Preserving Cancelled & Unreleased Video Game History Since 1999
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.
Just a reminder that we have various social media outlets, where we also do regular news updates and posts from the site (as well as other prototype and unreleased games communities). If you use one of the following, then please feel free to give us a follow:
Just a very short post (and so not to replicate other’s hard work) to flag up a wonderful website which contains details on an unreleased PC conversion of Damocles.
If the website ever disappears, then we’ll try and see if we can host the content here instead to ensure it is safe. The site contains a number of images and video regarding the PC version that never saw release, as well as various details about the game.
The game is preserved, but the owner of the prototype does not wish to release to the community. Hopefully this situation may change in the future.
With thanks to Fever for highlighting the game on the Lemon64 forums.
Following on from our recent post about a long lost conversion of Creatures 2 for the Amiga, we now take a look at a planned ZX Spectrum conversion – and one which seemed to get relatively far… Perhaps!
A rather good looking Creatures on the ZX Spectrum – but was it running?
Creatures took advantage of the C64’s strong graphical capabilities, and was pretty much made for the machine. It became an iconic series for the C64, with a main character that almost felt like the platform’s very own “mascot” of sorts, when SEGA had Sonic, and Nintendo having Mario. Continue reading →
If you have recently joined the new Threads.net service, then you can now find Games That Weren’t on there too at gamesthatwerent or https://www.threads.net/@gamesthatwerent
Hoping a desktop version arrives soon, but we’ll keep posting out our updates to here, as well as our other social media outlets.
Platforms: Commodore Amiga, Super Nintendo, SEGA Mega CD, SEGA Mega Drive
Due for release back in September 1993, Dino Worlds was a puzzle/strategy game, with a touch of adventure according to programmer Kevin Mullard.
In the game, you control a lone Tyrannosaurus Rex, who is trying to escape the slowly-approaching ice age. To do this, you must trek northwards through various terrains that are populated by all kinds of dinosaur, each with their own aims and attitudes. Friendly dinosaurs can be recruited and can help you in your quest to reach safety. Continue reading →
Chatting with team member Gary Spence the other day, Gary wondered if he had perhaps an over-active imagination when looking at Elite’s Cataball game one evening. A game that was released on one of their Hit-Paks, but then spruced up a year later with different levels and released at full price as Hoppin’ Mad.
Gary highlighted that Cataball seemed to have graphics very similar to Wonderboy in places – especially on the very first level with the forest, and with the rock formation at the bottom of the game. Could Cataball really have started out as a Wonderboy conversion for Elite? Continue reading →
Another month gone already, and now as we enter into Summer, here is another GTW64 update with 7 new entries into the archive, including a title which oddly doesn’t seem to have had a UK release by Ocean and another which is based on a popular UK soap.
If you are a fan of Dizzy like me, then you might be aware of a number of games written about the acrobatic egg which were created by fans. Quite a few exist, and have been extending the life of the game over the years.
However, there were a number of titles which were started and never finished – and Yolkfolk.com have pulled these together into a two part feature. Part 1 has been released and can be found here: https://yolkfolk.com/article-fan-games-that-werent-part-1/
If you haven’t played Breakdown before, then you should check it out. It’s a fun and simple shooter/platformer/puzzler mix, which was generously given away on Zzap!64 issue 90’s covermount.
When flicking through the magazine the other day, I realized that the magazine shows a screenshot of a loading screen that I can’t recall seeing in the game at all:
Sure enough, checking the original tape image – there is no loader screen, but just a Novaload screen. I suspect that this was supplied as a separate thing to load in, but because it was on tape – it was just jettisoned. The screen seems to have been done by Jonas Holmsten (listed as “Jon”).
Well, in March 2024 – Icon / The Preservers got in touch, as he has been preserving Jonas’ disks. Found was a work stage version of the loading screen, but also a disk version of the game – complete with level editor, and the loading screen. So here is the screen that hasn’t been seen properly until now:
This is likely what was sent to Zzap-64 back in the day, but the loading screen was separate and not added to the tape loader.
Here is the download, so you can check it out for yourself and see the complete version of the game as originally intended.
Creatures 1 and 2 were two fantastically cute, but violent titles from Apex Computer Productions, and published by Thalamus during the early 1990s. So popular, it was decided to convert Creatures to the the Amiga and ST, with a a ZX Spectrum version muted and never released.
The first game was converted to the 16-bit platforms by Wayne J. Smithson Design (or W.J.S for short), coded by Philip Watts, with graphics by Noel Hines and music by Tim Bartlett. Unfortunately the game didn’t fare as well as the C64 original, and had just above average reviews in general. Continue reading →
DISCLAIMER: We are a non-profit digitisation project, aiming to digitally preserve software and history which would otherwise be lost for good. If for any reason there is anything that you do not wish to be on the website, please contact us for removal.
Games That Weren't® is the registered trademark of Frank Gasking.
