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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T-Wrecks

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

T-Wrecks was what eventually became The Muncher. Essentially a very large scrolling Rampage clone with a huge main dinosaur sprite with Godzilla references. It was a great little game and a lot of fun.

However, the game started out as T-Wrecks until a deal was made with a UK sweets company who produces Chewits.

T-Wrecks may have also been based on a Transformers character .. We are not completely sure just yet.

What happened to the original game though? And how different was it? Was it just a case of a different title or was there more?

More soon on this one we hope!

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The Mystery Of Arkham Manor

(GTW64 entry)
Posted: by Frank Gasking

The Mystery of Arkham Manor was one of your more interactive text adventures, using a system commonly seen in the Lucasfilm games Maniac Mansion. Selecting text from some preset words to construct various commands and phrases.

The game got a mixed reception on the Spectrum and Amstrad platforms, but we never got to find out what was thought of the C64 conversion which never appeared.

Normally when a game appears on just the Spectrum and Amstrad, you assume that the C64 version hit problems in the conversion process. The game was no isometric Spectrum hit to convert, but a rather simple concept which had been done before in similiar games by Melbourne House such as Redhawk.

Alan Malik was the C64 developer for the game, but unfortunately Alan struggled with the C64 architecture after primarily working on the BBC micro platform (Writing the ‘Sleuth’ debugger). Mike Lewis (One of the game’s original developers on the Spectrum) worked with Alan for around 5 days to try and help finish things off, but unfortunately although the basic code was there, things were quite buggy and after discussion with Melbourne House, the game on the C64 was dropped. A huge shame that maybe Alan wasn’t given a bit more time to adapt to the platform, but we guess that the time slot for the game’s appearance had passed.

In early 2010, a breakthrough was made when Andrew Craigie came forward with his unreleased SID tune for the game (Which now you can download for the first time! – Thanks to Ian Coog for tidying up the SID file!). He then gave us the remaining credits.

As for the game itself, it seemed the best hope of finding something of the game would be by contacting Alan and seeing if by chance he kept any of his development disks. Unfortunately Alan confirmed that everything was given back to Melbourne House (Dev kits etc). Alan mentions that from memory there was a change in ownership / direction and it fell of the radar and that was that. Kit was returned and everyone called it a day.

So now it is down to the graphic artist having something, but it is very unlikely. This could well be lost forever, unless someone from Melbourne House comes forward.

Do you know anything more of this conversion?…

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Typhoon Thompson

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

A surprising entry into the GTW archives.

This was never really announced on the C64, until Chris West revealed that he was producing the C64 conversion for Domark of the famous Amiga title by Dan Gorlin

In the game you had to control Typhoon Thompson on a Jet-Sled over sea based terrain, and you have to save a child from the Sea Sprites.

The game was almost completed, but for reasons currently unknown, the plug was pulled on the project. Chris was almost there with the game. Now looking at past work of Chris and Tony, this game would have very likely been a very slick conversion.

Chris has informed GTW that the game still exists on disk, but he is having trouble reading the disk. This could be a problem with his disk drive, or the disk itself. Either way, Chris is keen to convert the game and release it for fan’s of Gorlin’s work, which is great news.

Chris is currently in the process of buying a new C64 disk drive, and hopefully he’ll be able to read his disks. Otherwise it may require some serious salvaging to bring the game back to life.

In 2023, Chris spoke again about the development and that he was sent source code from Dan Gorlin that had already work started on converting to the Commodore 64. It had been in process of being finished off when it was cancelled. So its possible that with Chris’ version and Peter Ward’s version, there may have been three different developments under way in total, unless it was Peter Ward’s code that Chris had been sent?

Fingers crossed, but very exciting times for a game that was never even known to have existed until now!

We could be grabbing sea sprites very soon!…

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Twister

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

Twister is probably one of the more historic GTW titles that we have come across, not for its gameplay, but for the troubles it caused around the time of its publicity…

Firstly the working title for the game was “Mother or Harlots”, which caused controversy, and was then changed to “Mother of Charlotte”. Eventually this was deemed to boring, and “Twister” was tagged on. Then, the game was advertised quite a lot with scantly clad females helping to promote the game’s story line. At a computer convention in the United Kingdom, System 3 were famously asked to remove the females from the hall.

