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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Lupin 3

(GTW64 entry)
Posted: by Frank Gasking

Lupin III was to be a licenced game based on the Japanese Manga series (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lupin_III) and written by the Magnetica Team which consisted of:

Giuseppe Tresoldi – graphics and game designer
Omid Ehsani – C64 developer
Gerardo Iula – Amiga developer and graphic artist
Emiliano Gusmini – ST developer, graphic artist and musician

The following was mentioned in an interview with the developers about the projected licence (Italian edition of C+VG,
issue 6, June 1991
):

[INTERVIEWER] OK. What kind of projects do you have for the future?

[DEVS] F1 GP was originally meant to be titled ‘Fastest Engine’: we would happy to make a comical edition titled ‘Farmer’s Engine’, with and cows instead of cars. Then we want to gather enough many routines to create a powerful and reliable development system. We even got in touch with some English [software] houses and there is risk that we could finally make real an old project of ours: the game of Lupin III!

[INTERVIEWER] I want it!

[DEVS] Well, planning is at a good stage, it’s all about whether somebody will buy the rights to the character.

Unfortunately it seems that the licence didn’t quite happen – but did anything of the game get started?

More information needed!

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Lunar Rescue

(GTW64 entry)
Posted: by Frank Gasking

A quick one again we’re afraid!…. very limited knowledge on this one, but mentioned in an interview with Antony Crowther, who mentioned that one of his first dips into commercial game programming was for a company called Superior Systems and programming a C64 title called "Lunar Rescue".

We don’t think that this was the same game as released by Mr Chip which is also missing, or the other one which is sitting in Gamebase. But we could be wrong!… Only Tony Crowther I guess could confirm!

It sounds from things that the game was actually completed… but just why it never got released we don’t know. But this could be a great finding if we can locate it!

More soon we hope!

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Lunar Rescue

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

Lunar Rescue has been missing for some time and has been missing from Gamebase 64 for some time. It was advertised by Mr Chip in around 1983/84 time and featured in an advert in Home Computing Weekly.

A game of the same name was released for the Vic 20 by Rabbit Software, and Mr Chip did offer Rabbit Software based games at the time for sale. Was it a conversion of the Vic 20 game? If so, we are looking at a simple title which has your ship falling to a planet surface, where you can land on a number of pads with X2, X3 etc for points. Very similar to Jupiter Lander, but with an asteroid belt you must fall through.

Information was very sparse, but in July 2019, contributor Marco Das located a copy of the game which was released by Aacksoft in the Netherlands. The company had released all of the Mr Chip games back in the day according to Marco.

So here is a copy of the game for you to check out, which is a simple Lunar Lander clone. The game was indeed released, but just seems to have snuck out in very small numbers. Therefore it isn’t really a GTW at all, but one that is now finally preserved and can be crossed off the list.

Case closed!

Posted in: GTW64 archive | Tagged: | 4 Comments

Lotya

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

Yet another Donkey Kong clone was planned for the C64, but this time an attempt to update the classic theme. The idea of the game was to have the first 4 levels based around the original Kong game, with the 2nd bunch of 4 levels created by coder himself.

The new levels were to be based as an underground, where Kong lives at night-time. Each level was going to be 2 screens wide, and scroll left and right. The idea for the finished game was that you had to collect keys in order to rescue the princess.

A series of keys would have been needed to be collected. Once the final key is collected, the player would have had to make their way to the dungeon..

Once at the dungeon, the computer would have taken over and shown the following sequence, as described by the programmer:

“The door opens and you walk into the dungeon. A heart appears between you and the princess. Both you and the princess, stand facing the screen whilst the remaining time adds to your score.”

The game was to consist of many new animated features such as water, bridges, spikes, conveyor belts, and also the dungeon door.

Shaun Pearson created all the graphics, and contacted GTW about the game. He told GTW that the game was not called ‘Barrel Bunger’ as first thought, but ‘LOTYA’ (Barrel Bunger was the game’s bonus level). The game featured yellow apes to meet with the namesake.

The game was never completed, as the coder was a accountant who just liked to dabble with code in his spare time… He lost interest and so the game was lost.

Shaun kindly pointed us in the direction of his unused game logo, which is now in the shots pages, and also of the scans he has recently uploaded to his own webpage. These feature designs which were intended for the game, and explain some of the gameplay in more detail.

Sonically, there was nothing done, but it was planned for JVD/Focus to do all the music and probably SFX. All that currently consists is a series of screens, a sprite demo and a slightly playable preview of level 1.

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Lotus Turbo Challenge 2

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

Lotus Turbo Challenge 2 is a great 2 player split screen driving game, and seeing the sequel is enough to make any user excited. The other versions were breathtaking, and the C64 version was apparently shaping well according to rumours.

Featuring levels with fog, snow, rain and in the night etc.. it was going to be big on the 64 too, or we hoped it would be.

The game took so long to code on the 64, that it didn’t make it. Gremlin pulled out of the 64 scene soon after Space Crusade was released, and sadly got caught up with their other game ‘Nigel Mansel’.

An interview from the old magazine ‘Games X’ had an interview with the guys behind the Amiga version and the following was asked and answered:

Question: WILL THERE BE ANY 8-BIT VERSIONS OF LOTUS TURBO CHALLENGE 2?

