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.

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Days of Thunder

Posted: by Patrick Furlong

1991 Mindscape

Platform: Amstrad CPC

Days of Thunder was based on the film starring Tom Cruise based around NASCAR racing in the USA. Mindscape got the rights to make a tie-in game and it was released on all the major platforms in the UK but not on the Amstrad.

DaysOfThunder

Judging by the poor reception it got, it may not have seemed a bad thing. But in late 1991, early 1992, Elite Systems released their compilation Movie Premiere which featured Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, Gremlins 2, Back to the Future 2 and Days of Thunder. Continue reading →

Posted in: Amstrad CPC, Reviews | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Mobocracy

Posted: by Frank Gasking

1990 Soft Dorothy Software

Platform: Apple Macintosh

Mobocracy was to be a post-apocalyptic side scroller, but was never to make it past the sketchpad phase. However, it left just enough behind to give you a glimpse of what might have been.

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The game was envisioned as a gritty side scrolling action game set in a post apocalyptic world, developed during the early months of 1990. It had grim tone, ambitious mechanics, and big ideas that exceeded the resources and time available. Continue reading →

Posted in: Apple Macintosh | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Titus the Fox

Posted: by Frank Gasking

1994 Titus

Platform: Super Nintendo

A surprise entry into the archives now with the start of a Titus the Fox game that no-one seemingly knew existed until now. Lurking within the Enigma Variations archives was a very quick Titus the Fox build which has the quirky main character running on the spot and which you can move around a test map.

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The test map is from Chaos Drop by the looks of it, another cancelled SNES game – which means its likely that the game was being developed by Joe Booth with graphics by Alan Macfarlane. Was the game to be a straight conversion or a completely new game? Continue reading →

Posted in: Reviews, Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) | Tagged: | Leave a comment

ATV Racing Game Boy Color Prototypes

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Our next set of prototypes to be added to the GTW archives is ATV Racing, which was eventually released in 2001 by Datel Electronics. This is mainly a V1.0 demo from 2000 with a few other variation builds, and copyrighted to Graphic State – before Datel had got involved.

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It seems this was a build that was pitched around to different companies at the time by QuangDX, who didn’t get credited for the final game that was finished off and released by Datel. This was highlighted thanks to this great video by RetroBreak.

Originally the game was being developed as a CGB conversion of Re-Volt, but never got finished. Remains of the title were repurposed into this game and also a game called Race Time. Continue reading →

Posted in: Game Boy Color, Prototype | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Unknown Car Game

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1999 Charles Waddington

Platform: Nintendo Game Boy

Our next entry into the GTW archives is a currently unknown Car Game that was found lurking within the archives of Enigma Variations, and its with thanks to Mark Greenshields that we have been able to reveal it to you.

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This was located with other developments, and have no accurate title for the prototype, but we have learnt that it was created by Charles Waddington, who would go on to become a games developer. This may have been part of Charles trying to break into the industry, and may have been submitted to Mark Greenshields for possible employment opportunity. Continue reading →

Posted in: Nintendo Game Boy, Reviews | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Mechanic Warriors

Posted: by Frank Gasking

1988 Lankhor

Platform: Atari ST

Mechanic Warriors was due for release on the Atari ST back in 1988 via Lankhor. It was a mix of shooter and strategy, where you could control different Mechanic Warriors (fighters, tankers, transporters) to carry out missions.

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The game was being developed by Nicholas Choukroun, with graphics by Michel Ancel. According to a history page on the game, the title was proposed to Lankhor, but at the time they didn’t have the funds – as all resources were being put into Maupiti Island and couldn’t finance the game properly. Continue reading →

Posted in: Atari ST, Reviews | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Populous Game Boy prototypes

Posted: by Frank Gasking

Following on from the recovery of the complete and surprising NES conversion of Populous, we have a set of prototypes for the released Game Boy edition with some minor differences leading up to the final release.

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Some of the builds (mostly labelled Beta Test 1.4) don’t have much in the way of noticeable differences, with mostly credit changes by the looks of things on the surface. The 17-02-93 version is labelled as a review copy that was sent out to magazines. Due to the gap between some of the builds, its likely that there will be bugs still present and other minor tweaks behind the scenes. Continue reading →

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Porky Pig’s Haunted Holiday SNES prototypes

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Something rather special now for you with Porky Pig’s Haunted Holiday SNES prototypes, consisting of builds from between 1st November 1993 to the 24th May 1994. What is particularly exciting is that one of the prototypes contains a series of subgames dropped from the final release and only briefly seen in magazine screenshots. That’s not all – there are tons of differences to be discovered, and this page only scratches the surface about them.

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Firstly the INTROS.SMC build from November 1993 has all the intros for all the levels as a test ROM. Using a special CMS flag screen by pressing Start, will allow you to change flags to get to different intro scenes. It’s a little confusing at first, but the READ.ME file will explain roughly how it works, and with a little trial and error you’ll get to browse each segment. Continue reading →

Posted in: Preservation, Prototype, Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) | Tagged: , | 10 Comments

Sensible Soccer Game Boy prototypes

Posted: by Frank Gasking

Following on from the recovery of the complete and surprising NES conversion of Sensible Soccer, we have a set of prototypes for the released Game Boy edition with some minor differences leading up to the final release.

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Some of the builds don’t have much in the way of differences, apart from that the match length is crazily short for some reason. The most interesting of the prototypes seems to be “sensible-unknown1.gb”, which we think is likely to be the earliest of the prototypes (but with no accurate build date). Continue reading →

Posted in: Nintendo Game Boy, Prototype | Tagged: , | Leave a comment

Kick Off 3 – European Challenge

Posted: by Frank Gasking

1994 Anco

Platform: Nintendo Game Boy

Whilst digging through the Enigma Variations archives, we found an archive relating to an abandoned Game Boy original development of Kick Off 3. However, the approach to the development was interesting and resourceful.

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First of all, it seems that early on an attempt was made to simply modify the original Super Kick Off codebase and force a 2.5″ viewpoint with pre-existing characters. Present in the archive are two builds (which are practically identical apart from header differences) which show the standard Kick Off menus, but with the new perspective. Continue reading →

Posted in: Nintendo Game Boy, Reviews | Tagged: | Leave a comment