This is a project I have been working on for essentially two years now. It was one of those, “I’ll get to it when I can” type of projects. It seemed that there was always something more pressing to attend to in line ahead of the game. As you can see, when I got the game, it had been converted to Twin Cobra. The boardset worked, so I was able to get a little coin for that by selling it on KLOV. Unfortunately, the cabinet was going to need some major work to get restored.The original side art was covered up by some black laminate. Many times this is a good thing as it will usually just peel right off. however, a portion of the top right laminate had already been removed and took the underlying side art off with it. I decided to finish the job and give myself a clean slate from which to work.

Fortunately, the cabinet was sturdy and aside from a couple places on the bottom and some lock-bar holes, it wouldn’t need much bondo. The control panel was totally gross. There were cigarette burns, coke stains, and grime all over the place.

So in addition to new side art, new control panel overlay, I would need a new bezel and marquee. Whew – an almost total restoration! The biggest piece of the puzzle was finding the side art. I lucked out and found someone on KLOV that had just restored their own dig dug and had printed their own side art. He offered me a set of inkjet printed sideart for only $45!! The only catch was that although it was adhesived-backed, I would have to trim the borders and apply a clear-coat sealant.

I was able to pick up a repro control panel overlay and marquee from Billybob on KLOV for a good price. My good buddy Art did me a solid and repaired the swiss-cheese control panel by affixing some plywood to the bottom and bondo-ing the unnecessary holes. He then applied the overlay like a champ! I threw some new buttons and a NOS wico joystick on there and it came out looking fabulous.

What I thought would be the easiest pieces to find turned out to be the hardest, but somehow I found someone parting out a Dig Dug (gasp!) and I got the MINT original glass bezel for $40 shipped. Lastly, I used rustoleum hammer finish black spray paint to repaint the coin door. Once I got everything together, I decided to defy convention and throw in a 60-1 circuit board (on which you can still play Dig-Dug) so I could get the most bang for my buck. The side art ended up fading and losing some quality with time spent in my garage since it was cheap inkjet, but overall, I think it turned out pretty nice – MUCH better than before!

Tags: Atari, Dig Dug, Repair, repro, restoration