Preserving Cancelled & Unreleased Video Game History Since 1999
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.
A short collective entry thanks to the efforts of Martin / Stadium64, who found an Avant-Garde catalog full of titles that don’t seem to have been preserved or may not have seen a release.
Not all are games, though we try and preserve whatever we can sometimes. Do you have any of these in your collection and can you help us preserve them?
At the moment, only 3 titles exist in Gamebase. Others might already be out there.
A short entry which has been highlighted thanks to Brian Bagnall, which depicts a game which eventually would turn into Lord of the Rings, another game that never saw the light of day (on the C64 at least!)
Towards the end of the 1980’s, Brian Fargo had employed Jennell Jaquays to design a fantasy adventure game for them. She created a title called “Secrets of the Magi”, which was primarily targeted for the Commodore 64. She designed game play and wrote design documents. The game was planned to be a fast-paced and real-time game, with free scrolling movement replacing grid-based movement. Action orientated combat would replace turn-based combat.
After a while, it was decided to turn the project into a new Lord of the Rings game (volume 1), which was apparently a result of the commercial failure of Dragon Wars and the 8-bit market collapse.
It is not yet clear if any actual code was started, but Jennell kindly posted some designs on a forum for the original game, which you can see here. We hope to find out more soon about whether any actual code or assets existed. The chance of seeing things may still rest with having to find the Lord of the Rings game which is still at large.
A very short entry for a title which may well be out in the wild somewhere. Pontoon was as you’d expect, a computerised version of the popular card game that can be played with one or two players.
The game was being developed (likely in BASIC) by C.P.White Services back in 1983, but doesn’t seem to have surfaced anywhere yet. Was it even released?
C.P.White did release their other game called Haunted Castle, which can be found in Gamebase already. So hopefully there is a chance that Pontoon could be preserved soon.
A very short entry for a game that eventually saw release, but actually was meant to be a fully licensed game.
If you ever played Novogen’s Battle Island, then you may have noticed that the sprites look rather much like Commando’s sprites. But also, the musician was Elite’s main musician Mark Cooksey.
According to Commodore User magazine, the game had started out as a Commando 2 development (aka Commando ’88). They had previously attempted a sequel before with Commando ’86, and when that fell through – the game was renamed and released as Duet. Elite clearly thought they could try again, but this time US Gold had apparently now got the licence – so the title was sold to Novogen and renamed as Battle Island.
It sounds legitimate, though we hope to confirm from those involved that this was the case. All the evidence seems to be there though! Maybe there is a version named as “Commando ’88” waiting to be found?
Sword of Sodan was a hack and slash game that was released in 1989 on the Amiga, as well as the Sega Megadrive in 1990.
It featured very large characters and did fairly well at the time. Reviewed in CVG, it was stated that there were vague plans for ST and C64 conversions of the game. Sadly neither of the conversions would ever see the light of day.
Thanks to Martin/Stadium64 – In Datormagazinet issue #14/1989 (see scans), reporters covering the PCW event in London (Sept 27 – Oct 1, 1989) shared news from various companies. Among them, The Edge announced plans to create a Commodore 64 version of Sword of Sodan, which had previously been released on the Amiga. Was this therefore the same game?
The question is whether either of the conversions were actually ever started, or were just talked about?
Hopefully Søren Grønbech, Torben B. Larsen will shed some light some day soon.
American Dream was a game by Blue Chip Software (and Jim Zuber?) that was planned to be a simulation of a robotics manufacturing business over 72 operating months. It came with a very high price of $119.95 – so we assume it was a serious simulation package. Was it even a game?
Although advertised and listed, the game is still very much at large. Added are a selection of scans that were provided by Marco Das.
It is very likely the game was released, but just in limited numbers. Is it something that you have in your disk collection? Or were you involved on the game?
Squire was a game by Blue Chip software and Jim Zuber that would have been a financial planning based game, which was part of a series that included Millionaire and Baron.
Although advertised and listed, the game is still very much at large. Added are a selection of scans that were provided by Marco Das.
It is very likely the game was released, but just in limited numbers. Is it something that you have in your disk collection? Or were you involved on the game?
Thanks to the great efforts of Peepo and Tom Roger Skauren, many disks have been preserved that used to belong to the late Gary Sabin – who wrote the US Gold loading music and handled mastering duties. The disks were passed to a friend of the family, Rich Hinton – who has kindly allowed them to be preserved.
One of the games found was this one called Soda Shop, which is a simple clone of Tapper that was written for a company called Micro Fantasy in California, possibly around 1984 time and submitted to US Gold in the UK for evaluation.
Clearly the company felt the game was not up to scratch, but a copy was made and passed over to Rich from Gary. US Gold probably had Tapper licensed by that point anyway.
It’s a nice curiosity that seems to be a complete game, and great to see preserved. Hopefully the developer will see this page some day and get in touch to talk about the game.
Thanks to the great efforts of Peepo and Tom Roger Skauren, many disks have been preserved that used to belong to the late Gary Sabin – who wrote the US Gold loading music and handled mastering duties. The disks were passed to a friend of the family, Rich Hinton – who has kindly allowed them to be preserved.
One of the games found was this one called Equinox, which is a simple sideways scrolling shooter that was written for a company called Micro Fantasy in California, possibly around 1984 time and submitted to US Gold in the UK for evaluation.
Clearly the company felt the game was not up to scratch, but a copy was made and passed over to Rich from Gary.
It’s a nice curiosity that seems to be a complete game, and great to see preserved. Hopefully the developer will see this page some day and get in touch to talk about the game.
A slightly naughty attempt at cashing in on the Douglas Adams title of the same name, Supersoft didn’t get very far when they were issued with a lawsuit to prevent a proper release of the game.
Eventually, the game had all Douglas Adams references taken out or changed to a degree, so that the game could be released as Cosmic Capers.
The game itself is a simple text adventure, but we’re not 100% certain if the game was released in a limited form (like Giana Sisters), or if the versions that currently exist in the wild were prototypes. The scans we’ve added here from Retrocollector.org seem to suggest there was a limited release before the game was pulled from shelves.
I’ve added Cosmic Capers to the downloads for now, and thanks to Hedning/GP I’ve now added the original version of the game that was pulled for you to check out.
DISCLAIMER: We are a non-profit digitisation project, aiming to digitally preserve software and history which would otherwise be lost for good. If for any reason there is anything that you do not wish to be on the website, please contact us for removal.
Games That Weren't® is the registered trademark of Frank Gasking.
