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. GTW has been preserving video game history since 1999.

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Return to Fractulas

Posted: , last updated: by fgasking

1991 Rainbow Arts

Platform: Amiga

Just a short entry for now, with thanks to Karl Kuras for the heads up. Many years after the original 8-bit titles, it was announced in The One magazine (issue 29) that after its recent conversion of Ballblazer as Masterblazer, they were to give similar treatment to Rescue on Fractalus with Return to Fractulas.

Details at the time were very vague and nothing more was heard about it. The Retro Hour spoke with Julian Eggebrecht of Factor 5 in February 2021, and clarified up what happened.

Basically, the development detailed in 1991 was abandoned after they couldn’t get the Amiga to produce the fractals properly. A second attempt was started for the next generation of consoles, but it morphed and became the classic Star Wars: Rogue Squadron.

Very cool to know that those early beginnings would lead to that. It would be amazing to some day see some of the early concepts attempted on the Amiga, and even Return to Fractulas before it became Star Wars: Rogue Squadron. Maybe some day!

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

Benefactor

Posted: , last updated: by fgasking

1994 Psygnosis

Platform: SEGA Mega Drive / Mega CD

Many of you may fondly remember the wonderful puzzler Benefactor from Psygnosis back in 1994 for the Commodore Amiga, with its tiny main character that would have parallels with titles such as Lemmings and Load Runner.

The success of the title makes it no surprise that a SEGA Mega Drive conversion was in the works back in 1994, but what may have surprised you is just how that conversion was apparently shaping up:

benshrunk

Continue reading →

Posted in: Mega Drive, Reviews, SEGA | Tagged: | 4 Comments

Q*Bert

Posted: , last updated: by fgasking

2009 Brighty

Platform: Commodore Vic 20

Often there is a sad story behind most unreleased games, and this 2009 homebrew development of Q*Bert for the Vic 20 is certainly one of them. A very promising development that was first announced on the Sleeping Elephant forums by a chap called Brighty.

The aim was to try and vastly improve on what was felt to be an underwhelming conversion by Parker Bros and get something much closer to the arcade classic.

qbert1

Brighty seemingly was getting very close to that, and apart from almost losing his development work on a faulty flash drive, it was around 90% complete when Brighty went underground. In 2014, he started to sell off his Vic 20 collection to make some money and sadly hasn’t been seen around since.

Forum member Saehn (also known as Shane Fell) had been helping with graphics at the time, but tragically was in a car accident in 2011 and is still registered as a missing person to this day. It is still hoped that Shane will be found some day.

qbert2

It is hoped that Brighty will see this post in the future and will get in touch to shed some light on what happened overall. For now, here is a preview of the game (requires RAM expansion) for you to check out and see the promise for yourself:

Downloads

Download Qbert

Posted in: Commodore, Reviews, Vic 20 | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Trivia UK

Posted: , last updated: by fgasking

1985 Anirog Software

Platform: Commodore Vic 20

A short entry for now on what was probably to be Anirog’s last Vic 20 release, and which seems to have never surfaced. A simple quiz game that looks as if it was written completely in BASIC.

This is the Vic 20 (+16K) version of Trivia UK that was advertised at the time on a number of platforms. The game was released on the C64 (http://www.gamebase64.com/game.php?id=16164&d=18&h=0), C16 and Amstrad platforms. Atari, BBC Micro and Spectrum editions, like the Vic 20, also seem to be missing too.

At the time the C64 was really picking up a head of steam, and sales no doubt were poor for the Vic 20. It’s likely as a result that the game was dropped for that reason. However, with the other versions missing – it could be to do with poor sales of the released editions perhaps.

The question is whether anything was ever started and if anything may still exist out there. We assume the code base would have been easy to port, so perhaps it was even finished

More research needed, but please get in touch if you know anything more.

Gallery
Posted in: Commodore, Reviews, Vic 20 | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Space Vultures

Posted: , last updated: by fgasking

1982 Commodore

Platform: Commodore Vic 20

Commodore had released many clones of arcade games on the Vic 20, and this was to be no different. A clone of Phoenix, but one which was never to be.

It is believed to have been developed by Andy Finkel, and rumoured that Atari stepped in and stopped Commodore before they could release it, much as Namco did with Jelly Monsters. In the case of Space Vultures though, it never made it out of the door.

Was anything ever started? Andy couldn’t recall much at all about the game or what it was going to be. It suggests the possibility that it never got too far before its cancellation.

Interestingly, a label number was given as VIC-1936 and it was listed in an advert as a text listing (I am sure of this – but cannot find the scan to clarify). It is hoped that Andy may find something of the game in his notes to shed more light, but any hopes of finding something playable could be dashed.

Credits: GarryG.

