Dig Dug Native Port

AI disclosure: this project was created with AI. It may contain errors.

You must supply your own ROMs. This repository and its releases contain no game ROM files (the build pipeline checks for this and fails if any are found). You need your own legally obtained copy of the Dig Dug (MAME digdug) ROM set – see Getting the ROMs. The program asks for the file and you can drag and drop digdug.zip onto its window. Dig Dug is © Bandai Namco Entertainment; this project is unofficial and unaffiliated.

---

Table of contents

• What is this?
• Features
• Download and run
• Getting the ROMs
• Controls
• The menu and options
• Widescreen mode
• Command line
• Building from source
• Troubleshooting / FAQ
• Is this a decompilation?
• How it works
• Project layout
• Contributing
• Credits and legal

What is this?

Dig Dug runs on an arcade board with three Z80 processors, shared RAM, custom Namco I/O chips, a tile/sprite video system on a vertical monitor, and a 3-voice wavetable sound chip. This project re-creates that board in C# (.NET 8) and wraps it in a proper PC front end built on SDL2. The original game code from your ROMs runs unmodified – so the game plays exactly as it did in the arcade – while everything around it is modern: gamepads, fullscreen, scaling, settings, and packaging as a self-contained .exe and a Linux AppImage (no RetroArch or MAME required).

Features

Play

• Faithful gameplay – attract mode, credits, scoring, pump, rocks, enemy AI, round progression, high-score memory
• Auto pump and auto coin – hold fire to keep pumping; just press Start
• Game controller support – Xbox 360 / One / Series, PlayStation 4/5, Switch Pro and most gamepads, hot-plugging, rumble when you lose a life, adjustable deadzone and pump button
• Rebindable keyboard – two keys per action, set in the menu
• Cheats – infinite lives, invincibility, start on any round (applied live; the ROM is never modified)
• Game speed from 25% to 400%, frame advance while paused, hold Tab to fast-forward
• Difficulty options: lives, bonus-life thresholds, rank A–D

Time machine

• Save states – 5 slots (F5 save, F7 load, F6 change slot)
• Rewind – hold R (or L3) to run the game backwards for up to 15 seconds
• Replays – record a game and play it back exactly, from the menu

Video

• Widescreen fill with five side-panel styles: dirt, black, glow, live sound oscilloscopes and an info panel (stats and key help); a bright line always marks the real playfield
• 14 colour themes including green phosphor, amber, Game Boy, sepia, night mode and two colour-blind palettes
• CRT filters – scanlines (3 strengths, optional arcade-accurate sideways direction), RGB phosphor mask, vignette
• Rotation (play on a tilted monitor), sharp / fit / stretch scaling, smooth filter, VSync, borderless, always-on-top
• FPS counter, notices for saves / screenshots / achievements

Audio

• Output device picker with test tone, volume, per-voice mute for the three sound channels, optional smoothing, mute when unfocused

Extras

• Statistics (play time, games, coins, lives lost, best score, deepest round) and 19 achievements, stored locally – nothing is ever sent anywhere
• Screenshots (F12) saved as PNG, shortcuts to open the config and screenshot folders
• Reset high scores / stats, automatic pause when the window loses focus
• Windows .exe and Linux AppImage, no installer or runtime needed; the power-on self-test is fast-forwarded

More screenshots

CRT filter	Rotation + Green Phosphor theme

Info panel (16:9)	Dirt panels (16:9)

Cheats menu	Notices, FPS counter

## Download and run

Grab the latest build from the Releases page.

Windows (10/11, 64-bit)

1. Download DigDug-windows-x64.zip and extract it anywhere.
2. Put your ROMs next to DigDug.exe in a folder called roms (or just run it – it will ask you to pick digdug.zip).
3. Run DigDug.exe.

Windows SmartScreen may warn about an unrecognised app because the executable is not code-signed; choose More info -> Run anyway.

Linux (x86-64)

1. Download DigDug-x86_64.AppImage.
2. chmod +x DigDug-x86_64.AppImage
3. Put digdug.zip in the same folder as the AppImage (or run it and pick the file when asked), then run ./DigDug-x86_64.AppImage.

If your system has no FUSE: ./DigDug-x86_64.AppImage --appimage-extract-and-run. Controllers need the usual udev permissions (most desktop distros handle this automatically).

