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

Defender

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1982 Archer Maclean

Platform: Atari 400/800

Dropzone is one of the most memorable games on the Atari platform of all time, created by the genius that is the late Archer Maclean, who sadly passed away in late 2022. With the game, Archer created an impressively smooth title that was heavily inspired by both Defender and Stargate.

def large1

In August 2023, Chris Wilkins (Fusion Retro Books) entrusted Games That Weren’t with the task of preserving all of Archer’s development disks. Whilst doing so, a series of significant discoveries were made which tells a story about how we ended up with the amazing Dropzone, which started with a conversion of the very game that inspired it – Defender.

Continue reading →

Posted in: Atari 400/800/XL, Reviews | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Stuntman Seymour

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1993 Codemasters

Platform: Commodore Amiga

A bit of a surprise now for Amiga fans as part of our 3-day Christmas 2023 update on Games That Weren’t – starting off with a Codemasters title which hasn’t been known about until today, and missing for 30 years.

seymour1

Back during the early 1990s, Genesis Software (consisting of Jonathan Temples, Dave Clarke and Ashley Hogg) had created the superb CJ’s Elephant Antics for Codemasters, rising from the ashes of an abandoned New Zealand Story conversion for Ocean Software. 

Continue reading →

Posted in: Commodore Amiga, Reviews | Tagged: | 15 Comments

Tier, Das: Die Rückkehr Des Bösen

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1991 DMV

Platform: Commodore Amiga

One that we missed this year, but Jan / TCD found this unreleased German graphic text adventure whilst working on Hall of Light and which was uploaded for all to see.

DasTier (3)

We’re not 100% sure of the background to the title, apart from knowing that the game was developed and designed by Gregor Widuch, with graphics by Sonja Heil. Neither seem to have worked on any other games that are in the archives. Continue reading →

Posted in: Commodore Amiga, Reviews | Tagged: | 6 Comments

The Ronin game recovered

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Our friends at Atarimania.com have informed us of the recovery of an unreleased text adventure for the Atari 400/800 called The Ronin which has been missing for 39 years. A game that was intended for release eventually by Brøderbund Software, who had acquired Synapse Software at the time.

ronin

The game was found on a disk belonging to Bill Darrah (former Synapse Software programmer). It is thanks to the efforts of John Hardie of the National Videogame Museum who dumped the game, and for author David Alzofon for allowing the game to be made available.

http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-ronin_42345.html

Posted in: Atari 400/800/XL, News | Leave a comment

Penguin Tower

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

2000 Problemchild Productions

Platform: PC

Way back in 2000, Games That Weren’t had got in touch with Jani Hirvo regarding his lost Commodore 64 game – Penguin Tower. But did you know there was also a PC version?

You see – the game was reviewed in Commodore Format, scoring a decent percentage and was due for release by Visualize Software in the UK. Sadly, it never happened – but after almost 30 years, it finally got finished off and released.

pt 004

At the time – Jani told GTW that the game was almost finished at the time and there wasn’t much to do, suggesting one day he could finish it. However, Jani was also working on a PC edition of the game which he was focusing on instead of the C64 game and provided us with a 10 level preview. Continue reading →

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

Various C64 educational titles preserved

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

A huge thank you to Allan Pinkerton, who has preserved several educational titles from Micro Labs and Cymbal Software for the Commodore 64.

As they are not unreleased game entries, we have just made this post to make them available to all, and hopefully over time they will get integrated into various other digital archives, including Gamebase64.

Here are the links below and a huge thanks once more to Allan for all his hard work!

Downloads
Posted in: Commodore 64 (C64), GTW64 news, Preservation | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Star Trek: A World For All Seasons

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1994 Spectrum HoloByte

Platform: 3DO and PC

Or as its full title: ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation – A World For All Seasons’. This early 3DO title was to be a ground-breaking interactive adventure game from Spectrum HoloByte, based on the famous franchise.

star trek640 2

The game was a sort of “Choose-your-own-adventure” game, with many different options available that could lead you to other clues (or traps), with cinematic clips dropped in at various key points. A feature piece on the game in Electronic Gaming Monthly also indicates that there would have been real-time action sequences in space too. Continue reading →

Posted in: 3DO, Reviews | Tagged: | 10 Comments

Dactyl Joust footage surfaces

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

With thanks to Ross Sillifant for the heads up (with KidGameR186496 flagging up on the AtariAge forums), new footage of Dactyl Joust’s intro from the Atari Jaguar has surfaced thanks to The Obscure Media Archive:

How was it found? The Obscure Media Archive reported that their dad was the VP of the art department at High Voltage, and the footage was found whilst clearing out the basement.

It’s a great finding, and hoped that more (including something of the game itself) can be found in the future.

Posted in: Atari Jaguar, News | 1 Comment

Confuzion

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1985 Incentive Software

Platform: Dragon 32

This is a short entry to extend our Dragon 32 entries into the Games That Weren’t archive, with what was to be a conversion of the popular C64 game – Confuzion.

The conversion was announced as being underway at the 6809 show and reported by Dragon User in April 1985.

It is unknown whether any development was ever started, as the Dragon port of the game was due to start once “The Ket Trilogy” had been completed.

It seems that sadly the conversion got caught up in the demise of the Dragon 32 commercially. Was it ever started though and could anything be found of it?

With thanks to Simon Hardy for highlighting.

Posted in: Dragon 32, Reviews | Tagged: | Leave a comment