Recovery work today for the Commodore 64 with a long lost Gremlin Graphics game named ‘Hill 19’ (Later known as Shell Shock). Sadly nothing playable, but plenty of assets recovered. Also – we have recovered lost graphics for the unreleased Piranha game ‘Coven’:
Welcome to Games That Weren't 64!
We cover Cancelled & Unreleased Video games for the Commodore 64 computer. A non-profit large archive dedicated to preserving lost games that were never released to the public, as well as prototypes and the odd preservation of released titles. Our aim to share history and stories from the developers, assets and more before it is too late. GTW has been preserving lost video game history since 1999, and long before that offline.
Please Browse our archive and discover the many entries that we host and have saved over the years.
Latest News and Posts
Hill 19 + Coven – Assets recovered for two lost games
Children’s Trivia – variant preserved for C64
Thanks to Dr. Doom / Rad / Ons, a very slightly different version of Children’s Trivia by Cybal Software has been preserved for the Commodore 64. A version of the game already exists in Gamebase64, but this has a few very minor differences (and may have been an updated version).
It’s not an unreleased game, so we’re just sharing the preservation here for posterity and for other archives to pick up:
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Adventure prototype recovered for the Commodore 64
A huge Commodore 64 surprise to kick off the week with Games That Weren’t adding the sadly cancelled playable prototype of the Indiana Jones 3 adventure. An unofficial conversion of the great Lucasfilm Games title with bags of promise, but wasn’t to be. Check it out here:
https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/gtw64/indiana-jones-and-the-last-crusade-adventure/
GTW64 August 2025 update
2025 is going past in a flash as we enter into August, and GTW64 is continuing to evolve and grow too. This month we have added 6 new entries, including the great looking Indy 3 adventure game homebrew that sadly was cancelled, an early development of Skateball and lots more.
We then have 9 updates for you, which includes the recent recovery of Bryan Robson’s Super League, not only for the C64, but ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC. See you all next month!
5 new entries added
Competition Karate 2, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Adventure), Infinite Inferno, Programmerings-Tävling entries, Skateball
9 updates added
Bryan Robson’s Super League, C64GS cartridge titles, Footy game, Gem-X 2, Graham Gooch World Class Cricket, Hollywood Poker, Sword of Sodan, Xtron, Zolo
Discussing Retro Games and Preservation. An interview with Games That Weren’t
Recently had the pleasure of chatting with the lovely Wayne Goodchild at eneba.com about retro games, preservation, and current developments (beyond just Games That Weren’t). You can check it out here:
Bryan Robson’s Super League preserved
Way back in Commodore User issue 25 (October 1985) is how far we’re travelling for our latest preservation work – a board game tie-in that blurred the lines between digital and physical play: Bryan Robson’s Super League, published by Paul Lamond Games. And that is the key thing, at first on our C64 entry we wasn’t sure if it was published or not, but turns out it was.
The game sees players building a football team and battling their way to the top of the league, facing random hazards like weather, injuries, and bank managers. These events play out across a physical game board that was bundled with the software – merging board game mechanics with home computer interactivity. Continue reading
GTW64 July 2025 update
Our seventh update of the year is a special one, as July featured one of our holy grail titles finally being found with the release of Nigel Mansell World Championship. There were also seven new entries added to the archives, including the full recovery of The Mystic Zone graphic adventure and the sad inclusion of the very promising Moonspire 2.
Then to conclude, we have 12 existing entries updated, including confirmation that Runestone was the work of Sensible Software, and that Special Agent 2 sadly was merely vapourware. See you all next month!
The Mystic Zone full graphic adventure (Hungarian) recovered!
Thanks to the amazing recovery work of team member Csaba Virag, yet another full game has been recovered – this time a complete Hungarian graphic adventure game called The Mystic Zone.
7 new entries added
1944, Bug Off, Get Ready to Think with BJ the Bear, Get Ready to Write with BJ the Bear, Mega Race, Moonspire 2, Magic Voice Vocabulary
Nigel Mansell World Championship recovered!
Posted separately during July – we recovered and released the full remains of the long lost Gremlin racer that many of us had been waiting for since 1992
Nigel Mansell World Championship
12 updates added
Castle Capers, Counting Bee, Delta Mission, Dominion, Magic Workshop series, Nefarious, , Obliterator, Project Sparkk, Runestone, Special Agent 2, The Magic Garden Talking Book Series, The Spelling Bee
The Mystic Zone – Full C64 game recovered!
Thanks to the amazing recovery work of team member Csaba Virag, yet another full game has been recovered for the Commodore 64 – this time a complete Hungarian graphic adventure game called The Mystic Zone.
More details and download can be found here:
GTW64 June 2025 update
Our sixth update of the year for our ever-growing Commodore 64 archive is mostly updates this month, with 3 new entries, including Dominion (a long lost shooter), details about a Stephen Hendry snooker game from Zeppelin that fell through and a rather risqué adventure game which many feel could have been a fake.
All finished off with 16 updates with various new scans and also new updated screenshots for the Mega Games entry after the recent better quality BBC Commercial Breaks upload, and news of an Alien 3 prototype. Oh, and keep an eye out on the site tomorrow! ;)
Dominion – a full shoot-em-up recovered!
Thanks to Hedning / Genesis Project, a surprise and complete Delta-style budget shoot-em-up has been recovered from the strangest of places, written by the team that did Black Tiger for U.S. Gold. Check out a fun little shooter!
2 new entries added
Stephen Hendry Snooker, Ifigonia
16 updates added
3 2 1 quiz game, Castle Capers, Commando 86, Covermount casualties, Crystalopis, Drive, Elevator, Intruder, Jeeps, Mega Games, Mindstone, Night Walker, Psyclapse, The Last Stuntman, Ultra Games, Unknown Educational game
Alien 3 prototype recovered
In case you missed it the other week, Sailor/Triad has recovered a rare prototype of Alien 3 for the C64 which has some minor differences compared to the final version.
https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2025/06/alien-3-c64-prototype-recovered
A surprise for tomorrow!
An extra surprise is coming hopefully tomorrow morning for the site. Watch this space ;-)
Alien 3 C64 prototype recovered
Thanks to Sailor of Triad, a rare prototype of Alien 3 for the Commodore 64 has just been discovered recently. This was a demo that was seemingly produced for producer Joe Bonar to take a look at back in the day to see progress with the project.
It is possible that it could have been also passed onto magazines for screenshots – which makes it a shame that it wasn’t included as a demo on the likes of Commodore Force or Format at the time. Continue reading