1995 Millennium
Platform: Commodore Amiga CD32
Also known as: Diggers 2
It is perhaps unsurprising that a game as ground breaking as Lemmings would inspire a series of other inventive puzzlers, which seem to share some DNA in places. Diggers was one such title, where you control a mining team trying to get precious minerals.
Scoring well with magazines at the time, it comes as no surprise that a sequel was put into motion. The same developer, Toby Simpson would get to work once again to try and improve on his original success.
Many issues that were found with the original were set to be resolved for the sequel on the Amiga CD32, including have more reigned in level map sizes, so that most users would get to appreciate most of the game. There would also be better defined goals as well.
After around a year of development, the game was finally finished and was reviewed by most of the major Amiga magazines, scoring relatively well. However, the title would never surface in the end, and only saw release on PC for DOS.
What happened exactly is still a mystery, though a user called Warlock99 would release a beta version of the game around July 2001 time via his “Andy’s Amiga Rarities” website. He also spoke with Toby, who was surprised that he had a copy.
Toby confirmed to Andy that the game was a very early beta, and discussions were being made to try and get an Amiga to Toby to compile up the version that he had. Unfortunately, around this time – Warlock99 closed off his website. Just over 20 years on, the full version is still at large.
It was confirmed by Toby that the game was never released due to the declining market. Rumours that the game was cancelled due to RAM issues was not accurate, and the game was actually fully complete – so magazines did review a fully completed game. We’re now hoping to see if we can preserve something of the final game.
With thanks to Iain McNulty for the heads up, Hall of Light for all the scans so far and Toby Simpson for his input.
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