little history first.  I've spent years digging underground for the government to try to eliminate a threat to the surface world.  That's right, the biggest threat in our world doesn't come from nuclear weapons or Koopa Troopas or aliens bent on conquering the planet or the Foot Clan or Dr. Wily.  The biggest threat to humanity is right below our feet.  Armed with an air gun, I've spent years underground fending off these creatures, plugging them with holes and blowing them to bits with air!  It seems now that they've found a way to get to the surface.  The monsters have come up from the depths of the Pacific Ocean and have begun invading a series of islands there.  What I need you guys to do is strap on your air guns, grab a jackhammer, and send these monsters back to Hell!  That's right, it's time to pump and jackhammer those heathens!  Wait, that doesn't sound right...you know what I mean.  Anyway, it's going to be a dangerous mission and some of you may not come back alive (or you may just toss your controller in the air and play a new game), but the threat is real and someone has to do something about it.  It's time for Dig Dug 2: The Revenge!  What do you mean I can't use "The Revenge" as a tagline?  Double Dragon 2 already has it?  Well, what about Dig Dug 2: Die Harder?  That's already taken, too?  Well, I want a cool tagline, something that will grab everyone's attention and make it sound like a really cool action movie but in the end will be a major letdown like Michael Bay's movies.  What's that?  I'm out of time and need to post the contest?  Fine, we'll just go with lame old Dig Dug 2 and not have a cool tagline.  Here are the rules:

• 1 player only
• Play until Game Over
• Highest score wins
• GENRE: Arcade

The contest ends Sunday, 6/29/14 at 11 PM NA time.  Your user name MUST be in the picture for your score to be valid.  The entire TV screen, or computer monitor if you are playing on an emulator, MUST be in the picture for the score to be valid.  No partial screenshots will be considered or accepted.  No screenshots by hitting "print screen" on a computer will be allowed.  You must take a picture of your computer monitor.  There may be instances where this will be acceptable, but it will be at the discretion of myself and the contest organizers.  Also, the use of turbo controllers is forbidden, as well as any cheat codes, Game Genies, or save states if playing on an emulator.  Also, we will only be using NTSC systems for the contests.  The use of PAL systems will NOT be allowed.  Good luck everyone and have fun

What about "Trouble in paradise"?
Isn't that a tagline?

Anyone else find it ironic that there is no digging in Dig Dug 2? Was able to dig out this score... ba-dump- psssh. I'll be here all night folks....

81,200 (Round 10)

A few observations about this game:

After sinking 3 pieces of land,a bonus fruit/vegetable/drink will appear and like the original Dig Dug the bonus awarded for picking up these items increases as you progress. (Up to 7,000 points)

After 16 levels completed (if I remember correctly) you get a "Dig Dug Theater" ala just like the intermissions you got in Pac-Man.

The game's difficulty resets after round 32 although the rounds do not reset to zero.

The fish that occasionally jumps up from the water can be hit with the pump for 500 points.


You can level select up to the last stage you died on by simply holding up after hitting start on the title screen.Very helpful for practicing those tougher rounds.


A few tips as I was playing this tonight:

Early on try to sink as many enemies in one shot as you can as later they will get so fast that it will be nearly impossible to do.


When the enemies become speedy and abundant (10 max) and the playfield becomes small,try to put up as many partitions between you and the enemy and kill them with the pump from behind those partitions.

This can be a lifesaver in the later rounds as you can cross them but the enemies cannot.

Tagline: "Dig Dug 2: The ORIGINAL Mr. Driller".

Yup, definitely try to combo kill the enemies by sinking them together. You can get up to 80,000 for a group of ten!

80000?! Wow. The most enemies I managed to sink was like 6 or 7

By the time you get 10 in a round,they move so fast it's tough to even sink 3-4 at once. At least for me.

Keep in mind that we were replying to Tom. You simply can't compare our video game skills to Tom's

Oh,I know. Just saying for the mere mortals.

I made to round 11.

395,300 (Round 30)

for benchmarking it would be nice if people would post the round they reached.

First time playing this one... I'm up to level 17 so far, it gets pretty intense. It also gets very hard to try for bonus points, I was basically just trying to stay alive and kill the enemies as fast as I could.

Tom, do you remember what level you were on when you set the record?

I'd be willing to bet that 540k is possible by round 20 if you are collecting all of the high value fruit and maxing all of the kill combos.  (based off doing much worse than that in terms of combos and hitting 280k by round 17 -- spamming in an emulator just to see how the levels progressed)

Not sure.  I think it was Level 31 or something.

I also got 660K during the NA tournament a couple of years ago.  Can't remember the exact level, but I think it was lower than 31.

These are not the highest scores out there though.  There are YouTube videos of people doing much better than this.

70500 (Round 11)



Is it just me or is hit hard to tell which section of land will drop?  I keep getting caught in my own destruction.  I can do better but this is my first real attempt.  Fun game.

You definitely need to pay attention to relative land mass if you're trying to do a big half-screen wipe out for a combo.

You can pre-perforate land, though, to guarantee that it will be smaller when you get around to dumping it, though.

Certain levels are a real pain. I got stuck on round 22 for a bit. Of course this was using the level select. I don't know if I'll get to play again this week as I'll be travelling to Alabama this weekend.We'll see.

Any thoughts on how you're pacing throughout the game?

I'm seeing around 180k by round 11, but I'm doing big combos and that style is getting me killed quick very shortly after that point.

Probably need to practice going for smaller (or no) combos once I cross level 11, or so.
(just curious where the bulk of the points are going to come from)

The only pacing I've really kept track of or noticed so far is that I'm usually at around 120k at the end of level 10... Basically when I get to the mid teens I usually start the rounds by killing off just enough enemies early so it becomes manageable to try and go for bonus points (sinking multiple enemies at a time, getting the food by sinking at least 3 pieces of land). Next time I'll track where I'm breaking 200k... Also I played through using the level select on my high score and I think that I should be able to break 300k around level 30.

Score updated... this game is fun but it can also be frustrating as hell! Probably the only game I've played in the contest so far that gets me so aggravated that I throw the controller! Lol...

Arch, I consistently hit 200k between rounds 18-20. My strategy is just about progression past that point. When I get two enemies left on the screen that's when I try to get the points for sinking 3 pieces of land...

Thanks for the update.

I seem to cross 200k around Rd 12 or 13, pretty consistently.

But then I fizzle out because that strong combo play isn't as feasible at the higher levels.
Seems like I need to work on my transition to "safe" play.

My high right now is only 230k+ in Rd 15 (with basically nobody killed in Rd 15)

EDIT to correct high... overestimated a bit in my recollection...

Haven't played this game before this week and I wish I had more time to play ... I'm sure I could be more of a challenger if I had the time! =D

Best run so far is 110K in I think Round 12. I know I'm leaving points on the table but I'm pretty inconsistent at getting the big kills.

I should add that I have only played for 45 minutes total.

Holy shit 200k around Rd 12?! Thats awesome, I'm gonna have to look back at some of those earlier levels and figure out how to go for max points instead of just progression...