Digger Remastered (DOS 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 Windows
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
Controls
Frequently Asked Questions
Command line options
Running on other platforms
What's new?
About Windmill Software
About me and 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

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.
* + to increase the game speed by 5.
* - to decrease the game speed by 5.
* Ctrl-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 redefine the keys.)

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.

The game keys (not the title screen keys) can be redefined by specifying the /K
option on the command line. For more information about this, see "Command line
options", below.

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
(fame@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", and
was a hit for the group "Hot Butter" in the 70s. There's more info about it
at "http://www.popcornsong.com".

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: Help me! It runs too fast (or too slow)

A: This version of Digger now uses your computer's internal timing chip for all
its timing, so it should run at exactly the same speed on all machines (for
a given speed setting), no matter what how much action is happening on the
screen. The only exception is that if there is more action on screen than
your computer can handle, it will run too slowly (as happened with the
original game on a 4.77MHz machine). You won't notice this effect unless you
have a very slow computer or are running Digger at an extremely high speed.
Using the CGA graphics rather than the VGA ones will speed things up in this
case.

You can speed up or slow down the game depending on your personal
preference. To do this, simply specify the speed on the command line. The
default is 40, higher numbers give slower speeds, lower numbers (1 being the
lowest) give faster speeds. You can also adjust the speed whilst the game is
in progress using the + and - keys.

If you're good at the game you might like to try playing it at a faster
speed.

If you use a really slow speed like 500, you may have to hold the keys down
for longer to get it to do anything.

Note that the music and sound effects are independent of this speed setting.

If you are used to playing Digger on a slower computer, you might notice an
apparent increase in speed as more monsters appear on screen. This is a
psychological illusion! If you notice this, it means that your subconscious
has been counting the number of monsters on the screen and adjusting the
apparent speed to compensate! This effect will disappear after playing the
new version for a while. However, if there is demand I could put in a
feature to actually slow down the game more when there is more action on the
screen.

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: How do I specify command line arguments?

A: Normally, you start the game by typing "DIGGER" at the DOS prompt and
pressing enter. To specify command line arguments, just type them after the
word "DIGGER", i.e. "DIGGER /C 20" to play in CGA at double speed.

If you're not running the game from DOS, see the "Running under different
platforms" section, below.

Hopefully in the future there will be user friendly menus which will mean you
never need to use the command line.

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: Why doesn't the unlimited lives option work?

A: It does, it just doesn't do what you think it does. Unlimited lives does not
mean infinite lives. Unlimited lives means you can collect as many extra
 lives (you get one every 20,000 points by default) as you like, not that you
can die as much as you like without the game being over. If you don't enable
the unlimited lives option, you can only collect 4 "spare" lives, as you
could in the original Digger.

If you want to live forever, try using the option /G:3599, which will give
you an hour's play with as many lives as you like, after which time you will
probably be bored anyway.

Q: Is this legal?

A: Strictly speaking, no. According to intellectual property law, a work

copyrighted by a company continues to be copyrighted for 75 years.

I have no moral objections to violating Windmill software's copyright by

re-releasing the game, and I feel you should have no moral objections to
playing it (unless you're doing it when you should be doing something else).
Copyright exists to protect intellectual rights, not to prevent people from
having access to software. I can think of two reasons why Windmill software
would want to protect their intellectual rights:

* To ensure that they are recognized as the true authors of Digger.

* To ensure that they make as much money as possible.

I have retained the original copyright messages in the game and I take pains
to ensure that Windmill are credited properly whereever possible so the
first of these concerns is taken care of. As for the second - Windmill
hasn't made any money from Digger for a long time, and if they insist I will
relinquish all rights to Digger to them to do with as they wish. Having
Digger restored and working on modern computers, they would be in a much
better position to make money from it than they would if I hadn't remastered
it.

In conclusion, therefore, I think that Digger Remastered follows the spirit

of the law, if not the letter. And since laws, being so rigid, can never be
perfect, the world works much better this way (as any Digger fan must
concur.)

For more information about abandonwarez and the associated legal problems,
have a look at "http://www.mobygames.com/featured_article/feature=7/".

