Welcome to Games That Weren't

Games That Weren't is a long-running archive dedicated to cancelled and unreleased video games, prototypes and lost gaming history. Since 1999, we have been preserving rare information, assets and developer stories from across all eras of gaming.

Explore a vast collection of cancelled video game projects, unseen prototypes and behind-the-scenes development history from consoles and computers past and present. Our non-profit work aims to document and preserve titles that were never released to the public, before they are lost forever.

Browse the archive and discover thousands of lost and unreleased games across multiple platforms.

Latest News and Posts

Star Wars: Ewok Adventure

Posted: by Søren Kamper

1983 Parker Brothers

Platform: Atari 2600

There is something especially appealing about smaller cancelled games. Not the giant, headline-friendly projects that get brought up every few years whenever somebody wants to lament what might have been, but the stranger, slightly more modest ideas that never quite made it through. The sort of games that were clearly far enough along to exist properly and yet still ended up slipping quietly sideways into prototype history.

Star Wars Ewok Adventure (1983) (Parker Bros) (Prototype) (PAL) (16K)

Star Wars: Return of the Jedi – Ewok Adventure is very much one of those. It was developed for the Atari
2600 and cancelled before release, but prototype material survives, which makes it one of the more
tangible lost oddities in early Star Wars game history. Continue reading →

In: Atari 2600 / Atari VCS, Reviews | Tagged: | Leave a comment

CatGun: Victory Mission G

Posted: , last updated: by Toppy

1996 PixelHazard

Platform: PC (DOS)

CatGun: Victory Mission G was a manga-style shoot-em’-up game developed around 1995-1996 by the game developer duo PixelHazard (consisting of programmer Arjen Wagenaar and artist Luc S. Verhulst, who both formerly worked for the game company The Vision Factory/SPC Vision specializing in games for the Philips CD-i). The music was composed by the musician duo E * Que/Logic Audio Music Production as they were known at the time (Hans Ouwejan and Felix Faassen).

catgun (2)

The plot for the game went as follows:

Deep in the inner regions of the Cat’s Eye nebula, the dark troops of EvilNeko, former CATFleet commander, have taken over a peaceful planet. Orbiting the planet are five moons. EvilNeko has installed factories on the surface of the moons that extract their natural resources in order to build giant Destroyer Ships for his final offensive against CATFleet.

Welcome to CATFleet’s special elite force, the Cute Assault Team! Help Nekomi (telepath), Okane (mercenary), Miko (feline), RX7 (clone) and Wazu (android) with their fight against EvilNeko. Each CAT member has its own powerful, custom-designed weapon, the CATGUN. Use the CATGUN to free the dominated moons and their inhabitants. Go to the planet’s surface and fight your way through to EvilNeko’s base for the final battle. CATGUN ‘Victory Mission G’ – Join the team!

Continue reading →

In: PC, Reviews | Tagged: | 4 Comments

Dojin (1980) – Reconstructing a Lost Link Between Early Stealth and Horror

Posted: by Frank Gasking

Some news about some fascinating work around a very early and largely lost Japanese home computer game called Dojin from 1980. Sitting between Manbiki Shounen (1979) and Nostromo (1981), Dojin is something of a missing link between early stealth and horror game design. Although the game was completed and shown at a festival at the time, it was never widely released and no original code is known to have survived.

dojin mock

Amazingly, there has been recent work to document and attempt to recreate the game based on interviews, sketches and descriptions from those involved. This includes efforts by Dr Jim Gerrie, who has been experimenting with rebuilding Dojin from the limited material available, offering a glimpse into how it may have played. Continue reading →

In: News, Unknown | Tagged: | Leave a comment

IK+ Atari ST and Amiga prototypes and assets

Posted: by Frank Gasking

Our next set of prototypes into the Games That Weren’t archive are a special set of IK+ prototypes for the Atari ST (and a possible one for the Amiga too), and graphical assets showing early differences and features not in the final game.

ikplus (27)

There are two prototype builds for the Atari ST, both of which contain what seems to be a blood dripping effect at the start which didn’t make the final cut from what we can see. One build seems to be quite a bit earlier, and features no music and hasn’t had fine tuning for the gameplay. You start with a red belt, even though you are on white belt – and the bonus games play after 1 fight. Continue reading →

In: Atari ST, Commodore Amiga, Prototype, Unused materials | Tagged: , | 1 Comment

Ragnov

Posted: by Frank Gasking

1988 Softeyes

Platform: Commodore Amiga

Ragnov is one of those early Amiga curiosities that gives a fascinating glimpse into the early days of a development team that would go on to produce other well known titles. Created by Softeyes, a Dutch team formed around 1987, Ragnov was their very first game project and an ambitious one at that.

