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

Tantalus

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1991 Electronic Arts / Maverick Developments

Platforms: Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, PC

Tantalus was to be a complex 3D space simulation for a variety of platforms back in 1991, where you could play solo or in a multiplayer mode. The team behind the development was Maverick Developments who wanted to push things to the limit with their game that was heavily inspired by classics such as Elite.

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Within the game you would control a young pilot without any money or a ship, where you must work for others to try and get money to trade and eventually travel from planet to planet doing trade. Profits generated from the activity will allow you to improve your ship and increase chances of survival. Continue reading →

Posted in: Atari ST, Commodore Amiga, PC, Reviews | Tagged: | 3 Comments

Chevy Tech 1987 disk

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

A slightly obscure title now for the archive in the form of a Chevrolet advertisement disk, which has a series of prices and specifications for different Chevrolet vehicles.

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8-Bit Show and Tell have previously covered the disk and its various formats, and look at an 1986 edition of the disk, which even contains a game called Depreciation Derby. This particular disk seems to be a 1987 edition with a different loading screen and music.

It is with huge thanks to Allan Pinkerton for preserving, so that we can make it available. It’s an interesting curiosity, and at the very least another SID tune for HVSC :-)

With thanks to Allan Pinkerton for preserving and sharing!

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Posted in: Commodore 64 (C64), GTW64 news, Preservation | Tagged: | 2 Comments

Ice Palace

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1983 Xonox

Platform: Commodore VIC-20

There has been a little flurry of late with regards to VIC-20 recoveries, and towards the end of 2023, yet another was found thanks to ItsAllDougAndGames, who brought a set of cartridges from an auction in the US. The auction was from the estate of an individual who had been a programmer and worked for various companies including Coleco.

Doug reported the odd prototype cartridge of Ice Palace, which had been released on the Commodore 64 and had seen a prototype surface for the Colecovision. After a little while would test and dump to make available. It wasn’t sure at first if the game was a prototype or a complete game, but it seems that it is thankfully the latter and quite a nice and fun game overall (if a little tough!).

It begs the question as to why the game was never released. Was it due to dwindling sales and people moving onto the Commodore 64 or for other reasons?

For now, check out the complete game for yourself and see yet another lost VIC-20 title saved. With thanks to @itsalldougandgames for the recovery work for this game and making available.

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Posted in: Commodore VIC-20, Reviews | Tagged: | 2 Comments

Kayleth unused title screen?

Posted: by Frank Gasking

We had a recent submission from Baracuda of a screen which is potentially related to the game Kayleth by U.S. Gold on the C64 in 1987. The question is whether it was intended for the game, or just a tribute image?

Kayleth Head upload by Baracuda

We personally think its just a tribute image done for somewhere like Compunet (by a DRR) in 1986, and based off the book (as it was a year before the U.S. Gold release). Thanks to BugJam, it seems DRR might be this person.

If anyone knows – please do get in touch or leave a comment.

Posted in: Commodore 64 (C64), GTW64 news, Unused materials | Tagged: | 2 Comments

GTW64 Christmas update 2023

Posted: by Frank Gasking

Only feels like yesterday when I was doing the last Christmas update for GTW64, but here we are and we have a bumper update as always for you, including some very special prototypes from the disks of the late Archer Maclean, who sadly passed away last December.

We also have a series of commercial titles that have been preserved thanks to the efforts of Allan Pinkerton and a series of lost Hungarian titles dug out by Csaba Virag. This and a number of new entries added to the archive and a load of updates too for pre-existing entries. We hope you enjoy! Continue reading →

Posted in: Commodore 64 (C64), GTW64 news, News | 6 Comments

Archer Maclean materials

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1984-198? Archer Maclean

Platforms: Commodore 64

Whilst going through Archer’s work disks, we found a few bits and pieces lurking on the disks, which might be unseen artwork or work that Archer has done. We’ll add to this page over time as more comes to light.