Having said all that, I now know that Windmill does know about Digger
Remastered, and since they have not asked me to stop distributing it, I can
assume they don't mind.

Command Line Options

--------------------
The command line options are:
/S:n = Set speed to n.
/L:name = Use level file "name".
/C = Use CGA graphics - these are faster than VGA but this is only
really noticeable if you have a slower computer or are playing at
high speeds.
/B = Use CGA graphics with BIOS palette functions (try this if the
palette doesn't work properly with the /C option, but be warned: it
might cause a crash if you get a high score).
/Q = Quiet mode (no sound at all).
 /M =
Turn background music off.
/R:name =
Record game to file "name".
/P:name =
Playback game file "name" and restart program.
/E:name =
Playback game file "name" and exit program.
/O =
Go back to the beginning of the command line and start again. Handy
for playing recorded games as screensavers.
/K = Redefine keyboard. To redefine all the redefinable keys, use /KA.
/G:time = Gauntlet mode.
/2 = Put two diggers on screen at once.
/? = Display this list.
/A:1,port,irq, dma,rate,length
= Use SoundBlaster sound, e.g. /A:1,220,7,1,20000,128.
/V = Synchronize timing to screen refresh.
/U = Allow unlimited lives.
/I:level= Start on the specified level instead of level 1. You can't go on
the hall of fame if you use this option.

/S and /L are optional (you can just specify a name and/or number) but are
harmless, and will help to prevent confusion (especially if you have a level
data file called something like "20.DLF").

/Q and /M don't completely disable sound and music, you can still toggle them
with the F9 and F7 keys.

/K lets you choose the keys you want to use to play the game with. Normally,
the program will let you redefine the keys to move Digger around and fire, but
if you override another key (by making the space bar fire, for example) other
keys will be redefined. If you specify the /K option, the program enters
keyboard redefinition mode before the title screen appears. In keyboard
redefinition mode, the name of each action which needs a key comes up on the
screen in red, and changes to green once you've pressed the key for that
action. Note that the name of the key does not appear on the screen: it would
be too complicated to program Digger with knowledge of all known keyboard
layouts. However, I may program it with knowledge of some of the keys in a
future version. I do not recommend redefining N, Esc or F8 as anything else, as
these keys cannot currently be redefined so this could cause confusion. To
return all the keys to their defaults, delete the DIGGER.INI file.

/G starts Gauntlet mode: infinite lives but only finite time. You can specify a
time on the command line, for example "DIGGER /G:60" for one minute play. If
you don't specify a time it defaults to 2 minutes. You can have anything up to
1 hour. Countdown stops when you pause and between levels, but not when you die
(so you get a time penalty of 5 seconds or so (depending on the game speed)
each time you die). Instead of an extra life at 20,000 points you get 15 extra
seconds. When playing back a recorded Gauntlet game be sure to play it back
with the same speed it was recorded, or the timer will be wrong. If you play it
back at a slower speed it will timeout before it's supposed to. High scores in
Gauntlet mode are saved in the same file as the normal scores, but are
separate. This same table is used no matter what Gauntlet time is used.
Gauntlet mode is currently one player only. Thanks to Marek Zgadzaj for this
idea - he played a hacked version of the original Digger to do the same thing.

/2 starts two player simultaneous mode. The first time you do this you will
probably want to use the command line "DIGGER /2 /K" as the default player 1
keys use both sides of the keyboard and you will probably want them to be only
on one side. Two player mode can be used with Gauntlet mode. The scores are
saved separately from the one player modes. The two player simultaneous game
has not quite been finalised yet - the rules may change slightly. Recording
works, but games recorded with this version might not play back with future
versions. When one digger dies the other can continue, and after a while the
digger that died will be reincarnated (if he has any lives left). He will flash
for a short time after being reincarnated. During this time, he is invincible.

