Monthly Archives: September 2026

Total results: 11

Gun Loco

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Posted: by Frank Gasking

Gun Loco was a rather unusual third-person shooter being developed by Square Enix exclusively for the Xbox 360. Set on a remote prison planet populated by some of the universe’s most dangerous and unhinged criminals, the game would see rival inmates battling for survival and ultimately attempting to escape.

The game had a very distinctive style, with a cast based on physical figures created by Hong Kong toy designer Kenny Wong. Characters included everything from street thugs to inmates wearing oversized rabbit heads, while the action mixed third-person shooting with a heavy emphasis on fast movement and brutal close range attacks. Continue reading →

In: Microsoft Xbox 360, Reviews | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Virtual Tank

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Posted: by Frank Gasking

Virtual Tank was an unreleased 3D action game in development at Boss Game Studios for Nintendo’s ill-fated Virtual Boy, and is a title we covered extensively in the first Games That Weren’t book.

The idea came from the studio’s creative director Seth Mendelsohn, who saw the Virtual Boy hardware and immediately thought of Atari’s classic arcade game Battlezone. The system’s controls seemed particularly well suited to driving a tank, while its distinctive red and black display was also a natural fit for a game inspired by an old vector arcade title. Continue reading →

In: Bonus, Nintendo Virtual Boy, Reviews | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Vixen V1

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Posted: by Frank Gasking

Earlier in 2026, we added a very early and completely different version of Vixen for the ZX Spectrum, which was being developed by Keith A Goodyer with graphics by The S.A.M. Thanks once again to Dean Hickingbottom, we can now follow that up with an Amstrad CPC edition of the same early development, but in two very different forms!

Like the Spectrum version, this is very different to the eventual Vixen game that was eventually released by Martech in 1988. It provides another great glimpse at how the game was originally taking shape before development changed direction with a different team and the version we know today was produced. Continue reading →

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

Project Dream

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Posted: by Frank Gasking

Project Dream, also known as Dream: Land of Giants, was an ambitious RPG in development at Rare during the mid-1990s, initially for the Super Nintendo before development moved across to the Nintendo 64. After numerous changes in direction, the project was eventually abandoned and reworked into what would become Banjo-Kazooie.

The original game starred a young boy named Edson, who became caught up with a group of pirates led by Captain Blackeye. Rare had ambitions to create a large RPG influenced by the likes of Japanese RPGs and LucasArts adventures, using and expanding upon the graphical technology developed for the Donkey Kong Country series. Continue reading →

In: Nintendo 64, Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) | Tagged: | 2 Comments

Hired Guns AGA

Hired Guns AGA thumbnail
Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Hired Guns is regarded by many as one of the finest first-person action RPGs ever released on the Amiga, so it should perhaps come as little surprise that an enhanced AGA edition was once in development. Never released commercially, the project remained little more than a rumour for many years until a surviving prototype eventually surfaced online, giving us a fascinating glimpse at what original programmer Scott Johnston had been experimenting with. Continue reading →

In: Commodore Amiga, Commodore Amiga CD32, Reviews | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Upon Westminster Bridge

Posted: by Frank Gasking

Upon Westminster Bridge is a mysterious unreleased adventure game that was once in development at Magnetic Scrolls, seemingly as a personal project of company founder Anita Sinclair. Very little is currently known about the title, and for many years it seems to have been confused with Corruption, Magnetic Scrolls’ 1988 financial thriller. Various references have suggested that Upon Westminster Bridge was an early working title for that game, but this doesn’t appear to have been the case. Continue reading →

In: Reviews, Unknown, Various | Tagged: | 4 Comments

Duck Out Prototype (ZX Spectrum)

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Posted: by Frank Gasking

Next up in the Games That Weren’t archives is a special prototype/demo version of Dro Soft’s Duck Out for the ZX Spectrum, which was likely sent out to different publishers at the time in the hope that someone might pick the game up. The demo has been saved thanks to Dean Hickingbottom, who preserved it from a set of disks that were part of Clockwize’s archives. Dean suggests that Clockwize were likely sent a copy to see if they might be able to help market the game. Continue reading →

In: Prototype, Unused materials, ZX Spectrum | Tagged: | Leave a comment

R∞M (Room for PlayStation Portable)

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Posted: by Frank Gasking

R∞M (Room for PlayStation Portable) was an ambitious online community service developed by Sony Computer Entertainment Japan for the PSP. Announced at the Tokyo Game Show in September 2009, it was intended to provide PSP owners with something similar to a portable version of PlayStation Home.

The free service would allow users to create and customise their own 3D avatars and personal “My Room” spaces, as well as write blogs, create photo albums and form or join groups. Other users could be invited into rooms for real-time communication, including chatting and playing mini-games together. Continue reading →

In: Reviews, Sony PlayStation Portable | Tagged: | Leave a comment