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First up we have a series of Doodle pictures found on Quicksilver’s Doodle disk that were saved, including oddly work stages for New Generation Software’s Escape. But also a set of train images, which we are wondering if they are linked to 3D Tunnel at all. There’s an unfinished Sceptre picture too. Did Archer know the artist, and was he given the disk?

According to correspondence from Archer – Quicksilva were in talks with Archer about potentially publishing Dropzone (before U.S. Gold took it on). Maybe they provided Archer with a copy during the time he was speaking with them? Continue reading →

Posted in: Commodore 64 (C64), GTW64 news, Unused materials | Leave a comment

International Karate prototypes

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1986 Archer Maclean / System 3

Platform: Commodore 64 (Atari to come)

In late 2023, Games That Weren’t was tasked with trying to preserve all of the late Archer Maclean’s work disks – including Atari and C64 formatted disks. At the time of writing, work is still ongoing, though we have been given permission by Chris Wilkins (Fusion Retro Books) to add any executable/early prototypes to show you that we find along the way.

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First up are a small selection of prototypes from the first International Karate game, including a non-playable demo with two fighters interacting, and with no score panels or sound. There is a more advanced second prototype with the same kind of thing, with music and no sound effects.

Continue reading →

Posted in: Commodore 64 (C64), GTW64 news, Prototype | Tagged: | 3 Comments

IK+ prototypes

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1987 Archer Maclean / System 3 / Activision

Platform: Commodore 64

In late 2023, Games That Weren’t was tasked with trying to preserve all of the late Archer Maclean’s work disks – including Atari and C64 formatted disks. At the time of writing, work is still ongoing, though we have been given permission by Chris Wilkins (Fusion Retro Books) to add any executable/early prototypes to show you that we find along the way.

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Next up are a selection of prototypes from International Karate + (aka IK+), which show how Archer’s early idea for creating a 3rd fighter would start to blossom and build up into the IK+ game that we all know and love. If you haven’t already, we recommend checking out this great documentary on how both IK and IK+ were created: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRFZS9wzt7s

Continue reading →

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

Polar Bear in Space prototypes

Posted: by Frank Gasking

2023 Silvan Reinhold / Psytronik Software

Platform: Commodore 64

If you haven’t seen Polar Bear in Space already, then you are missing out on a wonderful shooter/platformer which has elements of Wizball, Retrograde and even Dropzone with the explosion of the main protagonist.

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At the time of writing, a new Black Edition of the game is immiment, which features new music by Jon Wells and a specially produced loading screen by Robin Levy. Silvan has also written a brilliant book that details how the game was all put together, which we recommend you keeping an eye out for. Continue reading →

Posted in: Commodore 64 (C64), GTW64 news, Prototype, Unused materials | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Defender and Stargate discoveries

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Our second Games That Weren’t Christmas update day is for Atari 8-bit fans, with a hugely important discovery and set of findings from the disks of the late Archer Maclean, which GTW has been meticulously preserving thanks to Chris Wilkins (Fusion Retro Books), who has been overseeing and ensuring his work is preserved.

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We all know that Dropzone was heavily inspired by Archer’s love of Defender and Stargate in the arcades, though for the first time today, we reveal that before Dropzone – Archer had almost done official conversions of both Defender and Stargate for Atari.

Check out our two new entries which give the full story of what happened, as well as crucially something for you to see and play.

In addition to this, we have also produced a special YouTube video to talk through the findings and the build up of what eventually led Archer to creating Dropzone.

With huge thanks to Chris Wilkins (Fusion Retro Books) for the loan of Archer’s disks to preserve and permission to add executables to the site, Alan Hammerton for hardware help, Mat Allen for the flippy PC drive loan, Ashley Hogg for assistance in looking at one of the prototypes and Bertrand / Atari Frog for guidance and help with tools and formats.

In memory of Archer Maclean – 28 January 1962 – 17 December 2022.

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