Welcome to Games That Weren't (Also known as GTW), a site dedicated to unreleased/incomplete/cancelled games and prototypes on both consoles and computers. As well as news, reviews and features, we have platform specific projects with downloads, photos, scans, screenshots, videos, reviews and interviews. Our main platforms consist of the C64 and Amiga, where there is a full digital archive of games being preserved for both machines.
Please note - we are a non-profit digitization project, aiming to digitally preserve history of unreleased/incomplete/cancelled software 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.
After 5 years of work (give or take), we’re pleased to announce The Games That Weren’t book coming soon in May 2020 from Bitmap Books, covering unreleased games since the dawn of the industry.
More details coming soon, but very excited to finally share the news after keeping quiet for so long.
Official details from Bitmap Books: https://mailchi.mp/6f0f8bd57e2e/bitmap-books-crpg-1703525?fbclid=IwAR2MjfMZqmIE0GP1Ea6nygOryTX3fDT0UawaoK2VLqF5No9xM_kxeLDWEmU
A short entry for what was to be an educational based title created for the Sony PlayStation by Runecraft around 1999 time, based on the famous childrens series.
Thanks to lead artist David Tolley, we are able to show you a brief glimpse of some of the game assets (and quick photos of the design document) that David recovered recently from an old hard-drive.
The characters and backgrounds were modelled from the children’s books, but according to David, the game never got very far at all. Just a few test demos were made showing the graphics moving about – one of the screens we’re about to show is of the test engine.
Thanks to David Tolley and Ross Sillifant, here are some assets which were intended for use in the unreleased and incomplete Power Crystal for the 3DO M2 platform.
Within the gallery below are a number of assets showing game option screens, game icons, map tiles and sprite billboards. File: 4_ICONS1 in particular show trade items, with the rest being various different weapons,armour and power ups that may or may not have been implemented in the game.
Over time it is hoped that more will be uncovered and added to the archive.
Dave Moore (Aka Arcadian) has informed Games That Weren’t that the long lost BBC Micro version of Knight Orc has been found. In almost a one in a million discovery, the game was located at the Centre of Computer History within their archives – stuffed within an 8-bit Atari copy of the game.
Members of stardot.org.uk successfully archived and preserved the game at a weekend ABug meetup in Cambridge and have now made the game available for all to check out for the first time in over 30 years.
For more details about how it was recovered and to download the game, please go to: https://stardot.org.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=17952
A short post thanks to contributor Daniel Meléndez, who spotted Daley Thompson playing a slightly different looking Daley Thompson’s Decathlon game on the Commodore 64:
Not massive differences it has to be said, apart from the panel boards and the score display section. Here is the released version as a comparison (Screenshot taken from Lemon64)
Often early builds would change their panels/layouts slightly over time. Would be interesting to know if there were any other major differences between what Daley was playing above and what we got to see in the end.
Thanks to Allan Pinkerton, who has very kindly preserved missing copies of Basic Tools, Creators Revenge (Already out there as Metamorphosis III – The Creators Revenge), Math Pack and Math Flash.
They are not strictly ‘Games That Weren’t’, but we want to try and share any preservation work where possible for titles that had been missing – so here we go:
Although not an unreleased game as such, this is an obscure C64 based compilation that was released late in the C64’s life, which featured commercial games as PD games. It’s likely not many sold, and as a result hasn’t really been seen in the wild that often.
Thanks to the kind loan from Steve Green, here it is fully preserved with scans of the inlays + tapes:
https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/wp-content/ODUS.zip
Everything is already in the wild already, but its an interesting curiosity preserved.
Well, 2018 went far too quick! It’s been almost a year since our last update, which wasn’t really the intention and isn’t the norm. I had planned to take a few months break and then continue as usual, but unfortunately various personal challenges got in the way and also there has been the completion/continuation of a project I have been working on for almost 5 years. All will hopefully be revealed on that soon in 2019!
As a result, I have not taken in any donations for hosting costs this year, as I haven’t really offered you anything in return this year.
Overall, our yearly Christmas update this year is not quite the same as previous years. For a start, I have no new findings to offer for the first time in a long time because i’ve not been working on the project. I have been determined to do *something* though, so I have created a number of new entries and made some updates for you. I hope the wonderful influx of new C64 releases this year will have counteracted the lack of input from my side, and I hope to be fully functioning again next year. There is still plenty of work to be done!
Merry Christmas to all and all the best for 2019, as we kick off our update:
4 Games, Abandon Ship S.O.S., Angry Birds Style, Any Craps 64, Babies of the Dirt, Bimz, Cybex Escape, Dynaboys, Flyboy, Galaxy Patrol, Heartlight64, Le Fantome Vert, Lumberjack Deluxe, Magic, Mekka and Symposium 2000 missing 32k games, Murdlok, Pinball Dreams, Push It, R.I.O.T, Roll-Out, Scramble 2010, The Official Everton F.C. Intelligensia, Top 20, Transforming Overland Robot, Zulp, triFACTa
Academy, Am-Cup, American GI, Breaker, Buggy Ranger, Cave Wizard, Champions, Crossfire Canyon, Dark Sceptre, Dominator V1, European SuperLeague, Eye Of The Moon, International Soccer Challenge, Italian pirated games, Katia, Last Ninja V1, Megatanio, Meurtre À Grande Vitesse, Murder!, Opera House and The Pay Off, Outpost, PT-109, Pet Person, Prometheous, Proteus, Rex Hard, Rhyme Land, Sigue Sigue Sputnik, Test Drive 3, Tour De Force, Toyota Rally, Traffico, Turbo Cup Challenge, Unknown shooter by Kernal, Victory Road (UK version)
We have one last surprise update for 2017, including a preview of an extremely promising game which could still hopefully be finished and taken out of GTW64.  The coder still open to help and suggestions for continuing – can you help?  Also, an unknown and very early shooter preview by Roy Fielding has been added and some quick updates.
