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.
It seems like Commodore User magazine were a little naughty with their Nemesis review back in the 80’s.
Featuring screenshots from what seem to be an earlier version of the game – just look at the brown/orange score panels, which were dropped for something that looked a lot better in the final release.
The released game with tidied up panel. Screenshot thanks to Gamebase64.
At least they reviewed a working version of the game, compared to sister magazine Sinclair User, who reviewed mock up screenshots. Seemed to be a theme at the publisher though…
Here is the review and all the screenshots, thanks to Martin/Stadium 64 for highlighting it!
A rather different early preview of Bugs Bunny – Private Detective has been found on Ash and Dave’s work disks recently. This was done around 1991 time, and seems to have undergone some major changes that led up to the 1992/93 full game that we saw some years ago.
The map is very different, with different graphics, and the digging element of the game is gone – where you must climb up walls to get around. No doubt changes were made due to elements not working or Warner not being happy. It’s a great curiosity worth checking out here along with the full game:
Eagle eyed visitors may have noticed that we are close to our 2000th GTW entry. Watch this space for something a little special (no it’s not Murder… ;-) )…
We are pleased to announce that the long lost C64 conversion of Charlie Chaplin has been recovered in its final state.
A mystery for many years, after the release of the Amstrad, Spectrum and PC versions – the full story can now be checked out and a download of the final version of the game played via the link below.
It has its glitches due to being unfinished in places, but it is a nice glimpse at what was going to be. Enjoy!
Thanks to Paul Clansey, we have fully preserved two of his unfinished games in the form of RPG game Freebooter and ambitious Elite style sim Exodus. Hoping for Paul to share more soon about how they both work, but check them out in the meantime here:
Sorry it’s been a while! Currently working on other projects, but GTW64 has been ticking over in the background – and since our last major update – the following has been added and updated below.
Also, yesterday was a year since Daffy Duck was released to the world. Where did the time go? Sadly no “Murder!” just yet to follow things up, but keep the faith! :)
This summary of yet another lost Amiga conversion comes from contributor, Termie Gen, who talks about the unreleased Gryzor and Contra conversions for the Amiga.
CONTRA:
Developed between 1987 and 1988, but never released it seems. Screenshots of an Amiga version found their way onto various print material, including the box art of other home computer versions of the game, shown below.
The September and October 1988 issues of Amiga World magazine make multiple mentions of Contra. They even provide 2 price points for the game, as part of a list of Amiga software that are available through phone or mail order.
Like the DOS and Commodore 64 versions of the game, a putative Amiga Contra would not be developed by Konami themselves, but another company. It could have been handled by a European developer, such as Ocean Software, given the Commodore 64 Contra is simply a North America regional release of Gryzor, also handled by Ocean. This is less likely, however. Interesting side note: Contra for DOS would in turn be released in Europe by Ocean, re-dubbed as Gryzor. Talk about a real mix-up with their conversions.
The fact that a smaller developer house, and not Konami, had likely worked on Amiga Contra means that getting a lead on this title will be much more daunting of a task. Judging by the screenshots, this looks to have been the definitive home computer conversion, graphically at least. It is one that definitely needs to be brought closure. Out of all the home computers that Contra was converted for, the Amiga could have handled Contra the best.
GRYZOR:
Less concrete information is available for this title than Contra. Most of the references to it are in magazines that advertise or cover the versions of the game from Ocean. It’s possible that this would have been the same case as the DOS version, where the North-American developed Contra was simply renamed to Gryzor when localized to Europe.
The following advertisement is present in many computer magazines, such as ACE and Amstrad Action:
Although focused on Ocean Software’s Gryzor releases, it also mentions that the title is available for PC and Amiga. The latter 2 are even interestingly grouped together and separated from the CPC, Spectrum and Commodore 64 releases.
In their article reviewing the DOS and Commodore 64 versions, German magazine Power Play lists Gryzor as being also available for Amiga (as well as Amstrad CPC and Spectrum):
A less credible reference is/was on a few websites, where they claimed that there is a Gryzor game for Amiga that was developed by Ocean Software and published by Sega. A game such as Gryzor for the Amiga computer would not go unnoticed if Ocean Software was indeed the developer.
An Amiga version of Gryzor could have fared pretty well compared to the other 4 available ones. Perhaps more information about this game may be unearthed if its counterpart, Contra, is recovered first.
Here are some additional scans thanks to Ross Sillifant – suggesting that Gryzor was not going to be outsourced.
A massive thank you to Tom Roger Skauen, who passed on a copy of this very obscure and rare sample release of Dragon’s Lair – which he fully preserved in TAP format.
Tom cannot remember how he obtained the game, but was probably in some kind of package deal.
The tape data is different, so there was the possibility of differences to the final game – however, contributor Hank (see comments) has confirmed that apart from the loading screen – the game is identical. Possibly there are some minor bugs, but its essentially the same game. The only major difference is that the game ends at the Falling Disc 2 stage and has no further levels to load or ending. So it is really a unfinished sample like it says!
The Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment have yesterday made Habitat Open Source, by releasing all of the code on GitHub.
Work has been going on since 2013 to try and preserve everything, and now the goal is to try and get the server running once more. Hopefully some day we may yet get to play this again on our C64’s and see something of the game running once more!
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Games That Weren't® is the registered trademark of Frank Gasking.
