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

Unnamed Shoot-Em-Up

Posted: by Frank Gasking

198? Clockwize

Platform: Amstrad CPC

Next up into the Games That Weren’t archives is a very early single screen shoot-em-up, which was being developed by David Bradley. The game has no name at this stage, and was recovered from some work disks thanks to Dean Hickingbottom.

shoot2

There are around 4-5 nice attack waves in total, before the game crashes. There are no enemy bullets and you cannot die, but you can shoot the enemies to progress through each wave.

It’s a nice simple early concept, and a shame that it didn’t get any further by the looks of things. We assume this would have been a nice budget with more complex attack waves, possibly some background graphics and maybe larger ships too. Hopefully at some point we’ll learn more from David about the game and what the intentions were for it. Continue reading →

In: Amstrad CPC, Reviews | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Trigger Happy (Commodore 64): Advanced Preview Discovered

Posted: by Frank Gasking

A more advanced preview of the unreleased Commodore 64 shoot-em-up Trigger Happy has surfaced! Featuring improved graphics and much more developed attack waves than the previously known build, it’s a fascinating glimpse at what might have been.

triggerlarge

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/gtw64/trigger-happy/

Huge thanks to Hedning/Genesis Project for the heads up.

In: Commodore 64 (C64), GTW64 news, News | Leave a comment

Ninjanimal

Posted: by Frank Gasking

1990 Titus

Platforms: Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64

Ninjanimal was one of the more curious titles listed in Titus’ 1990 release schedules. Planned for the Commodore 64 on tape and disk, the game never surfaced on any platform commercially, leaving many to wonder just what it was meant to be.

NinjanimalAmiga (1)

Thankfully, unlike many unreleased projects, we do at least have a glimpse of what was planned. Prototype builds of the Atari ST version have surfaced over the years, whilst screenshots from the Amiga edition also survive. They reveal a colourful side-scrolling beat-em-up with some similarities to Ninja Rabbits, though with a rather unique twist.

Development actually began much earlier, in late 1988, at Legend Software. According to one of the original developers, the initial concept came from the studio’s art director Didier and took inspiration from Sega’s Altered Beast, with players controlling a ninja who had the ability to transform. Continue reading →

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

Two Long Lost Commodore PET Adventures Recovered After 45 Years

Posted: by Frank Gasking

The original Commodore PET editions of Brian Cotton’s Catacombs and Goblin Towers, published by Supersoft back in 1981, have been recovered after being considered lost for around 45 years thanks to Marcel Lansing.

catacombs

Until now, only later Commodore 64 releases of the games were known to survive. The original PET versions were believed lost until Colin Haynes came forward with his original disks, allowing them to be carefully preserved using original Commodore hardware.

As well as imaging the disks, Marcel also investigated the clever protection system built into Catacombs, which was designed not to prevent copying, but to stop players listing the BASIC source and cheating their way through the adventure.

Just goes to show that you never know what might still be sitting in a collection waiting to be rediscovered. You can read the full story, download the recovered games and watch Marcel’s excellent documentary here:

https://www.commodoregames.net/catacombs.asp

In: Commodore PET, News, Preservation | Tagged: | 1 Comment

Masters of the Universe – The Super Adventure & The Arcade Game

Posted: , last updated: by Patrick Furlong

1987 U.S. Gold

Platforms: Amstrad CPC, IBM PC, Commodore 16

Masters of the Universe – The Super Adventure and The Arcade Game were two games based on the Filmation cartoon Masters of the Universe, released by US Gold in 1987.

The games have you as He-Man, who fights to deal with the evil forces of Skeletor, who is determined to take over Eternia. The franchise has received a cult following over 40 years, culminating in the release of a new live action movie in June 2026 by MGM Amazon.

The Super Adventure is a graphic adventure on the Spectrum and C64 but text only on the BBC. The Arcade Game is an exploring game but received pretty badly – at the time, it was voted 2nd Worst Game of the year by readers of Crash magazine. Continue reading →

In: Amstrad CPC, Commodore 16 and Plus/4, PC, Reviews | Tagged: | 2 Comments

Raiden (Amiga/Falcon) and Space Junk (Atari Falcon) Source Code

Posted: by Frank Gasking

A very exciting development has come from our recent Raiden post, with source code recovered for two long lost Imagitec projects – the unreleased Amiga/Atari Falcon versions of Raiden and the ambitious sci-fi adventure Space Junk.

raiden large

The discovery came completely by surprise. Shortly after our Raiden feature went live, Amiga legend dlfrsilver got in touch to say they had an archive containing an old Imagitec hard drive image. Digging through it revealed source code for both Raiden and Space Junk, originating from an Atari Falcon development system.