The game itself was kind of similiar to Discs of Tron in terms of look and feel, and the rest of the Jazz was purely there to get sales I think. As for the game…

Moby Games tells the story of the game…

“The evil Twister has a plan to ruin humanity, and only you can stop her. This involves travelling through your inner thoughts to gather the required symbols.

The first level is platform-based and scrolls into the screen, with platforms arranged as with the grid in hopscotch, with one in the middle followed by one to either the left and right, then another in the middle. You must collect crystals, as well as packs of 8 shots (you start with 20), whilst shooting as many of Charlotte’s minions as you can.

On the second level you must collect ‘Ultimate Power’ by collecting each of those 13 levels, from a 3D room with full floor and ceiling interaction, by quickly swapping between the 2 surfaces, shooting and avoiding enemies in the process. Level four (of six) adds a rocket launcher, allowing you to move around the whole screen. Eventually you must face down and shoot the Twister in the throat to kill her. “

So the game never surfaced on the C64, but it did eventually surface on the Spectrum, created by Chris Yates and Jon Hare. Jon Hare also did the graphics on the C64 version, and mentioned that he doesn’t recall too much about it.

It still begs the question why the game never got released if other versions did make it. We know that something must have been in production, due to the mention of the C64 in almost everything Twister based. Was it a poor conversion?

Jon confirms to us that the game was commissioned by System 3 via LT Software (who seem to have had a poor run of getting any games completed). Jon and Chris designed and completed the Spectrum version, but the C64 duties were handed to someone else (who Jon cannot recall), and it seems it fell by the way side.

Mark Cale then added a little more:

“Twister was to have gone to C64 but again finding a good team to convert it was the problem. The original team that did the Spectrum version was John and Chris that went on to set up Sensible Software after they wrote Twister for us. They tried to do IK before leaving LT Software but for what ever reason they left LT Software. LT Software did the awful Spectrum and Amstrad versions. Archer stepped in and did IK for us and the rest is history.”

So it seems that LT Software were dropped, but possibly the game wasn’t shaping up well on the C64. It is hoped that something may be found, but its looking increasingly unlikely now!

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Twin Balls

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

I’m kind of surprised we didn’t have an entry for this game sooner in GTW64. This is another Paul Kubiszyn game which never saw the light of day and was being developed around the time Commodore Format were still going (just!)

Very strangely, this is very very similiar to Super Pac Twins which Paul was developing at the same time. That was a more simplistic game where you just ate dots in a maze like Pac Man, but Twin Balls expands on the idea by making it more of a Pengiun Towers clone with sliding tiles and other bits. It’s actually a far better game!

Well, basically Paul informs us that after CF put Super Pac Twins on the covermount without permission – he canned that game. The demo released was just for screenshot purposes, but CF may have been desperate for covermount content. Not to be put off, Twin Balls was a re-use of the concept that was canned, but with added elements to move it away from a standard Pac Man clone.

In total, two previews were released – and the game never got finished due to real life kicking in and other projects (See Creator Speaks). We assume that Paul just lost interest in the game before going onto doing the likes of ?Interlaced Pairs as his final swan song on the C64.

Nothing more was ever produced, so check out the creator speaks for input from Paul himself about the game…

Case closed!

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Turrican 3 V1

(GTW64 entry)
Posted: by Frank Gasking

Ask a C64 user what their top 10 games are, and you’ll often find Turrican or Turrican 2 high up there. Although Turrican 2 was Manfred Trenz’s last Turrican effort on the C64, this did not deter fans of the game to create their own sequel in years to come.

Games were slowly drying up towards the end of the 90’s, but one or two gems were promised… such as Turrican 3 from Protovision. Rumours of development were spread like wildfire on the C64 scene, but then suddenly a preview appeared unexpectidly, much to Protovision’s dismay…It seems that while the game was being demonstrated at a party, someone stole the disk and spread the game preview around.

It was this sad gesture from the C64 scene which prompted the game’s developers Stefan Gutsch and Chester Kollschen to cancel the game production. Ironically at the same time, Factor 5, who were developing Turrican on other systems threatened legal action against the game. So it was doomed anyway… but maybe in recent times it would have been finished off had they not lost heart in the game due to one person who stole the disk.The game itself is a very faithful update of Turrican, featuring flicker free sprites and even music as the game played!… something not thought possible even by Manfred Trenz.

