Digger Remastered (Windows version)

===================================
24/8/2001
by Andrew Jenner
This text file contains a subset of the information available on the official
Digger Remastered website, which can be found at "http://www.digger.org". Also
at this site you can find:
The Digger Extras pack, which contains
The level editor
Extra sets of levels
Digger icons
A screensaver
A utility for grabbing the DIGGER.SCO file from an original Digger floppy
The Digger Java applet
The original Windmill software games (they won't work on modern computers):
Digger
Rollo and the Brush brothers
Conquest
Styx
Conquest
Moonbugs
The Exterminator
Floppy Frenzy
Video Trek 88
Attack on Altair
Styx remastered
Source code
Graphics
Other versions of Digger:
Digger for DOS
Digger for FreeBSD/Linux/SDL
Digger for RiscOS
Digger for 32-bit DOS (with joystick support)
Mailing lists:
The Digger Update mailing list, to get informed about the latest versions
The Digger Chat mailing list, if you also want to chat about Digger
Archives
The Digger Hall of Fame
Links to related websites
Stories from Digger fans
The information in this file is correct to the best of my knowledge. If you
find any mistakes please let me know (contact addresses are at the end of this
file).

Contents
--------
Introduction
Things that are working
Known problems
Controls
Command line options
Frequently Asked Questions
What's new?
Contact details
Thanks to...
Introduction
------------
Digger was originally created by Windmill software in 1983 and released as a
copy-protected, bootable 5.25" floppy disk for the IBM PC. As it requires a
genuine CGA card, it didn't work on modern PCs.
In 1998, I created Digger Remastered, which runs on all PCs with CGA or better
and plays just like the original. It also has many new features, including:
* Exit button
* Optional VGA graphics
* Recording and playback
* Real time speed control
* Keyboard redefinition
* Gauntlet mode
* Two player simultaneous mode
In 1999, Tim Draper ported Digger Remastered to Windows. This is the
documentation file for the Windows version, WinDig.
To run WinDig you need to have Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000 or XP. If you're
running it on Windows NT 4.0 you'll need service pack 3+. (I'm not sure about
previous versions of NT.) DirectX 6 or later is especially recommended as
without it there will be no full-screen mode and a possible performance
penalty. DirectX 8 can be downloaded from Microsoft's website
(http://www.microsoft.com/directx/download.asp) if you don't already have 6 or
later but beware: it is a large download (11Mb).
You'll need at least a 486 to play WinDig, but a Pentium is recommended. A
sound card is also recommended (or you won't be able to hear the sound) as is a
display capable of 256 colours or more.

Things that are working

-----------------------
* Single player / 2 player game
* 2 player simultaneous mode
* Gauntlet mode
* Change speed with /S switch, +/- keys on num pad, and with menu
* Recording with F8 and with menu
* Playback of recorded files with /E and /P switches and also with menu (use T
instead of Ctrl-T)
* VGA/CGA graphics
* Switch between Windowed and Fullscreen mode using Alt-Enter or Graphics menu)

Known problems
--------------
for version (TD WIN 19990717)
Graphics
* Changing your screen resolution/color depth or starting a full-screen DOS
session while WinDig is running will cause WinDig to crash.
* Colors are a bit strange when the game is running in full-screen mode and the
menus are activated or a dialog box is displayed.
* If Windows is running at 256 color depth and you run WinDig in full-screen
 mode, the colors in the main menu screen may occasionally be wrong.

Keyboard & Joystick

* Keyboard remapping doesn't work yet. (Unless you want to manually edit the
Digger.ini file...)
* No joystick/game controller support yet.

Sound
* The sound might break up/skip a bit more than the DOS/SoundBlaster version.
* The end-of-level tune plays too slowly on some computers (when the music is
on).
* Other programs cannot use the sound card while WinDig is running, even if the
sound in WinDig is turned off.
* If no version of DirectX (DirectSound) is installed on the computer but a
sound card is installed, you will still hear sound and music, however, the
sound may lag behind the action more than it would if DirectSound was
installed.

