Space Hawk
Platform: Intellivision
Region: USA
Media: Cartridge
Controller: INTV
Genre: Action 
Gametype: Licensed
Release Year: 1981
Developer: Mattel Electronics
Publisher: Mattel Electronics
Players: 1
_________________________
Space Hawk is an arcade action game feature gameplay similar to Asteroids. You are an astronaut stuck in deep space. You are equipped with a jet pack to help move around, and a laser gun to destroy enemies. Your main enemy is a white space hawk which wanders around the screen, leaving a trail of deadly bubbles behind him. Try to score as many points as you can be destroying both the space hawk and the bubbles, both of which are constantly trying to get you. In case of emergencies,  you have the ability to enter hyperspace which will temporarily bring you away from danger. Hyperspace ability is limited, however, so be sure to conserve if you can!


PRODUCTION HISTORY:

Most new programmers started their first day with a copy of a simple training game called Killer Tomatoes. They were expected to spend a few weeks playing with it and modifying it to get a feel for how the Intellivision system worked before being assigned to a real game.

Bill Fisher, however, had a different training game. On his first day in June 1981 he was given John Sohl's original Asteroids version of Astrosmash. He was told to modify it into a game that would still be like Asteroids, but different enough that the Mattel lawyers would allow it to be released. Space Hawk was the result. (And while he was at it, he fixed the bug in displaying the score.)


FUN FACT:

While testing the game, Bill came across a bug: every now and then, the game would, seemingly at random, hyperspace you. He and his boss, Mike Minkoff, went over the code with a fine-tooth comb before realizing what the problem was: the Intellivision hand controllers encode button presses in such a way that an action (side) key pressed at the same time as particular directions on the disc will be interpreted instead as a numeric key being pressed. There was no software way around this; shooting while moving would occasionally be interpreted as pressing 9 -- the hyperspace button.

After several days of puzzling over a solution, the bug was ultimately "fixed" by including the following note in the instruction manual:

"Every once in a while, your space hunter will move near a 'black hole,' and the computer will automatically put him into HYPERSPACE. This will cost you the same number of points as if you had pressed the HYPERSPACE key yourself. On the other hand, it will save your hunter."

This led to an axiom frequently heard around Mattel: If you document it, it's not a bug -- it's a feature. Anytime a game in development crashed -- no matter how badly or bizarrely -- witnesses would invariably turn to the frustrated programmer, shrug, and calmly say "document it."

 
http://www.mobygames.com/game/intellivision/space-hawk
http://www.intellivisiongames.com/bluesky/games/credits/space.html#hawk