A few levels were done before the game was cancelled, with one or two large monsters (which looked very impressive). Overall the production looked very promising.Around the same time, Smash Designs started producing their own version of Turrican 3, and in 2004 they finally finished it. Possibly some ideas from Protovision’s version were used as inspiration, but at least a Turrican 3 did make it in the end. Would two versions have been completed had Protovision not had their disk stolen, and didn’t have Factor 5 on their backs?

The preview has been floating around the net for some time, but recently Protovision have been spreading all the remains of Turrican 3 with their other sold products for people to see.

Jazzcat has kindly passed on these remains for GTW to preserve and show some of you for the first time too. Now you can see for yourself the potential of this conversion.

Also check out the words from Protovision, as mentioned on their website.

Case closed…

Posted in: GTW64 archive | Tagged: | 3 Comments

Troddlers V1

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

It was always thought that Alter Developments would be doing the C64 conversion of Troddlers, if anyone. It was announced they were trying to do Troddlers in an issue of Commodore Force. These were the same team who brought you Lemmings on the C64.

However, the guys from SCS-TRC were also trying to get the contract, so there was a bit of competition there.

The Alter Development version of Troddlers consisted of 6 levels which looked good and would work very well. These levels were done for the purpose of demonstration to Sales Curve. The SCS-TRC version looked more impressive, and so it got the contract away from Alter.

Sales Curve continued with the project with the other team, and eventually they pulled out of the market and decided not to go with any more C64 stuff. The game would have been canned anyway. Alter had already stopped work on their version anyway, so that was that.

Remi says that he felt sad that Sales Curve didn’t continue, and what with their past work, you would expect the conversion to be very good.

Remi told GTW that the previews may still exist in his disk collection, and hopefully they would be uncovered….

….Well.. its happened!!!… Thanks to the game’s programmer, Niels Brouwers, we bring you the first ever glimpse of the original conversion that was taking place. Niels got in touch with GTW, and kindly passed on all the previews which existed.

All in all this contains 6 playable levels and a few pictures which would have been included in the game.

Although it does not look as polished as the accepted contract version, this contains more playable aspects of the original game. No doubt in time, this would have been tweaked and improved at the end. It still looks an impressive conversion, and there is much more here to look at.

It is interesting to compare both versions, but essentially with the two versions there is a half complete version of Troddlers. Sadly the game is missing music, but we are unsure if any was actually composed for this version. We will try and find out soon.

Check it out and see what you think :)

Found at last, and another case pretty much closed!…

Posted in: GTW64 archive | Tagged: | 1 Comment

Tran

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

A game by Steve Collins of Herobotix and Badlands fame. Tran was fully completed apart from the music. Sadly when presented, Hewson rejected it, due to striking similarities to another title on their label. All this, even though it got good review scores internally within Hewson.

Steve could not find time to get someone else to publish it, as he was busy at college, and so it gathered dust and remained lost.

The game is based around a sideways space scroller in the mould of Defender, Uridium, Parallax and R-type, with the usual arsenal of weapon upgrades. The aim is to simply blast enemy crafts and collect orbs. When enough are collected, you are able to land and take control of the man on terrain, blasting enemies and saving hostages whom are imprisoned by blowing doors up with bombs. Once all the hostages are saved, its time to find your ship and blast off.

When fully specked, you have 6 orbiting droid orbs, each with a laser cannon. You can have forward and rear double cannons and also side strafing bazookas.

Originally, Tran was first heard about after Steve’s site was stumbled across, where he mentioned two unreleased games he worked on. Tran was one of them, and after contacting Steve, he confirmed that Tran still existed at home in Ireland.

In 2004, Steve found the last known copy of Tran on a small black tape and posted it to GTW. The tape was tested, and the game worked straight away. After converting over to a TAP file and some fixing to a .PRG file by TMR. The game can now proudly be hosted on GTW for all of you to enjoy for the first time ever.

It is a space blaster, typical of 1987 with some great highlights, some nice graphics and starfield and some classic gameplay which can now be enjoyed by the gameplaying public as intended.

A long lost game found and released… Case closed!

