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.

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Hagar The Horrible

(GTW64 entry)
Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

A quick entry to cover part of a series of games which DK’Tronics were looking to release in late 1984, early 1985.

A news item in the December 1984 edition of Personal Computer Games suggested that following on from a Popeye game, DK’Tronics were looking to do a series of Thames Television based games including Minder, The Sweeney, Benny Hill and Rainbow. There were also plans for a game starring Hagar The Horrible.

The games were to be released across the Spectrum, C64, MSX and Amstrad and sold at £5.95.

It is not quite known what happened to Hagar The Horrible, with no mention of the game or release on any other platform. It is possible that the game may never have been fully started and could have just been at the planning stages when DK’Tronics went under. Of course, Kingsoft later released the game in 1992, but this was a completely different game and licence.

Popular Computing Weekly 9-15 Aug 1984 had a news item which suggested that it was early days for the DK’Tronics deal.  So it is possible that nothing was started, but we’ll see!

We hope to learn more soon!

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Rainbow

(GTW64 entry)
Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

A quick entry to cover part of a series of games which DK’Tronics were looking to release in late 1984, early 1985.

A news item in the December 1984 edition of Personal Computer Games suggested that following on from a Popeye game, DK’Tronics were looking to do a series of Thames Television based games including Minder, The Sweeney, Benny Hill and Rainbow. There were also plans for a game starring Hagar The Horrible.

The games were to be released across the Spectrum, C64, MSX and Amstrad and sold at £5.95.

It is not quite known what happened to Rainbow, with no mention of the game or release on any other platform. It is possible that the game may never have been fully started and could have just been at the planning stages when DK’Tronics went under.

Popular Computing Weekly 9-15 Aug 1984 had a news item which suggested that it was early days for the DK’Tronics deal.  So it is possible that nothing was started, but we’ll see!

We hope to learn more soon!

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Minder

(GTW64 entry)
Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

A quick entry to cover part of a series of games which DK’Tronics were looking to release in late 1984, early 1985.

A news item in the December 1984 edition of Personal Computer Games suggested that following on from a Popeye game, DK’Tronics were looking to do a series of Thames Television based games including Minder, The Sweeney, Benny Hill and Rainbow. There were also plans for a game starring Hagar The Horrible.

The games were to be released across the Spectrum, C64, MSX and Amstrad and sold at £5.95.

It is not quite known what happened to Minder, but it seems that the Spectrum, Amstrad and MSX versions were actually released. Don Priestly was behind the Spectrum version.

So what of the C64 version? Did DK’Tronics go under just before it could be released?Popular Computing Weekly 9-15 Aug 1984 had a news item which suggested that it was early days for the DK’Tronics deal.

Thanks to Sean ONeill, a C64 review was printed in issue 21 of Commodore User magazine.  The screenshot seems very Spectrum like, so we’re not entirely sure if it is a geniune C64 shot.  So was the game was actually complete?   DK’Tronics may well have gone under just before it could be released.

It is very likely that Don Priestly was behind the conversion as well – so hopefully if we can find Don, then we might be able to recover the C64 version.

Posted in: GTW64 archive | Tagged: | 11 Comments

Boxing and Galactica 1 pack

(GTW64 entry)
Posted: by Frank Gasking

Our next entry is a double pack release which should have been sold by a company called I.G. Programs. It was reviewed in PCG 1984, Issue 8 and had an average score overall.

Boxing was to be a simple boxing title over 10 rounds to score as many points as possible. It was sort of like a clone of Activision’s Boxing on the Atari VCS. Looking at the only screenshot, it seems it may have been coded in BASIC as well.

The second game, Galactica 1 was the more advanced title – and was a pretty poor version of Galaxians. The game was described as slow moving.

So what happened? Was the pack actually released? Was it a bedroom coding and publishing effort that only sold a handful?

More soon we hope on this pack!

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Pengi

(GTW64 entry)
Posted: by Frank Gasking

A very quick entry for a title we know very little about at present, but was advertised in Personal Computer Games 1984 (Issue 8) by Visions Software.

Pengi was advertised by Visions for the C64 and BBC Micro – though sadly it doesn’t seem to have surfaced.

Unfortunately there is very little to go on about the game itself, but its clear that it was some sort of Pengo clone, which the market was pretty saturated with at that point. The BBC Micro got a release, and was a very good clone of the Pengo game – but what of the C64 version?

It seems that unfortunately, Visions went under just before the game could be released. The question is though if the game ever got very far and if it managed to sneak out? Visions went into liquidation around early 1985, so there was time for the game to sneak out. Did it though?

Do you know more?

