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

Battle of the Eras released – PC (DOS)

Posted: by Frank Gasking

Brandon Cobb of superfighter.com has been in touch to announce the finding and availability of a long lost PC (DOS) fighting game called Battle of the Eras.

While a demo of the game was circulated via the BBS’ of the time, not one person stepped up and purchased a copy of the full version. As a result, the full version was never made available … until now.

Check out the link below for a full interview with the developer and a free download of both the demo and the registered version of the game. Thanks to Brandon and his team, people can now experience the complete game for the first time.

http://www.oldergames.com/beras/

Posted in: News, PC | Leave a comment

DJ Puff unused materials

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Something a little bit different, but thanks to Duncan Kershaw – we are able to show you a little glimpse of a level and a bad guy which was never used in the final release of DJ Puff. The charset is by Jonathan Temples, but the map, blocks and sprite seem to be done by someone else. Not sure who!

dj-unused-level-pt7

As you can see, this is a very nicely detailed level which hopefully some day we can piece together and show it in full view.

Continue reading →

Posted in: Commodore 64 (C64), GTW64 news, Unused materials | Tagged: | 2 Comments

Exile V1

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Yet more slightly different looking screenshots – this time for the C64 version of Exile, which pretty much had a different main character and panel screen in Commodore Format issue 7.

It seems that Paul Docherty (thanks Rob!) was brought in late on the project to tart up some of the in game graphics, as well as give a nice intro picture to the game. This is a glimpse of what came before. See below!

Does the earlier build exist today? Maybe some day we may find out!

Posted in: Commodore 64 (C64), GTW64 news, Prototype | Tagged: | 3 Comments

Paint and Create recovered!

Posted: by Frank Gasking

The final Fun School game in the series on the C64 has finally been saved from obscurity after a recent online store finding of the game by GTW64.

shot7

The game has now been fully preserved and submitted to Gamebase 64 – but you can check things out for yourself here in the meantime with the tape images added:

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/gtw64/fun-school-special-paint-and-create/

And there will be more findings to come very shortly! … watch this space!

Posted in: Commodore 64 (C64), GTW64 news, News | 1 Comment

Our 10 greatest findings (2013)

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Well, it’s pretty much coming up to 15 years soon since GTW64 first went online and began to recover many a lost title. One thing we haven’t really done is sat back and reflected on some of the best findings and recoveries from that time, so here below are a list of the top 10 recoveries that we have made over the years (from 1999 to 2013).

The choices do not necessarily reflect the quality of the game, but also in the manner in which the game was found or how sort after at the time. And it is a huge thanks to all of you for all of your help over the years, as well as those who have helped fix up various titles in a form that can be released (many of which we mention in the titles below).

This list is in the author’s opinion at least! Please feel free to comment below if you feel we have missed anything from the list or maybe got any of the list wrong! :)

Continue reading →

Posted in: Commodore 64 (C64), Features, GTW64 news | 4 Comments

Jonathan Kendall collection

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Something a little different for GTW, but Jonathan Kendall was a C64 developer who worked for Zeit Corp back in the 1990’s and played a major role on the Fun School titles – developing the database system for it. He was also involved on the C64 conversion of Darius + for The Edge.

At present, Jonathan has been in the process of preserving his work, which includes a variety of demos and snippets of code – some in particular very cool bits of work, which seem a shame not to get hosted.

Continue reading →

Posted in: Commodore 64 (C64), Features, GTW64 news | Tagged: | Leave a comment

International Karate + early version

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Yet another magazine showing screenshots of one of our favourite titles, but with graphics not ever gracing the final game.

Take a look at the screenshots in November 1987’s edition of Commodore User magazine below (scans thanks to Mort!) and in particular at the shots which have no clouds, a different wooden structure and a different tree on the opposite side. There are the words “On” next to the Player one status area instead of a fist – suggesting that Commodore User cheated and used some early screens to fill their review page.

Even the screens with clouds in have a slight difference, where there is a purple haze around the sun setting.

Probably not much difference to the final version – but who knows if Archer may dig out some different builds of his work in the future…

cu5000027 cu5000026

Posted in: Commodore 64 (C64), Prototype | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Pimple Panic and GTW64 updates for August

Posted: by Frank Gasking

Another GTW64 update with some more new titles and updates, including the finding of Pimple Panic, which you can now download!

Look out also for another long lost Rainbow Arts title which we are about to bring in its final state. Watch this space!

3 new entries added

Coloris, Laser Disc to C64 interface, Olli & Lissa II: Halloween

16 updates added

Arsenal FC, Benidorm, Blast, Cyber Attack, CyberCore, Dromedia Software, Fairlight 2, Graham Gooch World Class Cricket, Horror Atoll, Key to Success, Mag Max V1, Mole Squash, Pimple Panic, Solaris, Unknown Educational game, Warlock

Posted in: Commodore 64 (C64), GTW64 news | Leave a comment

R.I.S.K early version

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

We are already currently aware of a very early version of RISK, which can be downloaded from here… http://www.gamebase64.com/game.php?id=10980&d=18&h=0

However, the first issue of The Games Machine showed some preview shots of RISK, which have a slightly different panel, scanner position – but also what looks to be a set of graphics that may not be in the final game.

Here are the shots (click for bigger version). Possibly more assets to save in the future?

risk

 

Well, in late 2013 we were very pleased to actually find a preview on Cory Kin’s disks which contained the graphics you can see in the screenshots.

risk-v1-2

It’s pretty early, with a earlier ship build and not really much game play in place. But we also have added the very early build of the game where you just currently walk around on the ground, which depicts a very different game overall. It seems the game went over some major evolutionary phase!

» Download previews

Posted in: Commodore 64 (C64), Prototype | Tagged: | Leave a comment