/A may eventually be used to enable many different sound cards. However, the
only one currently supported is SoundBlaster, but most sound cards seem to be
able emulate this one. If you do not have a genuine SoundBlaster card, ensure
that your sound card is set up to emulate SoundBlaster before you run the game.
How you do this will depend on your card. If you've set up games before, you
should know how to do this. You should also know the port address, IRQ number
and DMA channel that your card uses. Factory defaults are usually 220,7,1. To
enable SoundBlaster sound, use the /A option as follows:
/A:1,220,7,1,20000,128. The first "1", after the colon, means SoundBlaster. No
other values for the first option have any meaning at the moment. The second
"1" (the fourth option) is the DMA channel, so if you use port 210, IRQ 5 and
DMA channel 3, the option is /A:1,210,5,3,20000,128. The 20000 is the sample
rate (this means 20,000 samples per second). You can change this: higher
numbers give better sound quality, but if this number is too high the sound may
break up. The last option is the buffer length. If the sound is breaking up you
can try increasing this instead of decreasing the sample rate. If the sound
seems to "lag" behind the action, decrease this value.

/U gives you the ability to save up as many lives as you like. See the FAQ
section for more information about this.

There are two ways to record your game: either give Digger a filename when you
load it, or press F8 once your game is over. The filename used if none is
specified on the command line is composed of your score and the initials you
entered if you got a high score. Bear in mind that any previously saved games
in this file will be overwritten unless you rename or move the file first.

To automatically save your game once it is finished, simply start Digger with a
command such as "DIGGER /R:DIGGER.DRF". Then, the last game you play before
exiting to DOS will be saved to this file (in this case, DIGGER.DRF, although
it can be anything you like). The recommended extension is .DRF (Digger
Recorded File). Again, remember that only the last game played before exiting
is kept.

To playback the file, use either the /P or the /E option: "DIGGER

/P:DIGGER.DRF" or "DIGGER /E:DIGGER.DRF". The only difference is that when the
playback is finished, the /P option restarts the program so you can play
normally, and the /E option exits to the operating system.

If you specify both /P and /R (or /E and /R) on the command line (/R first),
the playback itself is recorded, so some elementary editing of recorded game
files can be done. Not enough to make it look like you've done better than you
have, of course.

To playback a file at a different speed, put the speed on the command line
first. Command line arguments are processed in order. You can even play back
multiple files at different speeds with the same command, such as "DIGGER 20
/P:DATA1.DRF 10 /E:DATA2.DRF" (plays DATA1.DRF at speed 20, then DATA2.DRF at
speed 10, then exits). You can take control of a game that is playing by
pressing Ctrl-T. However, you will not then be able to record that game (that
would be cheating).

Running on Other Platforms

--------------------------
Windows 3.1

This works fine, expect for the sound, which cases the game to crash when you
complete the first level. To solve this problem, either use the /Q option to
turn all the sound off, or the /A option to use the SoundBlaster card if you
have one. Better still, exit Windows (by selecting "Exit Windows" from the
program manager's File menu) before you play the game - the timing will be more
accurate.

To change the command line options, press Alt-Enter whilst the Digger icon in
Program Manager is highlighted to get a box with the command line.

Windows 95 and 98

This works fine apart from the fact that the first time you complete a level
after loading the game, Windows interrupts and says:

DIGGER may not run well unless it is run in MS-DOS mode. Would you like to
create a shortcut to this program that will run it in MS-DOS mode?

Press "No", and click on the minimized Digger button on the taskbar.

To stop this from happening, create a shortcut to Digger.exe, right-click the

shortcut, click "Properties", "Program", "Advanced..." and ensure that "Suggest
MS-DOS mode as necessary" is unchecked.

If you do run Digger in MS-DOS mode, there is a bug in Windows which sometimes
causes the computer to only ever boot up to Digger, not to Windows. If this
happens, make sure that you are exiting Digger with F10, not Alt-Ctrl-Del. If
the behaviour continues, follow these steps:

* When the computer says "Starting Windows 95" or "Starting Windows 98"
immediately press F8 (you may have to try a few times to hit it at exactly
the right moment).

* At the menu, choose "Safe mode command prompt only".

* When the "C:\>" prompt appears, type "win /wx" (without the quotes) and press
Enter. The computer should then start normally.

* If it still doesn't work, restart the computer and do the same thing, except
choose "Safe mode" at the menu. When you get into Windows, open Notepad and
edit the files C:\Autoexec.bat and C:\Config.sys. Delete any lines from those
files that mention Digger and save them. Then shut down and restart.

