Hottaman no Chitei Tanken

Hottaman no Chitei Tanken is a Famicom game developed by Use in 1986. Hottaman no Chitei Tanken translates roughly to "Hottaman's Underground Expedition," but Hotterman itself is a play on words. The Japanese word for dig is ほり or horu, and the past tense of horu is ほった or hotta. Therefore, Hottaman can be seen as a play on words, and loosely translated as Diggerman.

At first glance, the game appears to be a clone of Dig Dug or Boulder Dash. While some game play mechanics are similar, Hottaman no Chitei Tanken contains a number of unique concepts. The goal of every stage is to locate 4 keys that will make the stage exit appear, and reach the exit. There are 15 unique stages which repeat. A variety of enemies spawn in the dirt, some of which can breath fire. Hottaman is equipped with a flame thrower of his own which he can use to defeat enemies. Power-ups can be obtained from eggs and treasure chests. The ground is not one consistency, but rather composed of several different types of dirt and liquids, some of which is dangerous for Hottaman to enter unprotected.

Hottaman no Chitei Tanken was never released outside of Japan. Translation group Six Feet Under released a patch that will translate the game into English, which can be found here. However, another clever patch changes the game to "Dig Dug III," replacing all of the unfamiliar looking sprites with a variety of Dig Dug and Namco themed enemies, while leaving the game play entirely the same.

Controls

 * : Use the direction pad to direct Hottaman throughout the underground. You can direct Hottaman in the four cardinal directions (Hottaman cannot dig or move diagonally).
 * : Press the A button to fire your flame thrower. Without a powerup, this flame will travel roughly four squares ahead of Hottaman.
 * : Press the B button to activate the currently selected powerup in your powerup meter (provided that you have any in stock).
 * : Press the Start button to begin a new game, or to pause and unpause the action mid-game.
 * : Press the Select button to cycle through the six selections in the powerup meter.

Player
Hottaman has one and only one goal: Locate the four hidden keys of each stage, and use them to escape to the next stage. To accomplish this task, Hottaman must dig through 15 underground terrains, and locate the treasure chests that contain the keys. Along the way, he will encounter underground monsters that seek to destroy any intruders they find. To protect himself, Hottaman is armed with a flame thrower which he can use to clear enemies out of his path. Hottaman will lose a life if he is ever hit by an enemy or by an enemy's fire breath. He will also lose a life if he is hit by exploding dynamite, or if he is caught in lava without a fire proof coat. Hottaman can collect a number of power-ups and tools to help his exploration. He must also utilize underground pits that connect to other pits in the terrain, although he has no control over where he will appear. After defeating the fish boss at the end of Stage 15, the stages loop over again from the beginning.

Stage Features
There are a number of objects that you will encounter while digging through the dirt. Some are optional while others are key objectives that you must locate to complete the stage.

Power Ups
Power-ups can be collected and stored. You may have up to four of each item. Power-ups do not transfer from stage to stage; you will always have an empty inventory at the start of a new stage. The color of the letter as it appears in your power-up meter indicates how many of a particular power up you have, according to the table on the right.