Ragnov Screenshot 5 Enlarged

At the time, Softeyes was made up of Reinier “Rhino” van Vliet and Pieter “TUG” Opdam on coding duties, Ramon Braumuller handling music, and Metin Seven contributing graphics and design. All members had roots in the demo scene, having moved over from the Commodore 64 to the Amiga. Continue reading →

In: Commodore Amiga, Reviews | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Lost C64 games and prototypes – April 2026 (GTW64)

Posted: by Frank Gasking

Another busy month for the Commodore 64 archive, with a large number of updates (21 to be precise!) and a few bits of preservation which we also posted about separately. Should have some new entries for you soon, including more discoveries!

The search for lost Startech software

A multiformat entry where Bertrand / AtariMania helps to highlight a set of missing titles not only for the Commodore 64, but also VIC-20, Atari, BBC Micro and ZX Spectrum.

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2026/03/startech-lost-hardware-software/

Tora Tora Tora C64 game recovered

A lost Italian SEUCK effort was preserved thanks to Videogame endings database for sharing and to Minotautus for preserving:

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2026/03/tora-tora-tora-c64-game-recovered/

Long lost video titles utility by Gary J Foreman recovered

One of Gary J Foreman’s first paid pieces of work has been saved, which was done for a nightclub called L’Aristos (which apparently closed in 2001). Gary had lost this work and was very happy to see it again:

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2026/04/special-fx-tool-recoveries-c64/

21 updates added

A-Team, The, Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes, Bubbles, Chess, Davka Software, Donald Duck’s Bakery, Escape From Colditz, Evil Garden, Final Eclipse, Grand Slam Tennis, I-spy For Children, It’s Rory!, Miss Mouse, Oriental Games, Outrun Europe, Rhyme Land, Sewer Sam, Star Force Seven, Talvisota, Twice Shy, Zambeezi

In: GTW64 news, News | Leave a comment

MegaRace Amiga CD32 alpha recovered

Posted: by Frank Gasking

A nice surprise to the week with the recovery of an alpha build of the long lost Amiga CD32 edition of MegaRace – the FMV racer which Amiga CD32 users were disappointed to miss out on. The recovery is thanks to Dave Arcadian, who picked up the build many years ago.

mega1

After a bit of work, and thanks to help from @notrevenant.bsky.social and Steve Snake, you can now check out the build in the likes of WinUAE. There unfortunately doesn’t seem to be a playable part within, though its possible this is locked away somewhere. There is a demo of the gameplay, showing how it would have played on the CD32, and it looks good.

Enjoy, and for more details and download – check out our main post on the game:

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2024/10/megarace/

In: Commodore Amiga CD32, News | Leave a comment

Classic & Baby Arcadia

Posted: by Frank Gasking

1994 Alternative Software

Platform: PC DOS

Following on from the preservation and recovery of ‘Allo ‘Allo on the PC, we now have another title which according to some websites was never released. Classic & Baby Arcadia is a collection of classic arcade titles that have been remixed with updated graphics and features.

classic large

The compilation was released for sure on the Commodore Amiga and has been preserved for some time. The PC edition of game (regardless of its status) has been missing, until today… Continue reading →

In: PC, Preservation, Prototype, Reviews | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Chicken Little

Posted: by Frank Gasking

2004 Argonaut Games

Platforms: Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox

During the early 2000s, Argonaut Games were actively pitching a number of new projects to publishers, and one such title appears to have been based on Disney’s Chicken Little. Our latest post brings you previously unseen footage from what looks to be a pitch demo, suggesting that the studio had begun early development work on a potential adaptation of the film.

chick image

Very little is currently known about this particular version of Chicken Little, but the footage indicates that it had progressed beyond simple concept stages, with what appears to be early gameplay elements in place. As with many pitch demos of the time, it is likely that this was created to help secure a publishing deal, though it is unclear how far discussions progressed. Continue reading →

In: Microsoft Xbox, Nintendo GameCube, Reviews, Sony PlayStation 2 | Tagged: | Leave a comment