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.
‘Life on Planet Srexis is threatened!’ so starts the blurb describing the OIC Ltd game Sixers. The game is a grid based puzzle game but little more is known, simply because it is not known if the game was ever released, on any platform.
OIC Ltd seemed to have primarily released games on the BBC Electron and Micro, but today the games are ridiculously hard to track down and BBC collectors are still finding OIC games for their collection even now.
On the BBC site www.stairwaytoheaven.com there isn’t even an entry for Sixers. As such any hope of finding games on the 8-bit platforms seems even more remote, despite Sixers being planned for release on the C64 and the Spectrum.
Because it appears that OIC did not manage to release a single game on either the Spectrum or the C64 there isn’t really much to go on here, even with regards to a possible programmer for the game.
Perhaps if we find someone who worked at OIC they can clear up some of the details, regarding both Sixers and the minimal output on all platforms, until then however I feel that the game will remain MIA.
Another interesting GTW entry this time which has information collaborated from Fabrizio and also Bonaventura Di Bello, famous co-founder of Brainstorm Enterprise.
Sips of Terror was to be a text adventure game which first was being written as a storyline with hand-sketched illustrations. We’re a little unsure of the rough story line for now. The game was to be written in The Quill, and may have even had some of the story scripted out at somepoint.
It is believed that the story was actually completed and a good section of the game sketched out, but it is unknown why the game never quite made it out. We hope to find out more on that front soon.
There has been recent discussions about taking the stories and completing the games in a package such as "Inform". But its early days. It is not known if at any point soon we may see some of the C64’s remains. We are hopeful, but the programmer must be located (and whom the name has escaped everyone sadly).
Issue 49 of Your Sinclair featured a news item on Virgin Mastertronic’s plans. Included in them was a license of the Marvel Comics’ character the Silver Surfer. All the other titles listed made it onto the C64, but very little is known about this particular comic book license.
Was it ever started? …. or did it possibly become vapourware along with the Spectrum version?
The game did eventually surface on the NES, and was developed by Software Creations … so hopefully some of the ex-Software Creations guys will know more. Maybe there is a Tim/Geoff Follin tune to be found here?
“Behold, the fifth generation of home computer entertainment Get the Sigue Sigue Sputnik computer game from your favourite software house now…” – was the advert blurted out after one of Sigue Sigue Sputnik’s tracks on their recent album back in 1986. Credits listed on the album were TONY SELLINGER/GIBBO.
Sigue Sigue Sputnik was to follow in the footsteps of Frankie Goes To Hollywood and have their very own game produced. The game was meant to be a sort of spiritual follow up to the classic Jammin’ game but with twists of Ocean Frankie Goes to Hollywood blended in. It seems the success of Ocean’s game was enough to give others confidence of doing a similar title. Did I say Jammin’ ? A clue to the credits – Read on!
Computer and Video Games issue 60 first gave news of this game with a column of text that gives an insight into what the game was to be featuring:
“‘No, no’ I screamed, as the editor grabbed me by the hair and dragged me kicking to my Commodore 64. “I don’t want to review it!”, I protested. “It’s just hype, the game doesn’t really exist!”. “Now calm down Tony,” Tim ordered. (Tim’s the kind of guy who can make a kick in the teeth seem reasonable…). Having wired my chair to the mains, Tim suggested I get on with the review before a fuse blew… Who am I to argue? The latest, not to mention hottest, piece of software to hit my sweaty palms is the official Sigue Sigue Sputnik game.
Don’t groan! It’s poor, it’s ugly, it’s offensive and it’s down right mean, but I love it! Your problem, readers, in deciding whether this review is legit! SSS are well known for their hype and general bad taste and I would hate to ruin that reputation. The game is based in the 21st Century and you play it in front of a giant video screen which splits your TV screen into four equal quarters. You are faced with dozens of TV channels to choose from and various characters take to the video screens and try to blow Tony James to bits (hooray). You control Tony James (who is beautifully animated) at the bottom of the screen and can strut around firing at the beastly attackers. When you have destroyed an attacker in one window he reappears in the next window and so on until all four video screens have been filled. When one window is cleared there is a clapperboard countdown from seven to one and that attacker appears in that window as a large animated graphic.