All the best for 2018 everyone!
Italian pirated games, Monster Maths, Quark, Quark IX, Traffico
It’s that time of the year again, when we dig out some more findings to present for a large Christmas update. Apologies for the slowness of updates this year, but another project has taken priority of late. I hope this makes up for things. Merry Christmas everyone and all the best for 2018!
A shock recovery, thanks to Scott Stilphen, who obtained a rare late preview of the long lost C64 conversion of Q*Bert’s Qubes. It’s here ready for you to check out!
A very early preview of Choice Software’s C64 conversion of New Zealand Story has been recovered and added to the GTW archives.
A great little 1984 educational title has been preserved thanks to Scott Stilphen and Robin Ballweg with some lovely music.
Video images were attempting to pitch for a new Outrun 2 game, before Outrun Turbo or Europe came about. Check out their preview and mockup screens.
Thanks to Francesco Milioni, we have three new unreleased games for you which were meant for release on an Italian compilation tape, but was cancelled due to the dwindling C64 market.
A very early, but neat looking Operation Wolf clone has been recovered thanks to Dean Hickingbottom.
A very early build of Garfield by The Edge has been found on Mat Sneap’s workdisk, as well as the game’s map designer.
Unknown art assets by Mat Sneap for a game called Runner has been recovered. Who was the coder and was it started?
Some additional hi-res mockups have been recovered of this intriguing Video Images game that never was.
Thanks to Csaba Virág, Hungarian text adventure preview Egy kis kiruccanás (A Little Fling) has been recovered and added to the archive.
A preview of Spellcast, used to send round to companies for interest, has been added to the archives. Only very slight differences present.
Thanks to the wonderful preservation efforts of Jerry Kurtz, an additional bonus is the complete preservation of an obscure 1984 karate game called Competition Karate. As it is a released game, we haven’t created a GTW entry for it, so here are both the download and scans. Enjoy!
Whilst sifting through some developer disks of Dean Hickingbottom and Cory Kin, we found a number of demos (a lot of Compunet demos), tunes and cracks which don’t seem to be preserved at present. We may have missed a few, but here is an extra bonus anyway:
Bonus unpreserved demos + cracks
Then finally, a digest of updates and new entries since our last site update:
Alien Garden, Alpha Runner, American Dream, Avant-Garde titles, Commando 88, Drive, Italian pirated games, Kukulcan, Learning and Training Systems software, MicroLeague Sports titles, Monster Maths, Playful Professor – Word Factory, Pontoon, Pop Quiz 85, Secrets of the Magi, Sherwood Forest, Squire, Sword of Sodan, Tangram, The Elysian Fields, Unknown football game
3 2 1 quiz game (confirmation of existence), Ace Attacker (scans added), All Terrain Gardener (added alternative name), Alloyrun (sfx credit), Alvin & The Chipmunks (competition scan added), Arcane Quest (full game preserved), Black Bandit (details from author added), Bubbles (notes added from author), Chelsea of the South Sea (spelling fix), Coven (scan added), Crossfire Canyon (added photos), Delphian (coder confirmation + article link), Edward Randy (scan added), Enterprise (credit + more details added), Escape from London (author resurface news), F-86 Sabre Strike (added notes), Formula 1 Simulator (new scans added), Gi Hero (sfx credit), Hit and Run (game preserved!), Illusions (download added), IndeflataBall (additional builds added), Into The Nature (confirmed released), It came from the desert (scan added), Isolation (confirmed released), Judge Death (more scans added), Karnov V1 (rare screenshots added), Katakis (scans added), Last Ninja 4 (additional development notes), Legend Of Kyril (info added from Joerg Droege), Lock On (scans added), Mega Games (more scans added), Miami Vice (scans added), Milk Tray Game (credits fix), Minder (review + screenshot added), Nighthunter (sfx credit), Obliterator (new screenshots), Orel Hershiser’s Strike Zone (new scans), Play and Learn series (new scans), Savage Platforms (tidied up review), Ski Run (game preserved), Sophisticated games (few titles preserved), Squad One (found and confirmed released), Star Fighter (advert added), Super League Manager (scans added), T-Wrecks (scans added), The Future Zone (scan added), The Micro Zone (scan added), Trojan (reverse engineer details), Twice Shy (screenshots added + scans), Tyger Tyger (details added by Gary Liddon), Warlord (confirmation of existence + credits), Who Dares Wins (update about game release), Zynon (sfx credit)
