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

The Big End

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1994 The Hidden

Platforms: Commodore Amiga 1200 and CD32 (later A500)

I’ve always been a fan of racing games on 8-bit and 16-bit platforms, especially Slicks on the C64 and Micro Machines on the NES. So when Darren Gurney highlighted this long lost Amiga title, I was quite excited when I saw the screenshots.

Amiga CD32 Gamer Vol 006

The Big End (or The Big Engine, as it was known before that) was due for release on the Commodore Amiga around late 1994, mid 1995. Developed by The Hidden (who had created Donk! The Samurai Duck amongst others) and to be published by Supervision. Continue reading →

Posted in: Amiga CD32, Commodore Amiga, Reviews | Tagged: | 3 Comments

Wrecked: A Psychedelic Adventure

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1994 Healthwise

Platforms: PC and Commodore Amiga

Wrecked: A Psychedelic Adventure was an Amiga and PC platformer, developed by KKOS and was apparently published by Healthwise. However, at present – only a shareware demo of the PC version currently exists.

Richard Cobbett covered the game within his Crapshoot column, where he talked about the strange edutainment game that had once appeared on PC Zone’s January 1995 covermount as a demo. It isn’t a particularly great game by any stretch of the imagination, but it is the content and story behind the game that inspires trying to find it in its final form.

wreckedlarge

The full game was described in the demo readme (re-quoted from Richard’s article) as consisting of “5 levels, 12 drugs and hours of Stoned action!!!!!!!“. The aim ultimately was to get as “high” as you can to be able to win and progress in the game. Continue reading →

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

GTW64 July 2021 update

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Slightly slower month as the days get hotter, but here is another GTW64 update for the month. This month we take a look at an Alternative Software game that never was, but has been out there for some time. Details of a strange planned reworking of S.T.U.N Runner with a Duck protagonist that was found lurking around in the code of Dreamraider. An obscure early German adventure game that is missing from GB64 and much more. Enjoy!

4 new entries added

Domain, Jungle Adventure, Unicorn Software titles, Zanga-duck and the gribblies

ratsdomain3

17 updates added

Accilatem, Adam Caveman, Ah Type, Alvin and The Chipmunks, Aquablast, Astrodome, Astromine, Aurum, Buffalo Roundup V1, Dune 2, Murder!, Pang V1, Plotting, Questerious, Quo Vadis, Rigor, Spy vs Spy 4

Posted in: GTW64 news | Leave a comment

Tomahawk (incorrect title)

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1991 Tomahawk (Coktel)

Platform: Amiga 500 (Actually released), Amstrad GX4000 (Unreleased)

UPDATE: Case solved – this was released as Cougar Force. See below!

Our next entry is not to be confused with the Digital Integration game of the same name, but was a completely different 3D shoot-em-up that was split into eight different stages and style of gameplay.

tomahawk 2

The basic storyline suggested that as a chief secret agent, you have infiltrated a series of small islands which are acting as the base for an infamous group of international felons. Lurking somewhere on these islands are the leaders of the organisation, and it is these that you must locate and assassinate. The levels would consist of a number of different styles, such as beat-em-ups, driving scenes and 3D piloting. Continue reading →

Posted in: Commodore Amiga, Reviews | Tagged: | 4 Comments

Construxion

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1995 The Hidden

Platform: Amiga 500, 600 and 1200

Our next entry into the archives is an unreleased platform game called Construxion, which was being developed by a team called The Hidden back in 1995. Some sources suggest it was also called Construction and Constructor at some stage too.

