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

Heart Of Yesod

(GTW64 entry)
Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

A very quick entry until we get more details, but this was to be a planned 3rd game in the series of the Yesod games by Odin.

Unfortunately it only got as far as a proposal on 3 sheets of paper and was never actually started. The game was inspired by The Lion and The Witch And The Wardrobe, and Mr Ben. Your hero was to be able to explore distanct worlds via a portal in his attic with 4 costumes to change into.

The game would have been a vertically scrolling platformer with a greater variety of foes and environments – with references to Manic Miner and Heartland in places.

All sounds brilliant, but it was literally only a document that was produced. It would be great to see this document (most likely Steve Wetherill), but we need to find out who created it and if it still exists to be able to see it possibly preserved here.

Do you know any more?

Posted in: GTW64 archive | Tagged: | 5 Comments

C64GS cartridge titles

(GTW64 entry)
Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

A bit of a lazy covering entry for a range of potential cartridges that were meant to have come out for the C64GS.

Back when the C64GS was launched, there was a strong list of support from the likes of Ocean, US Gold, System 3, Domark and more. Only really Ocean were true to their word, with many projected titles falling by the way side.

Already we have more complete entries for Spy Who Loved Me V2, due to extra content, but there are what are thought to be straight conversions to cartridge that never were. Could some of these ever be found in prototype form? Maybe there is extra music or content to be uncovered?

Here is the list of some titles so far, which will grow over time. This initial list is thanks to Ross Sillifant, who found a list in RAZE magazine and various other sources:

  • Rampart (Domark)– Chris West confirms a cartridge version was developed.
  • Moonwalker Arcade (US Gold)
  • Turbocharge (System 3)
  • Putty (System 3)
  • Battlechess (Mindscape)
  • Ultima VI (Mindscape)
  • Crime Does Not Pay (Titus)
  • Wild Streets (Titus)
  • Greatest Hits (Thalamus)
  • Space Rogue (Origin)
  • Buggy Ranger (Dinamic)
  • Plotting (Ocean)
  • Addams Family (Ocean)
  • Puzznic (Ocean)
  • Hard Drivin’ (Domark)
  • Venus Flytrap (Gremlin)
  • Wrath of the Demon (Readysoft)
  • Armalyte 2 (Thalamus)
  • Hook (Ocean) – Confirmed the cartridge version was cancelled, but did exist!
  • Barbarian 3 (Palace)
  • Golden Axe (Virgin)
  • Racing Game construction kit (US Gold) – Using Turbo Outrun engine
  • Kick Off 2 (Anco)
  • Gazza 2 (Active Minds) – Confirmed nothing started
  • Turrican 2 (Rainbow Arts)
  • X-Out (Rainbow Arts)
  • Spy Who Loved Me (Domark)
  • The Games – Winter/Summer edition (Epyx) – Confirmed nothing started
  • California Games (Epyx)
  • Subbuteo (Electronic Zoo)
  • Orcus (Electronic Zoo)
  • Prohibition (Infogrames)
  • Bubble Ghost (Infogrames)
  • Rick Dangerous 2 (Microprose)
  • Starglider 2 (Microprose)
  • Bloodwych (Mirrorsoft)
  • Falcon (Mirrorsoft)
  • IK Deluxe (System 3)
  • Vendetta (System 3)
  • Last Ninja 3 (System 3)
  • Battlestorm (Titus)
  • Crazy Bikes (Titus)
  • Crazy Cars 2 (Titus)
  • Dick Tracy (Titus) … thank god that didn’t make it…
  • Fire and Forget 2 (Titus)
  • Wild Streets (Titus)
  • Armalyte + Sanxion double pack (Thalamus)
  • Hawkeye + Quedex double pack (Thalamus)
  • Delta + Hunters Moon double pack (Thalamus)
  • Creatures + Summer Camp double pack (Thalamus)
  • Snare, Retrograde and Heat Seaker triple pack (Thalamus)
  • Pro Tennis Tour 2 (Ubi-Soft)
  • B.A.T (Ubi-Soft)

It has been confirmed that Turbocharge (System 3) and Hook (Ocean) had cartridge instructions printed in the released manuals. Both seem to have been constructed in a view to be released on cartridge, but changed at the last minute to just disk and tape. Last Ninja 3 is known to have had prototype cartridges built, and Turbocharge probably did too – all are long lost now.

