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

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

LEGO The Hobbit – The Battle of the Five Armies

Posted: by Patrick Furlong

2014 Travellers Tales / Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment

Platforms: Sony PlayStation 3 and 4, Microsoft Xbox 360 and Xbox One, PC, Mac and Nintendo 3DS

Following the success of Lego Lord of the Rings, based on/inspired by Peter Jackson’s Oscar winning film trilogy based on the works by JRR Tolkien, Warner Interactive Entertainment and Traveller’s Tales (developer of previous Lego games) began work in 2013 on Lego The Hobbit. Again based on/inspired by Peter Jackson’s films, based on Tolkien’s novel.

The game was released in April 2014 but only featured the story from the first two films – An Unexpected Journey and The Desolation of Smaug – finishing with Smaug heading to destroy Lake Town. The final instalment in the film trilogy – The Battle of the Five Armies was due for release in December 2014 and it was reported at the London Toy Fair in January 2014 that DLC of the final film would be released following the release of the film. Continue reading →

Posted in: 3DS, Apple iOS, Apple Macintosh, Microsoft Xbox 360, Microsoft Xbox One, PC, Reviews, Sony PlayStation 3, Sony PlayStation 4 | Tagged: | Leave a comment

World Heroes

Posted: by Frank Gasking

1994 Working Designs / SNK

Platform: PC Engine

In the early 1990s, World Heroes (a popular Neo Geo fighting game developed by ADK and SNK) was being ported to the PC Engine Super CD-ROM by Working Designs. Known for their quality localisations and close collaborations with Japanese developers, Working Designs were said to have had a good working relationship with SNK, which included this unreleased port.

WorldHeroes

According to direct conversations with one of the Shirley brothers at Working Designs (likely Don Shirley), the PC Engine version of World Heroes was reportedly fully complete. The port was being developed with direct involvement from the original Neo Geo development team, ensuring arcade-accurate gameplay and visuals within the limits of NEC’s hardware. Continue reading →

Posted in: PC Engine, Reviews | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Splitz Game Boy prototypes

Posted: by Frank Gasking

I loved Split Personalities on the Commodore 64, and I was massively surprised to learn that a Game Boy version was produced in later years called Splitz. It had completely passed me by, and I first discovered the game when finding a series of prototypes in relation to the title.

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The game works incredibly well on the platform, so if you haven’t played it before – I recommend checking it out. In the meantime, we have a series of prototypes of the game from various stages of development, and thankfully with dates for most. Continue reading →

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

Micro Machines 1 and 2 Twin Turbo GBC prototypes

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

More prototypes added to the Games That Weren’t archive, where today we’re adding a series of Micro Machines 1 and 2 Twin Turbo prototypes for the Nintendo Game Boy Color. These all vary a lot, though we were unable to attribute accurate dates for all of them.

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MM2DEMO.gbc is one of the most interesting, as this seems to be a very early iteration where the Game Boy original game was being converted over and re-colourized. The music map is quite glitchy and the sprites are not yet reworked, but you can have a race and even see remains of the original title. There is likely more tucked away, though we think just the one level has been re-done. Continue reading →

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