Welcome to Games That Weren't!

We are a 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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Snow White

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1983 Atari

Platform: Atari 2600 (VCS)

One of the more intriguing stories from Atari’s twilight years is Snow White, a licensed title that was developed for the Atari 2600 under Disney’s watch but never officially released. Originally designated CX26107, the game never appeared in Atari’s catalogues or in gaming magazines at the time, and only internal product lists hinted at its existence. That is, until a surprise prototype surfaced in 1999.

Snow White (02 09 1983) (Atari) (Prototype) 1

Developed between 1982–83, Snow White was created by Greg Easter, with artwork by Mimi Nyden. The game was ultimately shelved due to frequent marketing changes and Atari’s corporate instability. According to Greg, constant revisions led him to jokingly dub the project “Snow White and the Seven Versions.” Continue reading →

Posted in: Atari 2600 / Atari VCS | Tagged: | Leave a comment

ShelShock

Posted: by Frank Gasking

1993 Finetime Software

Platform: PC (DOS)

Our next entry into the archives is a title that we hadn’t been aware of until it suddenly turned up during an archive search. We believe that the game was to be called ShelShock, and was written by Finlay Munro as part of Finetime Software. It may have been possibly a working title, and no story is known for it.

shelshock large

At this stage, it seems that Finlay produced a proof of concept for a new 3D engine, which is similar to games like Paul Woakes’ Damocles. Throughout there are a mixture of solid 3D objects, but also sprites too for more detailed objects. It runs quite well, though there is a bit of slowdown in places, especially where there are lots of sprite objects. Continue reading →

Posted in: PC, Reviews | Tagged: | 4 Comments

Glover

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

2006 Rockpool Games / So Games

Platform: Mobile J2ME

A short entry for a Java Platform mobile de-make of Glover, the 1998 puzzle platformer game originally by Interactive Studios. The J2ME version was to be a 2D-based version of the game, trying to cover as much of the original as it possibly could.

viking village large

In 2024, ex-Ocean Software artist Bill Harbison provided Games That Weren’t with a series of early graphical assets, including some tile sets, sprite sheets and map screens showing how the game would have looked. Continue reading →

Posted in: J2ME, Reviews | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Tintin on the Moon

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1992 Virgin Games

Platform: SEGA Master System

One of the things most tragic with planned games is when magazines of the time featured them heavily, showing off good looking screenshots of the game in question. This would be the case with Tintin on the Moon, which had been released in the past on home computers such as the Amiga and C64 by Infogrames, but was due for release by Virgin Games on the SEGA Master System in 1992.

TinTin Shot6

The game was to mark the first console adaptation of the classic European comic series, bringing Hergé’s iconic characters to life in a new game designed specifically for the Master System. This was to be no port or rehash of the old Infogrames title. Continue reading →

Posted in: Reviews, SEGA Master System | Tagged: | 3 Comments

ArcWar

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1995 Finetime Software

Platform: PC (DOS)

Our next entry into the Games That Weren’t archive is an unfinished PC DOS shooter called ArcWar. A nice looking and early Galaga style game with a strange variety of enemies at this stage, including shooting tomatoes!

arcwar large

Whilst working through the archives of Mark Greenshields, we discovered a series of builds for the game at varying stages, including one final edition that includes music and sound effects, and which may even be the final version before it was abandoned. Continue reading →

Posted in: PC, Reviews | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Motor Mania

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1994 Millenium

Platforms: SEGA Mega Drive and Commodore Amiga

Motor Mania was to be a fun and quirky driving adventure, designed with younger players in mind. You would take control of Mickey the Micra – a cheerful little car and the last one left undelivered before environmental chaos brought the factory to a standstill.
motormania large

In a clever twist, the game would task Mickey with saving the entire production line by navigating backwards through the factory’s workstations. From the paint shop and wind tunnel to tyre fitting and computer diagnostics, each stage must be revisited in reverse order to fix faults and restore order. Continue reading →

Posted in: Commodore Amiga, Mega Drive / Genesis, Reviews | Tagged: | 5 Comments

Elite NES Prototype (v2.5)

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Whilst doing some preservation work, we chanced across a couple of binary files which are a slightly earlier build of Elite on the NES by Imagineer. Out in the wild are builds 2.8 and 5.2 which are dated 04 March 1992 and 24 April 1992 respectively.

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Here we have 2.5, a Valentines Day build from the 14th February 1992. So almost a month earlier than 2.8 and over 2 months older than the final build. Oddly, the binary was split into two 128K files which had to be joined together again to create a working ROM file. You may find that it doesn’t run in some emulators. Continue reading →

Posted in: Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Prototype | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Rock Star Goes Bizarre (C64) recovery

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Thanks to Fliplift on the Lemon64 forums, a very rare promo edition of Rock Star Ate My Hamster on the Commodore 64 has been recovered. This was released through The Sun newspaper, and has been missing for quite some time, though a ZX Spectrum version has been recovered a while back.

rockstar1

According to Luca/Fire on the forum thread, Codemasters and The Sun ran a competition with ten runners up prizes being special editions of the game. The special edition includes 7 additional stars, with Kylie Minogue renamed as Koily Mynose instead of Bimbo Baggins. Continue reading →

Posted in: Commodore 64 (C64), GTW64 news, News, Preservation | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Green Jelly – The Game

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1994 Unknown

Platform: Unknown

A short entry today for a relatively unknown game that was in the planning, based on the band Green Jelly. All we know is that a video game was being planned, thanks to a two page article on the band in Video Games magazine in March 1994.

Nothing about the game itself was described, and everything was still apparently “hush-hush”, with a rumour that the game would be released sometime in 1995. It never happened though. Continue reading →

Posted in: Reviews, Unknown | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Tip Off

Posted: by Frank Gasking

1992 Anco / Imagineer

Platform: Super Nintendo

Following on from recovery of the long-lost NES version of Tip-Off, we now have a version for the Super Nintendo that was also in production around the same time.

tip off large

Originally developed by Enigma Variations for Anco and set for release via Imagineer, the SNES version was ultimately canned when Anco’s partnership with Imagineer ended. With high manufacturing costs and no major backer to support production, the financial risk proved too great in the end. It seems that development was so early, no announcements from what we can see were made in the press about the game. Continue reading →

Posted in: Reviews, Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) | Tagged: | 3 Comments