In August 2025, Martin/Stadium64 passed on some letters found in a disk version of Turbocharge which were sent to the original owner who had sent in their warranty card to System 3. Here they returned a letter talking about Turbo Charge and the cartridge version – suggesting the cart was to be released in November 1991, one month after the Tape/Disk version. There’s a similar date for the ST/Amiga version which was never released. See scans for the full letters.

It was confirmed in June 2020 that Hook was intended for release on cartridge. Developer Andy Mucho confirmed it was developed for cartridge and worked fine on actual cartridges that had RAM pretending to be a cartridge. Apparently there was a problem when running out of an EPROM on an actual cartridge board. Andy feels it would have been mere days to find the cause, but there was little motivation to let him fix it. It was decided by Ocean to bin the cartridge version, probably partly due to the flop of the GS and poor cartridge sales. Andy feels it was a shape, as it was the best version by miles and is puzzled as to why time wasn’t allocated to fix it.

Many more to add soon. It is very unlikely that many were ever started or got to a prototype phase, but at the very least we will get them documented.

Watch this space!

Posted in: GTW64 archive | Tagged: | 37 Comments

Monstics Mystery 2

(GTW64 entry)
Posted: by Frank Gasking

Our next entry is a rather interesting Maniac Mansion style game written by Francois Blanchette back in 1986.

The game in 2014 has been resurrected in its final state in 1992, restored and properly named by Atlantis/F4CG. Unfortunately this is all that remains of the game, and a second development disk went missing a long time ago. This particular version which has been fully preserved contains two lost title pictures, level packing and some additional information stored away in the documentation file.

It is great to see something of this game preserved, but this will be it – with the programmer confirming that they checked all their disks and could not find any later copy. So unless someone comes forward with a disk which Francois had forgotten about, then what you see here is the definitive version.

Overall, its not bad and certainly worth a look to see what might have been. Hopefully at some point the coder will pop by to give their recollections about the game’s development – as we have no idea what the intentions for the game were. Also, it seems to be a sequel – but what of the first game?

More to come on this one soon!

Posted in: GTW64 archive | Tagged: | 1 Comment

Droidz

(GTW64 entry)
Posted: by Frank Gasking

Another title gets added to the archive of Firebird/Silverbird games that never were. This time with a conversion of a pretty naff Gauntlet clone in the shape of Droidz from the Zx Spectrum platform.

The game was royally panned in the magazines at the time as being very dull to play and glitchy as hell. Even at the price of £1.99 – it wasn’t really seen as a bargain.

No adverts seem to ever have surfaced for a C64 version of the game, but it was recent contact with Andrew Graham in 2014, where it was revealed himself and his brothers Robbie and Stewart Graham (known as The Highlanders) had done a conversion. And it seems a completed conversion too!

For reasons currently unknown, Andrew suggests it is another title along with their Software Projects title Heebie Jeebies, which was oddly never released. It is very plausible that the game was not released due to the very poor scores it had received in the likes of Crash magazine. It would be good to confirm this some day.

It is hoped that Andrew might be able to find something of the conversion, which could even feature music by Steve Barrett – who did a lot of tunes for their C64 based games. It is very much a case of watch this space!

Posted in: GTW64 archive | Tagged: | 2 Comments

Play and Learn series

(GTW64 entry)
Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Yet another educational set of titles which are at large it seems, and highlighted thanks to Sean O’Neill.