Getting the ROMs

You need the MAME-style digdug ROM set (revision "a"): dd1a.1 … dd1a.6, dd1.7, dd1.9, dd1.10b, dd1.11 … dd1.15, 136007.110 … 136007.113. Either the .zip or the extracted files work.

The game looks for them in this order:

1. a path given on the command line (DigDug path/to/digdug.zip) or --roms <path>
2. the path remembered from last time
3. a roms/ folder or digdug.zip next to the program (or next to the .AppImage)
4. the per-user config folder: %APPDATA%\DigDugNative\roms (Windows) or ~/.config/DigDugNative/roms (Linux)

If nothing is found, the window shows a "ROM files required" page: drag and drop digdug.zip onto the window, or press Enter / click / A to open a file picker. Nothing blocks the window, so dropping works at any time. The location is remembered after the first successful load.

Controls

Action	Keyboard (defaults, rebindable)	Controller
Move	Arrow keys / WASD	D-pad or left stick
Pump (hold to keep pumping)	Space / Z	A, B, X, Y, R1 or either trigger (choose in menu)
Insert coin	5 / C	Back / Select / Share (or just press Start – Auto coin)
1-player start	1 / Enter	Start / Options
2-player start	2	L1
Menu	Esc / F1	PS / Guide button, or press the right stick (R3)
Pause / frame advance	P / . while paused	–
Fast-forward	hold Tab	–
Rewind	hold R	hold L3 (left stick click)
Save / load / change state slot	F5 / F7 / F6	menu
Game speed	[ slower, ] faster, \ reset	menu
Colour theme / scanlines / FPS	F10 / F8 / F9	menu
Fullscreen / screenshot	F11 / F12	menu
Reset machine	F3	menu
Service/test screen	hold F2 while booting	–

The menu

Open it with Esc (or the PS / Guide button). Navigate with the arrow keys or D-pad, change values with Left/Right, confirm with Enter or A, go back with Esc or B. Pages:

Page	What is in it
Video	Fullscreen, window size, scaling, smooth filter, widescreen + side panels, rotation, theme, scanlines + direction, CRT mask, vignette, VSync, FPS, always-on-top, borderless
Audio	Volume, output device + test tone, mute each of the 3 voices, smoothing, mute in background
Controls	Rebind every key (Enter = key 1, Left/Right = key 2), pump button, stick deadzone, rumble, auto pump
Game	Lives, bonus, rank, auto coin, add credit, game speed, auto pause
Cheats	Infinite lives, invincibility, start round
Save states	Slots, save / load, rewind info, record / play replays
Extras	Screenshot, open folders, reset high scores / stats
Stats	Play statistics and the achievements list

Settings are saved to %APPDATA%\DigDugNative\settings.ini (~/.config/DigDugNative/settings.ini on Linux) along with the high-score memory (digdug.nv), stats.ini, a digdug.log, and the states, replays and screenshots folders.

Widescreen mode

Dig Dug was designed for a vertical (3:4) monitor. On a modern 16:9 display that leaves wide black bars. Widescreen mode fills them; choose the look under Video -> Side panels: dirt (extended, dimmed level), black, glow (the screen edge colours bleed outward), scope (live oscilloscope of each sound voice) or info (stats and key help). A bright line marks the real playfield edges – you cannot walk or dig beyond it, and gameplay is completely unchanged. Turn widescreen off if you prefer plain bars, or use Rotation to play sideways on a landscape display.

## Command line

DigDug [romfolder-or-zip] [--roms <path>] [--fullscreen] [--lives 1|2|3|5] [--rank A|B|C|D] [--dip0 HEX --dip1 HEX]

Developer switches (headless runs, tracing, test bot, screenshots) are documented in docs/DEVELOPMENT.md.

Building from source

Requirements: the .NET 8 SDK and SDL2.

git clone https://github.com/TekRantGaming/digdug-native.git
cd digdug-native

Windows (PowerShell) – produces out\win\DigDug.exe and SDL2.dll (downloaded from the official SDL release):

./build.ps1

Linux – produces out/DigDug-x86_64.AppImage (needs libsdl2-2.0-0 and wget):

sudo apt install libsdl2-2.0-0 wget      # Debian/Ubuntu; use your distro's equivalent
bash ./packaging/linux/build-appimage.sh

Any platform, for development (needs SDL2 installed):

dotnet run -- --roms path/to/digdug.zip

GitHub Actions builds both packages on every push, and a tag starting with v publishes a release (see .github/workflows/build.yml).