Other
* Using the /R switch causes WinDig to crash at the end of the game. Use the F8
key or the menus to record your game instead.
* The game continues to run and accept keyboard input even when it is in the
background.
* If WinDig cannot find the level-file specified in the digger.ini file, it may
tack on the .DLF extension (even if the filename already has an extension).
This may eventually cause WinDig to crash at startup. If this happens, erase
the LevelFile= line from the DIGGER.INI file.
This hasn't been tested on very many computers, so I'm sure there are many,
many more problems that I don't know about yet. I apologise if the program
crashes, or locks up your computer or something. But if it does do something
like this, please let me (Tim Draper - tim (at) digger.org) know and I will try
to fix it as quickly as possible.
If you change the sample rate or buffer size in the dialog box, you must
restart the program for the changes to take effect. Don't put anything
unreasonable as the sample rate, since this may cause the program to crash on
start-up. (You can edit the INI file if this happens.)
The 'Asynchronous' option improves the performance of the game while in
Windowed mode only. You may notice that when this is checked, some of the
flashing sprites that you normally see (when pushing bags, etc.) don't flash.
This option has no effect when in Full Screen mode.

Controls
--------
The keys you can use during the game are (by default):
* The cursor keys Up, Down, Left and Right (or 2, 4, 6, 8 on the numeric keypad
if Num-lock is off) to move Digger.
* F1 to fire.
* Space to pause.
* F7 to toggle background music.
* F9 to toggle all sound.
* F10 to return to the title screen.
* T (cheat) to take over whilst playing back a recorded game.
In two player mode the default keys for the second player are:
* W, A, S and Z to move Digger around.
* Tab to fire.
(Apologies to users of non-QWERTY keyboards - I know this is a terrible choice
for you - you'll just have to wait for a version where the keys can be
redefined.)
On the title screen press:
* Esc or N to toggle one or two player mode.
* F8 to save the last game if you didn't put a name on the command line.
* F10 to exit the program.
Joysticks are not yet supported in this version of Digger, but joystick support
is planned for a future version - watch this space!

Frequently asked questions

--------------------------
Q: How does the scoring system work?
A: As follows:
* Emerald: 25 points.
* Eight consecutive emeralds (octave): Extra 250 points.
* Gold: 500 points.
* Killing a Nobbin or a Hobbin by shooting or hitting with a bag: 250 points.
* Bonus: 1,000 points.
* (In bonus mode) Eating a Nobbin or a Hobbin: 200 points for first, 400 for
2nd, etc. (doubling each time) - still 250 for other methods of killing,
though.
* At every multiple of 20,000 points you get an extra life.

Q: What's the most you can score?

A: The maximum possible score on completion of level 1 is 8,650 plus 3,900 for
every life used. I used to be able to repeatably obtain 8,650. The maximum
possible score you can have by the end of level 2 is 19,925 if you don't
die, so it is not possible to start level 3 with more than 2 lives in
reserve. I have got maximum score on the first two levels a few times.
I haven't bothered to calculate similar statistics for the other levels, but
I can if anyone's interested...
If you meant "What's the most you've ever scored", the answer is 75,975.

Q: What's the most anyone's ever scored?

A: Have a look at the Digger hall of fame on http://www.digger.org/fame.html to
find the latest top scores. If you can do better than the 10th best person
in the world, submit a recording of your game to Einar Johan
(highscore (at) digger.org).

Q: Can you give me some tips to improve my game?

A: The best I can do is suggest that you play back the recorded games in the
hall of fame (http://www.digger.org/fame.html) - who better to get tips from
than the world's best Digger players?!

Q: What's the music that plays in the background?

A: The background music for the main part of the game is called "Popcorn". It
was written by Gershon Kingsley in 1969 and was made popular by the group
"Hot Butter" in 1972. It has since been covered by many other artists.
The background music for the bonus is the William Tell Overture by Rossini.
The music which plays when you die is "Funeral March" by F. Chopin.

Q: What other interesting things do you know about Digger?