Ironically, it is within a Zzap educational article back in 1992 alongside the Fun School series where our next set of titles get a mention. Ironic, because some of the Fun School titles have been “fun” to try and find over the years.

Prisma Software (or was that Prism?) had apparently released two titles called Prof Plays a New Game and Prof Makes Sentences. There were meant to be another 2 titles in the series, but the details on these are sadly lacking.

A contributor called Simon got in touch via the comments below, and mentioned that he worked on a title called Pepe’s Garden. It was a conversion of the 16-bit title, and seemingly was finished. It is hoped that Simon might be able to find something of it. Here’s what Simon had to say:

“I worked on the C64 port of another Prisma title, Pepe’s Garden. Never released. I remember having to use all kinds of tricks to fit the disk-based 16 bit title into a single load 64k. Got vague memories of having to compress stuff and stash it under one of the ROMs. Think I also did some stuff with dynamically creating sprites from the character set data, and maybe even some sprite raster tricks too, because obviously 16 bit machines had access to hardware like a Blitter, and all the little ol’ C64 had was 8 sprites.

I don’t have a copy of it any more. I think I managed to port most, perhaps all, of the original 16 bit game, but I don’t recall if I finished it. Don’t remember coding any sound or music. Slim chance the source code may be on an old floppy somewhere, but no idea where.”

The first title in the series was meant to have come with an audio cassette that you played whilst going through the educational parts. The second part was apparently released later in July of 1991 (Zzap 80 was January 1992), so it suggests that both titles were sold – maybe just in limited numbers?

For more details about the titles, check out the Zzap write up scan. It is very likely that the games are out there, but now it is the task of trying to preserve them fully. Can you help us?

Posted in: GTW64 archive | Tagged: | 8 Comments

Restrictor

(GTW64 entry)
Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Yet another Thalamus title goes into the archives after a feature in Zzap Italia on the company. Here it was mentioned that Restrictor was coming to the C64 – with the following (translated thanks to Luca Bertoldi):

“Arc decided to work on an original game, Restrictor, in which you can have fun by driving and flying. Since the game is in an early development status, we do not know if we will first see the 8-bit version or the 16-bit one, but you can see in the picture that the game will let you control a super car and a flying vehicle along a 3d landscape. There will be 4 planets to explore and many alien waves to fight. Right now the scrolling looks very smooth, who knows what we can expect in the final version.”

So at the time, only the 16-bit version had been seen – it isn’t known if the C64 version was ever even started. The 16-bit versions also never saw release in the end.

Well, Arc Development’s Richard Underhill set the record straight in early 2021:

“There was never any C64 version in development and as far as I remember it was never considered. After the disaster trying to get something substantial in terms of sprite scaling on C64 Overlander at the cost of good gameplay, I’d have considered it a non-starter.”

So there we have it. You can in the meantime read more about the 16-bit editions here, but for the C64 edition it is case closed!

Posted in: GTW64 archive | Tagged: | 3 Comments

Shadowgate

(GTW64 entry)
Posted: by Frank Gasking

Shadowgate was a very popular point and click adventure from 1987 on the Apple II, Mac, PC, Amiga and ST, and was released later in 1989 on the NES.

Contributor Luca Bertoldi however found that a C64 version was on the cards too – thanks to a Mindscape catalogue advert. And we don’t believe it is a red herring, as the developer ICOM Simulations have had C64 titles released, including Deja Vu and Uninvited from that same era (which are also mentioned in the advert as some of their titles).

So what happened exactly? We’re not quite sure just yet. The C64 was still popular in the US at the time, so it seems odd that Shadowgate was cancelled.

We believe that the game was very likely to have been in production by Fred Allen & Joe Gaucher – who did Deja Vu (and likely Uninvited too).

So the hunt begins! Can you help us recover the C64 version of this classic game?

