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.

Latest News and Posts

Lazytech

Thanks to Jakob Voos, we are presented with a game which had never been seen before and was exclusive to GTW back in early 2000 time.

Unfinished and previously unreleased until now. Jakob sent GTW a game called Lazytech. A 1/2 player game in the mould of Enforcer, Katakis and Blood Money, and it is a great little game – though very very tough! The two player mode works great as well.

LazyTech was being coded by the extremely talented Chester Kollschen, before even Manfred`s Enforcer was released. Chester, as many of you know, was the developer of the immensely impressive Sam’s Journey that was released a few years ago.

This project was scrapped for reasons unknown at the moment, and now all that is left of the game are 2 nice big levels, which will hopefully provide some nice gameplay for you C64 users out there to check out.

Hopefully we will get to learn more about the game from Chester in the future.

Posted in: GTW64 archive | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Lawnmower Man

Based on the film. Pretty poor on other platforms, and the C64 may well have followed their downfalls.

Some scenes had you controlling yourself in cyberspace flying past obstacles etc. The rest of the game was a sub-standard platform game where you have to stop Jobe from doing his stuff to take over the world.

Yet another Storm release binned and shunned away from the world. No screenshots or previews were ever seen, so its not known how far the game ever made it, or how good it would have been.

A lot more information needed on this one…

Posted in: GTW64 archive | Tagged: | Leave a comment

L.A. Sunset

Advertised in many magazines, this was a title being sold by Anik Microsystems… however only two Anik games exist and seem to have been released on the C64.

The advert describes the game as follows:

“Could it be the final sunset for L.A as the returning Space Shuttle goes out of control?”

The game itself could be really anything, but maybe its a Lunar Landa style game or something? The game was being sold very cheaply at around £4, compared to the higher price of their titles in Gamebase. Maybe this was a simple BASIC game that was being sold for quick profit?

We know very little more about this than the above, a lot more research needed and hopefully we will find some of the people who used to work for Anik.

More soon we hope…

Posted in: GTW64 archive | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Lasertrain

We don’t know much about this game, but apparently a C64 version was being done anyway. The Amiga version is in fact missing also, so was it a case of the company going bust?

A little more is learnt about the title thanks to Fabrizio, but not much at this stage:

From C+VG issue 85 page 11, November 1988:

“You could have been forgiven for ignoring The Big Apple, a new software label that first surfaced months ago promising big things, but released only one game. They’re hitting their stride now, though, with Lasertrain (the tale of an alien attack on an Intercity!), Harrier Strike Mission 2and adventure game The Fool’s Errand all due for immediate release, and Thud Ridge (a Vietnam flight sim) with Creased Lightning, ’60s hot rod street racing, waiting in the wings. We haven’t played any of them properly yet, but it will be interesting to see what develops.”

Thanks to Anonymous Contributor, there was a bit more on this game in Swedish magazine Datormagazin, issue 13 1988, page 6, top of 4th column that revealed a bit more about the game itself:

“Lasertrain: You are the pilot of a future space train and must bring your passengers safely from planet to planet without the space pirates injuring them or taking your cargo.”

Then ST Action mentioned more in November 1988 on page 6:

“Big Apple are releasing quite a few games onto the ST market between now and Spring 1989. Lasertrain (release date early ’89) sets you in command of a train of the future, navigating your way through eight space stations in the outer stratosphere.”

Finally, Danish magazine Games Preview, issue 1 1989 page 6, has this to say:

“Lasertrain: a fast-moving action game with lots of 3D action. In the game you are the locomotive driver of a futuristic high-speed train, which thunders through tunnel complexes on its journey between 8 space stations.”

Not much on this we know, but hopefully we will find out more soon!

Posted in: GTW64 archive | Tagged: | 2 Comments

Laser Cycle

Lazer Cycle was a tron clone that was written for the BBC Micro by System 3. For years it has been suggested that C64 version was in production.

 

It was confirmed however in 2015 by Jazzcat and Mark Cale that the game was never considered for the C64 at all. Therefore we can close the case on this one!

Posted in: GTW64 archive | Tagged: | 1 Comment

Lakers Vs Celtics

Could this have been Rob Hubbard’s final C64 swansong?… or is this just vapourware?… A few questions for our next entry, which is based on a popular basketball rivalry. This game was first released on the PC, and then later on the Megadrive platform.

We have had a lead which suggests that a C64 version was being developed, but have no clear evidence that this was the case just yet. It could be that it was planned, but then EA decided to abandon the C64 in favour of the later 16-bits.

