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

Strider 2

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1991 U.S. Gold

Platforms: Atari Lynx and Atari Panther

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 content to share with you.

It was intended to cover at least one Atari Lynx title in detail, and at one point it was looking like Strider 2 (which itself was originally to be a game called TOR) was going to be that title. However, there wasn’t enough detail to warrant doing a full piece on the game from our initial investigations. Here is what we managed to find out though (including the revelation that it was going to be converted to the unreleased Atari Panther console too), with magazine information provided thanks to Ross Sillifant. Continue reading →

Posted in: Atari, Atari Lynx, Bonus, Reviews | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Long lost Mega Drive game Mad Stalker released after 26 years!

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Thanks to Ken Knight for bringing it to our attention that the long lost Mega Drive conversion of Mad Stalker: Full Metal Forth has recently been released by independent publisher Columbus Circle, some 26 years after it was intended originally.

The game is a side scrolling beat’em up set over 6 levels and is set in the year 2142, where you take the control of the manned slave gear “Hound Dog”, protecting the city of Artemis and ultimately defeating other slave gears of the enemy. Here you can see the game in action:

If you are interested and want to get a copy, you can now buy a physical copy of the complete game via https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/dp/B0896537W6/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=mad+stalker&qid=1600952033&sr=8-2

Posted in: Mega Drive / Genesis, News | Leave a comment

Starring Charlie Chaplin

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1988 Canvas Software / U.S Gold

Platforms: Atari ST and Commodore 64

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

Within the book is a detailed 10 page full story about the unreleased Starring Charlie Chaplin for both the Atari ST and Commodore 64 platforms by U.S Gold. The book also includes a specially re-pixelled Atari ST screenshot from a grainy magazine scan.

st shot2 2
A gameplay mockup screenshot from the Atari ST version.

Produced by Canvas Software in 1987, this was one of the hardest write ups to research, due to a number of key people no longer with us today. We however talk to as many people as we can to piece together what happened to both conversions – including Donald Campbell, Danielle Woodyatt, Dawn Hollywood (nee Drake), Jon Grimshaw, Paul Clansey, Richard Tidsall, Sean Townsend, Stephen Ward and Simon Butler. Giving as complete a picture of what happened exactly as we possibly can. Continue reading →

Posted in: Atari ST, Bonus, Commodore 64 (C64), Reviews | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Rolling Thunder

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1992 Atari Games

Platform: Atari Lynx

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 content to share with you.

Within the book is a detailed 10 page full story about the unreleased Rolling Thunder for the Atari Lynx by Atari Games. We speak to developer Chuck Ernst, Joel Seider and artist Robb Mariani about the development and the troubles that occurred over two separate iterations. The book also includes a specially re-pixelled Lynx screenshots from grainy magazine scans.

4 sprite sheet interpretation
Tidied up sprite sheet from Robb Mariani

Here we present a sprite sheet provided from artist Robb that he managed to save. There are also a number of magazine scans, showing some grainy screenshots, and also the adverts where Atari naughtily used NES screenshots to depict Lynx screenshots – which have for years been wrongly attributed as a result.

At the time of writing, Chuck was not able to recover the source code for the final build, but an early prototype has just surfaced in September 2020 from a YouTuber called MacRorie (thanks to Ross Sillifant for the heads up), who has recently acquired a number of prototype ROMs.  https://youtu.be/NS1O8KWBARw?t=1310

Continue reading →

Posted in: Atari, Atari Lynx, Bonus, Reviews | Tagged: | 3 Comments

Attack of the Mutant Camels ’89

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1989 Llamasoft

Platform: Konix Multi-System

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 content to share with you.

Within the book is a detailed 10 page full story about the unreleased Attack of the Mutant Camels ’89 (AMC’89 from here on) – talking to Jeff Minter, Jon Dean and Lee Hammerton about the development, the Konix disaster and the amazing attempts that saw an early prototype rescued and got up and running on an actual emulator for a machine that never existed!

7
Stonehenge themed level

What follows are a few quotes from our old GTW write up, some video links from our research, resource links and some hi-res scans made by GTW for the book (and scans provided by Jon Dean) that were unused or were re-pixeled for print.

