Diamonds (Atari 8-bit)

Diving into the gaming libraries of the British microcomputers has been a rocky ride, but while my time exploring the offerings of the Atari 8-bit computers has been shorter than my time with the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64, it was still a relief to find a diamond in the rough. Diamonds isn’t the kind of game that needs to be qualified as good for its time or good considering the limitations, creator Simon Hunt having a strong sense for game design that makes this a digging game that must be played quickly but still requires a degree of thought and awareness to thrive.

 

Digger Dan is the hero of Diamonds, his quest for riches sending him digging down into the earth where clusters of diamonds await. Digging is as easy as moving in the direction of the dirt, Dan clearing away shafts and tunnels speedily, but you shouldn’t dig around carelessly. Dan can only move upwards if there are solid walls to his left and right, almost like he’s pressing his arms and legs into them to pull himself upwards. Clear away too much dirt and you can shut yourself off from the upper areas of the digging site, and with every level having diamonds scattered about a fair bit, you often need to quickly examine the layout and figure out your best plan of attack. Going for high up diamonds first isn’t always the best plan either, the game’s 64 stages eventually shaking up what you find below the earth. Walls of stone, rocky barriers, and even boxy little rooms are more difficult to navigate around, a wise player needing to prioritize the difficult to grab diamonds over easy high up ones if they wish to clear the stage.

To make this digging more dangerous, Digger Dan isn’t alone in his work. While Dan starts each level above ground, so too does Brian the Blob, the green oozeball similarly craving diamonds but just as content to try and kill Dan as he does his work. It is practically inevitable that Brian will grab a cluster of diamonds or two no matter how fast you are or how well-planned your path is, and while he follows similar rules about vertical movement so you can trap him or you could clear out the dirt beneath some stones so they drop down on him, it’s often best to tolerate Brian and give him a wide berth so he doesn’t shift his hunger from diamonds to human. Brian has an interesting sense of priorities too; a level ends when all the diamonds in the ground are picked up either by the player or Brian, but even if Brian is heading towards some gems, he might not grab them, especially if it would help you clear the stage. You can try to use his jewel consumption to your advantage, but it seems like he can cotton on to your efforts to get him to grab the last diamonds you need, and often if you get close he might forget about jewel eating entirely for the rest of that stage.

 

Diamonds does end after its 64th stage, but a high score is also put forth as a goal. Grabbing diamonds earns you points, and while you can go back to the surface to turn them in for additional points, a balance must be achieved between point accrual and merely clearing levels. This is because Brian isn’t the only dangerous creature you encounter when digging. The Fireflies move down into an open shafts they find, trying to tail you for a quick kill, although you can drop a boulder in their path to shake them. The Eyes are more persistent, surviving even if their path is blocked and better able to navigate the small maze of open space left by your dirt clearing. Philip the Filler is deadly to touch but actually someone you might be happy to see, the little spark putting dirt back into tunnels it passes through which helps if you need to head backwards. Simon the Snake though is a bit of a wild card; Simon can pass through dirt without digging it out, fill in tunnels, and moves with more fluidity than most fiends. Simon also seems to have little aggression though, but a wide berth feels like the proper counter for this unpredictable creature. The most important addition to the enemy roster though is the one with the most ominous name: The Demon.

Digger Dan already tears through soil with great speed, meaning many levels can be cleared in a flash if you’re good at planning a path to the diamonds. However, you could have technically taken your time if not for The Demon. Not too long into a stage, the flickering pink demon will begin to float up from below the stage, passing through dirt and stone without a problem and homing in on the player’s position. The Demon entering the level isn’t a death sentence, he’s slower than Dan and with the right amount of space you can even loop around him, but you can’t dawdle unless you want this persistent pest hovering towards you looking to rid you of one of your three lives. Getting a Game Over after losing just three unreplenishable lives can sting, but the speed of Diamonds means you can clear many levels in quick succession so it’s not unfeasible to make deep runs in a short amount of time. You do end up taking each threat seriously because you have little room to slip up, and there are definitely tense moments where you realize you might not have a good exit due to poor tunneling. Brian the Blob can also dig too, meaning you have to account for his movements even more to make it through the more demanding stages alive.

THE VERDICT: Diamonds’s level layouts aren’t often too different from each other, but your gem collecting journey requires a good deal of on-the-fly strategy despite its swift pace. The range of enemies keep you on your toes, from Brian the Blob serving as a competing diamond collector to The Demon ensuring you can’t slow down to ponder the best approach. Once you get a hang of the systems you can tear through levels rapidly, but the race for a high score or to reach level 64 is still fraught with moments of panic as you need to still dig your tunnels intelligently to survive.

 

And so, I give Diamonds for the Atari 8-bit line of computers…

A GOOD rating. From cute touches like the sound effect of Digger Dan digging rising or falling in pitch based on whether he’s ascending or descending to more substantial elements like Brian the Blob’s different approaches to competing against you, Diamonds feels like a smartly put together package with no extraneous parts or flubbed ideas. At worst you could say the Fireflies and Eyes are a bit redundant and Simon the Snake is a little loose in his purpose, but you still approach their presence in somewhat unique ways that do have a strong impact on how you handle the current stage. Every bit of dirt cleared can be an investment or an issue, the player able to control the path of some of their enemies but also needing walls on either side if they’re going to escape something like The Demon rising up from below. The level designs do mostly shift just by introducing a few solid walls here and there, so there could have been more variation in the layout of the areas you dig down into admittedly. Levels are sectioned off into sets of four that often follow similar ideas like ones that make little boxes of stone with their rock barriers, but many levels do feel pretty straightforward in design. The enemies keep things from growing stale though, especially since the action is so quick you don’t linger long in simpler stages. Some option to continue from certain level sets could help those interested in seeing the later stages over earning points, but the interesting balance in needing to scoop up as many diamonds as you can as the tunnel maze becomes quickly more dangerous means even playing the early levels over again doesn’t end up losing its thrills.

 

While it’s pixelated blue hero means Diamonds might not appeal as quickly to modern players as the colorful sights of fellow digging game Dig Dug, Diamonds involves a good deal more thought and mitigating peril than that already entertaining arcade title. It taps into the same sort of enjoyment of essentially carving out a level’s shape with your own actions while having a wider range of foes to avoid and a few extra systems like conditional vertical climbing that require care to manage. Diamonds ends up the more demanding game so it’s not a clear case of it outright outclassing its ancestor, but this different flavor of digging game shines like the jewels you’ll be racing to grab.