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.

Latest news and posts

Thundercats early screens

Posted: , last updated: by fgasking
Platforms: ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64

Over the years we have figured out at GTW64 about the connection between Thundercats and the unreleased Wolf by Gargoyle Games – as well as Bombjack 2 and Beyond the Ice Palace originally intended to be two follow on Thundercats games, which you can read about here and here.

The released game however continues to reveal more mysteries thanks to Martin Inter, who has highlighted that adverts for the game and the main inlay itself show scenes from the game that were not in the final version.

Above for instance are two scenes from the C64 edition showing a level not seemingly present in the final game, and also Lion-O in a stance not present either. Continue reading →

Posted in: Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, GTW64 news, Prototype, Unused materials, ZX Spectrum | Tagged: | 2 Comments

GTW64 February 2022 update

Posted: , last updated: by fgasking

Another month, and another GTW64 update with a bunch of new entries, including some new downloads for you to check out that haven’t been previously preserved as far as we can tell.  These are Ladders 2, Ex Simultan and Maerzi 2 (all thanks to Csaba Virag). Also finally the Anirog version of Rhyme Land has been added! Hope you enjoy the update, and see you all in March!

7 new entries added

Enforce, Lifespan, Shoot Out, Top-Hole Golf, Ladders 2, Ex Simultan and Maerzi 2

13 updates added

Balla Balla, Charlie Chaplin, Heebie Jeebies, It’s Rory!, Joust, Knights of Legend Expansion Packs, Mattie Goes Mining, Ooops Up, Pulsator, Rockball, Rhyme Land, Spooky, The Magic Roundabout

Posted in: GTW64 news, News | Leave a comment

Parasol Stars

Posted: , last updated: by fgasking

1990 Taito

Platform: Arcade, Taito WOWOW

What has always been fascinating is how Parasol Stars never seemingly saw a proper release in arcades, and was only released on consoles and home computer platforms (the story of the C64 edition is of course already well known).

According to contributor Daniel, the developers of the PC Engine version were contacted (source: https://unmamed.mameworld.info/non_taito.html#ParasolStars) and asked if the game was converted from an arcade machine that was never released. They confirmed that it was developed from scratch specifically for the console.

parasol stars earlyscreen

However, it was revealed that the game was location tested as an arcade cabinet in one or more sites in Japan. It was essentially a PC-Engine inside an arcade cabinet.

Reports at unmamed.mameworld suggest that around the time of the US launch of the PC-Engine/Turbografx system, there was a local arcade that had Victory Run and Galaga ’90 in a cabinet advertising the Turbografx-16 system – suggesting this could have been the plan for Parasol Stars’ release. Continue reading →

Posted in: Arcade, Reviews, WOWOW | Tagged: | 7 Comments

Body Count

Posted: , last updated: by fgasking

1992 Strangeways

Platform: Commodore Amiga and Super Nintendo

Our next entry is a very early title that was flagged up to us by team member Karl Kuras, who spotted this interesting early Smash TV-looking title that was due for release from Strangeways.

bcount large1

It hadn’t been long at all since Ocean’s official Smash TV conversion, so it was potentially a ballsy move by Strangeways to try and do something similar. The game was also apparently based around a futuristic TV game show and followed almost the exact same style of story line. Continue reading →

Posted in: Amiga, Reviews, SNES | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Crazy Cars 3 Amiga early screens

Posted: , last updated: by fgasking

A quick post thanks to team member Grzegorz Antosiewicz, who has found a set of early Crazy Cars 3 screenshots in Generation 4 magazine from June 1991, which show a very different looking game overall to the one that was eventually released:

Clipboard01 1
As you can see, the screenshots show different and bigger sprites for the cars, less detailed roads and a very early HUD.

Clipboard02 2

Essentially a complete redesign occurred. It would be very interesting to see this early prototype in action and see just how much of a different direction the game was going in.

With thanks to Grzegorz Antosiewicz for highlighting and the scans provided.

Posted in: Amiga, Prototype, Unused materials | Tagged: | 2 Comments

Thank you!

Posted: , last updated: by fgasking

We just wanted to post to say a huge thank you to contributor LiqMatrix who blew us away today by donating our entire hosting and domain costs for the year.

I had not put out a call for hosting donations for the past 3-4 years and had been covering myself. However, I’d forgot about leaving the donate button on the site and had the surprise yesterday.

So thank you very much to LiqMatrix for such a kind and generous donation and all your recent support with the site!

Posted in: News | Leave a comment

Overdrive – early Amiga screens

Posted: , last updated: by fgasking

Following on from the recent PC DOS release of an unreleased conversion of Team 17’s Overdrive thanks to Damiano Gerli, GTW’s Grzegorz Antosiewicz dug out a series of early screens from the game. Overall showing many differences and features not present in the final game.

Here for instance you can see early previews where there are different track graphics that were not used in the final game:

Continue reading →

Posted in: Amiga, Prototype, Unused materials | Tagged: | Leave a comment

PC Shareware CD’s preserved

Posted: , last updated: by fgasking

Recently one of our contributors Jürgen Clausen kindly got in touch with the offer of sending over some German PC Shareware CD’s that were released in the early-mid 1990s, before they went into the trash.

These didn’t seem to be preserved anywhere, so here they are with inlay scans and ISO files uploaded to archive.org (first time uploading to the archive, so hopefully all is ok):

They both contain a collection of Windows 3.1 software, of which some many not yet be preserved. I haven’t had chance to go through due to a lack of time, but let us know if you find anything interesting.

A huge thank you to Jürgen Clausen for sending these over to GTW for preserving.

Posted in: Features, News, PC | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Squibbly Shibbly

Posted: , last updated: by fgasking

1997 Miracle FX Productions

Platform: Commodore Amiga 1200

An interesting title for the Commodore Amiga that was highlighted to us by contributor Ivan and was reviewed in Amiga Format magazine back in July 1997.

Although a decent enough looking platformer at a time when software was a little scarce on the platform, Amiga Format ripped the game to shreds and gave it a very poor 20%.

squib6

The game had been created in the Reality Software Construction Kit, and in the game you controlled Squibbly and had to find various objects to give to your family. There were also family members imprisoned that you had to try and release. Sort of similar to the Dizzy games in a strange way. Continue reading →

Posted in: Amiga, Reviews | Tagged: | 1 Comment

GTW VIC-20 updates

Posted: , last updated: by fgasking

A short update for the Commodore VIC-20 archive with 4 new titles added into the archives, including one which is deemed to be the holy grail of unreleased VIC-20 titles.

These additions come thanks to team member Fabrizio Bartoloni for highlighting. If you have any suggestions for missing/unreleased VIC-20 games for the archive, then please do get in touch.

Posted in: News | Leave a comment