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 since 1999.

Please Browse our archive and discover the many entries that we host for many different platforms.

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Entropolis

1994 Inter Zone

Platform: DOS

Our next short entry is for a strange psychedelic shooter for DOS that was due for release from a German company called Inter Zone.

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The only evidence of the game we have found so far is of a short website entry regarding its music (with no downloads) and a short news item within Power Play magazine from 1994, where some screenshots were shown. Continue reading

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Desert Moves

1992 Dinamic Software

Platforms: Commodore Amiga, Atari ST and PC

Very short entry for now until we get more details, though it has been revealed thanks to JazzGhostrider and Lemon64 forum member ricky006 that by completing Arctic Moves on the PC, you are congratulated by a message that mentions Desert Moves as the next game.

There is also a mention in this article too, which may have come from the ending as well. Then the Spanish edition of Retro Gamer (issue 32) revealed in an article about Arctic Moves a bit more about the apparent sequel. Victor Ruiz (creator of the saga) would confirm details with the following:

“The Desert Moves thing at the end of the game was put in without much intention, to continue with the tradition, but without the idea of ​​making a new game. That said, It is clear that the idea was to make a trilogy that ended with Arctic Moves, although we will always have doubts.”

So, this unfortunately confirms that nothing was ever started in the end, and the only other sequel would be an unofficial sequel in the form of Space Moves (which you can see more details in the scans). Case closed!

With thanks to JazzGhostrider and ricky006 for flagging up and archive.org for the scans.

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Atari Results Program

1984 Archer Maclean

Platform: Atari 400/800

As our preservation work continues with the late Archer Maclean’s disks, we take a look at something a little different and unexpected that was found within his Atari 8-bit formatted disks.

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Archer’s program in action, and overlaid over the TV coverage – courtesy of Atari User magazine.

After developing his Defender and Stargate proof of concepts to get the attention of Atari UK, Archer had then done some freelance programming during 1983 to produce an Oil demonstration program, which was then repackaged up in 1984 for Atari to showcase how demonstrations could be produced with the hardware. Continue reading

Posted in: Atari 400/800, Reviews | Tagged: | 2 Comments

Popie

1984 Simon Freeman and David Hayhoe

Platform: ZX Spectrum 48k

Our next entry is an interesting Popeye clone that was produced for the ZX Spectrum back in 1984. It was discovered on a set of tapes at Ocean by Mark R. Cobley-Jones, who was working at Ocean at the time as a graphic artist. He found the tape in 1988 within a load of rubbish and saved a copy to a Microdrive at Ocean. It was then forgotten about until around 2015, when Mark found it again and managed to salvage it.

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It seems that the clone was sent around to a number of companies at the time, including Ocean, and was never picked up – probably due to the copyright issues (there is even a drawing of Popeye on the loading screen!). The game was never advertised by anyone, but it was completely finished. Continue reading

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Trunkski

1994 Core Design

Platform: SEGA Game Gear

Trunkski (sometimes misspelled as Trunski) was announced by Core Design as a new Game Gear title at the same time they were due to become their very own publisher. The title was a typical cartoony platformer, as was common at that time and was due for a Summer 1994 release.

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However, Core Design’s title would feature some unique humour according to Electronic Games magazine, where you control an elephant who has to clean up a valley overrun with hard-hatted, cigar smoking Rhinos and other amusing animated enemies. Continue reading

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GTW64 May 2024 update

As we near the middle of 2024, work continues in the Commodore 64 archive of Games That Weren’t, with more new entries added and also 23 titles updated in total. Much more on the way too for next month! (Apologies to Anonymous Contributor, whose recent set of new contributions I’ll add for next month).

5 new entries added

Centurion Software titlesDas Reich der TotenDragon’s LairTronUnnamed Star Trek game

23 updates added

Many more entries updated – each entry contains a “History” tab to explain what has been updated.

ArthurBacillusBubblesElerooEpsilonGalencia Khaos SphereHalloweenHalo JonesJudge DeathLock OnMurder!Operation Thunderbolt V1Paradroid V1Space RaiderStorm WarriorStrider USATime Scanner V1Toms RevengeTop WrestlingTrojanVirusWinnetouWonderboy V1

See you all next month!

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Masters Golf

1990 Atari / Epyx

Platform: Atari Lynx

A very short entry for a title that has been flagged up by Ross Sillifant and mentioned by RJ Mical in an old Atari Lynx interview back in Electronic Gaming Monthly (issue 4).

RJ mentions the following when talking about the sprites, and mentions a ‘unique golf’ game which doesn’t seem to have ever seen the light of day:

“Lynx programmers can also produce unlimited sprites (at any given size) for their games. In other words, you can have any number of moving objects on the screen, and they can be as large as you want them to be. Epyx is currently developing a unique golf game, where the player sees things as the ball might see them (once it has been hit).

This program features over 700 sprites, while the average home computer game usually contains several dozen sprites. After examining these statistics, it’s easy to see that our golf game displays an incredible amount of detail. Here is another point of interest: the maximum clock speed of the unit is 16 Mhz. This means that the Epyx game system operates faster than any other video game console ever made.”

Continue reading

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Der Schatz im Silbersee

1993 Software 2000

Platform: Commodore Amiga and CD32

Our next entry into the GTW archives comes courtesy of Anonymous Contributor, who had been digging into details on Winnetou for the Commodore 64 and found a stack of new information on the Rainbow Arts game.

Schatz im Silbersee, Der 008

However, when the Rainbow Arts game died a death and disappeared off the face of the earth, another title from the Karl May series would be marked as coming soon from Software 2000, with Der Schatz Im Silbersee (or ‘The Treasure of Silver Lake’ for the English translation). This would be a few years later in 1993, when adverts began popping up in German gaming magazines. Continue reading

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Super Monkey Ball

2006 Unknown

Platform: Mobile J2ME

A short entry for a Java Platform mobile de-make of the classic Super Monkey Ball. It is not currently known if the development ever got further than just a few mock up screens.

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In 2024, ex-Ocean Software artist Bill Harbison would provide Games That Weren’t with a series of mock-up screens that were produced to show how the game could look on the platform, depicting a very Marble Madness’esq design overall where you would have to collect a series of bananas. Continue reading

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Frame City Killer

2006 Namco

Platform: Microsoft Xbox 360

Frame City Killer was announced back in May 2005 as a next-generation action adventure game for the Xbox 360, utilizing the new upcoming Unreal 3 engine and consisting of immersive and non-linear gameplay. The intention was to try and release the game in time for the system’s launch – but things were not to go to plan.

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Press release screenshot courtesy of Gamersyde.

GTW takes a look at the title, thanks to help and input from gaming historian John Szczepaniak. The game story had you controlling a secret agent named ‘Crow’, who has to hunt down a criminal drug lord. A press release from Namco at the time gave a bit more detail and background overall:

“Set in a futuristic metropolis in East Asia, ‘Frame City Killer’ casts players as Crow, an assassin sent to Frame City to identify and eliminate Khan – a mysterious terrorist and head of a deadly new-age drug cartel.

As a hit man, players track and profile targets, while utilizing numerous methods to execute the perfect hit. ‘Frame City Killer’ offers players a dark and gritty storyline, thrilling car chases and a variety of ways for players to achieve their goals.”

Continue reading

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