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

Derick Boorman disks

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Just a very short post to host some demo/hack disks that I found in Level Up games in Canterbury on some old C64 disks.

They seem to be credited to a Derick Boorman who lived in Kent and hacked around a bit with some old C64 demos, changing scrolltexts etc.

Please note, these were probably done when the author was very young – so the credit changes to themselves can be ignored. I did similar lame things when I was probably around their same age!

We managed to find Derick thanks to Gerard Sweeney, and they confirmed that it was them and their work. They didn’t recall much, but remember passing on their C64 to their nephew when moving over to the Amiga around 1990/1991. Derick also used to frequent in Computer World in Canterbury, and suggests we should bin any other disks we find ;-)

In case you want to see something a bit different, here are the disk images for posterity:

DerickBoormanDownload

 

Posted in: Commodore 64, GTW64 news | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Eddie’s Puzzle Time (Nintendo Game Boy) released

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Thanks to Ross Sillifant for the heads up, this is a new and previously unseen Game Boy game that was due for release back in 1994 and was recently recovered and released by AIR Entertainment.

It is a pretty neat puzzle game that is around 99% complete, just missing some final polish. It’s unsure at present why the game never saw release, but check here for more details about the game and download below:

https://airentertainment.biz/2019/11/eddies-puzzle-time-unreleased-gameboy-game-download-link-included/
Posted in: Game Boy, Nintendo | Tagged: | Leave a comment

The Games That Weren’t book – coming soon!

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

After 5 years of work (give or take), we’re pleased to announce The Games That Weren’t book coming soon in May 2020 from Bitmap Books, covering unreleased games since the dawn of the industry.

More details coming soon, but very excited to finally share the news after keeping quiet for so long.

Official details from Bitmap Books: https://mailchi.mp/6f0f8bd57e2e/bitmap-books-crpg-1703525?fbclid=IwAR2MjfMZqmIE0GP1Ea6nygOryTX3fDT0UawaoK2VLqF5No9xM_kxeLDWEmU

Posted in: GTW64 news, News | 3 Comments

Thomas The Tank Engine and Friends

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1999 Runecraft

Platform: Sony PlayStation

A short entry for what was to be an educational based title created for the Sony PlayStation by Runecraft around 1999 time, based on the famous children’s series.

Thanks to lead artist David Tolley, we are able to show you a brief glimpse of some of the game assets (and quick photos of the design document) that David recovered recently from an old hard-drive. Continue reading →

Posted in: News, PlayStation | Tagged: | 4 Comments

Daley Thompson’s Decathlon early version

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

A short post thanks to contributor Daniel Meléndez, who spotted Daley Thompson playing a slightly different looking Daley Thompson’s Decathlon game on the Commodore 64:

Not massive differences it has to be said, apart from the panel boards and the score display section. Here is the released version as a comparison (Screenshot taken from Lemon64)

Often early builds would change their panels/layouts slightly over time. Would be interesting to know if there were any other major differences between what Daley was playing above and what we got to see in the end.

Posted in: Commodore 64, GTW64 news | Tagged: | 3 Comments

Basic Tools, Creators Revenge and Math Flash preserved

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Thanks to Allan Pinkerton, who has very kindly preserved missing copies of Basic Tools, Creators Revenge (Already out there as Metamorphosis III – The Creators Revenge), Math Pack and Math Flash.

They are not strictly ‘Games That Weren’t’, but we want to try and share any preservation work where possible for titles that had been missing – so here we go:

Math-Flash-Game-1_Directions_Paralle-SystemsDownload
Math-Flash-Game-1_Box-Tape_Paralle-SystemsDownload
mathflashDownload
Creators-Revenge_Box-Disk_Victory-Software-CorporationDownload
creators-revengeDownload
basictoolsDownload
Basic-Tools_Manual-Addendum-Tape_Comm-Data-Computer-House-IncDownload
multilanchDownload
gotcha-mathDownload
edupac-mathpack-2Download
Edupac-Mathpack-1_Box-Instruction-Card-Tapes_Comm-Data-Computer-House-IncDownload
Edupac-Mathpack-2_Box-Instruction-Card-Disk_Comm-Data-Computer-House-IncDownload
MathPackTAPSDownload
edupac-mathpack-1Download
Posted in: Commodore, Commodore 64 | Tagged: | Leave a comment

ODUS Eclipse pack preserved

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Although not an unreleased game as such, this is an obscure C64 based compilation that was released late in the C64’s life, which featured commercial games as PD games. It’s likely not many sold, and as a result hasn’t really been seen in the wild that often.

Thanks to the kind loan from Steve Green, here it is fully preserved with scans of the inlays + tapes:

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/wp-content/ODUS.zip

Everything is already in the wild already, but its an interesting curiosity preserved.

Posted in: Commodore 64, GTW64 news | Tagged: | Leave a comment

GTW Xmas update (ish!)

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Well, 2018 went far too quick! It’s been almost a year since our last update, which wasn’t really the intention and isn’t the norm. I had planned to take a few months break and then continue as usual, but unfortunately various personal challenges got in the way and also there has been the completion/continuation of a project I have been working on for almost 5 years. All will hopefully be revealed on that soon in 2019!

As a result, I have not taken in any donations for hosting costs this year, as I haven’t really offered you anything in return this year.

Overall, our yearly Christmas update this year is not quite the same as previous years. For a start, I have no new findings to offer for the first time in a long time because i’ve not been working on the project. I have been determined to do *something* though, so I have created a number of new entries and made some updates for you. I hope the wonderful influx of new C64 releases this year will have counteracted the lack of input from my side, and I hope to be fully functioning again next year. There is still plenty of work to be done!

Merry Christmas to all and all the best for 2019, as we kick off our update:

26 new entries added

4 Games, Abandon Ship S.O.S., Angry Birds Style, Any Craps 64, Babies of the Dirt, Bimz, Cybex Escape, Dynaboys, Flyboy, Galaxy Patrol, Heartlight64, Le Fantome Vert, Lumberjack Deluxe, Magic, Mekka and Symposium 2000 missing 32k games, Murdlok, Pinball Dreams, Push It, R.I.O.T, Roll-Out, Scramble 2010, The Official Everton F.C. Intelligensia, Top 20, Transforming Overland Robot, Zulp, triFACTa

35 updates added

Academy, Am-Cup, American GI, Breaker, Buggy Ranger, Cave Wizard, Champions, Crossfire Canyon, Dark Sceptre, Dominator V1, European SuperLeague, Eye Of The Moon, International Soccer Challenge, Italian pirated games, Katia, Last Ninja V1, Megatanio, Meurtre À Grande Vitesse, Murder!, Opera House and The Pay Off, Outpost, PT-109, Pet Person, Prometheous, Proteus, Rex Hard, Rhyme Land, Sigue Sigue Sputnik, Test Drive 3, Tour De Force, Toyota Rally, Traffico, Turbo Cup Challenge, Unknown shooter by Kernal, Victory Road (UK version)

Posted in: Commodore 64, GTW64 news, News | Leave a comment