A: In my explorations of the code of the game, I have discovered lots of things
which might be of interest to someone.
On each new level up to level 10:
* The monsters arrive more frequently.
* There are more monsters in total.
* The number of monsters on screen at once increases.
* The number of times nobbins have to cross to become hobbins decreases.
* The monsters move slightly faster on average (their speed is actually
random).
* The monsters less frequently stop chasing you (they always chase you on
level 6 and above).
* Hobbins stay hobbins for longer.
* Gold hangs around for less long.
* Fire takes longer to recharge.
* Bonus mode lasts for less long.
Levels above 10 use the same variables as level 10 but different layouts.
The level plan is 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-6-7-8 followed by the sequence 5-6-7-8
repeated 247 times. If you complete level 8 249 times, all the subsequent
levels use the layout from level 5.
Gold (as in a broken bag) disappears very quickly if you dig underneath it.
Monsters going up change direction when there is a bag falling on them, but
they do the same thing even if the bag is below them in the same column.
Player 2 (in two player mode, obviously) doesn't get the extra life until
after multiples of 20,000. Player 1 (in either mode) gets it *at* multiples
of 20,000.
The noise made when you complete a level is polyphonic if no background
music has been played since the game was started.
The original game allocated enough resources for 6 monsters, but only 5 are
on screen at any given time. By changing a single byte in the original
executable, you could make all 6 appear at the same time.
When you get a game over and no high score, the screen used to flash between
 its two colour schemes for a while, but the original didn't do this on my
8086. Apparently it did on some other people's computers, though, so it must
have been a hardware oddity. It was taking ages to get back to the title
screen, so I removed it.
In the original, you couldn't collect more than 4 spare lives. If you got
60,000 points without dying, you wouldn't get an extra life at that point.
Some people thought this was unfair, so in Digger Remastered I added an
option (/U) to allow you to collect as many lives as you like. However,
care should be exercised using this option if you intend to record a game
for the hall of fame, since your score will be calculated as if you played
by the original rules. So you might not have as many lives as you thought
you did, and your game might finish sooner. A few people have been caught
out by this.
There are no more extra lives to be had at or after the 1 million point
mark. Although this was a bug in the original Digger (a kludge really -
Windmill software never counted on anyone getting that far) I've kept it on
in Digger Remastered to give an extra little bit of difficulty to anyone
that good.

Q: Can you send me this other game I used to play called...?

A: No. Try http://www.digger.org/links.html - I haven't got time to go
searching the web for you if you can't be bothered to work out how to do it
yourself.

Q: Can I send you this other game I used to play called...?

A: Please don't send me games over email unless I ask you to - it makes my
email take forever to download, and chances are I have it already (or could
easily find it on the web). If you really want to send something, email me
first describing exactly what it is and how big it is, and ask me if I want
it. If I do, I'll tell you the best way for you to get it to me.

Q: I have found a bug in Digger. Can you fix it?

A: First download the latest version from http://www.digger.org and see if your
bug still happens with that. If it doesn't, I already fixed it. If it does,
please send me details of the bug, the operating system and version of
Digger you are using, the command line parameters you gave to Digger and
(if applicable) a .DRF file which reproduces the bug.

Q: Where can I get the original version of Digger?

