Weird Dig Dug Glitch

Has this bug happened to you?

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dj505

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Hello!

Quite a while back, I was playing Dig Dug on one of those Plug and Play emulator things for the TV, and since I was just messing around, I decided to try and dig out as much of the ground as possible. A while into doing so, a weird sound played, can't remember exactly what it was (this was a few years ago that this happened) but I think it was either the extra life sound or the insert coin sound. After it finished playing, the game froze for about half a second and the life counter at the bottom went completely off the screen, giving me what I now assume was 255 lives, which is probably the maximum amount in an old game (seeing as there's a max of 255 levels in games like Dig Dug, Pac-Man, or Galaga). I was never able to recreate the bug, and I never recorded footage, since I had no screen cap for my TV and I was just messing around with the game. I meant to document this back when it happened, but I kinda forgot until now. I attached an image of the console I performed the glitch on, but it probably works on MAME, too. I still have the thing sitting in my basement, but when I plug it in and turn it on, the screen goes black and white, glitches out, hangs, then shuts off. Best I can get for gameplay is about a minute before this happens, if I'm lucky.
 

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Margen67

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giving me what I now assume was 255 lives, which is probably the maximum amount in an old game (seeing as there's a max of 255 levels in games like Dig Dug, Pac-Man, or Galaga).
This is due to technical limitations of hardware at the time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8-bit#Details
Quite a while back, I was playing Dig Dug on one of those Plug and Play emulator things for the TV, and since I was just messing around, I decided to try and dig out as much of the ground as possible. A while into doing so, a weird sound played, can't remember exactly what it was (this was a few years ago that this happened) but I think it was either the extra life sound or the insert coin sound. After it finished playing, the game froze for about half a second and the life counter at the bottom went completely off the screen, giving me what I now assume was 255 lives, which is probably the maximum amount in an old game (seeing as there's a max of 255 levels in games like Dig Dug, Pac-Man, or Galaga).
Seems like RAM corruption. Because something went wrong, it's writing to the wrong addresses in RAM, coincidentally the amount of lives, and which sound to play.
I still have the thing sitting in my basement, but when I plug it in and turn it on, the screen goes black and white, glitches out, hangs, then shuts off. Best I can get for gameplay is about a minute before this happens, if I'm lucky.
Sounds like it might have been defective before but you just weren't aware of it, or the video cables have gotten dirty.
It might also have been overheating, moist/wet, or an emulation error.
That would make sense since you wouldn't be able to have very accurate emulation on a Plug & Play since the hardware can't handle it.
And since the emulation is inaccurate, these anomalies happen.
If it's NOT emulated then the glitch might only work on that particular version of the game.

If the glitch can be reproduced in MAME then it wasn't just your game.


If you want to get the game to work again I would try cleaning it out, and making sure it's not just the cables connected to the console or the TV itself, etc.
 
Last edited by Margen67,

dj505

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This is due to technical limitations of hardware at the time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8-bit#Details
Seems like RAM corruption. Because something went wrong, it's writing to the wrong addresses in RAM, coincidentally the amount of lives, and which sound to play.
Sounds like it might have been defective before but you just weren't aware of it, or the video cables have gotten dirty.
It might also have been overheating, moist/wet, or an emulation error.
That would make sense since you wouldn't be able to have very accurate emulation on a Plug & Play since the hardware can't handle it.
And since the emulation is inaccurate, these anomalies happen.
If it's NOT emulated then the glitch might only work on that particular version of the game.
If the glitch can be reproduced in MAME then it wasn't just your game.
If you want to get the game to work again I would try cleaning it out, and making sure it's not just the cables connected to the console or the TV itself, etc.
Thanks for the quick reply!

I tried taking it apart, and EVERYTHING is covered in this glue stuff, making it near impossible to clean, but on top of that, I didn't see anything wrong with it. The bug I mentioned at the end of my first post (the black and white screen and crashing thing) didn't start happening until I picked it up out of the basement after being down there for at least a year, and when it boots up at first, it is in colour, but then goes black and white, the screen warps and tears, then crashes and goes blank though the power LED is still on.

Your statement about the inaccurate emulation seems like it makes sense, too. Seeing as it only cost around $20, I wouldn't expect it to be very high quality.
 
Last edited by dj505,

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