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 short entry for a title advertised in Personal Computer Games issue 13 way back in December 1984, but seemingly never made it out at all.
Or did it?
In Gamebase64, there is currently a Magician’s Ball entry, a graphic text adventure that was released by Global Software.
Did Softstone collapse, and did the game get brought up by Global? Softstone certainly did release some games on the ZX Spectrum, one of them was released by Firebird after about a year.
Hopefully we will find out soon to confirm and potentially close this case.
A graphic adventure game which promised hundreds of different screens, using a random generator to allow for up to 64K different views.
This game was advertised in Personal Computer Games issue 13 way back in December 1984, but seemingly never made it out at all.
The game seems to have been mail order only, so did anyone buy a copy and get something back in the post? Or did the company collapse before any games could see release?
It’s early days, but it is hoped that this promising adventure game will some day be found.
A short entry for yet another SEUCK effort that was being produced by Stoo Cambridge, and could well have also gone on The Power House label.
The game was to be a Starforce style game, but never got too far before it was cancelled. Stoo believes that there is a disk with data on somewhere, and if he can find it – he will pass it onto GTW64 to preserve.
For the time being, check out the print outs and developer notes that Stoo has found, with two printed loading screens. One show’s the game’s earlier name “Nebulas”, which was changed due to being similar to the Hewson title.
However, we’re not sure yet if Anthony was the actual developer of the C64 version. The game was never released when Roklan collapsed before it could sneak out. The game itself is a kind of Asteroids clone, but with some nice little features that make it a little bit different than the usual clones.
Ken revealed that he found the game (along with Joust) in the archive of a retired programmer who worked at Roklan. Ken has very kindly provided a CRT image of the game to download, along with a photo of the cartridge that was preserved.
Check this great finding out for yourself and another piece of history preserved.
A short entry for a title which we know was released, but is yet to be fully preserved. This was an expansion disk for PHM Pegasus by Electronic Arts, and was released back in 1987. The expansion disk seems to have had limited sales and has rarely cropped up.
Thanks to contributor Non sono Mandrake, Dragon magazine #140 (December 1988) had a note to say that Lucasfilm plans to directly market a new Advanced Battle Disk. As a result, i’ve updated the release date.
Thanks to Solegiallo for the heads up, the game has been preserved by HOK/Remember. We have now added a download to the site and photos courtesy of HOK/Remember. This means it was indeed released, another preserved and therefore is a case closed!
A collective entry now for what was to be a large number of Spectrum text adventure conversions to the Commodore 64.
In Commodore Force issue 1, Bash the Barbarian mentions that The Guild’s Tony Collins had picked up the rights to convert several Spectrum adventures to the C64. There was a quick round up (see scans) listing the following titles in particular:
Run Bronwyn Run – Larry Horsfield
Axe of Kolt – Larry Horsfield
Magnetic Moon – Larry Horsfield
Starship Quest – Larry Horsfield
Grueknapped – Bob Adams
Krazy Kartoonist Kapers – Kez Grey
Desmond and Gertrude – Scott Denyer
Microfair Madness – Gareth Pitchford
It is likely that others were also planned. But all of the above seem to be missing at the moment, so were they ever converted or even started at all?
A short entry for a series of titles by The Steam Powered Computer Company which were highlighted by contributor Dan Warren.
At present, the only game by the company in the archives is The Inheritance, which was released in 1985 by the company. The advert shown here was from August 1984, which suggests that these games were released and it wasn’t a case of the company disappearing before they could sneak out.
It seems the games were only sold by mail-order, so they may have sold very limited numbers overall. The titles in the advert were as follows:
42 Camelot Close – Graphic text adventure
Trolls Cavern – Animated adventure
Holocaust – War game
Tycoon – Strategy game
Copter Run / Zaphon Attack – Double pack arcade action.
Mouse Muddle / Nine Lives – Double pack educational games.
All the games were listed as having “Rocket” express loading, and other games listed as coming soon were:
The Cure – 1000 location text adventure
Siege – Battle simulation
Neptunes Lair – Underwater adventure
How many of these games actually made it out, and can you help us preserve them?
An interesting looking title which looks a lot like Dicky’s Diamonds, but was a US based release that was going to be on cartridge back in early 1984.
The game was reviewed by Electronic Fun with Computers and Games magazine, January 1984 and you must free jewels from a series of progressively harder spider webs.
We know at least that the game was complete due to the review, so was it actually ever released at all? Maybe in limited numbers?
Early days, but we hope to find something of this game soon!
A short entry for what was an Italian graphic text adventure which is currently at large. The same developer has a number of other creations already in Gamebase, but this this title and one other has yet to be found.
Interestingly both were credited as being published by Arscom, so did the company go under before the games were released?
A short entry for what was an Italian graphic text adventure which is currently at large. The same developer has a number of other creations already in Gamebase, but this this title and one other has yet to be found.
Interestingly both were credited as being published by Arscom, so did the company go under before the games were released?
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Games That Weren't® is the registered trademark of Frank Gasking.
