Dig Dug
Platform: Intellivision
Region: USA
Media: Cartridge
Controller: INTV
Genre: Arcade > Action 
Gametype: Licensed
Release Year: 1987
Developer: Namco Limited
Publisher: INTV
Players: 1
_________________________
Dig Dug is a 1-2 player arcade game in which you have to use your shovel to dig your way through the earth. Stopping you from doing this are two monsters, called Pooka and Fygar, who will continually chase you around. The only weapon that you carry is an air pump, which you can use to inflate the monsters to the point where they explode. (if you start to inflate them but stop doing so, the monsters will get turned back to their normal selves.) Furthermore, rocks are scattered throughout the earth, and you can use these rocks to squash them. If the monsters do not find you for several seconds, they will eventually get turned into ghosts, which are able to walk through the earth. They are invincible and cannot be killed. From time to time, vegetables will appear in the center, and you can get these for points.


DEVELOPMENT HISTORY:

The Intellivision version of Dig Dug had been programmed at Atari by former Mattel Electronics programmer Mark Kennedy (Kool-Aid Man). The game had not been fully debugged, though, when Atari closed up their Intellivision division in 1984. INTV Corp. negotiated the rights three years later to release the cartridge for the first time.

The source code no longer existed, but Producer Dave Warhol uploaded the code from a prototype of the game still in Mark's possession. Working with the disassembled code, Mark fixed the game's remaining bugs and removed the Atari title screen.


EASTER EGG:

While debugging the cross assembler and disassembler he had written to develop the new INTV games, Dave Warhol tested the software on one of his favorite Mattel Electronics game, TRON Deadly Discs. He substituted the men in the game with the hot dogs from the BurgerTime cartridge, creating a new game: Deadly Dogs! Later, while preparing Dig Dug for release, Dave found there was enough space on the cartridge to slip in his new game. To play it: Press 47 (four and seven simultaneously) on both hand controllers and press reset.

 
http://www.mobygames.com/game/intellivision/dig-dug
http://www.intellivisiongames.com/bluesky/games/credits/intv3.html#digdug