Each level has four attack waves and each wave has 400 sprites. There will be six levels to work through (at four waves per level that makes 2400 sprites, this must be a record). The general feel of the game is very good and despite its basic shoot-em-up theme there are a lot of very exciting ideas and graphics that will grab and hold you for many a session.
Other characters who appear include Madonna, Michael Jackson, Phil Collins, Norman Tebbit, Maggie, and a mysterious roadie. Again all are larger than life and very well animated. Tony Gibson is writing the game and has developed a new graphics system (“A computer generated character set”) to handle the very special effects. The game should be released in September and will initially be released on the Commodore 64 (around £9.95) with versions to follow for the Spectrum and Amstrad”
The news item came complete a loading screen picture, which looks like it was done by Mark Harrison – due to the MH initials which seem to be in the corner. A colour version was printed in Commodore User, who seemed to suggest it was a fan picture. We’re hoping to get this confirmed soon.
During our time researching – we had an interesting snippet from Ben Hayes (who was working at Enigma Variations at the time) about his experience with the game…
“I’m probably responsible for losing the only surviving copy of the unfinished “Sigue Sigue Sputnik” game, which was previewed in C&VG around 1986 (they printed a screenshot). I found it while going through a load of old C64 discs while at EV, but I’m not sure who was responsible for coding it. It was a playable game but there was no scoring or structure to it, but you controlled a SSS-esque bloke, firing things at a bank of TV screens which showed caricatures of various celebrities (I remember Phil Collins being one). That disc is another that was lost about 15 years ago (left at a friend’s house, I never got them back and he said they got caught up in some flooding and were chucked…)”
Terrible news and from a credible source – but was it surely the last ever copy? And why was it found at Enigma Variations? Darren Melbourne helped to join up the dots, as when Darren first told us about his involvement with the game – we realised that Mark Greenshields worked at Enigma Variations, and seems the most logical way the game got there. Darren Melbourne confirmed that both of them had some minor involvement in the game, but only from a potential publishing stand point. Darren had seen it and played it too.
Darren confirmed that both Tony Gibson and Mark Harrison were the guys behind the game, but there was no idea who Tony Sellinger (the man credited on the album) was.
The game was shown to a variety of the big publishers at the time, there were various publicity stunts attempted to get the game heard about. Even with a bunch of the guys promoting the game going to Domark, all dressed up, and demanding £80,000 for the game – before being promptly told to f**k off.
Darren confirmed that the game never progressed beyond early talks. Nexus were most interested in publishing the game, but weren’t interested in taking the financial risk involved in paying for the development. After that the game effectively ground to a halt at the end of 1986/87 and was the last that Darren heard of the game. Tony and Mark went on to do other titles such as Beat It! and Rainbow Warrior – but SSS was put to rest.
In November 2024, Darren explained that they were sent the game and asked if they could do anything with it to try and finish it (likely by Nexus around 1987 time), but the publisher in the end lost interest in doing the game as explained above so it never happened.
Over the years, GTW64 and C64.com had processed Darren’s disks for preservation and saved many titles (including Nuker), but there was nothing of SSS sadly. Darren however had one final large batch of disks which were shipped in December 2015 (I had mentioned to Darren at Play Expo Manchester 2015, that I had hoped to find something of the game on them). As I went off one night to make a start preserving the disks, I half joked with my wife that I hoped to find it – but wasn’t expecting to.
Sifting out a bunch of oddly labelled or non-labelled disks and cleaning them up first of all, about 2-3 disks in gave up a directory listing with one of the titles named “Media Wars”. Upon loading – I was presented with a flashing high-score with the words “Sputnik” at the top, and a familiar tune playing! This was it! Finally!
