Preserving Cancelled & Unreleased Video Game History Since 1999
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.
A very short entry for now, for a simple text adventure game that has been recovered by GTW64 regular Csaba Virag and which doesn’t seem to be in Gamebase or elsewhere just yet.
It is a German language text adventure, which may or may not have been released. We know little apart from that it was by “Sargmacher Soft”. Do you know anything more about them and if this was a commercial release?
Professor Chaos has confirmed that the game was created in 1988, and there isn’t a huge amount to it. Under additional info, we’ve added unnecessary commands and walkthrough provided with thanks to Professor Chaos.
For now, check it out for yourself and good to see another game preserved.
Accilatem was an early attempt at an RPG created by a 15 year old LDX#40 in 1989 whilst operating under the handle of “Noggie” at the time. It is also “Metalicca” spelt backwards too :-)
Sadly the project was never finished, but 32 years later the disk with the final remains of the game was preserved and made available for people to check out for themselves.
The game is a bit fiddly to load, so you will need to read the notes text file within the archive for details on how to get it working.
LDX#40 got in touch to confirm that it was not considered for commercial release, and was making it up as they went along back in the day. Check out the “Creators Speaks” section where he talks more about the development.
Our next entry was flagged up by Gamebase64, as we’re not actually sure if the game ever saw a full release or not. Maybe you can help us?
The game has been within the digital archives since its supposed release in 1989 by Players Premier, but there seems to be no trace of a released copy or inlay at all. So was it ever released or did something happen to prevent its release? Maybe it was cracked like with Plotting before its release?
Warren Pilkington spotted that the game did see a release of sorts in Italy under the name of “Speedy“. There was quite a big thing with games being pirated and renamed in Italy, and this is indeed another. Question is whether it was from a leaked copy or from a commercial Players release of Roadburner.
It is certainly a strange one, as the game is pretty good for a budget title and reasonably playable. Check it out for now, but if you know more or have a proper copy – please let us know!
When Keith Purkiss got in touch to confirm that he was the developer of Apprentice for Rainbow Arts, he also revealed that he had been involved on a Commodore 64 conversion of Artic Computing’s Alladin’s Cave.
This was a single screen arcade platformer, similar in ways to Manic Miner and also Tales of the Arabian Nights. Ironic really, as Keith’s team also worked on the Spectrum and CPC versions of that game for Interceptor.
This could well be the reason why the game never saw release. Interceptor had complained to Artic that it was a lot like Tales of the Arabian Nights at the time. Keith could not 100% recall, but believed that they had converted the Spectrum graphics and code across, so it was essentially a Spectrum port.
When we first added this entry, Keith felt he no longer had anything of the game. But then in 2024, Keith found all of his work disks, including a full copy of Alladin’s Cave. Games That Weren’t has now fully preserved it, and you can finally play this long lost and complete conversion!
It is very similar to the Spectrum version, but features more colours and a tune that gets quite annoying quickly. You can see why Interceptor were a little miffed too! This game allows you to explore, rather than have to collect all objects and it is a nice early C64 platformer overall.
A lovely surprise to end 2024 and yet another lost game fully recovered. Hopefully in the future we’ll learn why the game was never actually released compared to the ZX Spectrum version.
A recent recovery in 2021 and lost for well over 30 years, The Mad Scientist was sent to several major software houses at the time in the 80’s, such as Kele Line – who seemed most likely to publish. Unfortunately, when Kele Line went bankrupt, the game disappeared with them.
Thanks to the graphics artist Jens Christian Thomsen, the game was preserved from an old tape and released via CSDB. The game itself is a neat split screen helicopter game, which feels a heck of a lot like Elite’s Airwolf, and surely must have been inspired by it.
We hope to learn more about the title from the team in the future, but for now, check out the game for yourself and see a title that could have been a lot of fun with two players. Though of course with as much hair pulling as with Elite’s Airwolf!
Our next entry into the archives is a recent one, which was a sideways scrolling SEUCK title that was being worked on by JinxTengu in 2008.
According to Richard Bayliss, the game was aimed to be split into different parts, but sadly nothing happened. The complete game was to appear on to the TND contributor’s page, with some unreleased music made by Richard. Sadly nothing happened, the game never got finished.
Richard suggests that the author may have moved on from the C64, but has kindly provided what remains of the game, including a tidied up version which is easier to run.
Hopefully it may be come back to and finished off. We’ll see.
Thanks to Marco Das, we learn that Brøderbund’s early single screen shooter title A.E was apparently due for release on the Commodore 64.
Released on the likes of the Apple, Atari and Commodore Vic 20, a C64 version was referenced in an early catalogue (see scans), but when the Atari version was eventually released – it disappeared. Then oddly a Vic 20 release happened.
So was there ever any C64 conversion under way, or was it merely a printing error in the magazine of the time. It would have made sense to have had a conversion, so we believe something had been started.
Still early days, but if you know anything more about this potential conversion – please do get in touch.
A short entry thanks to Ross Sillifant, where Popular Computing Weekly reported in June 1985 that Longmans were trying to sign a deal to the computer game rights for Miami Vice.
In the brief news item, it is suggested that the publisher were discussing the project with Hewson Consultants, who it is hoped would do the development work once the deal was signed.
Well, the deal was never to be signed in the end it seems, and a year later it was Ocean Software developing the title. So the question is whether anything was ever started by Hewson, or if the deal only got as far as initial discussions?
A short entry thanks to Csaba Virag, who has found yet another early build of another piece of C64 software. This time for Stareggs, before it seems it was sold to Mirrorsoft or Happy Software for publication.
There might be more differences to discover, but the key things are with the in-game graphics, but also the following which Csaba has spotted:
Different start-up screen with instructions (separate in the final version)
No Happy Software logo
You can select from Level 1-2-3 instead of Lives 4-6-8
Different instructions / story
The intro is completely missing
The first shooting level completely missing
It is strange how the disks that Csaba has been going through have had so many earlier editions of some of the games – suggesting that it was possibly a leak by the person who had the disks originally. It’s a great little curiosity though which is worth checking out.
Of course, the game was completed and released, so it is a case closed already for this one.
As with Solider of Light, it seems even Alien Syndrome once had an earlier edition in production by a completely different team. However, with this entry – it was being developed for publication by a completely different company.
Similar to the situation with Airwolf between Ocean and Elite, U.S. Gold were intending to convert and release the game to home computers and had commissioned Adventuresoft (via Mike Woodruffe) to do the Commodore 64 conversion.
Assigned to the task was developed Mat Ellis, with graphics by Simon Dunstan. The team were sent the arcade machine for about a month, where the team got to work getting as much of the game converted as possible. However, after just a month of work – the deal had fallen through and The Edge/ACE had got the licence instead. Mat feels that had they been able to continue, their conversion would have been superb.
To try and make some money back and make use of what was a great looking engine coming together, the team decided to rework the game into an Alien Syndrome clone called Subclavian, featuring robots as main characters.
When asked if anything of the original Alien Syndrome edition had survived before it was changed, Mat sadly confirmed that he no longer had anything. Copies had been shipped weekly via Red Star, so it is possible that a few copies may exist somewhere – but nothing has been forthcoming. Mat sadly had all his work stolen from their offices in May 1991.
At the very least though, you can check out Subclavian for an indication of how it was shaping up. The name of the ship called “VEGA” being a subtle change from “SEGA” of course. There are bits of the Player 2 panel present at the top as well. Looking through the code, there seemed to be no other remnants left, of old unused sprites or similar.
Hopefully some day something of the earlier Alien Syndrome themed edition will be found.
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