Preserving Cancelled & Unreleased Video Game History Since 1999
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.
Recently, we were kindly invited to write a guest article for www.GOG.com on some of the PC/Mac games that we have covered in the book, as well as talk about the work involved in the writing of the book.
You can check out the article Good Old Games That Weren’t over at:
https://www.gog.com/news/good_old_games_that_werent
Many thanks to Good Old Games and @m_traczyk!
I’m pleased to announce that pre-orders for our Games That Weren’t book are now open at https://www.bitmapbooks.com/products/the-games-that-werent
To give a bit of background to regulars of the site (as well as new visitors). Primarily my aim was to produce something special to mark 20+ years of the Games That Weren’t archive. Originally I thought it may only take a year to write such a book way back in 2013, but I had completely underestimated. It was really important throughout the creation to try and make something special and enjoyable to others, and not just rush it out for the sake of it – so 7 years later here we are today. Continue reading
Great news, but collector Ken Van Mersbergen (known to many as Dutchman2000) has found and preserved the long lost AtariSoft conversion of Joust, which we have had an entry on for some time here.
Ken got in touch with GTW yesterday and informed us that the game was recovered from the archive of a retired programmer who used to work for Roklan. It was found on an 8-inch CP/M disk that was labelled “Popeye” and had the full source code and hex image to be able to create a CRT image.
We learn that the game was coded by Joe Hellesen at Roklan Corporation, and Ken plans to show the game in public for the first time since 1984, at the VCFMW/ECCC show in September (if it goes ahead). The CRT will be released after the show, or earlier if the show doesn’t happen and will be added to the GTW64 site.
For now, enjoy the screenshots and a massive thank you to Ken for preserving another piece of gaming history.
Thanks to contributor Ken Knight, it has been highlighted that the preview of puzzler Cubic, called Cubic Maxi contains some differences in the game play compared to the final release. Otherwise it looks pretty much the same as the final game, but worth checking out:
Download Preview_cubicmaxi
Another month and another update, including some preservation work for some released titles and a number of new entries.
Bailiff, Ophir, Raiders of the Valley of the Kings, Secrets of Science, Steam Powered Computer Company titles, Treasure Hunter, Vampyr Motel
Argonautica, Batman Returns, Breakdance 2, Devious Designs, Freddy Fish, G.I. Hero, Giana 2 – Arthur And Martha In Future World, Judge Death, Karnov V1, Legend Of Fairghad, Monster Museum, Piper Software games, Zone Of Darkness
V pre-release shots, Troll pre-release shot
Kevin Wilson has very kindly sent some obscure titles to be preserved fully for the C64, so here they are:
The Game (Simple early Pacman clone)
TAP files, DC2N dumps and Scans
Dinosaurs (Early BASIC educational title)
TAP files, DC2N dumps and Scans
Action Biker Sampler Only
TAP files, DC2N dumps and Scans
With Action Biker, there seems to be no real differences to the final retail version, but interesting to check out anyway.
Thanks to Dan Warren, here is yet another pre-release screen, this time from Palace Software’s 1988 Troll game.
There are some very minor graphic differences compared to the final version, including the score being on the opposite side and some slight differences in the main area. Scan courtesy of Stephen (Mort) Stuttard.
Thanks to Dan Warren, here are some pre-release screens from Ocean’s “V – The Game”.
Very small differences overall, just showing an earlier score panel. The game graphics seem to be at this point pretty solid. Scans courtesy of Stephen (Mort) Stuttard.
A few more updates to the site, which includes a number of new entries and various updates. Batman Returns in particular has been tidied up a bit, and i’ve added some much better and high quality screenshot scans, thanks to the amazing Stephen Stuttard.
There are some concept sketches from Ned Langman too for a few entries and details about yet another Lemmings conversion that was intended. Full updates are below:
Catch’em, Lordlings of Yore, Reader’s Digest Software, Underland
Batman Returns, Big Top, Civilization, Elevator, Enemy, Exodus, Labyrinth, Legendary Deed, Lemmings V1, Nuker, Pet Person, Quest for Eternity, Star Force Seven, Stellar 7, Warcraft 64, Worms
Thanks to Dasse Evertsson for the heads up, but at the end of the fantastic Amiga game Traps ‘n Treasures, there is a little hint of a sequel with “Redbeard’s Revenge”.
Due for release it seems in 1996, we are guessing that Starbyte had left the Amiga scene by that point. The last Amiga games from the company were in 1995.
@DillyDylan on Twitter commented that there was a Super Nintendo version of the game planned and was being programmed by Simon J. Francis. Below is a magazine article, but showing a screenshot from the Amiga version unfortunately:
Developer of the Amiga game Roman Werner was not aware of any SNES materials existing, and wasn’t involved directly. When asked about the sequel, Roman suggests the sequel was more of a “good will” mention rather than actual plans. They had ideas and graphics left over that couldn’t be implemented in the 1993 game, so there was potential for a sequel. Sadly though, it never happened and nothing was ever started.
Case closed!
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.
