Games That Weren't^®

GTW Highlight No.23: In June we preserved Carts of Fury, a missing Flash-based advergame recovered with the help of an anonymous contributor. A shopping-cart racer set in supermarket aisles — now finally archived after being inaccessible for years.

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2025/06/canadian-tire-carts-of-fury-flash-game-preserved/ Continue reading →

GTW Highlight No.22: In June, we recovered an unknown surprise 3rd Dr. Franken prototype for the Game Boy, taking Franky into space! Explore an unseen early prototype with puzzles and areas within a rocket ship. More coming soon too we hope:

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2025/06/dr-franken-3/ Continue reading →

GTW Highlight No.21: In June, we recovered a very different version of World Class Rugby for the #SNES, dated July 1992 – some time before the final release. The engine was very different from the final version, with different sprites + faster pace.

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2025/06/world-class-rugby-snes-prototype/ Continue reading →

GTW Highlight No.20: In June, we recovered The Grid – a canned 1995 space shooter by D3. We added an early #PC demo with Descent-like movement + a few ships to shoot. Plus Concept art too. Lots still unknown and to be discovered.

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2025/06/the-grid/ Continue reading →

GTW Highlight No.19: In June, we recovered an earlier 1992 NES build of Nigel Mansell’s World Championship Racing by Gremlin. Used as a reference for a conversion, this build featured title screen, credit and speed differences:

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2025/06/nigel-mansells-world-championship-racing/ Continue reading →

GTW Highlight No.18: In early June, we released early builds of a cancelled and previously unknown Army Men: Sarge’s Heroes conversion for #GameBoyAdvance. Developed by DC Studios in 2000, scrapped before release. Full story:

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2025/06/army-men-sarges-heroes/ Continue reading →

GTW Highlight No.17: In May, we recovered a very early 1992 #SNES prototype platformer called Chaos Drop. Developed by Enigma Variations, the game was dropped and eventually morphed into Magician’s Apprentice for PC/Konix. Check out early builds here:

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2025/05/chaos-drop/ Continue reading →

GTW Highlight No.16: In May, we uncovered 7 NES prototype builds of The Addams Family: Pugsley’s Scavenger Hunt (1993 Ocean)- including an early version with cut content and different room layouts. A fascinating glimpse at the game in development.

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2025/05/the-addams-family-pugsleys-scavenger-hunt-nes-prototypes/ Continue reading →

GTW Highlight No.15: In May, we were honoured to give a talk at Zzap! Live about Games That Weren’t and 25 years of uncovering unreleased, cancelled, and forgotten games with a C64 focus. Here is a link to the full talk:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlOGKwrN7uk Continue reading →

GTW Highlight No.14: In May, we uncovered a PC DOS-era prototype called ShelShock from Finlay Munro. Possibly a pitch for a game or just its engine. Think Damocles, but with mouse interaction and a village to explore. Now preserved at Games That Weren’t:

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2025/05/shelshock/ Continue reading →