Preserving Cancelled & Unreleased Video Game History Since 1999
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 huge thank you to Allan Pinkerton, who has preserved several educational titles from Micro Labs and Cymbal Software for the Commodore 64.
As they are not unreleased game entries, we have just made this post to make them available to all, and hopefully over time they will get integrated into various other digital archives, including Gamebase64.
Here are the links below and a huge thanks once more to Allan for all his hard work!
Or as its full title: ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation – A World For All Seasons’. This early 3DO title was to be a ground-breaking interactive adventure game from Spectrum HoloByte, based on the famous franchise.
The game was a sort of “Choose-your-own-adventure” game, with many different options available that could lead you to other clues (or traps), with cinematic clips dropped in at various key points. A feature piece on the game in Electronic Gaming Monthly also indicates that there would have been real-time action sequences in space too. Continue reading
With thanks to Ross Sillifant for the heads up (with KidGameR186496 flagging up on the AtariAge forums), new footage of Dactyl Joust’s intro from the Atari Jaguar has surfaced thanks to The Obscure Media Archive:
How was it found? The Obscure Media Archive reported that their dad was the VP of the art department at High Voltage, and the footage was found whilst clearing out the basement.
It’s a great finding, and hoped that more (including something of the game itself) can be found in the future.
This is a short entry to extend our Dragon 32 entries into the Games That Weren’t archive, with what was to be a conversion of the popular C64 game – Confuzion.
The conversion was announced as being underway at the 6809 show and reported by Dragon User in April 1985.
It is unknown whether any development was ever started, as the Dragon port of the game was due to start once “The Ket Trilogy” had been completed.
It seems that sadly the conversion got caught up in the demise of the Dragon 32 commercially. Was it ever started though and could anything be found of it?
With thanks to Simon Hardy for highlighting.
This is a short entry to extend our Dragon 32 entries into the Games That Weren’t archive, though for three titles which were announced, but there is no evidence at this stage that development was ever started on the Dragon 32 versions at least:
The titles in question were:
All three games were being created by Brian Howarth, and were mentioned as about to be converted to the Dragon 32 by Dragon User magazine in January 1985 from their 6809 Show Highlights.
For After the Fire, CASA Solution archive has Brian mention that he came up with the title, along with any advertising synopsis associated, but never got any traction on the project. It was a similar story for Midwinter, and for Beyond the Infinite, nothing really more was heard about the game.
The titles were also discussed in a CASA thread back in 2012 according to Alastair (see comments), where there was a surprising development in 2013 that led to Jacob interviewing Brian Howarth. In the interview, it revealed:
“The Mysterious Adventures series was supposed to continue with two more games, After the Fire and Midwinter, but none of these ever made it past the ideas stage. After a period Brian describes as quite stressful, loaded with family and work obligations, he wrapped up the 1980s with the arcade game Theme Park Mystery and work on SSI’s Heroes of the Lance.”
So sadly that was it. Isn’t clear about “Beyond The Infinite” just yet, but we hope to learn more soon.
With thanks to Simon Hardy for highlighting and Alastair for further information and links.
This is a short entry to extend our Dragon 32/Plus/4 entries into the Games That Weren’t archive, with what was suggested as being a new Adventure International title that was being released for the Dragon 32 and also Commodore Plus 4.
Questprobe 2 – Spiderman has been incorrectly listed as being available on the Dragon 32 by various websites, but there is no evidence according to Simon Hardy that the game was ever converted. A potential conversion was mentioned in the April 1985 issue of Dragon User magazine, but that was about it.
It is possible that a conversion was on the cards, but the dwindling Dragon 32 market was felt to be a reason to put the stops on one. Was anything ever started? Hopefully Scott Adams can shed more light in the near future.
As for the Plus/4 edition – Luca/FIRE from plus4world mentioned they also felt there could be a version for that platform too released as a secret b-side (which has been seen via Sharedata/Green Valley releases and has been seen for Questprobe 3: Fantastic Four. So was it the same for Spiderman too?
Atarimania (see comments) suggests that the game would likely have been ported by somebody at Adventure International’s UK branch, likely Andy Burras or Brian Howarth.
With thanks to Simon Hardy for highlighting, Atarimania for the developer suggestions and Luca/Fire for flagging about the potential Plus/4 edition.
PC Review magazine in August 1993 described Secret of the 7th Labyrinth as requiring you to “Zoom around killing things and make sure you do it fast”. There were also comparisons to Wolfenstein, which the whole segment (see gallery) was highlighting overall across a number of upcoming titles.
Extras however within the game would include stairs, angled walls built into the scenery – which apparently you would be able to build up or dismantle in a map editor and create your own labyrinths. Continue reading
A small post on an earlier build of Wizard of Wor that has been highlighted to us by Roberto Nicoletti.
Some years ago, Jeff Bruette released all of the source code to the game, which was then very carefully compiled up by Commodore International Historical Society. Continue reading
Just a quick post to share some preservation work by our friend Allan Pinkerton, with Linkword German by Artworx on the Commodore 64.
As it was released, it doesn’t warrant creating a GTW64 entry, so we’ve done a post with it instead for people to grab.
With thanks to Allan Pinkerton for preserving and passing on.
A late title for the Dragon 32 now, with one which was apparently similar to Uridium on the Commodore 64. A Uridium clone on the Dragon 32? This I would love to see!
The game was announced in a Quickbeam catalogue in March 1987, and Simon Hardy suggests that the game was reportedly seen working at a 6809 event in 1988. Continue reading
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