A: I don't know. It is impossible to download it from the internet because it
is hardware, not software (a copy protected floppy disk, as opposed to the
program on it). If you had that disk you'd still need a 4.77MHz PC with
genuine CGA graphics and a 5.25" floppy disk drive to run it.
However, many people played the old Digger without the original disk. It is
possible to extract the program from its disk, a process known as "ripping".
If you do this, it still doesn't work because because the game is copy
protected. It is possible to remove the copy protection (a process called
"cracking"). After these steps, the game will run but it will run too fast
unless you have an 4.77MHz PC, and you won't be able to see it unless you
 have CGA. Also, if you were to get a high score, it would try to save it on
the disk in drive A, possibly wiping out some of the information on any such
disk.
The ripped copies of Digger, Styx, Moonbugs, Conquest, Rollo, The
Exterminator and Floppy Frenzy which you can download at
http://www.digger.org have been cracked and modified not to save their
scores. Nothing else has been done to them, however, so you they run too
fast and the graphics are broken in some of them.
A more original (although less useful) downloadable version of one of these
games would be an "image" of the original disk (not a picture but a file
containing all the data from the disk: boot sector, file allocation tables
and all.) I don't have any disk images of original Windmill disks, nor do I
want any - I have no use for them, except to put on the website, and I won't
do that unless there is sufficient demand for it. However, I intend to soon
put modified disk images of the Windmill games on the website for use with
emulators such as MESS (http://mess.emuverse.com).
If you actually want to play Digger, I suggest you download Digger
Remastered. It plays and sounds exactly the same as the original did, looks
the same if you use the /C option, and works on all the same computers as
well as more modern ones. In fact, if you play them both on a computer or
emulator on which the original Digger works properly, you would be hard
pushed to tell them apart (except for slight timing differences).

Q: Is this legal?
A: Yes! Recently the original author of Digger, Rob Sleath, contacted me. He no
longer owns the copyright to Digger (or the other games) but he did retain
the right to use the code for development of other products. He considers
Digger Remastered to be another product, and has granted me copyright to
Digger Remastered, which I have chosen to license under the GNU GPL.

