Diggers (video game)

Diggers
Developer(s)	Millennium Interactive
Publisher(s)	Millennium Interactive
Designer(s)	Toby Simpson
Platform(s)	Amiga 1200, CD32, Acorn Archimedes, MS-DOS
Release	EU: 1993 NA: 1994
Genre(s)	Puzzle
Mode(s)	Single-player

Diggers is a puzzle video game for the Amiga CD32 in which the player takes control of a mining team excavating a planet for precious minerals.^[1]

It was later released for the Amiga 1200 and MS-DOS. Diggers was bundled with the CD32 at launch, along with the platform game Oscar on the same CD. A sequel, Diggers 2: Extractors, was released for MS-DOS in 1995.

The game is set on the planet Zarg, where four races are vying for the gems and ores buried there. The four races are: the Habbish, who dig quickly and have high endurance, yet are impatient and prone to wander off; Grablins, who dig the fastest, have good stamina but are weak fighters; Quarriors, who are slow diggers but strong fighters; and the F'Targs, who are mediocre but regain their health quickly. The player chooses one of the four races, then sends out five man teams to mine a region. There are 34 regions in all, with two accessible at the beginning of the game. Each region has an amount of money the player must amass in order to beat it and open up the adjacent territories. Time plays a role, as there is always a computer-controlled opposing race in the region, competing with the player to be the first to achieve the monetary goal.

The gameplay is similar in some ways to Lemmings, with the player issuing orders to his five miners, not directly controlling them. The stages themselves are viewed from the side - the mineshafts that extend throughout the levels give the impression of an anthill. The player commands his units to dig and, when needed, perform more specific actions such as picking up gems and fighting enemy diggers. The races have various personalities, and will occasionally do things without the player commanding them to; this can range from good (such as fighting an enemy) to very bad (walking into a deep pool of water and drowning). As the miners dig, rubies, gold, emeralds, and diamonds will appear.

At any time the player can teleport a miner back to the starting point and send him to the 'Zargon Stock Exchange', in order to trade the finds for money. Only three commodities are traded at one time, and the prices for each fluctuate depending on how much of a particular item has recently been sold. Here the player may also visit a shop and buy special mining tools, such as dynamite, automated drillers and bridge components. The miners themselves are expendable (though a monetary loss will be incurred for each lost worker), with a fresh set of five available each time a new level is entered.

Reception
Review score Publication Score Next Generation [3]

Next Generation reviewed the PC version of the game, rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "Diggers has all the appeal of Lemmings with a good dose of exploration and greed thrown in to boot."^[3]

Amiga Action gave the game a score of 91% of 100 and stating that "A totally addictive and stunningly original masterpiece. Hardly the sort of game to show what the new CD32 is capable of, but a truly marvelous game in its own right. The only big drawback is the lack of a decent instruction manual to help you along at the beginning, but with a little effort, you 'll yourself totally absorbed in a puzzler to rival even the mighty Lemmings series. A game to grow old with.^[2]

• Génération 4 (May, 1994)^[4]
• Amiga Joker (Nov, 1993)^[5]
• Power Play (Dec, 1993)^[6]
• Amiga CD32 Gamer (Mar, 1994)^[7]

• MobyGames is a commercial database website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes over 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms.^[1] Founded in 1999, ownership of the site has changed hands several times. It has been owned by Atari SA since 2022.

Edits and submissions to the site (including screenshots, box art, developer information, game summaries, and more) go through a verification process of fact-checking by volunteer "approvers".^[2] This lengthy approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months.^[3] The most commonly used sources are the video game's website, packaging, and credit screens. There is a published standard for game information and copy-editing.^[4] A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.^[5]

Registered users can rate and review games. Users can create private or public "have" and "want" lists, which can generate a list of games available for trade with other registered users. The site contains an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own sub-forum.

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school.^[6][7] Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information.^[5] In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.^[5]

In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount.^[8] This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign.^[7] A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art).^[9] Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel,^[10] and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.^[7]

On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million.^[11] The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager.^[12][13][14] Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface.^[1] This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.^[15]

In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue.^[16] Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.^[17]

• IGDB – game database used by Twitch for its search and discovery functions

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• Diggers at Amiga Reviews

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