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

IK++

Posted: by Frank Gasking

2021 System 3

Platforms: PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 5

International Karate and IK+ are two titles which helped to really put System 3 on the map, along with of course the Last Ninja series. Archer Maclean did a superb job of creating two wonderful fighting games which got rave reviews in the press – so much so that a sequel was always on the cards.

ikplusplus 7

There were not just one attempt to produce a sequel, but a few over the years. Archer in particular was rumoured to have been working on a IK++/IK Deluxe game for the C64, though later confirmed he never started anything. Then in an interview with Retro Gamer, he spoke of working on an Amiga/ST IK++ where you collected moves.

We’ll take a look at the Amiga/ST development another time, but for now we’ll focus on a much later development from System 3 that caught everyone by surprise when System 3 launched a Last Ninja Collection Kickstarter in 2024. Continue reading →

Posted in: Microsoft Xbox One, PC, Reviews, Sony PlayStation 5 | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Last Ninja 4

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1996-2018 System 3

Platforms: PC, Xbox, GameCube, PlayStation 2, PSX, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4 + others
Also known as: “The Last Ninja – Return to Lin Fen Island”

When you think of System 3, The Last Ninja series probably comes to mind – along with memories of frustrating lake crossings and those infamous mud pits in the first game. Despite the therapy I needed after that segment, the series was iconic. But when the third instalment was released in 1991, many thought it marked the end. Not quite!

ln4 2

Attempts were made to try and bring a 4th game to the Commodore 64, thanks to Jon Wells, but System 3 were not interested at this point in time and didn’t allow the project to continue.

Just a few years later though (around 1997 time), there was a change of heart, and the time was now right to resurrect the franchise and continue the series once more on modern platforms. At the start, an isometric style game similar to the original series, and graphically similar to the Little Big Adventure series with inspiration from the Oddworld series. Continue reading →

Posted in: Microsoft Xbox, Microsoft Xbox 360, Nintendo GameCube, PC, Reviews, Sony PlayStation, Sony PlayStation 2, Sony PlayStation 4, Sony PlayStation Portable | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Chess Wars

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1984 JCE

Platform: Commodore VIC-20

After the recent amazing recovery of Garden Wars on the Commodore 64, our attention now turns to the lost VIC-20 edition of Chess Wars by the same company JCE, which was found in the same advert by Andrea Pachetti.

Advertised in various magazines for the unexpanded VIC-20, you play against the computer with nine levels of difficulty – all the special moves allowed by the rule set are made possible (Fabrizio, who suggested covering this title, assumes that they are referring to gambit, promoting pawns to higher pieces, casting and so forth.) Continue reading →

Posted in: Commodore VIC-20, Reviews | Tagged: | 2 Comments

GTW64 October 2024 update

Posted: by Frank Gasking

Its now getting cold, but the updates are still coming – and quite a few this month in the Commodore 64 archive with the following:

Alleykat rare non-playable demo preserved

Alleykay(NonPlayingDemo) Hewson 1986 UK(id33148)

A nice little bonus to kick off the update thanks to Marco Das, with a rare non-playable demo added to our prototypes area. Could it be made playable perhaps, and does it contain anything not in the final release?

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2024/10/alleykat-non-playable-demo/

22 new entries added

Ajax, Around the World in 80 Days, Back in the USSR, Blood’n Guts 2, Cuthbert in the Tubes, Enchantress, Football Boss, Goodnight Cruel World, Mad Mission, Mars Cops, Paradroid V1, Parisian Knights, Penitentiary, Racer, Raid on Romaro , Road Frog, Sinister, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Red Carnation, Unnamed Ice Fishing Game, Unnamed Shoot’em up, Warp One

46 updates added

There were a lot of updates to pre-existing entries this month. More details can be found in the history tab for each title.

3D Formula One, Alternate Reality – Missing parts, Bamboo, Battle Truck, Chronic the Badger, Crystal Castles V1, Daxis, Deadly Summer, Diabolik, Donkey Kong Jr, Dropzone 2, Eagle Storm, Erik The Destroyer, Escape 2, Euchre for Four, European SuperLeague, Geister, Giana 2 – Arthur And Martha In Future World, Goremium, House of Changes, Hydrogenese, Joust, King Of Chicago, Lasertrain, Logger Mania, Mario Bros, Missile Command, Mission Extreme, Monster Bash, Ms. Pac Man V1, Neiw, Planet 10, Psyclapse, Reach For The Moon, Stargate, The Magic Roundabout, The Ronin, Tran, Typo Attack, Unicorn Software titles, Unknown Educational game, Unnamed Game, Valley Of The Source, Vanguard, Vietnam Gunboat, Warriors

See you all next month! It might be a shorter update whilst we prepare for the end of year update – we’ll see how things go.

Posted in: GTW64 news, News | Leave a comment

Alleykat non-playable demo

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

A lovely curiosity added to the archives today thanks to Marco Das, with the preservation of a very rare non-playable demo of Alleykat distributed by Hewson back in the day. It was likely for shops to showcase the game in their stores, or for magazines to get a sneak preview before release.