Playing the game, it was clear that it was far from completion – but the game pretty much identically matches the description which Ben Hayes gave. It is very likely that this is in fact the very same demo he played. You can shoot lots of things, including Phil Collins – there are multiple TV screens – but the scoring is pretty odd and doesn’t mean a great deal and there doesn’t seem to be much progression. The heads and characters change though and the main character animates very well – even though they are a bit blocky.
What sadly we couldn’t find to go along with the demo, was what we believe to be a Mark Harrison loading/intro screen as shown in CVG and Commodore User. We scanned through Darren’s disks, and nothing was found. We guess that Darren was just given a frozen demo, and the intro picture was never passed on. Could that be found some day?
Mark Harrison got in touch with GTW64 about the game in 2016. Mark confirmed that the image was his own work – drawn on a Koala graphics pad and with his distinctive style. Sadly all of this is completely lost.
Sadly he hadn’t spoken to Tony for years. They fell out and lost touch soon after Rainbow Warrior was produced, but did swap emails for a few years afterwards before losing touch again. Mark couldn’t recall much about the game – but vaguely recalls him and Tony putting a rough demo of the game together and heading off down to EMI studios to meet Tony James. Nothing came from it though – Tony James wanted more blood and violence, and more chainsaws! However, they couldn’t find a backer for the game – so that was that!
So was this as far as the game ever got? It is believed, based on Darren’s past recollections, that it was. This demo was done to try and get a publisher onboard – and would have been what was touted to the likes of Nexus. The intro picture was maybe something released for the press to cause controversy due to the chopped off head perhaps? Maybe it was as a result of the meeting with Tony James and the request for more gore?
Sadly Tony Gibson passed away several years ago, so we may never know the full details. In 2018, an Ebay auction surfaced with a rare promotional copy of the demo that Tony and Mark sent out. Mark confirmed that this seemed to be a legitimate copy that they sent out. Unfortunately it seems it hasn’t yet been preserved by anyone, which could include Mark’s long lost loading picture – which is still at large. The demo should be the same as what we have here.
This is yet another famous lost C64 title recovered (and de-frozen thanks to Martin Pugh) and a key piece of unreleased history preserved…
Shutdown is a game which has recently come to light thanks to the guys over at the World of Spectrum and a entry on their website. Taken directly from the World of Spectrum entry, Dean Hickingbottom recalls…
“This game was created at Video Images, a co-operative company formed in 1987 in Scunthorpe by David Bradley, David Colley and Dean Hickingbottom. The original CPC version was coded by David B. and Dean H. at Video Images.
When the company split, Dave B and Dean took the game with them to Clockwize in 1989 and it was sold along with a ZX and CBM64 conversion (by Craig Wight), to another company. As far as I know it never saw the light of day. The company was Palmer Acoustics Ltd of Sheffield (possibly PAL Developments Ltd??) “
The good news for Spectrum owners was that the game was recovered and released on the World of Spectrum, though sadly the C64 version was still at large and was at large for some years. The game looks very promising and something complete which will be very enjoyable.
Craig Wight sadly didn’t have anything of the game any longer, and David Palmer did not recall anything about the conversion. Maybe it was purchased but not deemed as a title that might sell well? We’re not sure.
Luckily in 2015, Dean Hickingbottom found a C64 disk with the entire source code to the game – which was actually converted completely over in only 9 days in total, with the following listed in the source:
;SHUTDOWN V1 – CONVERTED TO THE 64 BY CRAIGUS BAGUS WIGHTUS ; ; STARTED CONVERTING ON SATURDAY, 4TH OF MARCH 1989, ; ; FINISHED CONVERTING ON MONDAY, 13TH OF MARCH 1989.
As we were in touch with Craig, we put him in touch with Dean once more – but Craig couldn’t recall how to get things running again. So Dean took it on himself to pick up an old 2500AD assembler/linker that he used at work years ago, diced up the binary with Hexplorer and using 64copy to create virtual files to run virtual disks in WinVice. After a lot of hard work, Dean managed to get the game fully compiled!
And here it is! After 26 years of being lost on an old disk, the game that PAL developments should have released is finally here! Check out the full game for yourself!
