Unreleased & Cancelled Video Games across many platforms.
Welcome to Games That Weren't!
We are an Unreleased and Cancelled 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 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 video game history since 1999.
Hi all – just a heads up that I may not get to process any site comments or submissions right away, as a close family member has been admitted to hospital.
I’ll try and respond and update as soon as I can, including adding some more updates to the site over time. Apologies for any delays in getting back to you and wishing you all the best!
An adventure game from Germany that would be inspired by titles such as Myst, Secrets of the Luxor and Monkey Island.
Not much is known apart from some brief text from Polish magazine ACS, which described the plot as being based on a science fiction story. The graphics in the game were to be all rendered with video sequences and ray tracing (at the time they were being hand-drawn) and as a result the game was to be released on CD. Continue reading →
For April 2022 we have the following new additions and updates for the site, including yet another unfinished Tetris game that has been recovered. A large chunk of new entries are for titles which may have been released, but have not yet been digitally preserved and made available in places such as Gamebase64.
Tetrix and TV Foci previews recovered
Yet another Hungarian Tetris clone and a very early pong demo that has been recovered thanks to Csaba Virag.
An ambitious title from Palace Software, which was due for release on the failed CDTV platform. An interactive movie game, where scenes would feature proper actors.
Shortly after completing Demoniak, Palace Software were inspired from that title to go one step further to move away from text based interaction and move to a fully graphical experience.
The idea was to do a game on the famous Jekyll and Hyde, and the team would spend 9 months or so experimenting with digitised live action using a Rombo VIDI-Amiga system. The experiments were successful, leading to continue development and push ahead with the title. Continue reading →
Team 17’s great racing game for amiga was of course finished and released, though there were some early scenes from the game that didn’t quite make it into the final game. The following comes courtesy of GTW’s Grzegorz Antosiewicz.
One picture is from from Rikki magazine 1994 issue 5.
This shows three trucks on the racing track, probably as an additional obstacle to oil on asphalt. In the final game, there is one track with trucks that are close to the road, but on the left side and with a different design. Continue reading →
It hadn’t been long since the release of Speedball 2, when Team 17 decided to get in on the act. Whereas Speedball 2 was inspired by the classic 1975 film, Team 17 may have been about to do something more officially based on the film.
However, Commodore User magazine (who reported about the game in their news section) suggested that the title would be inspired by the C64 IJK game Rocket Ball (not Rollerball as they incorrectly specify). This game itself was also inspired by the Rollerball film. Continue reading →
Following on from January’s contribution from Jürgen Clausen, we have another CD that has been preserved with some 1994 PC demos before it was chucked in the bin.
Jürgen has kindly made backups and scans of a package called Greenwood Game Sampler, which we have uploaded onto archive.org.
How is it March already? Here is yet another GTW64 update for 2022 with a bunch of new entries, including 8 new entries to the archive, and a bunch of updates for 29 titles in all. Enjoy!
A neat sounding RPG that was being produced by Seven Stars for the PC and Commodore Amiga back in 1995. The game was highlighted to us thanks to LiqMatrix.
Seven Stars was based in Poland and had produced a number of games, including Kajko i Kokosz and Desert Wolf which were released the same year. Martwa Strefa (Dead Zone) had the following story within a news snippet in a Polish magazine:
“A prison escapee goes to a deserted bunker base and tries to unravel the mystery of the disappearance of all its staff. The task is so difficult that the base is under surveillance by aggressive combat robots ready to fight …” Continue reading →
Amberstar was a great RPG title released on the Commodore Amiga, Atari ST and PC back in 1992 by Thalion, and was to be part of a trilogy that was never to be. However, a sequel was created at least in the shape of Ambermoon, and released for the Commodore Amiga in 1993, but not two other platforms that we are about to explore.
Just as an aside, there was an unofficial third game in the form of Albion, which was being developed as a sequel to Ambermoon at Thalion, before it closed its doors and the work was transferred over to Blue Byte.
Though back to Ambermoon for our next entry, where there was planned to be not only an Amiga version, but PC DOS and Atari ST editions at one stage. Interestingly, in the December 1991 issue of Power Play magazine in Germany, they talk about the new Amberstar game due to be released that Christmas. 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.