Games That Weren't 64^®

1992 Hi-Tec Software

Platforms: Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Commodore Amiga and ZX Spectrum 48/128K

As part of the launch and release of The Games That Weren’t book, we are  adding assets and content that didn’t make it to print as bonus content to share with you.

Although the story of Daffy Duck is well documented on GTW for the Commodore 64, within the book is a detailed 12 page full story that covers all of the planned versions due. We speak to Ashley Routledge, Alan Benson, Ben Walshaw, Craig Wight, David A Palmer, David Saunders, Gary Antcliffe, Nigel Speight, Paul Tankard, Pete Frith and Richard Morton to tell as complete a story that we can about what happened to the game across all formats, not just the C64 edition.

Whilst doing research for the other versions, we were overwhelmed by the recovery of many assets for the Amiga version, thanks to graphic artist Richard Morton. However, it was the video footage of the Amiga version that was a big surprise in the absence of the game itself, recovered from an old VHS tape by David A Palmer.

The video not only shows parts of the Amiga game for the first time in action (which seems very complete at this stage), but also parts of the unreleased Bugs Bunny game for the Amiga (of which we recovered the C64 edition many moons ago) – the revelation being that it was clearly recycled into Dinosaur Detective Agency for Alternative Software in 1993.  There is also a bonus glimpse of the introduction sequence from the ZX Spectrum edition.

It is still hoped that something of the Amiga, Spectrum and Amstrad editions will some day surface for us to add to the site. Sadly the Amiga developer was unable to speak to us, and the ZX Spectrum developer no longer had anything. The hope is that David A Palmer will find the master disks, and who has said they will pass on for us to add onto the website in the same way the C64 edition was back in 2015.

For now, check out the huge gallery of assets and various images from our research that couldn’t all be squeezed into the book. These also include hi-res scans of the ZX Spectrum edition from Crash magazine that we made, and a reconstruction of the large poster provided from Mat Allen. CPC owners might be happy to see at least one CPC related screen too that Richard managed to find:

Gallery