If *that* doesn't work, try the instructions on this web page:

http://www.gateway.com/support/techdocs/software/windows/30792.shtml
If you are running Windows 95 or 98 and the possibility of this happening
scares you, don't run the DOS version at all - run the Windows version instead.

To change the command line options, right-click your Digger shortcut icon,
select "Properties" and there will be a command-line box which you can change
in the same way as the DOS command line. Instead of saying just "DIGGER" it may
say something like "C:\Games\Digger\Digger.exe" (depending on where you
unzipped the Digger files to) but it's the same principle.

Windows ME
This OS is rather odd. It still interrupts when the "level completed" sound
plays, and will even go so far as to change the shortcut to run it in DOS mode,
but, since Microsoft removed DOS mode from ME, the shortcut won't work.
Unfortunately, Microsoft didn't forget to take out the "Suggest MS-DOS mode as
necessary" option from the shortcut properties dialog box, so it seems they've
made only the mistakes which make it as difficult as possible to run Digger for
DOS! Does anyone know a way to get Windows ME to avoid suggesting MS-DOS mode?
If there's isn't an obscure menu option or even registry key somewhere, I'll
try writing a program to patch the shortcut .PIF file, but this option isn't
very user-friendly so I'd like to avoid it if possible.

Until then, you'll just have to press "No" when it interrupts and carry on.

The command line is modified in the same way as for Windows 95 and 98.

Windows NT, 2000 and XP.

There are some timing problems which will be fixed in the next release. Until
then, I suggest you try one of the following things:

* Reboot to DOS with a floppy disk when you want to play DOS Digger.
* If you have a DOS/Win9x partition on your hard disk, reboot to that to play
DOS Digger.
* Play Windig instead.

OS/2

Digger Remastered can be run under OS/2 in a full-screen DOS session, but the
music may be a little distorted. To fix it, set:

HW_TIMER ON
IDLE_SENSITIVITY 100
INT_DURING_IO ON
SESSION_PRIORITY 32

OS/2 displays the Windows icon with no problems.

Thanks to Mariusz Borkowski for this information.

Emulators and virtual machines

Digger Remastered has been successfully run under virtual machines (such as
VMWare - http://www.vmware.com) and PC emulators (such as MESS -
http://mess.emuverse.com) on various platforms. If you have problems running
under a VM or emulator, I probably won't be able to help since these problems
are more likely to be the fault of the VM or emulator than of Digger.

Last resort

If you're using x86 hardware and can't get Digger to work with the above tips,
you can always make a boot floppy and copying Digger to it, and rebooting using
that whenever you want to play Digger.
What's New?
-----------
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 (the documentation for the Windows
version of Digger) 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.

About Windmill Software

-----------------------
Windmill software is based in Canada and run by Jo-Anne Kempe. They no longer
publish games, but now specialize in software for property management systems
and custom management information systems (MIS) software. If you would like
more information about Jo-Anne's company and its international capabilities in
housing and building/facility management in custom MIS projects, contact her at
Canada 905 639 4515 or visit the Windmill Software website at
http://www.windmill-software.com

Windmill published at least nine games between 1982 and 1984: "Video Trek 88",
"Floppy Frenzy", "Moonbugs", "The Exterminator", "Styx", "Digger", "Conquest",
"Rollo and the Brush Brothers" and "Attack on Altair". All these are available
from the Digger website.

I wrote to Jo-Anne on a number of occasions but she never replied. However,

there have been a few messages on the Digger Chat mailing list from an employee
of Windmill Software. Edited highlights follow:

> I met Jo-Anne at a tradeshow in Toronto called ORCA which is for

> retirement communities, a market that she currently sells her
> property management software to.
>
> I had Digger on my laptop when I was there so I asked her a few
> questions about it. Apparently she was at a gaming show in the early
> 80s when she had initially demoed digger to an audience. It was in
> its early stages with alot of bugs. Apparently the folk who did Dig-
> Dug stole the concept and beat Windmill to the gaming market.
>
> She said she hadn't seen the game in years and asked if she could
> play it on my laptop. You should have seen this. She completed the
> first 3 levels without even looking at the screen. She said that the
> algorithms are so well known to her since she created them. She could
> play just by the sound and music. Amazing!!! I will be seeing her
> again at an upcoming show so I'll let you know about our next meeting.
> P.S. the main influence for her games... drugs.

