Game.

Daffy Duck is probably the most wanted lost C64 game of all time. GTW has been trying to find a version of the game for about 6 years now. And when you ask a C64 Fan about which game they would most like to play.... the answer is almost always "Daffy Duck"..... Why?... Because Ash and Dave wrote it!, and it seems to be their best ever work on the C64. Ash and Dave as you well know were the legendary C64 duo who produced some fantastic demos in their CNet days, and went on to produce some very highly regarded work for Hi-Tec and Codemasters.

Hi-Tec in particular were always renound for their great cartoon releases, and Daffy Duck was another licence they gained. Ash and Dave were drafted in to do a game based on the crazy duck, and they did a pretty awesome job too.

Featuring awesome graphics, including a incredible Daffy sprite, various different levels and other Warner Bros characters.. the game remained faithful to the cartoon in many ways. The game played extremely well, solving various puzzles and collecting objects, the only fault was the music not fitting in with the game (Even though Gerard did a great job anyway according to the Zzap crew.).

Zzap 64 reviewed the game and gave it a very respectable 94%... All the reviewers loved the game. Even Phil King gave it 95%... But C-Format seemed to missed the boat and missed the game out completely.

Unfortunately, Hi-Tec were struggling badly, even though their games were top class. They eventually fell through, just as Daffy Duck was being released into the shops, or before. This most likely halted any chance of the game being sold.

Rumour had it that WH Smith received 250 copies before Hi-Tec folded, all of which sold. Giving speculation that the game was out there somewhere in original form. Just finding it would be almost impossible. But strange things had happened over ebay. Dave Palmer pretty much confirmed that nothing was released.

It was confirmed that the game was completed, by Ash and Dave themselves (Then at Smartdog Entertainment), and they seemed unaware that the game never made it out at the time. There was talk of digging the game out for the site, but sadly things got busy both ends (With myself going to University), and Smartdog went under as far as we know.. meaning GTW has lost contact with both Ash and Dave.

With Gerard Gourley confirming that he sadly had nothing of the game, and neither Nick Taylor who worked with Ash and Dave numerous times.. it was down recently to another person..David Palmer, the head of what was Hi-Tec at the time.

GTW got in contact with David in early 2004, and although David was very busy with his new software company, he promised to try and sniff out the masters of Daffy Duck, which David has actually confirmed as having!.... Even admitting to having the artwork too!... It was a massive possibility that maybe the game *could* be actually seen!

With a C64 scene that would love nothing more but to enjoy yet another Ash and Dave game today, it is a sad tale that their best ever piece of C64 work could never be enjoyed as it was intended. Certainly if the game was uncovered today, then the whole C64 scene would rise and pay their respect and give credit for a corking game done by the famous C64 duo. If only it could be found..

More and more seems to surface on this game over the months, and more so recently with Mat Allen finding a rare poster of the game's artwork, which he got with another released Hi-Tec game. Mat has kindly scanned this for you all to see under Other Scans. This is backed up further with some original master artwork scans from Dave Palmer, which show the gradual design of the artwork. This is exclusive material not ever seen before.

With the likelihood of seeing the masters released by Dave as virtually nil.... we may have to rely on a shock source to find the game. One suggestion would be to find out what happened to all the disks that Zzap towers had for reviews. Zzap were at somepoint sent a review copy of Daffy Duck.... but just who had it after that.... ?

GTW hopes to see if there is one last chance of saving this missing masterpiece. Time will tell, but the C64 scene waits patiently on tender hooks until that day..

Can we ever solve this long long mystery and find it?...

Frank.
(Additional source credits - Jazzcat, Mat Allen, Nick Taylor, Dave Palmer)