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

Tip Off

Posted: by Frank Gasking

1992 Anco / Imagineer

Platform: Super Nintendo

Following on from recovery of the long-lost NES version of Tip-Off, we now have a version for the Super Nintendo that was also in production around the same time.

tip off large

Originally developed by Enigma Variations for Anco and set for release via Imagineer, the SNES version was ultimately canned when Anco’s partnership with Imagineer ended. With high manufacturing costs and no major backer to support production, the financial risk proved too great in the end. It seems that development was so early, no announcements from what we can see were made in the press about the game. Continue reading →

Posted in: Reviews, Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Nightmare Busters Rebirth

Posted: by Frank Gasking

Here is an exclusive early access look at the rebirth of an iconic 1990s Super Nintendo game that never saw release back in the day, with Nightmare Busters Rebirth. Pix’n Love Games and Aurora Game Studio have spent the past 4 years breathing new life into the title with this wonderful remake, which includes input and guidance from the original creators – due for release on Steam, Nintendo Switch and PlayStation platforms.

If you’re not aware of the background story of the original game – Nightmare Busters was originally developed in 1994 by Arcade Zone for the SNES and was to be published by Sony before focus was switched to their new PlayStation platform.

It later saw a release of sorts with Flynn’s Adventures on mobile in 2004, with a prototype being leaked around 2010 according to SNES Central, and eventually getting a physical release in 2013 thanks to the Super Fighter Team. Now Pix’n Love and Aurora Game Studio are unleashing their own take on the game in 2025, as well as something special for SNES fans too. Continue reading →

Posted in: News, Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) | Leave a comment

GTW64 April 2025 update

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Our fourth update of the year has yet more Commodore 64 goodness, and a bit more of a holiday bonanza with 14 new entries (including a stack of titles intended for the Commodore MAX). Also we have 20 entry updates that you can check out too (details of each update in the history notes).

Should hopefully have a nice surprise for you all soon too – watch this space and see you next month!

14 new entries added

Ace Of Aces, Apple Eater, Avenger, Bally Football, Darts, Golf, Hall Of The Mountain King, Menagerie, Qix-type game, Racetrack Special, Sargon II, Spiders From Mars, Tornado Baseball, Windsurfing

20 updates added

Air Battle, Barbarian 3, Battlestorm, Benidorm, Commando Libya – part 2, Cosmax, Fun Flyer, Greenhouse (MAX edition), Heavy Barrel, Lauren of the 25th Century, League of Light, Lifespan, Magnum Force, Mars Cops, Midwinter, Missile Command, Paddle Mania, Pirate Attack, Sub Hunt, Vanguard

Posted in: GTW64 news, News | Leave a comment

Alien Olympics

Posted: by Frank Gasking

1994 Mindscape

Platforms: Commodore Amiga (1mb) and Amiga CD32

Following the recent recovery of the Game Gear game Alien Olympics, we were surprised to find a curious “Alien.500” file that I suspected might be an Amiga conversion.

Alien Olympics 008

Thanks to the absolutely amazing work of Galahad, that’s now been confirmed. He’s managed to patch up the file and get it working – allowing us to load and play what remains of a very early Amiga conversion by Mark Greenshields. Continue reading →

Posted in: Amiga CD32, Commodore Amiga, Reviews | Tagged: | Leave a comment

X-Wing V1

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Before LucasArts’ X-Wing soared into polygonal glory on PC, it began life as a sprite-based space sim built on the engine used in SWOTL and Battlehawks 1942. Thanks to a tip from Andreas Wanda, a rare glimpse of this early version may have surfaced in a 1992 slideshow video – complete with a possible screenshot at the 0:30 mark.

xwing v1

Thanks to contributor JP, another screenshot has been found within The Adventurer, LucasArt’s old newsletter. A very different cockpit to the final game and the TIE interceptors certainly look like they could be sprites. Or was it merely a mock up?

Could more of this original prototype still be out there? With many of the original devs still around, there’s hope. If you know anything more, please do get in touch! Continue reading →

Posted in: PC, Prototype, Unused materials | Tagged: | 3 Comments

The 7th Sword of Mendor

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1992-1995 Thalamus / Grandslam

Platforms: Commodore Amiga, Amiga CD32 and PC

Originally conceived as a spiritual follow-up to Abandoned Places, The 7th Sword of Mendor (also known as Seventh Sword) was an ambitious RPG project from Hungarian team Amnesty Design. The game was pitched as a graphically detailed, story-driven experience that blended classic Dungeon Master-style gameplay with the open exploration and the look/feel of Might & Magic III.

mendor 006

Despite several years in development, magazine previews, and even a playable demo sneaking out on PC, the title ultimately vanished following the demise of its publisher. Continue reading →

Posted in: Amiga CD32, Commodore Amiga, PC, Reviews | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Tip Off

Posted: by Frank Gasking

1992 Anco / Imagineer

Platform: Nintendo Entertainment System

As the archive continues to grow each week, we’re now excited to bring you the long-lost NES version of Tip-Off (due out way back in 1992), fully recovered in its final state and available for download.

tipoff large

Originally developed by Enigma Variations for Anco and set for release via Imagineer, the NES version was ultimately canned when Anco’s partnership with Imagineer ended. With high manufacturing costs and no major backer to support production, the financial risk proved too great in the end. Continue reading →

Posted in: Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Reviews | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Scraper Caper

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1983 Big Five Software

Platforms: Atari 2600, 5200, 400 and 800

Following Miner 2049er, Bounty Bob was now set for the Big City and its fire department, where he must fight a major skyscraper fire in what was to be Scraper Caper. Sadly, the game was never to be.

Way back in 2001, Bill Hogue gave a reply back on a user group about the game:

scraper caper advert

“Scraper Caper was supposed to be our next game after Miner 2049er. We had a lot of success with Miner and ended up licensing it for just about every computer that existed at the time. This put a lot of pressure on us to come up with something that was incredible and could duplicate Miner’s popularity.”

Continue reading →

Posted in: Atari 2600 / Atari VCS, Atari 400/800/XL, Atari 5200, Reviews | Tagged: | 5 Comments

Mind Bender

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1993 Tom Larrow

Platform: PC DOS

A very short entry for a title that was released in a very limited form, but is currently missing in action and yet to be preserved (we think!). Mind Bender (or Mindbender) was a Mastermind clone written by Tom Larrow, and was submitted to BBS sites in 1993.

It was also included in some Shareware compilations back in the day, as one of the registrations made for the game was from a disk purchased at a mall kiosk. It seems that thanks to DOS Games, it was distributed on a Software of the Month Club CD in July 1994, so could anyone still have a copy of that?

The game itself was written in GW Basic, and was likely compiled into an EXE that was around 40-50Kb in size. Our searches at the time have only found a Windows version of the game by someone else. Within this particular game is Tom’s full name, and an address of Norwalk, OH where he lived at the time as a nag screen.

Do you have a copy of Tom’s game at all? And if so, can you help us re-unite him with his long lost game?

With thanks to Marc Schulder for highlighting, DOS Games for helping with the search and Tom Larrow for further information.

Posted in: PC, Preservation | Tagged: | 2 Comments