Posted in: Commodore, Reviews, Vic 20 | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Cubic Critters

Posted: , last updated: by fgasking

1982 Commodore

Platform: Commodore Vic 20

Jack Attack as a game title for the Commodore 64 (and C16/Plus 4) was a well known dig at Jack Tramiel and his so called “Jack Attacks” that he used to give out to his staff. The red main character sort of looking familiar to the Commodore boss at the time, or so we thought. But did you know that the game had originally been produced back in 1982 by Kevin Kieller and John Traynor, and was originally a 4K cartridge game written for the Commodore Vic 20? Cubic Critters was the game, and Commodore absolutely loved it. Continue reading →

Posted in: Commodore, Reviews, Vic 20 | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Mutant Speed Demons

Posted: , last updated: by fgasking

1993 Electronic Arts

Platform: SEGA Mega Drive

Mutant Speed Demons was to be yet another title the Mutant League series on the SEGA Mega Drive, following on from the likes of Mutant League Football and Mutant League Hockey and created by New Wave Graphics.

Over the years, little has been known about the title apart from a few very brief press clippings about the game. Gamepro magazine described the title as a “rip-roaring motorcycle” game, but that was about it. The game subsequently disappeared without a trace and no more was heard about it.

In 2009, something of the game was almost found – when a prototype was unearthed. Tragically the game had long been wiped after the batteries were found to have failed that were keeping the game alive. Then in 2013, a detailed 100-200 page manuscript surfaced in an online auction, but has yet to have been digitally preserved and made available.

Then in February 2021, @IsaiahVinson1 got in touch with Games That Weren’t to flag up some assets that were found on an older version of Mike Kennedy’s website. Mike was one of the artists working on the game at the time and had once showcased some of the art he had produced. The sprites give a great glimpse of roughly how the game was going to look and feel – showing a racing/beat-em-up game in the style of Road Rash. As Mutant League Football was reportedly built upon the Madden 93 engine (though Michael Mendheim has said it wasn’t), we felt there was a strong chance that this game was built upon the Road Rash engine.

Continue reading →

Posted in: Mega Drive, Reviews | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Monster Muncher

Posted: , last updated: by fgasking

1983 Spectrum Games

Platform: Commodore Vic 20

I’m surprised that we hadn’t had this one listed earlier on the site. Monster Muncher was to be a simple Pac Man clone released for the Commodore Vic 20 by Spectrum Games back in 1983 and was even advertised. The ZX Spectrum version did see release however.

Unfortunately it seems that for whatever reason, the game may not have seen a full release. Possibly as Spectrum Games may have got into trouble with their unlicensed clones, disappeared and then resurfaced as Ocean Software.

What is particularly interesting about this conversion is that it was written by Matthew Smith of Manic Miner fame and took only a day or so to write. According to Matthew, he sold the game to a few people himself, but that was it. We are not sure if Spectrum Games ever sent any copies out, but no copy has been forthcoming to try and preserve.

Some years ago (2014 to be precise), David Selwood kindly loaned GTW a copy of Road Frog for the Vic 20 which hadn’t been preserved and was the only copy we had seen. It is likely therefore that there are copies out there to be found of Monster Muncher, so we live in hope.

Credits: Dasse Evertsson

Gallery

Posted in: Commodore, Reviews, Vic 20 | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Hungry Horace

Posted: , last updated: by fgasking

1983 Melbourne House

Platform: Commodore Vic 20

This came as a bit of a shock when Chris Poacher first highlighted on the Vic 20 Facebook group that Melbourne House had advertised a Vic 20 version of Hungry Horace in Personal Computer Weekly back in 1983.

Sure enough, within the set of small inlay covers advertising the different Horace games, there is a green + yellow variation of the cover advertising a Vic 20 edition. Just underneath the platform, it suggests that the game needed an 8K memory expansion.

Oddly though, although the cover is shown – on the order form there is no option to actually pick the Vic 20 version. So was this a mistake, and had Melbourne House decided early on to drop the title?

It would be amazing if a conversion was found to have been started, and we will try to get in touch with a few ex-Melbourne House developers to see if they know anything about it. Chances of finding something are slim, but who knows!

Gallery

Posted in: Commodore, Reviews, Vic 20 | Tagged: | 4 Comments

Q-Bert Qubes

Posted: , last updated: by fgasking

198? Parker Bros

Platform: Commodore Vic 20

Is this a vapourware title, or was something feasibly started of this Q-Bert sequel on the Vic?

The game’s manual for the Atari platform all but confirms that “Commodore” was due a conversion, but was it Vic 20 as well as Commodore 64?

Well, the Commodore 64 version was actually confirmed and found in its final state a few years ago. So it could be that it was just a C64 version that was ever planned.

Hopefully some day someone will step forward with more information, either confirming or denying such a conversion existed.

Posted in: Commodore, Reviews, Vic 20 | Tagged: | Leave a comment