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Trac Troopa

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

While I was away doing exams and coursework in 2004, a few games suddenly surfaced out of nowhere, and Trac Troopa was one of the pleasant surprises to surface from an ex-C64 programmer’s work disk. Jon Williams is not to be confused with the Jon Williams of “First Samurai” fame, but was another developer from the 80’s with a programming talent.

Jon and his friends created what is known as Trac Troopa, a sideways scrolling tile based game in a similar form to Bounder.

Graphically the game is quite impressive, with a decent array of sprites with hi-res overlays. Sonically there was nothing here, unless you count the tune that Richard Bayliss later added. Both versions before and after are included in the zip.

The game was touted to companies such as Firebird, Mastertronic, Codemasters and Gremlin. It was the last company which showed a keen interest, but pen was sadly never put to paper and the game was never released. Funnily enough, Gremlin had not yet released their Bounder game, so maybe
they borrowed a few ideas from Jon’s game?

Anyway, after a set of unsuccessful attempts to market the game, Trac Troopa was laid to rest on its work disk and put away in the attic to gather dust. After worrying about losing the game forever, Jon transferred the game to PC and then onto CD. It was in 2004 when he was requested to dig the game out, and finally it was released into the C64 world for the first time.

So here is the game that should have been snapped up by one of the big budget companies, or even full price companies. Sadly, Jon didn’t have the luck he deserved. But at last, Jon is now able to gain the credit for his hard work that he deserves, and GTW is proud the present the full game with all the documents and also some rare designs of the game’s graphics.

A full GTW game launched and playable… Case closed!…

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Touchstone

(GTW64 entry)
Posted: by Frank Gasking

Touchstone was a rather ambitious RPG/graphic adventure game which was being developed for Origin by Sensible Software, back in the days when Martin Galway was part of Sensible Software.

Zzap 64, issue 61, ran an article on Sensible Software and first gave details about the game, with the following being printed:

Sensi embarked on a massive RPG adventure titled Touchstone (remember the band?). "For two years we had been working on the gameplay and story for Touchstone, a traditional storyline fantasy RPG but with a twist in it. It became so big and very intricate. We originally wanted the player to be able to approach the game through one of the many plots and sub-plots.

Origin decided that the American market [that it was primarily aimed at] was changing towards the Nintendo consoles. There was no deadline as such but admittedly we weren’t making much progress. Origin are good to work with and it was an amicable decision to stop the project in November of last year (1989).

The project is now dead but we still hold the copyright and we’d dearly love to see it come to life. The good thing about it is that it’s adaptable. As we’ve worked on the story for 18 months; and the gameplay for 6 months, it can be a text adventure, a Cinemaware-style game, even an arcade adventure, whatever – a game to suit the client."

As yet there’s no word on any interested software house. Fingers crossed though.

A very long period of time was spent on the game as you can see, but its believed that very little C64 code was actually produced and a lot more time was spent on storyboarding and also the Amiga version.

Very strangely, Martin Galway was the main coder on the game whilst Chris Yates got on with other projects. Things as a result were slow as Martin (according to interviews) was not a prolific games programmer. The platform kept changing too – starting on the C64, the game was moved from the C64 to the Amiga and then to the PC platform.

Unfortunately no version was ever to get a release. So much time was spent on the game, and no end product was forming that in the end Origin decided to pull the plug on the project. Sensible Software got to retain the copyright for the game, and still hold it today.

It is unknown how much of a C64 conversion exists, but it is likely only to be a series of tech demos. Who has these?… Potentially Martin or Chris will still have some disks with remains of the game. There is to be no music found, as unfortunately Martin never got chance to compose the music due to spending more time on the programming of the game itself.

This game is something of a well remembered title for the Sensible Software guys – it took up a large part of their lives, and they still believe that the game has massive potential. There was even rumour once of it being ressurrected for the new platforms of today, but nothing has sadly materialized. For a game respected so much by its creators, this sounds like something very special to find. Hopefully if the Sensible guys uncover anything, we’ll be able to bring it to you (And maybe even Amiga/PC versions for our relative sister websites).

Hopefully we’ll dig up more soon on this intriguing RPG. For now, check out Creator Speaks for notes from the creators (From different sources).

More soon we hope…

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