A lot more research needed, but it might be an open and shut case very soon. Or will it help unearth a long lost Hubbard tune?…

We can dream maybe?…

Posted in: GTW64 archive | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Ladders To Learning

This is a series of games which were being released by McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd back in 1984 time. Occasionally the games surface on Ebay, and a selection of the games can be found on Gamebase. But sadly these are still missing:

  • Ladders to Learning – Correct Spelling II
  • Ladders to Learning – Explorers I (Subsections are missing due to data corruption)
  • Ladders to Learning – Explorers II
  • Ladders to Learning – Explorers III (Subsections are missing due to data corruption)
  • Ladders to Learning – Geography USA
  • Ladders to Learning – Grids Galore
  • Ladders to Learning – Probability
  • Ladders to Learning – The Long Drive

Many have since been found and are now in Gamebase – the above are what are considered to be left to find and preserve. Can you help us?

Division 1 and 2, The Water Cycle and also Graphs 2 were found and backed up thanks to Kevin Steele. These have been submitted to Gamebase, but can also be downloaded here if you wish to see the files. We’ve crossed them off the above list, as they are no longer GTW’s, but confirmed as official releases. Hangman IV and Dictionary Use were recently found in June 2011 by Peter Weighill and are being preserved right now.

Can you help at all and help us preserve these remaining titles?

Posted in: GTW64 archive | Tagged: | 8 Comments

Lunar Jetman

Lunar Jetman was part of a huge classic genre on the Spectrum which spawned a few games by Ultimate featuring the Jetman character. The range of games however never quite made their way onto the C64. Spectrum users had Jetman, whereas C64 users had to make do with Sir Arthur Pendragon in a series of games.

However, little do many C64 users know, but Lunar Jetman was actually in development on the C64 (albeit for a short period) back in 1985. What might be more surprising is the fact that the conversion was being carried out by SID’s own maestro, Martin Galway. As well as being a superb musician, he could code a bit too you know!

During some quiet times for Martin back in 1985, attempts were made to convert the classic to give himself something to do. With the conversion and Martin’s perseverance, nothing was sacrificed from the spectrum game. This was not a pure spectrum port, but coded from scratch with all original screen dimensions kept. A very faithful conversion was what Martin wanted with nothing spared, and that was what was exactly emerging.

After less than a months work, Martin’s career took off as a musician at Ocean Software after impressing with his BBC tunes and other freelance tunes. Coding games was put aside as this career blossomed, which meant that the C64’s Lunar Jetman was promptly shelved and long forgotten about.

In later years, Martin passed all his disks to the guys at C64 Audio to fully archive all his tunes in their full glory. The surprise finding was a disk labelled “Lunar Jetman”. Upon examining the disk, a series of sources files were found. After compiling the sources, it was found that all the score panels were working; sprites were animating and the screen scrolled a bit, but sadly nothing was ever near playable. But it was Lunar Jetman on a C64.

Chris Abbott paid for all the disks and C128D to be shipped from Texas especially, so thanks to Chris the game was uncovered along with Jason (Kenz) Mackenzie.

The game is a mere glimpse that a translation of the game would have boded well on the C64, and that there was more of Jetman on C64 screens than once thought. Check out what it looks like, its source code and also a scan of the original work disk label. A tragic shame it never quite made it, but its one to maybe think “What if..”

You can check out what was created for yourself, where included is all the source code used to build it all. The late Jason Kelk very kindly compiled everything up, and Jason’s detail of the disk content can be found in the zip archive with the sources to explain what was on the disk (Its been ported exactly how it was on Martin’s disk).

Martin himself got in touch via the comments in August 2022, and confirmed that this was not a serious conversion job and was just him “screwing around”. Ultimate never knew about it. It found it neat to have the original graphics, so gave it a try and doesn’t think it would have ever got much further. He lost interest just a few months later in January 1986 when the Amiga came out.

So this is all that ever was and is very much a case closed!

Posted in: GTW64 archive | Tagged: | 4 Comments

Liberator

A nice little single screen western OP Wolf style shooter, with the added ability to choose your route of travel. This game was also slightly similiar in some aspects to Tusker. There was to be some puzzle solving elements in the game.

The graphics are great, and so is the animation and music throughout.

The plot is unknown, but the game plays quite well and feels like something commercial.

The game was never completed as the programmer had to go into an Acadamy, and so the project was sadly shelved. It seems that according to Zsolt, the game actually got a bit further than what is currently released and the sources may still exist with some extra features currently not seen.

The mystery has been a bit of a jigsaw, with bits and pieces of Liberator getting released everywhere separately. One of the game’s intro pictures was released into a graphics compo, and two tunes are currently in the HVSC which are linked with the game (This includes the tune in the preview, and an additional tune which was intended for the game’s title screen). Check out the MUSIC DOWNLOAD above to hear the tunes.

The preview seems quite big, and there are plenty of screens of action to play around with. A small indication of just how close this game was to being completed.

Hopefully in the future we will hear more from Zsolt, and maybe other developers from the game to find out more about this mysterious title… maybe even find more parts which are missing.

A fun little western game…

Posted in: GTW64 archive | Tagged: | Leave a comment