The archive itself was originally shared by “tomseddon” on the Atari Forum back in November 2025, but seems to have largely gone unnoticed. According to the forum post, an ex-colleague rescued an Atari Falcon hard disk from an Infogrames/Gremlin storeroom in the late 1990s, with the Raiden and Space Junk development folders still intact.

Continue reading →

In: Atari Falcon, Commodore Amiga, News | Leave a comment

R.A.I.L

Posted: by Frank Gasking

1987-1988 Rainbird Software

Platform: IBM PC

To coincide with the launch of Richard Hewison’s excellent new Kickstarter project, “Memories of Rainbird and Beyond Software“, we are taking the opportunity to preserve and share a fascinating piece of Rainbird history. If you have an interest in Rainbird Software and the people behind it, we highly recommend supporting the project and helping bring it to life.

rail ibm pc 02

One of the more intriguing projects from Rainbird’s archives was R.A.I.L. (Rainbird Adventure Implementation Language), a sophisticated text adventure authoring system created by John Jones-Steele. The intention was for R.A.I.L. to be used in-house to create a number of commercial adventures before eventually being released to the public as a complete adventure creation package. Continue reading →

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

Raiden

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1993-1994 Imagitec Design

Platforms: Commodore Amiga, Atari Falcon

Few arcade shoot-em-ups made as much of an impact in the early 1990s as Seibu Kaihatsu’s Raiden. First released into arcades in 1990, the vertically scrolling shooter quickly became a huge hit thanks to its fast action, varied weaponry and relentless challenge. Players took control of the Raiden Supersonic Attack Fighter in a desperate battle against an invading alien force, blasting through waves of enemies whilst collecting weapon upgrades and avoiding an overwhelming barrage of bullets.

Raiden 005

The success of the arcade game saw Raiden converted to a wide range of platforms over the following years, including the PC Engine, Mega Drive, SNES, FM Towns, DOS, Atari Jaguar and many others. However, two planned computer conversions would ultimately fail to make it onto shop shelves.

During the mid-1990s, Imagitec Design began work on versions for both the Commodore Amiga and Atari Falcon. The Amiga edition was intended for AGA machines and appeared to have been based largely upon Imagitec’s DOS conversion (not quite the case – see below) which did see release. Development progressed well and the game was reportedly completed, even receiving coverage and reviews in several Amiga magazines of the time. Continue reading →

In: Atari Falcon, Commodore Amiga, Reviews | Tagged: , | 6 Comments

Lost C64 games and protos – June 2026 (GTW64)

Posted: by Frank Gasking

A huge digest update to the Commodore 64 archive this month with some major recoveries for you that you may have missed.

Arcade Wizzard (U.S. Gold) found at last!

Missing for almost 40 years, and one we’ve been hunting for 22 – the obscure Pinball game from U.S. Gold has been recovered, and its much more advanced than you might think!

Arcade Wizzard

Full Void game recovered and added to the archives

As part of the above recovery, Tony Smales has shared his unreleased budget shooter, which is a sort of sideways scrolling Xevious clone. Very close to release, but sadly not to be. But here it is for you to now enjoy after 39 years being locked away:

Void

Aussie Games (Australian release) prototype added

The game never got a proper full European release, and an extra twist is to now present you with remains of the unreleased Australian edition. This may feature missing scenes, different content (especially the bottle shooting level) and bugs not yet fixed. A great curiosity to explore:

Aussie Games (Australian release prototype)

Two early obscure titles (including one earlier prototype) preserved

Just before the above were recovered, Games That Weren’t preserved some released software that hadn’t yet been preserved. An American Football game, and a prototype of a flight simulator with some minor differences:

IFR (Flight Simulator) and Co Pro Football

3 more new entries added

Then we have our usual set of additions and new entries:

Bad Max, Danger – High Surf, Zorro

14 updates added

Followed by updates to the following 14 titles with scans added and new info. Please check the history tab for details of what has changed.

City Warriors, Dungeons and Magic, Hagar The Horrible, International Karate V1, Mindbending Aliens From Hyperspace, Nimitz, Ninjanimal, Parasol Stars, The Sanctuary, Thunder Light, Trazers, Tycoon Tex, Universal Military Simulator, Virus

Might be a bit quieter next month, but we’ll see. We’ll see you again next month for the next digest!

In: GTW64 news, News | Leave a comment

Expert Software (C64) preserved

Posted: by Frank Gasking

Our friend Allan Pinkerton, who has preserved many released C64 titles over the years and helped us (see ALA Software titles), has preserved a batch of Expert Software titles for the Commodore 64 which include:

  • Personal Skills
  • Money Power
  • Disk Tools
  • Perfect Typing
  • Personal Publisher
  • Expert Filer

We weren’t searching for the titles, but have done this post to flag up Allan’s work which you can check out here at his Archive.org area:

https://archive.org/details/@1madmax?query=expert+software

In: Commodore 64 (C64), GTW64 news, Preservation | Leave a comment