Continue reading →

Posted in: Bonus, Konix MultiSystem, Reviews | Tagged: , , | Leave a comment

Tomb Raider Anniversary

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

2006 Core Design

Platform: PlayStation Portable

Just a short post for now to share details of Core Design’s cancelled version of Tomb Raider Anniversary (thanks to Ken Knight for the heads up). To summarize, for the 10th anniversary – Core Design were doing a new remake, but was shut down by Crystal Dynamics. More details about the history of the development can be found here:

As well as tons of information here: https://www.tomb-of-ash.com/tomb-raider-10th-anniversary-edition/

From the development, a hard-drive was donated with various assets and code to Ash Kaprielov, a huge fan of all things Tomb Raider related and who manages the wonderful site above.

Permission was then sought from Crystal Dynamics by Ash, and no response was given. Ash was after help to sign a petition to try and allow for the release of remains of the development to the fans.

On the last day of 2020, it has been decided to release all the assets onto archive.org with a takedown policy note on the site: https://www.tomb-of-ash.com/trae-indy-build/

After just a day or so, a playable build was made, which you can find above. Amazing to see and finally see the game running after all these years!

Posted in: Reviews, Sony PlayStation Portable | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Lemmings

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1993 TCFS

Platform: Commodore Plus/4

Back when Lemmings was being converted to every platform under the sun, the poor old Plus/4 was being neglected, having long been abandoned commercially.

That however didn’t stop Tamás Sasvári (code) and Csaba Kémeri  (graphics) from having a go at trying to bring the title to their beloved machine back in 1993.  Several months were spent putting together a solid unofficial conversion within the limits of the Plus/4, which would take a bitmap based approach compared to the C64 edition (which used sprites for the backgrounds), due to the lack of hardware sprites.

Csaba, still active on the PC and Amiga scene today, used the Multi Botticelli tool to produce all of the graphics, which is the equivalent of Koala on the C64. Continue reading →

Posted in: C16 and Plus/4, Reviews | Tagged: | Leave a comment

1942

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1986 Elite Systems

Platforms: Commodore 16 and Plus/4

This is a smaller piece intended for inclusion in The Games That Weren’t book that didn’t make the final cut. As a result, please note that it hasn’t been professionally proof read compared to the published pieces in the book. As part of our Bonus material series, here is the full raw article for your enjoyment.

Mention Elite Systems, and you may instantly think of Capcom 8-bit home computer conversions such as Commando, Ghosts n Goblins and also the cult classic shooter 1942. If you hadn’t already guessed, 1942 is set during World War 2, controlling an American plane fighting against swarms of Japanese fighter planes across 32 levels – oddly set in a reverse order.

Capcom are a Japanese based development company, and so the theme of the title had caused some controversy back home at the time. Regardless of any political issues, it still became very popular and made for a perfect title to port to all of the home computers of the time. Elite were the company to step up to the plate and grab the rights for the major 8-bit home computer platforms.

1942 banner

Continue reading →

Posted in: Bonus, C16 and Plus/4, Reviews | Tagged: | 3 Comments

The Story of Virtual Tank (Virtual Boy)

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Nintendo Life have published a chapter from The Games That Weren’t book, which takes a look at the unreleased Virtual Tank game by Boss Game Studio.

As well as talking to the developers involved in the game, there are screenshots of the game running which have never been seen until now. Bonus materials relating to the game will be coming soon in a separate post.

Check out the chapter at https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2020/09/feature_the_story_of_virtual_tank_a_lost_virtual_boy_successor_to_ataris_battlezone

If you like what you see and want to see more, please check out the book at https://www.bitmapbooks.com/products/the-games-that-werent.

Posted in: News, Nintendo Virtual Boy | Leave a comment

Green Thang

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1995 Creative Edge

Platforms: Commodore Amiga, Atari Jaguar, Atari Jaguar 2 and Atari Lynx

A long running Atari Jaguar mystery for some years now, and a game starting out on a completely different platform. Originally Green Thang was shortlisted to be covered in The Games That Weren’t book when discussing possible Jaguar titles with David Wightman. This led to an exciting early discovery which we will share with you shortly. In the end it was decided to cover Deathwatch, so now as part of our bonus book content series, we share what we managed to find out during our brief investigations.

Green Thang originally started life with a working title of Frogs, developed by two University students – Michael Pollard (code) and Alan Burns (graphics). It was demoed to Creative Edge around 1994, and CEO/Head programmer David Wightman absolutely loved it. The game (and team) was signed up as a result, with the proper title of “Green Thang” subsequently assigned. Continue reading →

Posted in: Atari, Atari Jaguar, Atari Lynx, Bonus, Commodore Amiga, Reviews | Tagged: | 3 Comments