Documenting unreleased, cancelled and prototype video games.
Welcome to Games That Weren't!
We are an unreleased and cancelled 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 games that were never released to the public. Sharing history and stories from the developers, assets and more before it is too late.
Another puzzler that was due for release on both the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST platforms, and this time a late release for back in 1996 when the platforms were practically gone commercially.
An unreleased puzzle game that was due out from Ubi Soft in 1990 for both the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST platforms, created by Michel Ancel and Nicolas Choukroun who produced The Teller and Pick’n Pile. The game was previewed in Generation 4 magazine, featuring some neat looking screens.
A short entry for an Amiga/ST game that never was from 1988, and which was previewed in a Generation 4 and ASM Magazine. In the latter magazine, the game’s name was listed as having a working title of Jungle Olympics.
C64 owners will very much recognise our next entry, which was eventually released by Zeppelin Games back in 1992 as Bod Squad. Originally though, the game was due to be released by Digital Magic Software under the name of Bod the Alien, and released around October 1991 time.
From the creators of Cover Girl Strip Poker was yet another game along the same kind of theme of featuring naked women, this time with an Othello-based game to gradually reveal all. Continue reading
A very short post to flag up some unused assets and early screens for the Psygnosis classic – Agony thanks to Grzegorz Antosiewicz.
First of all there are a number of screens in the gallery below dug out by Grzegorz which show earlier screens with some slight differences to the final version, as well as some giant brown sphere monsters that didn’t seem to make the final cut. Continue reading
A short entry thanks to Grzegorz Antosiewicz of a cool isometric action game with a mix of strategy, where you control between 1-3 tank drones and must complete various objectives including destroying a number of marked buildings and other targets.
One of the main features of the game was the destructible environments, where some walls would remain solid and bulletproof to prevent you reaching your goals too soon.
As you know, we occasionally like to also do posts that highlight assets that were not used in a final and published game. Thanks to Grzegorz Antosiewicz, we now have a short post to share some earlier screens from the Amiga version of Grandslam’s Beavers with some minor differences compared to the final released game.
A short post on what should have been the 17th Castlevania title and released on the SEGA Dreamcast back in 2000, where you were to control Sonia Belmont and Victor Belmont in a 3D third person title.
Recently we were informed about a website that has been set up recently to try and preserve all information on the game, which you can find at:
https://drmarchive.netlify.app/crp/start-home
So far the site contains a series of sketches, screenshots and various footage – as well as part of the development story so far. Over time it is expected that more information will be added, and it is hoped that something of the development itself will be saved some day.
Just months later after this post, something was indeed saved – a playable beta surfaced which you can see in action over at: https://www.sega-dreamcast-info-games-preservation.com/castelvania-resurrection-dreamcast
This is fantastic news, and it is hoped that now the game itself will be dumped and shared with the community!
When discussing about the unreleased Conquest for the GTW book with Larry DeMar, we already knew that the source code had been preserved. Jeff Vavasour had kindly provided screenshots of it running for the book.
We asked Larry if it would be possible to release the game in its final state, and he had no objections. After informing Jeff of Larry’s blessing, Jeff got to work on building the game into a playable state and you can now check it out at:
http://www.codemystics.com/conquest/
A great end to 2020 where you can finally check out a game that has been hidden for almost 40 years. For more of the story and assets, check out: https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2020/10/conquest/
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.