It’s another game saved – and another PAL developments related game in the space of about a week! We hope to hear Dean’s full story on Creator Speaks very soon about the work involved in piecing it all together.
Another obscure one, this time by a company called SSoft (Never heard of them!). This one was reviewed in Home Computer Weekly, and was an adventure put on sale to raise money for cat leukemia.
We originally thought that the reason it might be very hard to find (if released at all) was because it was only advertised in cat enthusiasts’ magazines according to the HCW review, though contributor Gareth Pitchford has found an advert from Popular Computing Weekly (vol. 3 n 49, pg 24).
It’s revealed that the game was also available for the ZX Spectrum and also reviewed – though this version is sadly at large too. We think both versions were released, but just had a very limited distribution due to being mail-order only.
For the game itself – the idea of the adventure is that it is the day of the Cat Show and your beloved animal, called Pest, is missing. You basically have to find him, catch him and get him safely to the show. Everything was built in The Quill.
It got a good score overall and was on sale for around £2.95. Did you buy it for either format, and therefore can you help us preserve it?
Information on Shove Off was a bit scarce, as all we knew was that this game was to be a 100 level puzzle game starring Biff, who was a character in an adventure game of the same name.
But step forward Jonathan Cauldwell who tells more….
Shove Off is was a simple Soko-ban type of game with one or two additions and 100 levels. It got released in various forms on the ZX Spectrum, but there are roots to a C64 release…
Actually, Shove Off isn’t the original title of this game – but it was initially going to be called ‘Pushover’ The game was first written on the ZX Spectrum in 1990 by Jonathan Cauldwell, shortly after his Egghead 2 game and was sent to GTi software, a small budget software house based in Newton Abbot, who Jonathan had met at a computer show in London. Approximate date from a GTi letter which Jonathan still had was 30th October 1990.
Jonathan demoed the game, he was paid an advance and he was shown the cover artwork commissioned (Which Jonathan still has a colour photocopy of somewhere). Unfortunately GTi ran into a few problems and declining sales meant that a Spectrum-only version might not make any money. GTI’s Amstrad programmer mostly programmed in BASIC (As GTi published a lot of football management and strategy games), so a CPC conversion looked unlikely. Then also Ocean Software decided to release a game called Pushover at precisely the wrong time. Despite the game being renamed, GTi decided not to publish it.
It was then the rights reverted back to Jonathan, and the game was sent off to Beyond Belief instead. It was either Jim Smith from Beyond or Tony Lock of GTi who requested a C64 conversion from Jonathan, and Jonathan put an advert in Micro Mart looking for C64 programmers to convert a Spectrum game. Jonathan had a couple of replies, and Jonathan chose a guy called “Eric” (Whom sadly Jonathan cannot recall their surname) who sounded the best candidate. Eric was sent the game, and with each conversation over the phone – it seemed like he was going fine. Exactly how far Eric got or what was eventually done with the game is anybody’s guess, but with the collapse of GTi and Beyond Belief (We are not sure with which company Eric was developing the conversion for at present), the code was wasted.
According to Jonathan, Eric was from somewhere up north, Yorkshire or possibly Lancashire… but its a very long time ago now. Could be an up hill struggle to determine the full name and get a lead.
With the Spectrum version, Jonathan gave up and sent it to Your Sinclair in 1993, but then they closed down and it still never got published. Eventually the game was put on a compilation pack via mail order, and the game’s rights were picked up by Retro-Soft (So distribution is currently denied).
Well, this is it for now… but Jonathan hopes to dig out the GTi contract for us to get a date and also see if the original Pushover artwork has survived.
Shove involves the player guiding a ball through various levels of mazes to the exit, while avoiding other enemies and obstacles.
Quite a simple concept which works well, and offers a few hours of fun. Not the best game around, but does its job of entertaining.
Graphics are quite simplistic, though the title screen is nicely done. Sonically the game is well catered for too.
A little bit more variety in the graphics wouldn’t go amiss, but then a finished version may have had more levels with a different character set. But what with the game’s levels seeming mostly complete already, it’s unlikely that a finished game would differ too much from this preview.
