Preserving Cancelled & Unreleased Video Game History Since 1999
Welcome to Games That Weren't!
We are an Cancelled & Unreleased Video games archive with prototypes, developer history and assets for many computers and consoles of all ages. A non-profit large archive dedicated to preserving lost games that were never released to the public. Sharing history and stories from the developers, assets and more before it is too late. GTW has been preserving lost video game history online since 1999, and long before that offline.
Please Browse our archive and discover the many entries that we host for many different platforms.
Warlord was to be a re-release of an old Interceptor graphic text adventure from 1985 on the new Players label. ACE magazine listed it in their budget section and stated a C64 version was being released.
However, it was believed that Interceptor never released a C64 version in the first place – did ACE magazine get it wrong? Well, contributor Sean O’Neill found evidence of the C64 game being released on a compilation in 1986. We have added the scans from the site in question (http://www.mocagh.org/loadpage.php?getgame=heroeskarnwarlord), which details the name of the coder and artist.
It means the game should be out there, and may have indeed been released individually.
Listed in ACE magazine as a Firebird re-release from Ariolasoft, we never actually even saw the original game either.
So was it that Think! only got a Spectrum release, and ACE got the C64 format listing as incorrect? Not sure just yet, but it is likely to be a mistake.
The game was an addicitive 6 x 6 grid puzzle game where you could play against a friend or computer. Sadly we never got to do neither.
This may well be a red herring, but ACE magazine’s review of the Spectrum game by Mastertronic suggests that a C64 conversion may have been considered.
We’ll keep things short for now until we get further confirmation, but you can see the review for yourself and the C64 reference.
Do you know anything about a potential conversion?
Star Fighter was listed in a Triton Mail Order catalogue for the C64 and listed as a Cinematic Action in Space title with movie like effects. Solid 3D graphics were also stated, but there seems to be nothing of the game anywhere and nothing online. Maybe i’m crap at searching again? :)
We may need to contact Garry Kitchen himself to find out about the title and what happened. Seems very intriguing, and makes us wonder how good the solid 3D was on the C64!
Well, GTW64 recalled a conversation with Garry back in 2008, where he shed some light…
“I also worked on a space flight game for the C64 (always loved Star Raiders on the Atari 400/800) which ended up going over to the NES. In fact, the base code engine became Battletank, a 1st person tank simulation that became a good seller for me on the NES.”
We hope to find out a little bit more, but if you take a look at the NES Battletank game, you will see some reminants of the original C64 development somewhere.
In June 2017, William Hunter from The Dot Eaters kindly provided a hi-res scan of the game’s advert.
Can anything of this early space game be found?… More from Garry soon we hope!
A new Melbourne House title (whilst under the Virgin Mastertronic ownership) was due on the C64 in the shape of Orel Hershiser’s Strike Zone, a pretty cool baseball game which seems to have only been due for release in the US.
The game was advertised in a sales catalogue as coming soon, but only got a release on PC.
You may think that it was possibly a mistake in the catalogue, but after a bit of searching – we found an advertisement poster for sale which lists the C64 version, and which you can see in the gallery.
So was the game being produced in the US for the US Market, or was it being done in the UK with the aim of marketing under a different name?
Early days – but yet another game in the GTW64 archives to try and find out more about.
Mentioned in a US sales catalogue, Main Event was to be a wrestling title released by Activision and was a conversion of the Konami arcade game The Main Event.
It is a game that was never really heard about in the UK, so we are wondering if perhaps it was a mis-print in the catalogue?
Well, interestingly after contributor Hank informed us that the game was the Konami conversion, we found a bit more info on a Chronology page on the C64. Here the following snippet was mentioned:
“At the Summer CES, Mediagenic releases the Main Event boxing game for the Commodore 64. Price is US$29.95. The program was written by Gamestar. [2002.14] [1148.27]”
The reference came from Info Issue 22 magazine from September/October 1988. But it was referred to as a Boxing game. Of course Gamestar had a boxing game released the year before, so there must have been some confusion.
Currently in Gamebase though, Gamestar has a title called “Take Down” listed – which has a 1988 release date and is a wrestling game which feels very similar to Main Event. Right down to the fact that it has 4 simultaneous wrestlers.
Is it possible that Activision lost the licence and then Gamestar reworked the game into “Take Down”? It is very much possible, but we’d need to find Take Down’s developers to confirm.
Sarge was to be a Capcom arcade conversion released on the C64 back in 1988.
Although advertised as on sale – the game never got to make it on the C64 for reasons unknown. The PC version did however surface.
What happened to the C64 conversion of this interesting title? Were there developer woes throughout or is the sales advert just a red herring?
Well, Maxmirni confirmed that a C64 version was indeed on its way – and even dug out another advert showing a C64 screenshot! So the game does indeed exist!
The game was being developed by Troy Lyndon’s company Pacific Dataworks International, but for reasons unknown, doesn’t seem to have ever got a proper release. In an interview, Troy suggests that the game should be on sale by the time that his interview was at press. Did it sneak out?
We got hold of Troy, and he was very surprised to learn that the game was never released – he thought it was! Troy was the original developer, before he gave the game to someone else to finish. He cannot recall who that was though.
The conversion was apparently just like the original and very faithful. But in terms of trying to find the game, Troy sadly couldn’t help – not having anything of the original game which could be preserved.
We now need to find out who this replacement programmer was. Let us know if you know any more about it!
Hmmm, not quite sure just yet if this was just a mere mistake in a US based catalogue, but the classic Amiga title – Golden Path was listed as being sold for the C64 in a Spring 1987 catalogue by Firebird.
There was never really any indication that a C64 version was in production – but could we be wrong?
The advertisement subsequently disappeared from future catalogues, which suggests it was a mistake – but until we get confirmation, an entry stays!
A quick write up on a title which we only really knew anything about thanks to a news snippet in Games Machine issue 32.
The game was mentioned and previewed in a few magazines as to be released on the likes of the Amiga, ST, Spectrum, C64 and Amstrad. None of the versions seemed to have surface though, not even the Spectrum and Amiga versions which had screenshots published.
Was it at the time that Grandslam temporarily went under? Or were there other reasons for the entire series of games not to get released?
Not entirely sure why we hadn’t featured this one earlier, but Q8 (i’ll keep it to Q8 to save time!) was being produced across all formats by Thalamus as an exciting 3D racer game.
It was never to be for reasons unknown, and the only real link to a C64 conversion was via Games Machine in June 1990.
The game never got released on any platform it seems, though its rumoured that the Amstrad version did make it out some years later. Another source suggests that the Amiga version suffered development hell for 2 years, where the team Digital Arts eventually gave up on the conversion.
So did a C64 version ever get started? What happened overall and can anything be salvaged?
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