Troubleshooting / FAQ

It asks for ROMs / says the ROM set is incomplete. See Getting the ROMs. Make sure it is the digdug set (not digdugat or digduga1) and that all files listed are present.

The game started without asking for a ROM - where did it get one? The program contains no game data; it can only use a ROM set it found on your PC. The menu's bottom line ("ROMS ...") and digdug.log say exactly where it was loaded from, and DigDug.exe --rom-status prints the same (exit code 3 = none found). The usual cause is a remembered path in settings.ini (delete it to forget) or a ROM set next to the program or in the config folder.

No sound. Open the menu -> Audio and choose another output device; a test tone plays each time you change it. Systems with virtual mixers (for example SteelSeries Sonar or Voicemeeter) can send new programs to a channel you aren't listening to. digdug.log lists every output device SDL can see.

The controller does nothing. Check digdug.log for a "Controller connected" line. PlayStation and Switch pads work over USB or Bluetooth; if you use Steam Input or DS4Windows, make sure the pad is not hidden from other programs.

The pump keeps attaching but never inflates. That's the original game's behaviour with a steadily held button; leave Auto pump on (default) or tap the button.

Can I play two players? Yes: press 2 (needs two credits, or let Auto coin provide them). Both players share the same controls, as on an upright cabinet.

Where are my high scores? In digdug.nv inside the config folder mentioned above.

macOS? Not packaged yet, but the code is portable .NET + SDL2 – contributions welcome.

Is this a decompilation?

No – it is a hardware emulator written for this one game, not a decompilation. The original Z80 machine code from your ROMs still runs exactly as Namco wrote it; this project re-creates the board around it and builds it as a native, portable PC application. A true decompilation would recover source code for the game logic and compile that natively, without the original machine code. docs/HARDWARE.md documents what was learned about the board (memory map, I/O chips, DIP switches, graphics formats, sound registers), which is the groundwork any such effort would need. Everything that is not the game's own code – CPU, video, sound and chip emulation, the front end, menu, widescreen mode and controller support – is original work in this repository.

How it works

• Z80 – cycle-counted CPU core; three instances run interleaved line by line (264 lines x 192 cycles = 60.6 Hz)
• Machine – memory map, interrupts, control latches, the 06xx bus controller and function-level emulation of the 51xx (credits/joystick) and 53xx (DIP switch) chips
• Video – 36x28 tile playfield, text layer and 64 sprites rendered at 288x224 then rotated for the vertical monitor
• Sound – the Namco 3-voice wavetable chip
• App* / Sdl – SDL2 front end: window, scaling, widescreen, CRT filters, input, audio, menu, save states, rewind, replays

More detail in docs/HARDWARE.md and docs/DEVELOPMENT.md.

Project layout

src/Z80.cs          Z80 CPU core
src/Machine.cs      Board: memory map, interrupts, latches, 06xx bus, 51xx/53xx chips
src/Video.cs        Playfield / text / sprite renderer, palette PROMs, 90° rotation
src/Sound.cs        Namco 3-voice wavetable synthesiser
src/RomSet.cs       ROM loader (folder or zip)
src/App*.cs         SDL2 front end (core, input, video, menu, features, ROM page)
src/Themes.cs       Colour themes
src/Stats.cs        Statistics and achievements
src/Cheats.cs       Cheat hooks
src/Sdl.cs          Minimal SDL2 bindings
src/Settings.cs     Persistent settings
src/Disasm.cs, DevTools.cs, Bot.cs, Png.cs   Developer tools
packaging/linux/    AppImage recipe
docs/               Hardware notes, developer guide, screenshots

Contributing

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome – see CONTRIBUTING.md. Please never attach ROM files, disassembly output or other copyrighted game data to issues or pull requests. AI-assisted contributions are fine if you say so.

Credits and legal

• Dig Dug © 1982 Namco (now Bandai Namco Entertainment). This is an unofficial fan project; no ROM files or other original game data are distributed. The screenshots in docs/images are captures of the game running from the owner's own ROM set.
• Source code in this repository is released under the MIT license. The license covers only the code written for this project, not the Dig Dug game, its ROMs, artwork or sound.
• SDL2 © Sam Lantinga and contributors, zlib license.
• Thanks to the arcade preservation community, whose public documentation of Namco's hardware made this much easier to verify.