Digging Jim

This project is a fan-made re-creation of the game Digging Jim, a Boulder Dash–style game originally developed and published by Persei Entertainment in 1999 for Windows.

It only worked on Windows versions up to Windows XP, so I created this remake so this game could be supported also on modern hardware.

Git repo

All source code and assets can be found here:

https://github.com/chrismalcolm/digging-jim-remake

Instructions

Just download and unzip the zip package and run the Digging Jim application (main.exe). The game will be fully functional from there.

Controls

Keyboard controls have remained faithful to the original game. The original also supported joystick, so support for controllers and joysticks have been added in as well.

Keyboard	Controller/Joystick	Action	Description
Arrow Keys/`W A S D	Analog Stick	Move/Navigate	Control Jim's movement when traversing the cave environment. You can also move pushable objects such as boulders by holding against it for 1 second. Also used to navigate the Main Menu.
Enter	A /  Cross  /  Button 0	Select/Confirm	Select and confirm options in the Main Menu. Also used to restart a cave if Jim is defeated.
Space	X  /  Square  /  Button 2	Collect mode	Collect mode allows Jim to dig in an adjacent space without actually moving there. This can be used to collect adjacent diamonds or release enemies without touching them.
Tab	B  /  Circle  /  Button 1	Self-destruct	Sometimes Jim will become trapped and unable to complete the cave. If that is the case, you can use the self-destruct to restart the cave, before the timer runs out.
Esc	Back  /  Select / Button 6	Quit	Exit the cave and navigate back to the Main Menu.
P	Start	Pause/Resume	Toggle pausing when playing a cave.

Cheat mode

The original game also had a "cheat" mode. This was activated by pressing the F12 key. Once in cheat mode, pressing F1 would let you skip forward caves in the game, and also allowed the player in increment caves by 1 instead of 5 in the Main Menu.

The same functionality is present here, with the cheat activation button being mapped to F11 instead.

Additional cheat buttons have also been added to the game, which are listed below.

F1 – Go to next cave  

F2 – Restart current cave  

F3 – Go to previous cave  

F4 – Open Cave Properties window  

F5 – Toggle Editor Panel  

F6 – Move camera target left  

F7 – Move camera target up  

F8 – Move camera target down  

F9 – Move camera target right  

F10 – Reset camera target to Jim  

`F11` – Activate cheat mode  

Disclaimer

This was created as a non-commercial tribute. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Persei Entertainment. It is intended for educational and preservation purposes only. Please support the official release where possible.