Heiankyo Alien
Heiankyo Alien (平安京エイリアン, Heian-kyō Eirian), known as Digger in North America, is a maze video game created by The University of Tokyo's Theoretical Science Group (TSG) in 1979. The game was originally developed and released as a personal computer game in 1979, and was then published by Denki Onkyō Corporation (電気音響株式会社, Denki Onkyō Kabushiki Gaisha) as an arcade game in November 1979. In 1980, the arcade game was released in North America as Digger by Sega-Gremlin, with minor changes in appearance.
| Heiankyo Alien | |
|---|---|
Arcade flyer | |
| Developer(s) | Theoretical Science Group |
| Publisher(s) |
|
| Designer(s) | Itaru Kawakami |
| Programmer(s) | Mitsutoshi Tabata |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, PC-8000 series, Apple II, Game Boy, Super Famicom, Windows, Mobile |
| Release | PC-8000 series
|
| Genre(s) | Maze |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
| Arcade system | Dual (clone) |
The game was a commercial success in Japan, where it was among the top ten highest-grossing arcade games of 1979 and 1980. The game has been ported to several other gaming systems since its original release. It was an early example of a maze chase game, predating Namco's Pac-Man (1980). It also began a genre of games about digging holes and luring enemies into traps, variously called "trap 'em up" or "digging" games, which includes titles such as Space Panic (1980) and Lode Runner (1983).