Diggers was originally a pack-in game for the Amiga CD32 launch bundle in 1993, and could be considered a variation of the Lemmings gameplay formula.

In Diggers, though, you are… yes, you guessed it: digging undergound to collect valuable gems – and you’re doing it against a [computer] rival, and therefore against a time limit. If your rival reaches the target value of gems before you do, he wins the game. So you have to get a move on.

Each player chooses a team of five Diggers, from four different races: 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 middling, but regain their health quickly after combat. After choosing a team you then choose an area to dig. Of the 34 regions available, only two are choosable at the beginning (you have to earn access to the rest by beating the other levels).

The way to win in Diggers is to micro-manage your five diggers carefully; ideally by having one dig, and another follow up behind, picking up any gems unearthed, and then warping back to base to sell the gems as soon as possible. You shouldn’t wait and build them up; you need to make money and buy equipment that’s going to speed up your excavations. And you need to do it quickly.

Explosives can help clear rocky areas; tunnelling devices can dig quicker than diggers, but can easily get stuck; lifts can help reach out-of-reach areas; and first aid kits replenish your diggers’ health after a fight (which happens when your diggers meet a rival in the tunnels).

Diggers can be played with a joypad or a mouse. The kind of game it is – it really does work better with a mouse, but it is very annoying that you can’t move the screen around manually as you can in other games of this type. If you overlook that deficiency, Diggers is a fun game to play. It’s not a brilliant game by any means, but is unique and interesting enough to warrant a look out of curiosity.

More: Diggers on Wikipedia