Preserving Cancelled & Unreleased Video Game History Since 1999
Welcome to Games That Weren't!
We are a 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.
Having a break now after a long year. Time to slow down a little, play some games and read some books.
Thank you to everyone for the kindness, encouragement and support this year – it genuinely means more than you know. If you’d like to help the project recover even more lost pieces of history, simply spreading the word really helps.
Back in the day, my Commodore Format magazine used to have an ‘Early Warning Scanner’ with games that were coming soon for the C64. On there for a while was Thomas The Tank Engine 2, but it never really moved and nothing more was shown in magazines. I assumed it was vapourware.
“The games were written in 1990 when Clockwize had moved to an ‘office’ in the town.” explained Dean. “It was really just one big long room that had once been a dance studio. The Alternative budget titles that we did were usually just based around a title that was given to us such as ‘Punch And Judy’ and the design was up to us. Thomas 2 though needed to be based on the book ‘The Race’ where Thomas races Bertie the bus. Both games needed to be fairly simple for younger children to play. Thomas 2 would turn out to be the least problematic.” Continue reading →
Back in the day, my Commodore Format magazine used to have an ‘Early Warning Scanner’ with games that were coming soon for the C64. On there for a while was Sooty and Sweep 2, but it never really moved and nothing more was shown in magazines. I assumed it was vapourware.
Roughly around 2009, Dean Hickingbottom got in touch to reveal that Clockwize were the team working on both Sooty 2 and Thomas 2 for Alternative. Neither got released due to a dispute with Alternative, even though bizarrely they were both finished for C64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad and Atari. Inlays were even produced too. Continue reading →
Piracy Deluxe began life as an Amiga conversion of the Commodore 64 classic game Piracy by ACE Games, originally released around 1986. Development started in 1992 and continued intermittently until 1994, with the project expanding significantly over time before ultimately falling victim to the collapsing Amiga market.
The project was undertaken by Guido Gouweloos and Marcel Boeren, who met while studying computer science. Marcel was keen to learn Amiga programming and the pair decided to start something new. Guido recalls showing Marcel the original Piracy on the C64, which he enjoyed – and the idea of an Amiga version was born, though the exact reasoning behind the choice has long since been forgotten. Continue reading →
It is that time of the year again, and it has been one with many ups and downs. We finish the year as we always aim to, with a set of new releases and recoveries for you to enjoy. Hopefully you will enjoy what we have in store for you:
‘Sooty and Sweep 2’ – full games recovered (two versions!)
Out of the blue and straight off the bat, we have the complete version of Sooty and Sweep 2 which was due for release by Alternative Software in 1991/92. But not one version, but two! A completely different build was made, and we have that here for you as well to check out:
‘Thomas the Tank Engine 2: The Race’ – full game recovered!
Putting to bed yet another lost Alternative Software game, we also have Thomas The Tank Engine 2 that was due out at the same time. I once thought this was vapourware after seeing it for so long on Commodore Format’s Early Warning scanner – but its here, and complete!
We also have a big surprise (and something we weren’t expecting) with a fully playable and advanced preview of Sales Curve’s unreleased and incomplete Paddle Mania conversion. Written by Mark Greenshields and which was looking pretty solid. Now you can see the promise for yourself:
‘Rooster Booster’ – What became ‘Bombo’, special prototype recovered!
Whilst preserving Mark Greenshield’s disks, we were asked to look out for ‘Rooster Booster’ – the original game which eventually became ‘Bombo’. Thankfully we found a playable build which is mostly complete, but just lacking music. There’s different sprites and titles and possibly map differences for you to check out:
‘Spindizzy’ prototype – recovery of a very early prototype
Another surprise lurking within Mark Greenshield’s disks, marked “Spindizzy Preview”, this is a very early build of the game with unfinished score panels, missing sprites, missing colour schemes and unrefined controls. There could be some unused screens waiting to be discovered:
‘Kick Off 2’ prototype – very early look at Anco’s football game
Again, within Mark’s disks was another early build – this time for Kick Off 2, showcasing very different graphical menus compared to the disk version (tape was plain text) and a different score panel:
Then right at the death, Csaba Virag got in touch to say that he had preserved a lost Hungarian SEUCK effort called Cyborg Mission – so we’ve added it to the update just in time for you:
Finally, 20 existing entries have been updated with various scans, new information and more. Check out the history tab for each title for details of what has been added.
And with that, apart from an update this afternoon and tomorrow for other platforms – this is it on the Commodore 64 side of things until next year. We wish you all a great holiday break and thank you everyone for your kind support and input in 2025!
As a bonus Christmas update, we first up have the very rare ZX81 edition of Mugsy, which many of you will remember as a popular release from Melbourne House. This is the original idea and design which Melbourne House would base their game off, created by Collins Computing.
The game has been out there for sometime, though this is a newly preserved version by Steve Brown of the TZXVault, complete with inlay and tape scans (which are currently missing on Spectrum Computing/World of Spectrum). If you want to see more rare releases, be sure to check out TZXVault and their new Patreon. Continue reading →
Platforms: Amstrad CPC and Commodore 64 (GTW64 entry)
Hill 19 was to be a strategic action-shooter game, very similar to Ikari Warriors/Commando, but with more strategy involved. The player would control a team of characters (believed to be about 3), including Radio and Gunner. Sadly it was never to be though!
You would move turn-based through a vertically scrolling environment (progressing “up the hill”), with foxholes, trenches and terrain that would offer cover and tactical options. Each person would also have a special ability. For example, the Radio Operator could call in airstrikes or medics.
Che Guevara John would mainly work on the Commodore 64 version, whilst Lance Abson would work on the Amstrad CPC edition. Someone called “Cooky” would work on the graphics for both versions. Continue reading →
Thanks to a kind loan by developer Lance Abson, our next Christmas update presents a set of source code and build disks from Sci-Fi (which was released by Digital Magic Software) for you to check out. One of the disks also contains some art assets used within development and may be early versions of artwork.
Some of the disks are executable and seem to be the same as the retail editions. One version though will start on Level 2, and another is an autorunning demo of the game which cannot be played. The disks seem to contain as follows: Continue reading →
Mister Bug (aka Mr. Bug) is an unreleased Lady Bug-inspired arcade clone for the Commodore Amiga, developed during the early 1990s by Dutch coder Guido Gouweloos together with friends William van de Coolwijk and Jan van Rosmalen.
The project began around 1991/1992, when Guido was studying Computer Science and learning 68K assembler on the Amiga. While many of his peers were focused on creating demos, Guido wanted to apply his skills to a complete game.
When he met William, who had already drawn a full set of graphics for a Lady Bug–style project with Jan, the idea quickly took shape. Guido would handle programming, while William and Jan supplied the visuals and Ronald van Leeuwen later joined to create speech samples. Continue reading →
One of our next Christmas updates is the release of two late Dropzone prototypes for the Nintendo Game Boy original. These were recovered from the archive of the late Archer Maclean and found within a set of backup disks.
The prototypes are dated 23/10/92 and 03/11/92 and don’t seem to have any major differences compared to the final retail releases. It is likely that there are very minor cosmetic differences and some final bugs that haven’t yet been ironed out. Continue reading →
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.