What's New?
-----------
4 Sep 2004: Added lots of new information about Windmill,
pictures and the original source code to Digger and Styx to the website.
14 Mar 2002: Maxim Sobolev released a new version of Unix/SDL Digger.
2 Mar 2002: Added Christian Bird's 3D Digger graphics to the website. Added the
original instructions.
14 Nov 2001: Einar Johan is taking over the hall of fame as of today. He has
big plans for it!
2 Sep 2001: Added the graphics editing package to the download page.
24 Aug 2001: Rewrote the WINDIG.TXT file and the website.
18 Aug 2001: I thoroughly rewrote the DIGGER.TXT file distributed with the DOS
version, removing redundant information and adding some new things. This file
will no longer be synchronized with the website, at least for the moment.
17 Feb 2001: Video Trek 88 added to downloads.
18 Oct 2000: Two new links added to the sidebar - Styx and Sopwith are the
latest games to get the remastering treatment.
13 Apr 2000: Score saving bug in SDL Digger fixed.
7 Apr 2000: Maxim Sobolev's SDL version released, allowing users of FreeBSD and
GNU/Linux to play Digger natively.
8 Feb 2000: Minor bug in level editor fixed (thanks for Mariusz Borkowski for
finding it).
29 Jul 1999: Marek Futrega's Digger Java Applet added to the website.
18 Jul 1999: Major new version of WinDig: CGA graphics, DLF and DRF files on
the menu. The source code to the changes has not been uploaded yet.
11 Jul 1999: Major website redesign and updates to many versions. New level
editor.
24 May 1999: The source code is now available from the website.
6 May 1999: Minor bugfix release. Protected mode version released.
16 Apr 1999: Minor bugfixes in WinDig.
8 Apr 1999: WinDig now doesn't need DirectX at all. DOS Digger will now record
and playback really huge DRF files correctly.
3 Apr 1999: Update to Windows version: now runs correctly in 256 colour mode
and without DirectDraw 6.
2 Apr 1999: More slight bug fixes in DOS version.
1 Apr 1999: Slight bug fixes in both DOS and Windows versions.
28 Mar 1999: Windows 95 version added, thanks to Tim Draper. SoundBlaster music
now works. Various other tweaks and bug fixes.
30 Jan 1999: Bug fix: Recording two-player simultaneous games with the music
off now works properly. If you have any two-player simultaneous recordings
which you want to keep but which now do not playback, send them to me and I'll
see if I can fix them.
28 Jan 1999: Bug fix: You can't lose all your lives in Gauntlet mode any more.
21 Jan 1999: Bug fix: In old-style two-player mode, player one doesn't get all
the points for bags killing monsters.
18 Jan 1999: Bug fix: Digger doesn't stall if you pause for too long.
15 Jan 1999: Unlimited lives (/U) and start at different level (/I) cheat
switches added to Digger at the request of players.
13 Jan 1999: SoundBlaster cards using IRQ numbers 8 to 15 should now work. Bug
with more than 4 spare lives fixed. Vsynch option restored for those with
serious timing problems.
12 Jan 1999: The SoundBlaster sound should now work on genuine SoundBlaster
sound cards. Thanks to Tomer Gabel for finding the cause of this bug.
Recommended extension for level data files changed from .DAT to .DLF.
9 Jan 1999: Yet another bug fix: You now don't die twice if you die whilst
completing a level.
8 Jan 1999: More bugs in old two player mode and keyboard redefinition fixed.
5 Jan 1999: SoundBlaster sound added, although it may not work properly and
there's no background music yet. Bug fixes: Old two player mode now works, and
some bugs in the keyboard redefinition routines have been fixed.
15 Dec 1998: Bug fix: keyboard redefinition in two player simultaneous mode now
works.
13 Dec 1998: Two player simultaneous mode (/2 option) added.
9 Dec 1998: Digger level editor added. This is a Windows program and should be
pretty self explanatory to use, so there isn't any information about how to use
it here.
7 Dec 1998: Bug fix for Gauntlet mode high score table, added /V and /T command
line options to help with timing problems.
25 Nov 1998: Gauntlet mode added.
20 Nov 1998: Minor bug fixes to do with the high scores, playback and taking
over.
18 Nov 1998: Minor timing bug fixed. Major timing bug caused by fixing minor
timing bug fixed.
14 Nov 1998: Hall of fame revamped.
13 Nov 1998: Keyboard redefinition (/K option) added.
4 Nov 1998: New URL: "http://www.digger.org". Minor bug fix for /O option.
21 Oct 1998: Minor changes so you can playback a recording as a screensaver.
18 Oct 1998: Another minor bug fix: you can't score twice for killing one
monster.
17 Oct 1998: Update to RiscOS version: minor bug fixes and sound added.
16 Oct 1998: RiscOS version added. Minor bug fix to DOS version making the
keyboard work more like it did in the original. Speed control and playback
cheat added.
15 Oct 1998: Major new version! Most of the changes are invisible but will help
with future development. However, there are some major new features, including
a greatly improved recording/playback feature, which you will need if you want
to get on the new Hall of Fame.
13 Oct 1998: Digger chat mailing list added. You can subscribe at
"http://www.onelist.com/subscribe.cgi/diggerchat".
22 Sep 1998: Four new sets of levels added in the extra level pack.
8 Sep 1998: Trivia section added in the FAQ list.
7 Aug 1998: If you liked Digger, try Styx, the latest game from Windmill
Software / Andrew Jenner.
28 Jul 1998: DRF compressor program (now obsolete) and DRF files added.
25 Jul 1998: Digger should now run on slower computers.
21 Jul 1998: Minor changes to website and documentation, added counter (see
"http://w116.hitbox.com/Stats?hb=W42904163261" for our statistics.)
20 Jul 1998: Website was redesigned and "What's New?" section was added.

Contact details
---------------
For general information about Digger, contact me. If you have access to email
this is the best way to do it - my address is aj (at) digger.org.
You can also visit my blog at http://www.reenigne.org if you're interested.
For information about WinDig in particular, contact Tim Draper on
tim (at) digger.org.

Thanks to...
------------
Matthias Wermann (matt (at) digger.org) for the very generous donation of the
digger.org domain name and web space. Matthias runs an ISP, the URL of which
is "http://www.emsnet.de".
Avi Ben Zev for setting up the original Digger Chat mailing list and for
getting in touch with Windmill Software.
Jim Leonard (trixter (at) oldskool.org) for all his advice and encouragement.
Windmill Software, for creating the games in the first place.
Finally, thanks to all the Digger fans - without you none of this would be
possible.