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.

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MBC

Posted: by Frank Gasking

1999 Nick London

Platform: Nintendo Game Boy Color

Our next entry into the GTW archives is a very early Game Boy Color title called MBC that was being created by a developer/artist called Nick London in 1999, before his days of working on Star Wars and Need for Speed games.

mbc large

MBC (not sure what it currently stands for!) is a simple platform shooter, sort of like a miniature version of Rolling Thunder, where you have a fun that fires rapidly and needs to be replenished by pressing down on small ammo panels. There is an enemy that paces back and forth, but you cannot harm them in this demo. Continue reading →

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

Countdown

Posted: by Frank Gasking

1991 Access/US Gold

Platforms: Commodore Amiga and Atari ST

Countdown was an adventure game consisting of digitized characters and with synthesized speech, eventually released in 1991 for MS-DOS. According to the PC version’s review in The One magazine (February 1991) – Amiga and Atari ST versions were due in autumn of that year.

count 000

Sadly, it was never to be and apart from the mention in The One magazine, there has been no further details about either of the conversions. The question is whether they were ever started and if so, how far did they get? Continue reading →

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

Tip Off Game Boy and GBC Color prototypes

Posted: by Frank Gasking

More Game Boy prototypes added to the Games That Weren’t archives, with a set of Tip Off ones for the Nintendo Game Boy. However, there are also an interesting set of early Game Boy Color versions that we have also included. More on that a bit later.

tip off gbc large

The Game Boy prototypes date from the 10th November 1992 to 22nd February 1994. There is a build that had a timestamp of 22-10-99, but we think this was just from a backup, the same as with another from 2021. Continue reading →

Posted in: Game Boy Color, Nintendo Game Boy, Prototype, Unused materials | Tagged: | 2 Comments

X’Treme Roller PlayStation (PS1) Prototypes

Posted: by Frank Gasking

Following on from the discovery of an early PC demo of X’Treme Roller, we now have a set of five prototypes for the Sony PlayStation (PS1) showing very early test builds of the game before it became X’Treme Roller and the game was likely being pitched around to publishers by Neko.

At one stage, it seems DC Studios were working with Neko with a view to using the engine or to get interest to do a joint project.

PSOGL2 004

The prototypes are dated from the 17th July to the 7th August 2000, with the earlier builds containing a test sea-side route, with ramps, hills and buildings. The main character starts off very slow as they drop onto the course, and then you can kick off to move around. Continue reading →

Posted in: Preservation, Prototype, Sony PlayStation, Unused materials | Tagged: | Leave a comment

X’Treme Roller

Posted: by Frank Gasking

2001 Neko / Microids

Platform: PC

Next into the Games That Weren’t archives is a very rare and early PC demo of X’Treme Roller by Neko, before the name had been decided and when the engine was being put together. The game was eventually released by Microids in 2001, but only on the Sony PlayStation 1 platform.

xtremepc4

An unreleased N64 version was released by Forest of Illusion back in 2021, though nothing of a PC edition has been known about until now. It seems that the PC version was scrapped, along with the N64 edition. Continue reading →

Posted in: PC, Reviews | Tagged: | 2 Comments

Kick Off 3: European Challenge SEGA Mega Drive Prototypes

Posted: by Frank Gasking

Today we’re adding three very early Kick Off 3: European Challenge prototype builds for the SEGA Mega Drive, which are not playable and just showcase part of the main game graphics and unused menus and graphics that never made the final cut.

KICKOFF3 large

These are dated from around February 1994, and long before the final release. The main logo is completely different and the menus also have completely different graphics. Continue reading →

Posted in: Mega Drive / Genesis, Preservation, Prototype, Unused materials | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Fulltime Soccer Gameboy Color prototypes

Posted: by Frank Gasking

Fulltime Soccer is an interesting budget football title that was eventually released by Datel Electronics for the Color Gameboy. It got a very limited release and can be hard to find. But these prototypes recently recovered, reveal that the game was seemingly built over the top of Super Kick Off.

soccer large

There are two builds in total, plus a 3rd unknown prototype by the same developer which may not be related.  The first build from 23-08-00 is titled “Football Crazy, Football Mad” with some temporary titles and a digitized picture not found in the final game. Continue reading →

Posted in: Game Boy Color, Prototype, Unused materials | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Race Engine prototype

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

2000 Tuna Technologies

Platform: Nintendo Game Boy Color

Next up to be added to the Games That Weren’t archives is a car engine prototype by Tuna Technologies, which was created in 1999 and added to into 2000. This impressive racing engine was pitched around to various places in the hope that it would get picked up.

raceengine large

You may notice the rather striking similarity to VRally on the Game Boy Color – which is because the graphics were temporarily ripped and used for the engine demo being produced. The aim was to produce an engine which was much faster and had more features than the VRally version to then ship around.

In the end, Electronic Arts would get the team to use it to produce Road Rash on the platform. And you can see why – the engine is quite cool, especially the early 2000 build which features a car that you can control with the road. The routine is extremely fast, and feels a little like the Lotus Turbo Challenge road routine on the Commodore Amiga. Continue reading →

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

Bryan Robson’s Super League preserved

Posted: by Frank Gasking

Way back in Commodore User issue 25 (October 1985) is how far we’re travelling for our latest preservation work – a board game tie-in that blurred the lines between digital and physical play: Bryan Robson’s Super League, published by Paul Lamond Games. And that is the key thing, at first on our C64 entry we wasn’t sure if it was published or not, but turns out it was.

Super League Box (With Ends)

The game sees players building a football team and battling their way to the top of the league, facing random hazards like weather, injuries, and bank managers. These events play out across a physical game board that was bundled with the software – merging board game mechanics with home computer interactivity. Continue reading →

Posted in: Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 (C64), GTW64 news, News, Preservation, ZX Spectrum | Tagged: | Leave a comment