Preserving Cancelled & Unreleased Video Game History Since 1999
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.
Released on the Atari, Vic 20 and TI-99/4A, this was an educational spelling game.
The game was additionally advertised for the Commodore 64, but has never surfaced for reasons currently unknown. At present, the only known Romox game that has been preserved for the C64 is Princess and the Frog.
Certainly the lack of a conversion isn’t due to the company collapsing, as they lasted into 1985. So did the C64 conversion hit development troubles, or did it infact get a release which is yet to be found and preserved?
Released on the Atari, Vic 20 and TI-99/4A, this wasn’t a clone of the arcade game of the same name, but was closer to Dig Dug in many ways.
The game was additionally advertised for the Commodore 64, but has never surfaced for reasons currently unknown. At present, the only known Romox game that has been preserved for the C64 is Princess and the Frog.
Certainly the lack of a conversion isn’t due to the company collapsing, as they lasted into 1985. So did the C64 conversion hit development troubles, or did it infact get a release which is yet to be found and preserved?
Advertised back in 1983 along with two other games that were released and are currently in Gamebase64, Cargo Run is unfortunately missing.
The game was described by the advert like so:
“With your Commodore 64 computer plotting the precise coordinates for this dangerous mission, prepare for the most engaging video battle of your life. Three separate and highly detailed scenarios mean 48K of memory is required to present CARGO RUN, the most sophisticated game now available on the Commodore 64.”
Didn’t all the adverts suggest this at the time about their games?
It is unknown at present if this game was ever actually sold at all, or perhaps didn’t make it due to Luna collapsing. The company didn’t seem to release anything beyond 1983.
More information needed, and yet another one to try and find and preserve.
There is a Sphinx game in gamebase but I’m not sure if it’s the same one. I think this one might be a different one.”‹ “‹”‹ Not to be confused by the game of the same name by ALA Software, this was to be a 3-D adventure game, which the advert described as follows:
“You the Adventurous Explorer are looking for lost treasure of the Sphinx. It is rumored to be in the Ancient Pyramid of RA. Beware of deadly traps and hidden passage ways.”
The game was listed as being developed by Cory Cristensen, but we know little more at this stage about the game or what happenned to it. Only the other advertised game Zarcon was released on the C64 by D.E.S. Soft. So was this ever given any kind of release, or did D.E.S. Soft collapse before it could make it out?
A game company that predominately produced games for the Atari, but also tried to get involved on publishing C64 titles too. They released the game Final Flight! (see advert) and also Trivia Trek in 1984. Phoenix Lair was another title which was described as follows:
“An arcade style game comprised of 10 boards and 10 speed levels. It is unlike any game on the market today. Multiple strategies, an interlude jousting challenge between boards, bright and lively colors and music add to the already superb play of this completely unique and different game.
Game Play: The game begins at board one and advances to higher boards after successful completion. Many obstacles are encountered on the various boards as points are accumulated. At the beginning of each board, the Phoenix must leave its lair in search of enemy eggs. The Phoenix flight is controlled in height by the joystick button, and in direction by the joystick itself.
After successfully destroying at least six of these eggs the Phoenix must return to the far right side of its lair. Points are awarded based on the total number of eggs destroyed and the time in which it took to complete the mission. A fast mission will result in additional bonus points. You begin with 5 lives and gain additional lives at boards 7,9 and 10. PHOENIX LAIR is all machine language. Requires 40K RAM, a disk drive and 1 joystick. Disk only available for COMMODORE and ATARI.”
It is unsure if the game ever managed to sneak out at all, but it is currently missing and unpreserved. The Atari version did however make it out, so did the C64 version perhaps hit difficulties during development?More details of the Atari version, including some better scans can be found at http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-phoenix-lair_3944.html
In August 2023, collector John Christian Lønningdal found an eBay listing of the game which proves that the C64 edition was indeed released. It just needs to be found by the right person and fully preserved. The only issue is that the copy listed was sealed, so it is doubtful that a collector would break it open willingly to preserve what is on the disk.
Please keep a look out for copies of this game therefore, and hopefully some day it will be found!
The advert mentions Atari, Com 64 and Vic 20. But the Commodore 64 version is nowere to be seen.”‹ The screenshot shown seems to be a mockup with a hi-res font compared to the Vic 20 edition, which could well be based on what the C64 version looked like.
It is plausible that all versions were developed by Don McGlauflin, so hopefully that is a lead to follow.
An educational game which might be out there, but has yet to be preserved. Or is it a title that never quite made it?
Monkeybuilder has a 256 word set, designed to increase spelling and vocabulary skills into 17 different work skill areas. The idea was to encourage children to combine word pieces correctly to form building blocks, and make a tree house for Marc (the monkey?). The advert shown even gives a screenshot. The other two games, Monkeymath and Monkeynews were released and can be found within Gamebase.
Thanks to one of our contributors within the comments, it has been confirmed that the game was sold – but just limited numbers it seems. A copy surfaced on Ebay in August 2023, and the game has now been fully preserved! See scans and download below.
A short entry for a collection of games that are currently missing.
Advertised in Compute! July 1983, the four games were to be:
Head On – A daring and dangerous death race
Alien Invasion – 4 players. Creatures descend.
Atomic Man – Super hero rescues a city.
Serpents – 2 players. Snakes entangle each other.
It is believed that Head On and Alien Invasion are in Gamebase already under the label of ComputerMat. However, the other two titles seem to still be at large.
A quick entry for a title flagged up by contributor Atari Frog, which was an educational game about the stock market. It was released on the Atari 400/800 around 1981 and was advertised as being available for the Commodore 64.
Was this sold at all for the other platforms, or was it cancelled due to poor sales of the Atari version? We believe that it is out there, but likely sold in just limited numbers, as mots educational titles did.
Yet another aborted Double Dragon conversion for the C64, and this time this was for the Ocean Software development of the game from the early 1990s. Although it could just be a different variation of the current and limited cartridge release that was made.
Graphic artist Anthony Rosbottom recalls working at Imagitec on the conversion with Psy The Hero (Part of the famous Compunet duo, Psy and Mat), aka Simon Hulbert. The conversion featured monochrome graphics, which we’re not entirely sure why that decision was made exactly.
After finishing work on the graphics, Anthony went on to work on Viking Child for the Amiga, ST and DOS. He later heard that Ocean had rejected the development from Imagitec due to the monochrome graphics that were present.
It seems that Imagitec then threw extra resource onto the development to get it re-done and re-developed into the colourful version that Ocean eventually released. Well, sort of released. The game only got a very limited release at a show on cartridge, and in really quickly knocked up packaging. It’s likely that Ocean still weren’t happy with the end result, probably just made up a few cartridges for shits and giggles… maybe?
Simon is still credited, but it seems he only now had a bit part on the development. The original game was just Simon and Anthony working on the title overall, and the development was actually complete. So we believe that there is a vastly different development out there yet to be discovered.
Sadly Anthony no longer has anything of his work, so its now down to hopefully tracking down Simon and seeing if he may have anything of his original work.
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