Answer: “No. The reason why is that we don’t believe we can make Lotus Turbo Challenge 2 sufficiently different to the original game – we’re not going to rip people off. If we were going to produce one, it’d have to be in line with the 16-bit version. However, it was hard converting Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge for the 8-bit machine and in our opinion we created the best racing game ever.”

So did Gremlin change their mind?… did they ever start it?…. what happened?

Confirmation needed on this game, can you help?…

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Lost Robot 2

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

An awesome little sequel to Lost Robot, which was released on a German disk magazine back in the early 90’s. Lost Robot 2 aimed to push things much further with a rather nifty little game. The game is a sideways scrolling shooter with some truly awesome hi-res graphics throughout. This is a real colour explosion of a game.

Unfortunately it is just a preview, as the game was never completed. The game was coded in assembler using just an Action Replay machine code monitor. Just the one level is playable, though graphics for the second level is also included with the download.

It is a huge shame that this game never quite made it – it is one of the rare previews which has huge promise and one that will be sorely missed. At the very least, Sven has been very kind enough to put up all of his work out.

Sven also confirmed to GTW64 in 2013 that the game only got this far and was abandoned as he decided to move onto other platforms.

We can enjoy what little work has been done and think about what might have been… Case closed!

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Lost Maze

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

A classic 3D maze game, cloned again on the C64.

Sadly, apart from a modern looking font, the actual game is not progressing any further than its 80’s counterparts.

Graphically its very simplistic, and overall the gameplay is very simplistic, and slightly boring.

This was probably only intended as a small game for a magazine cover or something, but not much else is known about this strange little game.

Again, no solid credits to follow up at the moment, so time will tell if any more information turns up on this game.

I’m lost…

Posted in: GTW64 archive | Tagged: | 2 Comments

Lost Caves

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

“Pursued by a band of cut-throat nomads, you stumble across an ancient map, showing the position of the mythical diamond mines, the lost caves. For almost a thousand years explorers and archaeologists alike have dreamed of the legendary lost caves and gained the riches they are said to hold. Dare you enter this subterranean nightmare?”

This is what describes the story to Lost Caves, a boulderdash/repton clone with a hint of Indiana Jones thrown into the theme. The game got a release on both the Spectrum and Amstrad (http://www.worldofspectrum. org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0002936) but sadly the C64 version seems to have slipped away somewhere.

The Amstrad version was programmed by Adam Waring, who would later become Technical Editor of Amstrad Action. It was later bundled on a AA covertape with level select option.

The game got mixed reviews, but still it would be nice to find something of the game. Did it get completed?… was it even started?… We need to find develops to find out more, but maybe you can help us?

It was wondered if an actual C64 version ever existed, but Robin Gravel confirmed that a C64 version was planned – as the actual game inlay contains loading instructions and also C64 credits. So now we have credits, we hope to find out a little more about what happened and if anything has survived- though who exactly are B.C.P?? Does it stand for “Bizzare Computer Productions”, who did these games? So far, HVSC has no music for the game – unless it is one of the unlabelled tunes under Sonic Graffiti.

Do you know any more?…

Posted in: GTW64 archive | Tagged: | 10 Comments

Lords Of The Rising Sun

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

Yet another C64 conversion of a Cinemaware game hits the GTW archives, and this time another classic in the form of “Lords of the Rising Sun”.

Very similiar in style to Defender of the Crown, Lords of the Rising Sun this time set you in 12th century Japan, doing various battles and interactive sequences.

The C64 conversion was not overly official, though an Amiga review of the game stated that a C64 conversion was coming soon. Zzap also confirmed that a C64 version was coming soon in a preview page in issue 49 on page 89. The C64 was also listed in the ACE magazine review as “Under development”. Sadly nothing more was ever heard – the usual story!

With a large list now of C64 titles which never saw the light of day, we now need to start tracking down some developers from Cinemaware to find out more about these lost conversions.

This is all we currently know at the moment. There seems to be no screenshots or anything else released in any of the press. It’s down to research and the hope that someone will someday get in touch.

Do you know anything about this GTW?…

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Lords Of Chaos Expansion Pack

(GTW64 entry)
Posted: by Frank Gasking

Not really a sequel, but an extra upgrade pack was planned for this popular title by Julian Gollop, and mentioned in the original game’s review.

The expansion pack was to include extra scenarios to be integrated with the original game. However, nothing ever seemed to had surfaced of this pack, and it had since been forgotten.

Although not a full game in itself, it would be nice to find any new scenarios by Julian if there had been some created but never released. Could they be saved?

Well, yes… thanks to Mat Allen, we discover that the game was released and possibily in limited numbers too. He has kindly provided TAP images and scans which we can present to you here! As you can see, the game comes with no packaging… this is because people had to send a cupon to get the expansion pack, which maybe not many people did.

Did this get a full release, or is this a very small leak of the expansion pack? This could well be case closed already, and not technically a GTW, but this entry will remain for archivial purposes.

Another note, thanks to research by GTW regular, Peter Weighill, we discover that the C64 coder was infact Nick Gollop, and not Julian (He only did Spectrum and Amstrad versions).

Also… this expansion pack is also in Gamebase, listed as Lords of Chaos 2. This is a disk version, whereas Mat has submitted a rather rare Tape version which is very obscure. Case closed then! :-)

Case closed!

Posted in: GTW64 archive | Tagged: | 1 Comment