> She didn't write all of the games. She did some coding but her
> husband at the time (now ex husband) did most of the real coding. Her
> nephew did most of the music. I think that the Styx concept was
> stolen from Qix but I don't know about the rest of the games.

> We've got original artwork (by Russ Liota) and

> game boxes (Kapanese versions) in the office. Styx, Conquest, Rollo,
> etc... And some advertisements from PC Magazine. Cool stuff.
>
> JA is pleased with your Windows revamp of Digger. She's a bit
> disappointed with the sound but what can you do. She's interested to
> know where you got the other games esp. Video Trek since she doesn't
> even have the source for any of the games anymore.

> She honestly doesn't play digger that much anymore and until she found
> your website she didn't even have the game. We're a real small
> company right now with 7 or 8 people but growing quickly.
> Jo-Anne is busy, you've got no idea. She works like 18 hour days
> trying to get this company into the US market so I can't imagine her
> spending anytime in this chat room. She does love to talk about the
> gaming era though.
>
> Here's my Windmill history of the day: All the games were done in
> their home, created and packaged, the whole process. Apparently
> their two dogs (Chip and Byte) were always laying on all the disks
> before they were packaged so pretty much each copy of their games had
> dog hair in it! JA and her husband had vanity plates on their cars -
> Hobbin and Nobbin!

> Jo-Anne tells me that there was another game. Not sure if it had
> worldwide distribution or not, in fact, she can't remember the name
> of the game. She claims that it was very similar to Q-Bert but way
> cooler. The name of the game started with a "J" and may have had the
> word "jump" in it. I'll keep drilling her to see if she can come up
> with the name.
>
> Also, if you're up for it, Jo-Anne is interested to see if you can
> resurrect some game reviews that Windmill got in PC Magazine back in
> the 80's. They were really good reviews - published by Ziff-Davis.

The game described sounds like "J-Bird", but although that was out at around
the right time (1983), it was published by Orion Software, written by Greg
Kuperberg and "protected under the copyright laws of the United States of
America". Also, the presentation is very different from the other Windmill
games. The mystery deepens:
> After talking to Jo-Anne it seems as though J-Bird was a Windmill
> game. It was written by her nephew, Ray, but that doesn't explain why
> the rights are owned by Greg Kuperberg.

> I'm gonna sent an email to Jo-Anne's nephew Ray to see if he's got
> any more info on J-Bird. Jo-Anne says that if Greg Kuperberg's name is
> on J-Bird, that it's stolen cuz she's never heard of him.
>
> Windmill also did a whole pile of utilities in the early 80's as
> well. One was called Videograph 88 which could take any image off a
> computer screen and send it to printer. It was the best of it's kind
> and it was hand-compiled based on the 8086 macro-assembler.
> Apparently it got a really good write up in PC Magazine issue #2.

What an intriguing mystery! It looks like a case of plagiarism, but the

question is how much of the game was plagiarised? Did Greg Kuperberg just take
the name and concept and make the game from scratch (much like most Tetris
clones are called "Tetris" - I'm guilty of this myself)? Did he patch his name
into Ray's executable (unlikely, since he would also have had to patch in the
Orion Software animation)? Was there some sort of deal between Ray and Greg?
Could Greg Kuperberg be an alias?

Please get in touch if you have:

* Any information which could help to clear up this mystery.
* A copy of any of those PC Magazine reviews.
* Videograph 88.
* Any other software called "Video<something> 88" (as it's probably by
Windmill).
* Any Windmill Software not mentioned here.

About me and contact details

----------------------------
I graduated from Queens' College, Cambridge, UK in June 2001 with Master of
Sciences and Bachelor of Arts degrees, after studying Physics. I now live in
Washington state, USA and work for Microsoft.

If you have access to email that is the best way to contact me - my address is
andrew@digger.org

You can also visit my personal website at http://www.reenigne.org if you're

interested.

Thanks to...
------------
Matthias Wermann (matt@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@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.