Preserving Cancelled & Unreleased Video Game History Since 1999
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.
GTW Highlight No.4: In January, we took a look at a complex 3D space simulator called Tantalus for the Amiga, Atari ST and PC from 1991. Due for release in 1992 by Electronic Arts, it disappeared without a trace:
https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2024/01/tantalus/
GTW Highlight No.3: Our annual #Commodore64 Christmas update saw various International Karate and IK+ prototypes recovered, with other Archer Maclean materials and many other games preserved for the first time. What will we have this year I wonder?
https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2023/12/gtw64-christmas-update-2023/
GTW Highlight No.2: Also in December, we made a hugely important discovery from the disks of the late Archer Maclean. The origins of Dropzone were recovered in the form of Defender and Stargate conversions on the Atari 800:
https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2023/12/defender-and-stargate-discoveries/
In addition, we also do a video talking through the discoveries, including very early test concepts being discussed and shown:
A tough year for many reasons – so winding down slightly whilst preparing our special GTW Christmas posts from the 17th to the 23rd December. Including some big recoveries once more! Until then, we’ll now reflect back daily on our highlights from Dec 2023 – Nov 2024. This is our first post!
GTW Highlight No.1: We had some huge findings last December, one of which was the full version of Codemaster’s Stuntman Seymour on the Amiga. Missing for 30 years and now playable:
https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2023/12/stuntman-seymour/
XLR8 was a futuristic bike racing game, where you race through the likes of volcanic deserts and ancient prehistoric looking rainforests. The game was due to be released by Europress back in 1998 and was featured in a number of magazines at the time. Due for release on PC, PlayStation – but later arcade too!
You could say it was very similar to Wipeout, but according to the press, it had much more to it than that. One claim to fame mentioned about the title at the time, was that it had no pre-rendered images, and everything was generated in real-time throughout the game. Speedworks/Simtex had spent a lot of time working on a special engine for the game, where players were not restricted, and had complete freedom of movement as you hurtled around at breakneck speeds. Continue reading
A quick unused materials post today, where The Sarge recently released an unused Rubicon loading screen for the Commodore 64 via their Fairlight Demo called The Demo Coder.
With thanks to Jazzcat for flagging up!
A smaller update this month, but our next and last update of 2024 should hopefully be a lot bigger. See you then! ;-)
Roadwars V2, The Scarlet Pimpernel
Allaxmax, Around the World in 80 Days, Charlie Chaplin, Cityfighter, Crossfire Canyon, Cybowormz, Genesis, Ivanhoe, Sagan Om Ringen, Stargate, Unicorn Software titles
A short entry for a Java Platform mobile conversion of a classic real-time strategy game that many of us have lost hours to over the years – including myself on PC over multiplayer. It seems that even mobile gamers were going to experience something of the game – albeit in a vastly cut down form.
Being developed in J2ME, unfortunately the conversion would disappear quickly without a trace and never surfaced for reasons currently unknown. Fast forward to 2024, and ex-Ocean Software artist Bill Harbison would provide Games That Weren’t with a series of mock-up screens that were produced to show how the game could look on the platform. Continue reading
Our next entry into the archives is one which has tormented Amstrad CPC users for many many years. But were they then perhaps saved from the lack of a Street Fighter 2 conversion?
Back in early 1993, U.S. Gold finally got 8-bit editions of Street Fighter 2 out for the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum. The C64 edition was pretty terrible, due to how it was rushed out. The ZX version looked very impressive with its large sprites, but was far too slow. However, the CPC version was nowhere to be seen.
During early 1993, places like Software City and MJC Computer Supplies were listing the game as being available to purchase on the CPC, when it clearly wasn’t available. There seemed to be all the right signals that the game was coming soon, and adverts for the home computer versions made that clear with it listed as coming soon on tape and disk. Continue reading
Our next entry into the archives is a collective one for a number of currently missing Spectrum Games titles that were advertised around 1983 time for the likes of the ZX Spectrum, ZX81 and Commodore VIC-20.
After the recovery of Monster Muncher for the VIC-20, I noticed that there were a number of other Spectrum Games titles that had yet to be fully preserved. Were they unreleased, or had they suffered a similar fate to Monster Muncher, and were just sold in very small numbers? Continue reading
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.
