Preserving Cancelled & Unreleased Video Game History Since 1999
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.
A short entry for a compilation tape that was advertised by Swedish magazine Allt om Hemdatorer (All about Home Computers) in 1984.
Thanks to an anonymous contributor, the ad translates as follows:
Already today you can buy TOMORROW’S COMPUTER MAGAZINE
No 1 A Mystax product 1984 SYNTAX The cassette-based magazine for VIC-64 (Swedish name for C64) UFO-64: Action in space, complete all 15 attack waves DRACULAS SLOTT (Dracula’s castle): Text adventure in Swedish. Cold shivers guaranteed! BOSSO: Cool machine code action. Hunt for diamonds, chased by monsters, hurry up… BREAKOUT: Old favourite in a new action-filled suit. ARTISTEN (The artist): Become a new Rembrandt on the TV screen.
All of the titles seem to be currently at large, but if we’re wrong – please let us know. BOSSO in particular sounds very promising and surely someone must have brought a copy of this tape?
Apparently Mystax AB went bankrupt at some point – so did that prevent the game from ever being released to anyone? They have some games in Gamebase at the moment, but nothing matching the above.
A very short entry thanks to an anonymous contributor, who has flagged up that the Elite release of Commando should have included Level 3, which was cut from the final game.
The final game only contained levels 1,2 and 4 overall. When Gary Penn asked Chris Butler what happened – Chris confirmed that everything was all there (levels 1-4) and complete, when Rob Hubbard said that he needed 6K for the music and there wasn’t room.
Steve Wilcox then requested for Level 3 to be hacked out to make room for the music. Quite a decision overall!
Of course, we have been since treated to a proper remastered version of the game with all the levels in 2015, though this would be a great curiosity to see how Chris Butler’s version of level 3 looked and played.
Could it be found in some shape or form before Rob’s music was added? It is seemingly unlikely now, but if Chris is ever willing to chat some day about his past works – it may lead to finding an earlier build. Who knows?
A short entry which has been highlighted by developer Ron Rosen, who recently in December 2022 helped to solve the mystery credits behind Adam Caveman.
We’re not yet sure what type of game Billy Boulder was, and hope to learn more from Ron Rosen soon. As with Adam Caveman, Billy Boulder was named after one of Art’s sons – Billy.
Its believed that the game was intended for release by Databyte, though we have not yet found any adverts or evidence of this. If anyone happens to find anything, please let us know.
Sadly Art passed away in recent years, and Ron also no longer has any of his code. We hope to possibly find something via other means and will update these pages in the future.
EDIT – It has been pretty much confirmed that this game was The Legend of Billy Boulder, due for release by U.S. Gold on Amiga, ST and PC in 1990. We will close off this entry soon and set up a new page in a week or so.
A short entry for a SSG title for the C64 that was advertised in its 1988-1989 catalog as coming soon. With thanks to Joseph Tsai for highlighting. Note, this is not to be confused with the game by Argus Press.
The game was also due for release for the Apple II and IBM/Tandy computers. The description for the title was as follows:
“On December 16th 1944, Hitler unleashed the last major attack on the Western Front. Germany’s last reserves of men and machines rolled over the thinly held Allied front line and set out to reach the Meuse River, 90 miles away. Bitter fighting erupted over an 85 mile front. Using an all new game system, Battle of the Bulge allows you to command entire armies as the whole battle is re-created on your screen.”
The game never surfaced in the end it seems, and is still at large. Was the game actually ever released or was it cancelled? SSG continued to run for many years afterwards, and there seemed to be no further mention of the game.
If you know anything more about this title – please do get in touch. In the meantime we’ll try and reach out to SSG to learn more.
A short entry for a SSG title for the C64 that was advertised in its 1988-1989 catalog as coming soon. With thanks to Joseph Tsai for highlighting.
The game was also due for release for the Apple II and IBM/Tandy computers. The description for the title was as follows:
“For the twenty years from 1796 to 1815, the little Corsican general dominated European politics as no one had before or since. His dynamic military genius revolutionized the face of battle as his Grande Armee carried all before it. You have the chance to command the finest army in European history and re-fight on a grand tactical scale the mighty battles which shaped the development of the modern world.”
The game never surfaced in the end it seems, and is still at large. Was the game actually ever released or was it cancelled? SSG continued to run for many years afterwards, and there seemed to be no further mention of the game.
If you know anything more about this title – please do get in touch. In the meantime we’ll try and reach out to SSG to learn more.
A very intriguing Pooyan style game, its origins are not quite known. Apparently the game was found on a bunch of disks purchased from someone in Finland.
When Polaventris was asked to preserve the game, it was sent to a forum member in 2012/13, but unfortunately this was the only copy and hasn’t since surfaced. It is a huge shame, and it is hoped this wasn’t the only copy left in existence.
We wonder if perhaps CBE was not a company, but refers to the initials of a developer behind the game. That score panel also looks quite similar to another too.
An anonymous contributor (thanks!) suggests that the logo letters on the presentation screen have the colours black, yellow and red – the same order as the Belgian flag. The house in the intro also looking like an Alps mountain hut – so is the game perhaps of mid-European origin?
We will try and do some more digging soon when we get more time, but if you have any more information in the meantime or any suggestions who CBE might be – please do get in touch.
This may not be an actual planned release, but contributor Dimitris F got in touch to share a scan from Greek magazine Pixel, who reviewed Zany Golf and listed the likes of C64, Spectrum and Amstrad as the release platforms for Electronic Art’s title.
Was it merely a printing error by the magazine, or did Pixel know something that many of us did not?
If you know anything more, please do get in touch – but we suspect that it was indeed a printing error.
A short entry for what is somewhat a bit of a mystery at the moment, being investigated by long-term C64 supporter Alex Aris.
Alex has been collecting all the issues, and has highlighted that issue 14 seems to be completely missing in action. The magazine ended its run on issue 15, but there seems to be no trace of 14, which was due for release in December 1985.
A short entry for a title that was being created by the developers of Jack Attack – Kevin Kieller and John Traynor.
This was a title for Commodore – an educational title to teach basic math concepts. Sadly Commodore were not interested, and so the game was never completed. After this point, John and Kevin moved onto more business focused software development.
We hope to learn more soon about the game, though it is believed to be completely lost now.
A short entry for a title that was being created by the developers of Jack Attack – Kevin Kieller and John Traynor.
This was a title for Commodore – a multi-level treasure hunting type of game, where the aim was to avoid being trapped by a spider (or a spider web) whilst gathering treasure and moving from level to level. It unfortunately was never completed.
We hope to learn more soon about the game, though it is believed to be completely lost now.
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