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.

Latest News and Posts

Chuck Rock 2: Son of Chuck

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1992 Core Design

Platform: Atari ST

I loved Chuck Rock on the Amiga, and even the C64 edition that was pretty impressive at the time. It comes when a sequel was created and released on a number of platforms including Amiga, Mega Drive and even Master System to name but a few. But did you know an Atari ST version was also on the cards? Well … spoiler alert, there wasn’t – as we’ll find out shortly…

chuck2 1
What was shown in the magazine as a “Chuck 2” set of assets – but was in fact sprites for Wonderdog.

ST Review magazine got an apparent exclusive on the development for the platform back in August 1992, where the story and concept was revealed, as well as details of how the graphics were being constructed. According to the article, they were being put together by artist Lee Pullen on the ST within OCP’s Art Studio package. Chris “Egon” Long would be handling the SNASM-based coding work. Continue reading →

Posted in: Atari ST, Reviews | Tagged: | 1 Comment

Batman

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1989 SunSoft

Platform: PC Engine

Batman was indeed released on the PC Engine, though a much different design for the game was once underway by Sunsoft, and based closely on the 1989 Batman movie. Originally scheduled for release in December 1989, it was once planned as a side-scrolling action game with a cinematic feel, featuring key elements from the film.

batman 3

This particular development seems much closer to what was released on the NES, with the first level seemingly being remade here. ParanoiaDragon suggests that Sunsoft at the last minute decided to switch gears and place Batman characters within an already existing maze game. The question is – why? Continue reading →

Posted in: PC Engine, Reviews | Tagged: | 2 Comments

Slicks

Posted: by Frank Gasking

1993-1994 Codemasters

Platforms: ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Commodore Amiga, SEGA Mega Drive

Slicks is one of my favourite Commodore 64 racing games of all time, but did you know that there were also conversions on the cards for the other 8-bit platforms, but also the Amiga and SEGA Mega Drive? Unfortunately, all were never to see the light of day.

slicks zx 1

First off, there was to be a ZX Spectrum edition that was being created by Nigel Speight, which followed the design of the C64 version very closely with similar looking screens. It was previewed by the likes of Sinclair User and Your Sinclair with some decent looking screens. But then nothing seemingly surfaced. Continue reading →

Posted in: Amstrad CPC, Commodore Amiga, Mega Drive / Genesis, Reviews, ZX Spectrum | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Joe the Monkey

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1990 Ubi Soft

Platforms: Commodore Amiga, Atari ST and PC

Joe the Monkey is one of many projects that were in development and cancelled by Ubi Soft around this time. Thanks to Hoagie, we learn that the game has you controlling a monkey that must drop things on the head of the lumberjack cutting down your tree.

joemonkey1

Generation4 magazine gave a detailed preview where they said the following: Continue reading →

Posted in: Atari ST, Commodore Amiga, PC, Reviews | Tagged: | Leave a comment

GTW64 February 2025 update

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Our second update of the year has more Commodore 64 goodness in the form of 7 new entries and 11 pre-existing entries updated (check ‘history’ tab for details of changes).

See you next month!

7 new entries added

Dino Time, Hårsfjärden, Mickey’s Crossword Puzzle Maker, Moonshadow 2, Nova 9: The Revenge of Raf Torin, Skyfox 2 – missing missions, Torpedo

11 updates added

Back in the USSR, Computer Theater, Deathbringer, Donkey Kong Jr, Messiah 3, MicroLeague Sports titles, Piper Software games, Thunderhawk, Transmuter, UFO Robo Dangar, Unknown K-Byte game

Posted in: GTW64 news | Leave a comment

A talk at Retro Collective

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Just had the most fantastic weekend at Retro Collective with my wife, Tasha, giving a talk on Games That Weren’t and the digital preservation of unreleased games over the past 25 years or so. A huge thank you to Neil and the team for inviting me – I was completely blown away by how many people had paid to come along (some from quite far, including the Netherlands!) just to hear me ramble on for just over an hour. It was especially great to see my friends Paul Drury and Paul Savage, who had traveled a long way – mostly to heckle me!

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I was incredibly nervous at first, especially with a few hours to wait before my 2 PM talk and the challenge of cramming everything into an hour. But Neil and the whole Retro Collective team made us feel so welcome, and the crowd was fantastic – laughing at the embarrassing photos and bad jokes, asking loads of questions, and generally making it an interactive and fun experience. I even managed to sneak in some audience participation to give them a breather from my voice!

UPDATE: You can now view the talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsLHpIC2Ycs

Afterwards, there was a book signing and some great chats with people who had come along. I couldn’t believe it when Neil told me that all the copies had sold out! Continue reading →

Posted in: GTW64 news, News | 3 Comments

Axe ‘n Crossbow

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1993 Scangames (Scandinavian Games)

Platform: Commodore Amiga
Also known as: Seven gates of hell

After a less than perfect experience with the development/release of Fuzzball on the Amiga, artist Tomas Dahlgren returned to Sweden, determined to create the perfect arcade game on the Amiga platform. As a result, he started working on a title called Axe ‘n Crossbow, with the plan (in Tomas’ own words) to create “a giant medieval maze game similar to Elevator Action.”. The name of the game referred to the two protagonists, a male warrior and a female elf.

Axe'nCrossbow 03

In the 2016 book “Svensk videospelsutveckling. Från 50-tal till 90-tal” (Swedish video game development. ’50s to ’90s) by Sunhede and Lindell, a bit more information is given about the game:

“But despite the setbacks [with Fuzzball], Dahlgren doesn’t give in, [instead] he does the graphics for a game he calls Seven gates of hell, later renamed into Axe ‘n Crossbow. He’s inspired by [the arcade game] Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Atari, 1985) and the graphics are impressive even today, but [the game] is soon canned. He is offered to sell his graphics, but Tomas, now wizened, refuses.”

Continue reading →

Posted in: Commodore Amiga, Reviews | Tagged: | 3 Comments

Codemasters early conversion entries added

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Thanks to Adam Markey for highlighting a conversions call from Codemasters in April 1987, we’ve created a set of new entries for ZX Spectrum, Atari 800, MSX and Commodore 16/Plus 4:

Posted in: News | 1 Comment