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.

Latest News and Posts

The Heist – Released on Atari / IBM PC * jr?

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

A quick post after receiving an email today from a Robin Gravel who has highlighted the classic title “The Heist” – a title I remember well on the Commodore 64.

In the advert which you can see here, the game is additionally advertised for the Atari and IBM PC + jr platforms. However, neither of those versions seem to be out there at all.

So the question is, were these two ever released at all? Or did they just sneak out in limited numbers?  Let us know if you know anything more and thanks to Robin for flagging this one up.

Posted in: Atari, PC, Reviews | Tagged: | 1 Comment

Commando War

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1990 Titus Software

Platform: Commodore Amiga, Atari ST and PC

Commando War was to be a very ambitious title from Titus Software back in 1990, a sort of cross between Populous and Cannon Fodder. But what was particularly ambitious was that the game was introduction of a concept called Action Concept. More on that in a bit.

comwar2

This particular game would allow you to play a squad leader in control of up to 10 commandos, or you and a friend could control 5 each on the same side. There would be a series of missions that you could take part in across different maps, in a flip-screen style mode (at least that is what the Zero article suggests – no scrolling). Continue reading →

Posted in: Atari, Commodore Amiga, PC | Tagged: | 2 Comments

Ocean C64 assets

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Just a quick post to share some odd Ocean related C64 assets I found as I was tidying through some archived disks from Dawn Hollywood (Nee Drake) and Paul Hughes when backing up some old CDs:

These “Time Out” and “Game Over” screens I don’t recognise from anywhere and they were on an unlabelled disk, recovered as deleted files. Not fully sure what format they are, so its possible they may have colour data not showing.

UPDATE: Contributor Hank (see comments) has confirmed that the screens are from Pang! Added how it should look to the above gallery. Mystery solved, though they are slightly different overall, so earlier screens or possibly even from another build.

Then on one of Dawn’s disks is an unfinished/unused loading screen for Vindicators, which attempts to do some hires colouring. In the end it was kept to just a monochrome screen for the final release.

A set of curiosities which we hope you find interesting. Hopefully we’ll find out soon what the Timeout and Game Over graphics were intended for.

Download disk

Posted in: Commodore 64 (C64), GTW64 news, Unused materials | Tagged: | 3 Comments

Space Junk

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1993-1994 Imagitec

Platforms: Atari Falcon and Jaguar, Sega Mega CD, Amiga CD 32 and PC

As we moved into the 1990s, games were becoming far bigger and bolder – especially with emerging new data storage options for consoles and computers. Space Junk was to be an ambitious title by Imagitec, who were asked by Atari to produce a space adventure game for their new Falcon platform. We pull together information from various press sources from the time about the game and try to piece together a little of what it was about, and what happened in the end.

Due originally for release back in June 1993, the game was to feature over 200 locations with digitised backdrops, between 60-100 fully animated characters and each complete with speech samples. What made this game quite uncommon at the time was the use of puppets/masks to create the characters and animations – giving an almost life-like feel to the game. Certainly the digitisation would require some decent storage capacity, meaning it had to be CD for storage – otherwise the Falcon version would require a mega-ton of floppy disks or at least a cut down edition produced.

Although it seemed to be lined up initially as an exclusive for the Falcon, Imagitec decided to hedge their bets on more than one platform (which would turn out to be wise). They would add the new Sega Mega CD to the line up early on when discussing the game with Sega Force magazine in 1993.

Dawn Whitehead-Binns working on the sculptures, as Nick looks on wearing the mask of main protagonist Randolf.

Continue reading →

Posted in: Atari, Commodore Amiga, PC, SEGA Mega CD | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Starfighter Ace

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1993 Maelstrom / Mirage

Platform: PC

The next entry to go into the archive is a title which has been in my blurred memories for many years. I always recall sitting down and watching an episode of Gamesmaster on Channel 4 in the UK and seeing a 3D special, where contestants played a cool looking Star Fox style game. The contestants (and viewers at home) would need to wear a pair of classic 3D glasses to view the game properly.

Thanks to the power of the internet and all the magazine archives out there, I was discover that it was a title called Starfighter Ace. Planned for release by Mirage back in 1993 on PC only. What was surprising was that the title was being developed by Maelstrom, the Liverpool based team which had Mike Singleton at the helm.

Continue reading →

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

Monster Demolition and Impossible Mission (Atari Lynx)

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

A quick post showing two early Atari Lynx developments which would eventually turn into something completely different. Thanks to Ross Sillifant for highlighting both.

The first is a title called Monster Demolition, which has some video footage online of the game running. Here is a screenshot from an Italian gaming magazine which shows another scene from the game, and from a town/city scenario:

Continue reading →

Posted in: Atari Lynx, Features, Prototype, Unused materials | Tagged: | 2 Comments

Restrictor

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1992 Thalamus

Platforms: Commodore Amiga and Atari ST

Restrictor was being developed by Arc Developments during the early 1990s for the Commodore Amiga (and also reportedly the C64). It was to be an original title from Arc, developed for Thalamus where you could drive and also fly, with around 4 planets to explore and various alien waves to fight.

Continue reading →

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

Dino Crisis

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

2000 Fluid Studios

Platform: Nintendo Game Boy Color

The PlayStation Dino Crisis is a well known title by Capcom, and was designed by the very same team who had created Resident Evil. However, there was also to be a GameBoy Color conversion of the game as well. But overall there were not one, but two separate attempts at trying to bring the game to Nintendo’s handheld.

The first was being developed by Fluid Studios, which after cancellation, would move over to M4 Ltd as a completely new development and design direction. More details about both developments are already well covered and documented at Unseen64.

An anonymous contributor got in touch recently to provide some real pixel assets from the brief development, which you can see here and below. These include what we believe to be a previously unseen screen and dinosaur sprites. Continue reading →

Posted in: Game Boy Color, Nintendo, Reviews | Tagged: | Leave a comment