Construxion 1

It was described as a Tetris-y platformer, but inspired perhaps by titles such as The Lost Vikings and Devious Designs where the goal was to fill in designated areas with blocks – so you could build bridges and other structures. You would control one of three building contractors with different personalities and abilities, so cooperation is therefore key to solve some of the puzzles. Continue reading →

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

Mancopter

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1984 Datasoft

Platforms: Atari 400/800, Apple II and PC

If you have never played Mancopter on the Commodore 64, then you are really missing out. It is one of the great early C64 games which feels like an extended version of Joust across across a treacherous sea. In the game, you fly your ‘Mancopter’ , peddling to fly and avoid others in their copters and pass as many as you can.

mancopter2

Thanks to a contributor, only known as ‘Dan’, we’ve been shown clear plans for conversions to the Atari, PC and Apple platforms, as shown in a schedule in a Datasoft sales leaflet. The C64 version looked to be the lead edition, with the others following afterwards. Continue reading →

Posted in: Apple II, Atari 400/800/XL, PC, Reviews | Tagged: | 2 Comments

Lemmings 3D

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1994 Psygnosis

Platform: Commodore Amiga 1200

A surprising entry for now thanks to Keith Gilliland for the heads up, after a post was recently made on Reddit about the Amiga being ahead of its time graphically.

From what seems to be an ex-Psygnosis/Clockwork Games developer (who wasn’t involved directly), there is mention of a version of Lemmings 3D running on the Amiga. However, it was cancelled as “the frame rate was so bad”.

When asked for more details, the developer suggests it was in early development and more of a tech demo.  There were the basic fundamentals with 3D blocks and Lemmings wandering around, but no proper levels or anything at that stage. 

The developer suggests they saw it running on a producer’s machine – an Amiga 2000, before it completely disappeared for good. There doesn’t seem to have been ever any announcement about an Amiga conversion at the time in the press unfortunately.

The likelihood of the prototype is probably slim, but we’re hopeful something could be recovered. Do you know anything more about this development?

With thanks to Keith Gilliland for the heads up and contribution.

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

My tribute to Jason Kelk

Posted: by Frank Gasking

Recently my good friend of 27 years, Jason Kelk, sadly lost his 15 month battle with COVID. It’s still sinking in that he’s no longer with us, so to try and help process things I wrote a blog post about my memories of meeting Jason and the time we spent over the years.

It’s been written freely and from the heart, so its quite a long piece, but hopefully gives an insight to what a good friend he was.

https://fgasking.wordpress.com/2021/06/27/my-memories-of-jason-kelk/

Posted in: GTW64 news, News | 8 Comments

GTW64 June 2021 update

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Still just about managing to sit at the computer long enough in the heat to produce another GTW64 update for a new month. This month we have a 30+ year long lost Kele Line game recovered, a 32 year old RPG preview recovered, details of an Artic game conversion never released and a big list of updates to pre-existing entries. Certainly check out the updates to Worron if you have missed the other news posts this month. Enjoy!

6 new entries added

A.E, Accilatem, Alladin’s Cave, Hungry Dead, Roadburner, The Mad Scientist

acc1

16 updates added

Aurum, Blood Bowl, Covermount casualties, Force Of Four, Future Bike Simulator V1, Ladders To Learning, Murder!, Mutant Zone, Mythos, Otherworld, Penguin Tower, Super Thief, Tiger Road 2, Time Crystal, Trooper, Worron

Posted in: GTW64 news | Leave a comment

Shao Lin’s Road C64 master disk

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

There are some nice surprises that turn up from time to time in the C64 scene, and one recent one has been the surfacing of the Tape / Disk masterer of Edge/Softek’s conversion of Shao Lin’s Road on the C64.

Thanks to Nawfal Firas who found the disk in their collection, it was passed onto archivist John Watson, who has produced a G64 image of the disk for posterity.

Below you can find a download of the image, plus scans of the disk itself and instructions on how to run and compile the master. It is very likely to be exactly what was mastered as the final game, and therefore no differences. However, this is an important preservation of what was used to create the final copies of the game that people loaded up. And as fellow preservationist Havar Bruvold Hojem perfectly summed it up – “A peak behind the curtain”.

Thank you to Nawfal Firas and John Watson for their fantastic work.

Download

Master_ShaoLinRoad

Scans

Posted in: Commodore 64 (C64), GTW64 news, Prototype | Tagged: | Leave a comment