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.
Our next entry looks very much like an isometric version of Cannon Fodder, also released by Virgin, but this was around 1-2 years before that game. This particular title was in development by Perfect Set, and was to have plenty of missions (around 50) to play, where you can do whatever you want.
You would control a group of soldiers, where you could upgrade their firearms from pistols to flame throwers and go against heavily armoured vehicles and other soldiers. Amiga Power described the game as being a “Paintball simulation”, which doesn’t seem to add up compared to the other previews of the game, who called it “Lemmings with missions” Continue reading →
Well and truly back up to speed this month with 6 new entries, and 18 updates overall to various titles. There is the new mystery of a U.S. Gold release that seemingly never was in most parts of Europe, details about early versions of Knuckle Buster, great progress being made with Firebird’s Ice Age, and much more!
Back in 1997, Amiga users with a PowerPC processor card (and 32MB RAM) were looking forward to an ambitious new game called Between The Lines, a real-time first person action RPG, created by Thomas Schulze.
At the time, there was no solid story set for the game, though the only thing the developer was certain of was that there was no brave chosen warrior, no big bad guy and no happy ending. The aims of the game were dependant on your actions in the game overall and you could choose the type of person you wanted to be to play throughout a series of tasks and stories. Continue reading →
It is with thanks to Chris Abbott that we add this new Amstrad CPC GTW entry for a conversion of Knuckle Buster. Although released on C64 and ZX Spectrum, any CPC edition was nowhere to be seen (if anyone can find an advert with the CPC version listed – please let us know!).
Chris informed GTW that Rob Hubbard completed (and was paid for) an Amstrad CPC port of his C64 KB music. Sadly the music is now lost, but if perhaps something of a CPC conversion was ever found – then this could be recovered as part of it. Continue reading →
Its with thanks to Liqmatrix that we learn about Galander, which was an action game that was being developed for the PC back in 2005 by Detalion Games.
On their archived website, the plot was detailed as being one which absorbs the player, where there are unexpected twists that will force you to change your behaviour in the game. Continue reading →
Joe Douglas sheds light on two cancelled Defenders of the Earth character Game Boy Advance titles, The Phantom and Mandrake, that were due for release in 2003. This piece was originally written for Joe’s Chronicle Chamber website back in 2016, though Joe has kindly allowed us to mirror the recovery and downloads in case you missed it originally and to add to the GTW archives. We now hand over to Joe:
The majority of phans will be aware of the Defenders of the Earth video game that was released for various home computers in 1990 and, of course, the arguably more famous Phantom 2040 game released for the Sega Mega Drive, Sega Game Gear and Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1995. But did you know that the Phantom almost had a third console outing, along with fellow Lee Falk creation Mandrake the Magician, in 2003?
In the world of video games it is not uncommon for games to begin being developed only to be unceremoniously cancelled and never heard from again. Indeed, some games reach a near complete state with only the smallest of fine tuning left before the plug is pulled. The stories behind these cancelled games are many and varied but always fascinating. To help uncover the secrets of these two games, ChronicleChamber contacted Sebastiano Mandala, one of the founders of Italian video game design studio 7th Sense Studios who were tasked with developing the games.Continue reading →
A bit more up to speed this month, with 5 more new entries, including a large catalogue listing to try and find a bunch of software that may not yet be preserved and a homebrew title that hasn’t seen the light of day since 1991. Then a nice 16 updates to existing archive titles with some tidy ups and new information in places.
According to ST/Amiga Format’s preview of our next unreleased game entry, Guardian Moons had you in the control of a sadistic and psychotic terrorist who has to go around causing chaos and destruction everywhere. The objective would be to destroy eight guardian moons that protect the peaceful planet of Gargamadua.
From the limited screenshots, the game seems to be a sort of Transbot-style game, but its hard to tell. Details about what you do exactly in the game are quite sparse. Continue reading →
Platforms: Commodore Amiga, C64 (see link below) and PC
Originally we knew of this game thanks to its appearance in an Early Warning scanner in Commodore Format magazine. This was for the C64 edition, which we have covered already under the C64 GTW archive site. Our focus for this page is for the Amiga and PC editions which are also currently missing.
The basic story line was of a Mad Doctor Von Stal discovering a way to send people into hyperspace, but hasn’t worked out how to get them back. But also how to stop the flood of monsters coming through the opening he’s created and are taking over people’s minds.
Platform: Atari ST (also Commodore 64 – See link below)
We have had a detailed page on the cancelled C64 development for quite some time – but hadn’t realised that an Atari ST edition once existed until flagged up by Ross Sillifant.
Batman Returns was previewed in ST Action issue 63 back in June 1993, and showed a number of screenshots of the game in progress. The game was being developed by Denton Designs, where according to the article, John Heap was the programmer, with Ally Noble and Dawn Jones on graphics, and with Fred Gray on music.
The game was initiated in October 1992 according to the article, and was due for release in September 1993. Oddly though, the film was released in July 1992, and it seemed quite late for the game, where usually games were developed to co-incide with the film release. Continue reading →
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Games That Weren't® is the registered trademark of Frank Gasking.