Why wasn’t it complete or released?.. We don’t know, but certainly it’s a waste of another fun game. Luckily it seems the game was actually fully completed, just never released. Why?
“Shoot” is best described as a neat Uridium/Sanxion clone, with some fast action blasting over blue bas-relief graphics (Very 80’s style, and unlike a 1994 game).
Most of the titles and game seems to be present in this preview, and only seems to be lacking some level designs and attack waves.
Case can be closed on this game as Jason Kelk confirms that the game was actually completed and released by Loadstar in 1995. The entry will remain here for the time being, but will eventually be removed from the archives..
Shogoth was to be the first big title from a garage studio in Milano, Italy operated by soon-to-be game journalists Fabio Rossi (editor of the Italian editions of Zzap!, The Games Machine and CVG, among others) and Stefano Giorgi (reviewer in the same magazines and last seen working for Compaq in Italy). They had published a few small text adventure games for tape-based magazines, but this was a monster job taking them around two years to complete.
The concept was to produce an Infocom-style text adventure with the capability of correctly parsing complex commands typed in natural Italian, which as a language is structurally much more complex than English to analyze and interpretate. Also, the double-sided disk game had a complex map of several hundreds locations, making it larger than the three canonical "Zork" games put together. The final, major characteristic was the amount of text involved, filling one whole side of the game disk – a huge quantity at a time when most games actually kept all the text in the RAM along with the game code.
Storywise, Shogoth was about a young man thrown unexpectedly in a weird parallel-dimension world which purposefully negated all the cliches of the sword and sorcery genre, giving it a novel approach somewhat reminding of the style of Douglas Adams’ and Terry Pratchett’s books. In fact, one of the major sources of inspiration were Warner Bros.’ Looney Tunes cartoons, with Wile E. Coyote-style traps and oddball characters to meet during the quest. Another source of inspiration was the "Mickey and Goofy in the Ice Sword Trilogy" series of comic books published by the Italian arm of Disney.
The game was completed and previewed to the staff of the Italian edition of Zzap! magazine, which enthusiastically reviewed it and awarded Shogoth the Gold Medal – the highest possible honour for a game.
Soon after this the game was picked up for publishing by Systems Editoriale, probably the only Italian game publisher actually caring about quality in those days. Then tragedy hit.
The offices of Systems Editoriale where the source code and master copy of Shogoth was kept were destroyed in a fire, and the existing backup copies given to the publisher were never found again. The authors of course had their own copies, but another problem arose. One of them had in fact not the actual game, but a self-playing version created to show the publisher a complete demo and walkthrough – this was obtained substituting a huge part of the practical game code, so backtracking to a complete version was deemed impossible.
The other author had an actual correct copy which was kept safe for some time until the now-redefined Systems Editoriale decided to rethink its publishing schedules in orded to contain the financial damages incurred during the fire – and then sparsely distributed to trusted friends for their personal enjoyment "until a new publisher was found".
Unfortunately the text-only era was coming to a close and the lack of source code didn’t help either. The only printout from which the game could have theoretically be fully retyped didn’t contain the long texts for game locations, descriptions and interactions, and the authors gave up on the whole project.
In the early Nineties, the author’s huge collection of C64 disks among which the only "original" copy of Shogoth lied was stolen along with much more important stuff from his house, so he tried to casually recover at least one of the copies given to friends many years before… with no success.
Given the situation of the Italian game piracy environment, there is a strong possibility that somewhere a lone copy of Shogoth still lies awaiting – and the "antipiracy gimmick" imposed by Systems Editoriale, involving an abstruse key sequence to get the game running (something along the lines of "CTRL + *, followed by SHIFT + &") sure won’t help the one who might find it.
DISCLAIMER: We are a non-profit digitisation project, aiming to digitally preserve software and history which would otherwise be lost for good. If for any reason there is anything that you do not wish to be on the website, please contact us for removal.
Games That Weren't® is the registered trademark of Frank Gasking.
