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.

Latest News and Posts

Hidden Treasure

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1992 Enigma

Platform: PC

An interesting title that has been flagged up to us thanks to contributor @AnythingAnyth19. This is a title which was created especially for a competition and was in three segments overall.

HiddenTreasure2

We are not sure just yet if this is a competition that never happened, though we haven’t been able to find the game at all in digital archives as of yet. Also, it seems the game and competition was only advertised a few times before disappearing – likely when the competition finished. If the game/s were actually distributed and released, then they may yet need to be preserved. Continue reading →

Posted in: PC, Reviews | Tagged: | Leave a comment

GTW64 January 2022 update

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

A new year and a new update to the GTW64 archives, with the following new entries and updates – including a bizarre title that may or may not have existed called Vector Chickens.

5 new entries added

Alcatrax, Ironoid, Sight Attack, Tank Division, Vector Chickens

11 updates added

Bamboo, Deathstalker, Jet Boat Simulator, Miner Willy Meets The Taxman, Moses: Old Testament Adventure #1, Murder!, Myth 2: Dawn of Steel, Pirates of the Ocean, The 4th Dimension, The Soul Gem Of Martek, Winter Camp V1

Posted in: GTW64 news, News | Leave a comment

Boulder Dash 3D

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1996 Szymon Ulatowski

Platform: Amiga 1200

A short entry for a title highlighted to us by contributor Stefano Castelli. This is an unofficial Boulder Dash clone done within a 3D environment.

Even though you may argue about how well a 3D version of Boulder Dash could work compared to a 2D edition, the game moves at an impressive rate and made its mark on Amiga users when a demo was released.

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Although the developer was interviewed in magazines such as Amiga Review, and the game previewed (see scans), a final version was seemingly never completed and only a demo now seems to remain. Continue reading →

Posted in: Commodore Amiga, Reviews | Tagged: | 1 Comment

Champions

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1992 Konami / Hero Software

Platform: PC (DOS), Amiga and Apple Mac

Champions was a RPG table-top title created by Hero Games originally back in 1981. Setting you within a superhero/comic book themed world, it won a legion of fans, who continue to enjoy the game to this day.

Back in the early 90’s, its popularity resulted in the planned creation of a computerized PC edition of the game, and was set to be published by Konami. According to one magazine article, there were plans for Amiga and Mac versions too.

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Kicking things off, you would set up your character with an initial allocation of “points” given to you to spend. Along with some basic characteristics, you would pick a mask, colour of outfit, power effects and even dialogue for interactions before jumping into the comic book world. Continue reading →

Posted in: Apple Macintosh, Commodore Amiga, PC, Reviews | Tagged: | 9 Comments

Making of the not making of Heart of Yesod

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Steve Wetherill has just created a post with details of Heart of Yesod, including the raw original Q&A that was used to aid producing the write up the GTW book. The design document from 1989 has also been typed up and tidied up, which you can check out at:

https://blog.stevewetherill.com/2022/01/heart-of-yesod-game-that-wasnt.html

Steve’s blog also contains a number of articles about his past work and projects that should definitely be checked out!

Posted in: News | Leave a comment

Myth: History in the Making V1

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Following on from the recent console cancellation of Myth covered on the site, team member Grzegorz Antosiewicz got in touch to highlight a series of changes to the Amiga/ST editions of Myth. What follows is based mostly on the text which Grzegorz submitted and after briefly speaking in the past to Robin Levy and Paul Docherty.

Firstly, it is believed there were roughly distinctive three phases of development for Myth on the Amiga/ST platforms:

1. A simple port of the Commodore 64 game for both Amiga and Atari with similar art style.
2. A first phase of change for art style and gameplay.
3. A second (and likely final) change of art style and gameplay.

Phase 1

During the first phase, System 3 had Bob Stevenson on board as the main graphic artist. At this stage, the game was going to be released for both Atari and Amiga. The game would have more colours compared to the C64 version of course, but with the same main hero just like in the C64 version.

myth large4

There were early press previews in “Zero” and “The One” magazine showing this version, where there was going to be picture of girl in the intro, and she would welcome the player with a digitalized voice sample like in the C64 edition. Continue reading →

Posted in: Atari ST, Commodore Amiga, Prototype, Unused materials | Tagged: | 5 Comments

Rygar Lynx prototype

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Next up is a short entry for a potential prototype to try and find, thanks to Ross Sillifant for highlighting. When you take a look at the original Tecmo arcade, and various home conversions – you will notice that pretty much all (we haven’t checked every single format) have 5 power-up slots in total. All that is except for the Atari Lynx version:

rygar emushot

Above you can see there are only 4 power up slots, which is fair enough – the Lynx has a smaller screen compared to other formats, so a reasonable thing. Continue reading →

Posted in: Atari Lynx, Prototype, Unused materials | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Anirog brochures

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Several years ago, whilst preserving The Soul Gem Or Martek for the Commodore 64, we also scanned in some brochures and a club magazine from Anirog software. These don’t seem to be online anywhere, so we have added a page here to share this history with you.

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They give a fascinating insight to what the company was releasing at the time and behind the scenes a little with its club magazine. We hope you enjoy them via the galleries below.

Continue reading →

Posted in: Preservation | 1 Comment

Dark Chamber

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1989 Rainbow Games

Platform: Arcade

Already we have seen a few entries into Games That Weren’t which are arcade releases that were being done by console/home computer software companies, such as Zool, Fire and Forget 2 and The Living Daylights. However, Germany’s Rainbow Arts was also to get in on the act back in 1989.

darkchamber6

The publisher had produced its very own arcade motherboard called Pluto, which offered 128 colours per scan line and per playfield and with a resolution up to 640×480 pixels. Up to 50 million pixels could be moved per second, and there would be hardware zoom and turning features available.

All of this was coupled with a 32-bit processor at 15mhz, 16-channel stero sound and an I/O expansion area for hardware additions in the future. Continue reading →

Posted in: Arcade, Reviews | Tagged: | 3 Comments

Myth: History in the Making

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1998 System 3

Platform: Sony PlayStation, PC, Nintendo 64 and SEGA Saturn

A fantastic game which I have very fond memories playing on my Commodore 64, Myth: History in the Making was due to be revived by System 3 for the Sony PlayStation and various other platforms back in 1998.

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Sporting what seems to be a similar engine to The Last Ninja (also in production around the same time), the game got hit with delays due to a dispute with Eidos regarding the name ‘Myth’ (of which Eidos had released a game of a similar name on the PC by Bungie Software). In one news snippet in Extreme PlayStation Magazine, it is suggested that the Eidos game would tarnish the name of ‘Myth’ for System 3. Continue reading →

Posted in: Nintendo 64, PC, Reviews, SEGA Saturn, Sony PlayStation | Tagged: | 1 Comment