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 Eye of the Moon

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

2011 Mike Singleton and Chris Wild

Platforms: Apple iOS and other current platforms.

As part of the launch and release of The Games That Weren’t book, we are  adding assets and content that didn’t make it to print as bonus DLC content to share with you.

Within the book is an in-depth and detailed 12 page story about the unreleased Eye of the Moon which was planned for development on modern day platforms including Apple iOS, after the cancellation of the 8-bit title in the series. We speak to Chris Wild about plans for the game and take a look at the ideas and vision from the late and great Mike Singleton.

map scale

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Posted in: Apple iOS, Bonus, PC, Reviews | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Crimetown Depths

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1989 Imageworks

Platform: Amiga

A very short entry for a title already covered on Amiga GTW, where you can find screenshots and a rolling demo to download – as well as a Q/A with creator Paolo Costabel.

When the game became too ambitious and was to fill three disks – it was told not to be financially viable, so the game was cancelled. Sadly little else is known at this stage about the game itself.

Grzegorz Antosiewicz got in touch recently to provide a rare screen showing the actual game itself in action from Amiga Magazine issue 5 1989:

amiga magazin 5 89

The game was to have platform/shooter elements to it, so this must have been that platformer part of the game. Hopefully something of the game itself will be found and preserved, so you can see what could have been.

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

Aggression

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1994 Bloodhouse / Housemarque

Platform: Amiga CD32 and Amiga 1200

Thanks to Grzegorz Antosiewicz for the heads up regarding a title by the creators of Super Stardust. Aggression was to be a horizontally scrolling shooter with ray traced graphics and up to 512 colours on screen at once.

There was to be full screen multilayer scrolling and very large sprites making use of every clock cycle the Amiga had to offer. The CD32 edition would have better animation and music played directly from CD.

The game just completely disappeared from sight and hasn’t been heard of since. Although a very early demo has sneaked out and is available, the later raytraced edition has yet to surface in any shape or form. Could it be found some day and how far exactly did it get?

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

Mercenary

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1999 Thalamus Interactive

Platform: Nintendo Game Boy Color

As part of the launch and release of The Games That Weren’t book, we are  adding assets and content that were shared with us during our research as bonus DLC content, and which didn’t make it to the book. Thanks to Thalamus Digital (Facebook + Twitter) for permission to include this title on the site.

Mercenary was a hugely popular 3D exploration title by the late and great Paul Woakes, which spawned a few sequels such as Damocles and Mercenary 3. Those who played the 8-bit incarnations of Mercenary in 1985 were blown away by the speed and scale of the game, and it is quite rightly rated as one of the best games ever to grace the Commodore 64.

MercenaryScreenBig

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

The Speris Legacy – Beta differences

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Thanks to Grzegorz Antosiewicz for the heads up about a great post on Team 17’s The Speris Legacy, showing differences between early demos and the final game.

Although it isn’t an unreleased game, we try sometimes on GTW to showcase differences between demos and final versions, showing off assets that are unused for example.

Super Adventures In Gaming has done a wonderful dissection, with buttons to press to show the differences between demos and final version. Its a great read worth checking out!

http://superadventuresingaming.blogspot.com/2020/11/the-speris-legacy-amiga-cd32-part-4.html

Posted in: Amiga CD32, Unused materials | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Mayhem in Monsterland

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1998 – 2000 Thalamus Interactive

Platforms: PC & Nintendo Game Boy Color

As part of the launch and release of The Games That Weren’t book, we are adding assets and content that were shared with us during our research as bonus DLC content, and which didn’t make it to the book. Thanks to Thalamus Digital (Facebook + Twitter) for permission to include this title on the site.

1993 signed tough times for the Commodore 64, as the market finally began to crumble around the once mighty 8-bit. With only a trickle of games coming out each month, and mainly budget releases, the C64 really needed a good send off before its inevitable commercial death. With Mayhem in Monsterland (and also Lemmings, Alien 3 around the same time) we were not let down by any means.

MayhemDemoV0.2

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Posted in: Bonus, Game Boy Color, Reviews | Tagged: , | 7 Comments

SimMars

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

2000 Maxis

Platforms: Apple Macintosh and PC

As part of the launch and release of The Games That Weren’t book, we are  adding assets and content that didn’t make it to print as bonus DLC content to share with you.

Within the book is an in-depth and detailed 12 page story about the unreleased SimMars by Maxis. We discuss the history of the development with lead gameplay engineer Jason Shankel, systems engineer Alex Zvenigorodsky, artist and designer B.J. West and associate producer Dan Brazelton, talking about the trials and tribulations, but also the pure excitement and enthusiasm there was within the team producing the game.

SimMars01
An overshall shot, showing the look and feel of the game.

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Posted in: Apple Macintosh, Bonus, PC, Reviews | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Green Lantern documentary video released

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

In a long planned collaboration with @Doctor_Cupcakes (aka Liam Robertson), you can now check out his impressive documentary video on the long lost Super Nintendo version of Green Lantern via DidYouKnowGaming, based on research from the Games That Weren’t book and showcasing running footage of the game for the very first time.

Liam also links game scenes to the actual comic scenes that were used as inspiration, which was great to see.

Sprite assets and more can also be found on our Green Lantern page, with assets that were recovered and didn’t make it to print.

Posted in: Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) | 2 Comments

Subtraddition

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

2015 Sacred Square Games

Platforms: PC and potentially others

As part of the launch and release of The Games That Weren’t book, we are  adding assets and content that didn’t make it to print as bonus DLC content to share with you.

Within the book is an in-depth and detailed 10 page story about the unreleased Subtraddition by Sacred Square Games, where we spoke to its creator Stuart Lilford. One of the things we wanted to do in the book was to not only cover high profile cancellations in the final chapter, also at least one indie development and a few mobile-based developments. Showcasing how far spread game development is today and how cancellations are happening all the time, no matter the budget and target audience.

sub2 2

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Posted in: Bonus, PC, Reviews, Various | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Half-Life

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

2001 Captivation and Gearbox Software

Platforms: Nintendo GameCube and SEGA Dreamcast

As part of the launch and release of The Games That Weren’t book, we are  adding assets and content that didn’t make it to print as bonus DLC content to share with you.

Within the book is an in-depth and detailed 14 page story about the unreleased Nintendo GameCube and SEGA Dreamcast editions of Half-Life by Captivation and Gearbox Software. We speak to the original first developer of the Dreamcast edition (whilst originally in development at PyroTechnix), Brian Kraack, as well as Sierra’s external producer Jeff Pobst, Captivation’s Robert Morgan and Gearbox’s Randy Pitchford. There was also discussion with Dan Amrich, who reviewed a near-gold version of the game at the time.

Gearboxphotos 3
Photo from Gearbox of the final produced game that would never see release.

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Posted in: Bonus, Nintendo GameCube, Reviews, SEGA Dreamcast | Tagged: | 6 Comments