Here are some of the pieces of the puzzle, the puzzle is still not complete.....
Digger Man is a 11 meg game, not 44 as others claim. Kurtz verified this.
In the first couple auctions, the seller claimed only 8 copies of the game existed. Now, more have appeared. (Yeah right).
I have sent emails to some of the sellers asking where the game came from, but they never wish to totally answer the question.
As far as the home cart sales. Supposedly before the release of the ROM, Buyrite was going to buy 300 copies and NCS was going to get 200 copies. As far as NCS goes, they tried the ROM and saw firsthand what the game was actually like.
As far as creating the game, from some discussions, it would take a Fatal Fury 2, and about $50 in eproms (There are what, 6 chips?), and then the labor. But again, this is a guess and not absolute fact.
Pieces of the puzzle, but it is still not complete. I seriously doubt someone owns the copyright in the US, since no one wishes to totally tell the story about this, I guess we will never know. It would be nice if someone did....
Keith