The tape was purchased from a Norwegian retro gaming site by Marco and has been fully preserved as a TAP image, and with the original DMP images too. Below are the downloads and a video of the demo too.

I wondered if the demo may actually still contain any joystick related code to make it playable once more, and if there could be content that was cut from the final release. Well, Martin Piper came to the rescue and produced the following:

Below is an added download for the playable version that Martin has very kindly created. It seems that the game is pretty much the final game, just had the demo/preview code adding in. If we’re wrong, please do let us know.

A huge thank you to Marco Das for saving the demo and for Martin Piper for making playable!

Download
Gallery
Posted in: Commodore 64 (C64), GTW64 news, Prototype | Tagged: | 4 Comments

Bug Blitz (C64) prototype

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Just a short post to add a slightly earlier prototype of Ariolasoft’s Bug Blitz which has been recovered thanks to Csaba Virag and Janos Szeitz (who digitized the turbo tape where it was found).

bug compare0
Comparison between title screen of prototype (left) and final game (right).
bug compare1
Comparison between prototype (left) and final game (right). No visible differences.

Continue reading →

Posted in: Commodore 64 (C64), Prototype | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Engalus

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

2000 Crytek Studios

Platforms: PC, Sony PlayStation 2, Sega Dreamcast, Microsoft XBox, Nintendo GameCube

Our next entry into the Games That Weren’t archives was a significant project from the start of an engine that would lead to the eventual Far Cry series. Engalus was a first person shooter/RPG title that was in development at Crytek Studios between 1999 and 2000 – one of their first developments along with X-Isle.

On Crytek’s old archived webpage about the game, they revealed that the main concept consisted of:

“High-tech assassin travels to the edge of the galaxy in order to stop the plans of a madman, who wishes to remake the universe in his own image using an ancient artefact known as the Engalus. As the main character Jordain you will find yourself in a dark sci-fi adventure story where nothing is as it seems and the worst enemies can come from within.”

Continue reading →
Posted in: Microsoft Xbox, Nintendo GameCube, PC, Reviews, SEGA Dreamcast, Sony PlayStation 2 | Tagged: | 3 Comments

Sagan Om Ringen

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1985 Peter Tjernström

Platform: ZX Spectrum

Our next ZX Spectrum title in the archives is a missing Swedish adventure based on Lord of the Rings (and even named so in Swedish!), which came first in a competition.

The creator was Peter Tjernström and the game remains unreleased sadly. The article with the winners can be found in the scans section, and was in Swedish magazine Allt om hemdatorer (All about home computers) issue 2/3 1985, page 35.

According to the article, the contest was announced in late 1984 with the following details:

The results of our Swedish Adventure Game Championships contest

First prize

Peter Tjernström in Boden [a city in the north of Sweden] has, on his Spectrum, created an amazing text adventure based on Tolkien’s ”Lord of the rings”. There is a lot to recognize from the book, among other things he has really managed to capture some of the atmosphere, e.g. at the start you see a rider approaching from the distance. If you’ve hidden he’ll ride past you, if not it’s over.

The game is the winner due to being exciting as well as entertaining. Another advantage is that the programmer has really succeeded with the feat of getting all the major events of the book in there.

It seems there was no intention to release the game, but it would be great to try and see it preserved.

With thanks to Anonymous Contributor for the submission and Fabrizio Bartoloni for the original submission.

Gallery

Posted in: Reviews, ZX Spectrum | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Gigaball

Posted: by Frank Gasking

1987 Starvision

Platform: Commodore Amiga

A very short entry now for a title called Gigaball that was due for release by short-lived Danish software house – Starvision.

The game was mentioned by founder Sören Grönbech in a feature in SOFT magazine issue 6 in 1987. No details are given though – just the name of the game and no other information has been found on the title.

Was the title perhaps picked up and released under a different name, or was it canned early on? Many questions were still left to answer.

Thanks to Fabrizio Bartoloni though after only a few hours of posting this page – it was confirmed that the game was eventually released as Giganoid by Swiss Computer Arts. Case closed!

With thanks to Anonymous Contributor, Fabrizio Bartoloni for solving the mystery and sodan.dk for the scan.

Gallery

Posted in: Commodore Amiga | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Battle Mission

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1990 Renovation Products

Platform: SEGA Mega Drive

Battle Mission was an exciting looking Operation Wolf style game that was due for release on the SEGA Mega Drive back in 1990 by Renovation Products.

battle1

The game was based in the middle of World War 2, where you are on your tour of duty of the South Pacific. You are forced to land on an enemy island, as a sole survivor of your sunken battleship – Liberty.

You have to get back to your forces, and must blast your way through all the levels with your machine gun and bombs, shooting bad guys and avoiding monkeys, native women and other innocents along the way. Basically – Operation Wolf! Continue reading →

Posted in: Mega Drive / Genesis, Reviews | Tagged: | 2 Comments