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Demolator

(GTW64 entry)
Posted: by Frank Gasking

A very quick entry for a title we know very little about at present, but was advertised in Personal Computer Games 1984 (Issue 8) by Visions Software.

Demolator was advertised by Visions for the C64 and BBC Micro- though sadly it doesn’t seem to have surfaced.
Unfortunately there is very little to go on about the game itself – it looks like a Paradroid sort of game looking at its cover. The BBC Micro version seems to have been released though, asking the question about what exactly happened to the C64 version?

It seems that unfortunately, Visions went under just before the game could be released on hte C64 at least. The question is though if the game ever got very far and if it managed to sneak out? Visions went into liquidation around early 1985, so there was time for the game to sneak out. Did it though?

Do you know more?

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Nifty Lifty

(GTW64 entry)
Posted: by Frank Gasking

A very quick entry for a title we know very little about at present, but was advertised in Personal Computer Games 1984 (Issue 8) by Visions Software.

Nifty Lifty was advertised by Visions for the C64, BBC Micro and ZX Spectrum – though sadly it doesn’t seem to have surfaced.
Unfortunately there is very little to go on about the game itself, apart from that it was a sort of Wacky Waiters clone. The game actually got a release on the BBC and Spectrum, so why not he C64?

It seems that unfortunately, Visions went under just before the game could be released on the C64 at least. The question is though if the game ever got very far and if it managed to sneak out? Was the C64 version behind the Spectrum and BBC versions in terms of being completed? Visions went into liquidation around early 1985, so there was time for the game to sneak out. Did it though?

Do you know more?

Posted in: GTW64 archive | Tagged: | 2 Comments

Quadrillion

(GTW64 entry)
Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

A very quick entry for a pack of games/utilities from Bubble Bus which don’t seem to have yet been preserved. Were they even released?

Word Wizard is confirmed to be just a word processing package, thanks to MarkTheMorose.

Now confirmed as released by Sean O’Neill, and currently listed on Retro Collector. Thanks to Nicol Walder, this has now been added for download below!

Case closed!

Posted in: GTW64 archive | Tagged: | 5 Comments

Bryan Robson’s Super League

(GTW64 entry)
Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Way back in Commodore User issue 25 (October 1985) is how far we’re travelling for our next entry in the Games That Weren’t database.

This time with a board game related title in the shape of Bryan Robson’s Super League, released by Paul Lamond Games.

With the game, you would build up a team to try and win the league, battling against chance and hazards depicted by weather, bank managers and other such things. The games are mapped out across the game board which comes as part of the package.

The review in Commodore User was not too favourable, and felt that the price was a little high. Your Spectrum was a little more favourable and found the game good, but wished a little more time was spent on the game itself than the merchandise that came as part of the packaging.

Although the game was reviewed for both the C64 and ZX Spectrum, the game is currently missing in action on both platforms. It is only thanks to contributor Sean O’Neill that we have learnt about the game, and hence have now created an entry.

Paul Lamond Games is still currently running today – which asks the question of if the game was actually released or if it just had limited sales. The thing is … the “Super League” text looks very very familiar. I’m sure i’ve seen it around, so it could well be a case of just finding the title for digital posterity.

Paul got in touch with GTW in 2016 (see comments), and the game was established after playing “Wembley”. The game was possibly only on the Spectrum, but it seems that there was a C64 edition reviewed. Sadly the game never really sold too well, as many places could work out if it should have been sold under Computer or Games department due to the board game ties with it.

We hope that Paul may have something of the game which could be preserved some day. We’ll have to wait and see!

Posted in: GTW64 archive | Tagged: | 5 Comments

Liberator

(GTW64 entry)
Posted: by Frank Gasking

Liberator was to be part of a two game bundle along with a game called Sarumax (which eventually turned into Elven Warrior and was released by Players Software).

The game itself was a sort of Hunters Moon meets Solar Jetman, and was being developed by Arless Kershaw, who was the brother of Duncan Kershaw.

It was going to be published with Sarumax by CDS software, but the deal fell through as Players had threatened to sue CDS as they felt the games were theirs to sell. Afterwards, no other publisher wanted the game – and so it was never released.

In recent years, Duncan Kershaw has managed to find some of his old titles, and came across an unfinished copy of Liberator. Overall it looks pretty superb – though i’m not entirely sure what you have to do. The controls are a little difficult to master, and I wonder if they would have been more fined tuned at a later date.

Duncan has stated that the game was actually finished, but he hasn’t been able to find a complete copy. It is possible that his brother may have a copy, so that route will be checked.

But for now, check out a game which has a lot of promise and wonder what might have been. Could we even possibly be playing a full version some time in the future?

Watch this space!

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