Preserving Cancelled & Unreleased Video Game History Since 1999
Welcome to Games That Weren't!
We are an Cancelled & Unreleased Video games archive with prototypes, developer history and assets for many computers and consoles of all ages. A non-profit large archive dedicated to preserving lost games that were never released to the public. Sharing history and stories from the developers, assets and more before it is too late. GTW has been preserving lost video game history online since 1999, and long before that offline.
Please Browse our archive and discover the many entries that we host for many different platforms.
I had the pleasure of being a guest on the “Nice and Nasty Gaming Podcast” with Mamemeister recently! We chatted about Games That Weren’t, how I first got into gaming, and picked out three games I’d take to a desert island… and three I’d happily launch into the sun!
Another week, and another prototype with the release of a very early build of The Lion King for the SEGA Game Gear. The game was eventually released in 1994, but this prototype is dated 25th April 1993, and when you take a look you’ll see that were was a lot of work still left to do.
From the title screen, you can select various Alpha state levels, though a number are not yet implemented. Those that are available are very early stage, with enemies and graphics missing in places. Some elements just have place holders at this stage. Continue reading →
Our next entry within the Games That Weren’t archives is an early PC development for a space shooter known as The Grid, developed by D3 for Phoenix Interactive in 1995. Little is known about the game at this stage apart from what we have gleaned from an early demo and various concept screens.
Thankfully we have been able to recover a very early demo, where you can move around a small flat texture shaded area in a “Descent” like way, with pillars as obstacles and various hover sleds that you can shoot with laser cannons. The hover sleds just move around and don’t have any real AI at this stage. Continue reading →
Viking was to be an ambitious adventure game that was to cast you as a Viking warrior (e.g., Erik, Leif, or Thorwald) with the ultimate goal of living a worthy life and earning a place in Valhalla. Rather than following a strict storyline or mission structure, the game would encourage freedom, exploration, and role-playing, allowing you to create your own saga.
The idea was that you would begin by undertaking one of four initiation quests, such as hunting or trying to gain permission to leave your village. After building your long ship and selecting your crew (whose qualities impact gameplay), you set sail on an expansive journey through 13 seas, 72 rivers, and over 200 cities, villages, and abbeys across Europe, Africa, and even the New World. Continue reading →
Thanks to contributor Starlord, this post links to collection of student projects that were created at The Game Assembly in Malmö, Sweden, showcasing some incredible new talent in games development. These were once briefly made publicly available online, but were eventually removed (possibly when the student year had finished).
Thankfully several games were preserved by Starlord, and these have been made available once more here for posterity. Due to the size, we’ve uploaded to Archive.org. Over time, we’ll add more as they come to light and add to the archive links below.
Yet another NES prototype for you today, with the release of an earlier build of Nigel Mansell’s World Championship Racing by Gremlin. The game was released in mid-late 1993, though this prototype is dated the 29th September 1992.
This particular build was being used by another development team as a reference point for a new conversion. It seems very close to the final version, though there are a number of differences throughout – including a 1992 date on the title screen and credit differences, and minor colour changes on the game panel (especially the “tires” and “behind” segments).
In addition to this, we noticed that the game seems to have been sped up in the final version, and in this prototype – the road routine seems a lot slower paced. There are likely some other enhancements and fixes with the road routine too. Continue reading →
There have been many Army Men games over the years, though one we weren’t aware of until recently was a Game Boy Advance version of Army Men: Sarge’s Heroes, developed by DC Studios. This handheld version was intended as a conversion of the N64, PlayStation, Dreamcast, and PC title. A Game Boy Color version was also reportedly in development at the time by a different, currently unknown studio.
Production for the game was being carried out by Karla Healy and Mark Greenshields, with development by Ian James and with menu + FMV work by another person that we only know as Gerry. Ian would eventually go on to develop Army Men: Advance a year later which would see release.
Graphics were being created by Kristi-Louise Herd, with mock up work created by Alan Macfarlane. At this very point, no-one was allocated to sound duties. Continue reading →
Our fifth update of the year has a number of new entries added, including a game that was once submitted to Zzap and just disappeared, beginnings of a Pacman game that never was intended for Mastertronic, and Elite’s strange Commando-themed game that would eventually be renamed to Duet. We also have some updates to existing entries (details of each update in the history notes). More for you again next month!
Before Magician’s Apprentice was a thing for the PC and even the Konix, the game originally was going to be something quite different, and on the Super Nintendo too with a title of Chaos Drop. Developed by Joe Booth and with graphics by Alan Macfarlane back in 1992.
The protagonist appears as a noble warrior, combining visual elements reminiscent of ancient Asian traditions and carrying a pitch fork. However, the demo builds that we have managed to recover from the archives of Enigma Variations doesn’t give too much away unfortunately. Continue reading →
Whilst at Zzap Live in May 2025, we met up with the legendary Tim Gilberts, who set up Gilsoft at the age of just 17. Tim flagged up that he had a very rare Italian bootleg of The Quill which didn’t seem to be out there and preserved called “Adventure Writer (Creator 2)”. Unfortunately it wouldn’t load for him.
An hour or so later, Tim excitedly informed us that the adventure creator had suddenly loaded for him – but he had no mechanism of backing up. We attempted to back up using a 1541-Ultimate 2 from Andy Spencer (Retro Computer Museum) – but it wasn’t having it. So Tim very kindly agreed to loan the tape and manual to Games That Weren’t to preserve.
Thankfully after a few attempts, we managed to get both sides of the tape backed up and working and have also scanned everything in too. Here you can find the full archive, as well as an Archive.org link with the raw original scans. Tim has kindly now donated the package to the Retro Computer Museum, so it will go into their archives sometime in June 2025.
UPDATE: We’ve since learnt that it has already been preserved by Ready64, and it was part of a “Creator” series. So it wasn’t called “Creator 2”, but “Adventure Writer” (the title in the actual program is a bit misleading), hence why we didn’t spot it was already preserved ;-) . Hopefully the scans will be useful still :-)
Commodore Plus also did a great article about the Creator Spanish series (link below). Bieno tells us that there were 4 issues in total, in which the article mentions. In Spain, they only brought and translated the first 2 issues.
Many thanks to Tim Gilberts for the very kind loan and also to Andy Spencer for helping see the game fully preserved and corrections, Daniel Melendez for providing copies of the Spanish editions to add, Bieno and Strident for further information + providing downloads and information about its preservation by Martin/Stadium64 and Alejandro Conde for doing all the tape preservation for the additional downloads.
DISCLAIMER: We are a non-profit digitisation project, aiming to digitally preserve software and history which would otherwise be lost for good. If for any reason there is anything that you do not wish to be on the website, please contact us for removal.
Games That Weren't® is the registered trademark of Frank Gasking.
