Forumites on Lemon 64 were happily surprised on the 4th August 2014, when the developer of a long lost adventure game of Scooby Doo was recovered and uploaded for the first time in over 20 years, after being recovered from disks in his basement.
Along with Scooby Doo, we learn that Microillusions had a series of titles due for release. Microillusions had struck up a deal with Hanna-Barbera for a series of their licences including Jonny Quest, Flintstones, The Jetsons and Scooby Doo across the Amiga, PC and C64 – possibly sharing the same engine to get all the titles out there quickly.
Microillusions made a terrible error though as they released The Jetsons to the world on the Amiga platform. They had shipped a Jetsons comic book serving as instructions with the game story background, which seemed like a great idea at the time. However, Hanna-Barbera never approved the title and were furious with Microillusions for releasing it. They revoked all their licences and this damaged Microillusions terribly – eventually contributing to them going bankrupt. As a result, most of the games never saw the light of day either.
VP of product development, Sean B. Barger explained via the comments that the other main detail was that the CEO’s father took over the business and would not pay the quarterly minimum for the Hanna Barbera licences. Although HB were no doubt angry at the comic book release, this was the real reason why all the games were cancelled.
What is surprising, is that according to Peter Ward (coder of C64 Scooby Doo) – most of the games were actually pretty much complete – so there is actually a series of titles like this one to still recover!
The game was actually released on the Commodore Amiga, and you can see how the C64 version would have roughly been. It was an interactive adventure game with a graphic and text window, and icons used to move around and interact. An article with Microillusions (see scans) confirms that a C64 version would have been underway and some possible credits.
After the amazing recovery of Scooby Doo, we are very hopeful that the other titles could follow soon. Watch this space!
Contributions: Peter Ward, Sean B. Barger, Hoagie, Archive.org
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Creator speaks
Taken from Lemon thread at … http://www.lemon64.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=634465 … notes from Scooby Doo coder – Peter Ward:
“The story goes as follows…
Long ago, in MicroIllusions heyday… they struck a great deal with Hanna-Barbera for a bunch of their licenses. They were making games based on Johnny Quest, Flintstones, The Jetsons, and Scooby Doo. I was lead on the C64 of Scooby. Things were all looking sweet, as all the games were wrapping up. The Jetsons finished first and was released ( I’m sure you can find copies of it around ).
However, MicroIllusions made a fatal error with their product release… which would ultimately lead to the demise of the company.
Included with the Jetsons product, was a Jetsons comic book serving as instructions, and game story background. Hanna-Barbera NEVER approved this comic book, and were furious with MicroIllusions for releasing it ( they are VERY protective with their licenses! )
Ultimately, they revoked all their licenses from MicroIllisions.
MicroIllusions shortly later went bankrupt, and most of those games sadly never saw the light of day.”
Update history
- 03/12/24 – Magazine interview scans and details about game.
- 14/07/22 – Details of why the game never saw release.
