Welcome to Games That Weren't!

We are an 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

GTW64 October 2023 updates

Posted: by Frank Gasking

With Autumn well and truly under way and the nights drawing in, there is less time outside and more time trying to update the archive as best as we can. This month we have the following for you:

5 new entries added

Details about an earlier build of Chain Reaction, a possible sequel to Special Agent, an April Fools and more.

zak1

Chain Reaction V1, Daniel Shutters games, Special Agent 2, TJ, Zak McKracken 2

16 updates added

Plenty more updates to the archive too, including some rare screenshots of Curse of the Mushroom People added, more scans added to Bomb and a lot more.

mush1

Amok, Bomb, Curse of the Mushroom People, Nedime – The Caliph’s Daughter, Operation Mindcrime Xertyn-X, Operation Thunderbolt V1, Orbyte Software titles, Phantomas, Plan 9 Outer Space, Super C, The Critters Company, The Western Game, Twilight Beyond, Unicorn Software titles, Unnamed Andrew Braybrook game, Wild Women Of Wonga

Posted in: GTW64 news | Leave a comment

Moon Patrol clone

Posted: by Frank Gasking

1985 Oliver Ridler

Platform: Commodore VIC-20

If you consider that the Commodore 64 essentially put an end to the VIC-20’s commercial life perhaps a bit prematurely, there are likely many titles out there which never saw the light of day as a result. Our next entry certainly came a bit late in the day, and was also the first work by a young 12 year old Oliver Ridler in the form of a Moon Patrol clone.

moon2

“Back in 1984, my father gave me a VIC-20 computer at the age of 11.” began Oliver. “It was a portal to the digital universe, and I soon discovered the Moon Patrol game. Determined to recreate it, I had a go at coding it in BASIC but found it too sluggish for a decent frame rate.” Continue reading →

Posted in: Commodore VIC-20, Reviews | Tagged: | 4 Comments

Truxz

Posted: by Frank Gasking

1996 Reverse Logic

Platform: Commodore Amiga

Following on from our recent addition to the archives of Fatal Mission, we add yet another title that was being worked on by Ola Zandelin.

truxz3

This time, instead of a 2D platformer, Ola decided to jump into the challenge of trying to write a texture mapped 3D game for the Commodore Amiga. One of the attempts was a 3D driving game called Truxz, which would be created by both Ola and Rodrigo Perez on both code and graphics. Continue reading →

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

Time Lord

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1986 Incentive Software

Platform: Dragon 32

In our very first Dragon 32 entry into the archives, we take a look at what seems to be a game based on the famous Doctor Who series, at least in places when you read the story below.

timelord shot

Previewed in Dragon User magazine in June 1986 (with a brief mention in May’s editorial), the game had a story as follows (listed in Dragon User, June 1986, page 6): Continue reading →

Posted in: Dragon 32, Reviews | Tagged: | 5 Comments

Games That Weren’t in the press

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Games That Weren’t features in the press this month in various forms, with an Amiga CD32 Games That Weren’t piece in the latest Amiga Addict magazine (CD32 special to celebrate 30 years), and also an interview with Amstrad Addict (an Amstrad special) where we give tips on trying to hunt down unreleased games.

3

If you haven’t seen the magazines already, then the series (including titles such as Pixel Addict) are well worth checking out: shop.amiga-addict.com

Posted in: News | Leave a comment

Husaria

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

2000 Sland Media

Platforms: Commodore Amiga, PC

Following on from the release of Exodus: The Last War, there was to be yet another potentially great strategy game from the same creators, for both Amiga and PC. The game was teased in the manual and also had screenshots on the CD.

Screen 02

The game was to take you into dark times full of bloody and heroic battles, with exploits of the warriors of that time. You would be in control of one of four armies overall, where you will try to gain control over foreign lands. Continue reading →

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

GTW64 September 2023 updates

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Well, seems like summer doesn’t want to end and if anything it feels hotter than August! Whilst we melt away, the updates continue within the GTW64 archives with the following additions and updates:

7 new entries added

As well as a strange (early?) version of Poltergeist, we have a number of previously unpreserved Hungarian games thanks to Csaba Virag and also some new titles highlighted by Baracuda:

Poltergeist V1, Raceday, Sakkozo Elefant, Strike Back, Szigethy Quest, The Stock Exchange, Time Quest

19 updates added

As well as the usual updates, tucked away is the recovery of Monkeybuilder and Bible Baseball and joining the dots for Ash and Dave’s car game – Switchblade (nothing to do with the Gremlin game!):

Anty Up, Bible Baseball, Bomb, Brain Death, Combat Chess, Deadhead, Diskovery titles, Donkey Kong Jr, EastEnders, Matterhorn, Money Minefield, Monkeybuilder, Murder!, Pharaoh’s Pyramid, Phoenix Lair, Switchblade, Typo Attack, Vanguard, Vapour

Posted in: GTW64 news, News | Leave a comment

Survivor Run

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1983 Creative Software

Platform: Commodore VIC-20

Survivor Run is an original game that Creative Software were due to release back in 1983 – an original creation by Steven Yaeger that he had sold to the company.

survivor1 fix

The aim of the game was to travel down several screens to beam up a survivor trapped at the bottom of a crater on a remote planet. To do so, you would have to carefully burn through the floor using your thrusters, or use one of your limited bombs. Continue reading →

Posted in: Commodore VIC-20, Reviews | Tagged: | 12 Comments

Gamebase64 needs you!

Posted: by Frank Gasking

Gamebase64 has been a hugely important digital archive for the Commodore 64 for over 25 years now, bringing together all of the games that have made the platform so special.

Webmaster and developer Steven Feurer tragically passed away suddenly in July 2023 which has hit the team incredibly hard. Steve was a great friend to all the team and was the glue that kept everything together and running for so long. Without Steve, there is no web presence – which is important to promote the site and encourage submissions/corrections.

Leaving the team without a web developer and maintainer has now put the project at huge risk of losing its online presence. Michael Plate (Database project leader, creator and maintainer of the collection) has put out a plea via the Lemon64 forums for any help to keep this great project going.

I wish personally that I could step in to help, but we have too much going on at the moment with preservation work and Games That Weren’t.

If you feel you might be able to help, or know someone who could, please do get in touch via the forum at: https://www.lemon64.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=83094 and help save this amazing digital archive.

Posted in: GTW64 news, News | 3 Comments

The Fall Guy

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1983/84 Fox Video Games

Platforms: Atari 2600 and ColecoVision

Our next entry is nothing to do with the Elite licence that came later on the Commodore 64, though that too had an unreleased version of some kind that you can read about here. No, this is an entry which covers two cancelled editions of the game that were being done for the Atari 2600 and ColecoVision, and released under a 20th Century Fox label.

fall guy the 1983 0000

At the time, Sirius were working on a new game called Squish ‘Em on the Atari 2600, when Fox Video Games made a deal with them to take a number of their games and tie in various TV shows or just release in their original form. Squish ‘Em was to become The Fall Guy, on the Atari 2600 at least. Continue reading →

Posted in: Atari 2600 / Atari VCS, ColecoVision, Reviews | Tagged: | 2 Comments