Posted in: GTW64 archive | Tagged: | 4 Comments

Amazon Tales

(GTW64 entry)
Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Amazon Tales was to be something a little different from two game creators – Richard Bayliss and Alf Yngve. Richard was firstly doing a side ways scrolling game with a running man as a main character. Alf on the other hand was branching away from SEUCK on the C64 for the first time.

The 16kb cartridge competition ran by RGCD was coming up, and Richard decided to write a new game based on Jungle Story (and building on the Bionic Granny Returns game). As time went on, the idea blossomed into a completely different type of game where you play the vet from a tribe who accidentally has released an elephant from its pen into the jungle. You have to go and find it and bring it back to safety.

The game was a sideways scrolling game, and Alf produced all the graphics in SEUCK – which Richard later ported over to Charpad and into a completely new engine coded by Richard. The graphics produced were fantastic as usual by Alf.

However, sadly the game still very much felt like a SEUCK game that had been enhanced due to not quite getting to the stage of completion as planned, and as a result the game didn’t score greatly at the competition. It had some problems unfortunately with a few compilation problems, but Richard just about managed to get it submitted in time.

After the competition and at a 75% complete state – Richard was due to go back to the game and add features such as falling boulders, monkeys dropping coconuts and adding in collectible objects. Free time was limited though, and mixed in with a dipping motivation or enthusiasm for the game, Richard decided to call it a day on the game.

Richard has kindly passed on all the remaining resources on the game for us to add. It is pretty much a final version and completable, but we have still listed it as a preview, as there was certainly more to come for the game over time.

Then for Christmas 2019, Richard decided to actually finish off the game once and for all – so we’re pleased to add it here and also close the case. Creator Speaks has been updated to include details from Richard about his work!

Case closed!

Posted in: GTW64 archive | Tagged: | 1 Comment

Ultimate Stunt Boat Challenge

(GTW64 entry)
Posted: by Frank Gasking

Our next game is a title which was due for release in 2010 by Richard Bayliss. Richard as you know is a prolific game creator, and Ultimate Stunt Boat Challenge was to add to the impressive list of game titles under Richard’s belt.

The game was to build on the ruins of the Real Speed We Need title, which had graphics by myself, making use of the boat sprites in particular and moving from road to sea.

The idea was that you were involved in an action film and are a professional stunt man. You would have to jump over ramps and shoot bad guys in a typical sort of James Bond ‘esq title. It sort of had shades of Super Stuntman or Sky High Stuntman by Codemasters.

Whilst making good progress, Richard hit disaster and lost a load of work from his PC. He would have to start from scratch pretty much (only having a very early set of source files backed up), but before that – he went onto several other projects first. When coming back to the game – the mess of the code at the time was problematic for Richard to go back to. Feeling completely lost, Richard decided to put the game to sea.

Here you can download a preview of the game which is very early and features RWSN’s graphics lifted and plonked straight in. It feels a little rushed so far, and there is little to interact with, but it gives an indication of the direction where the game was going.

It is likely that Richard would have added to my original graphics and gone from there, as I had no involvement in the game directly.

Check out another piece of C64 gaming preservation…. preserved….

Posted in: GTW64 archive | Tagged: | 1 Comment

Hangman

(GTW64 entry)
Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Thanks to Witold Bryndza for the heads up for our next entry, which was to be a stylish Hangman game produced for Eagleware International in 1995 by Faith Design

The game was to feature some very polished intros and graphics throughout to give the ultimate game of hangman on the C64 (trouncing no doubt the version that came with the Introduction to Basic pack!)

Unfortunately for reasons as yet unknown, the game was never completely finished off – with only a preview surfacing of the game in its early’ish stages.

Recently, the game’s author Marcin Guzik had put up a YouTube video showing the game with some more advanced intros and screens.

Is it possible that we may get to see these later versions of the game? For now, check out the preview and soon we hope to find out more about the plans for the game and what happened to it.

In 2020, Marcin mentioned that the intro was finished and published on CSDB. This has now been added to the site.

Posted in: GTW64 archive | Tagged: | 3 Comments