Welcome to Games That Weren't 64!

We cover Cancelled & Unreleased Video games for the Commodore 64 computer. A non-profit large archive dedicated to preserving lost games that were never released to the public, as well as prototypes and the odd preservation of released titles. Our aim to share history and stories from the developers, assets and more before it is too late. GTW has been preserving lost video game history since 1999, and long before that offline.

Please Browse our archive and discover the many entries that we host and have saved over the years.

Latest News and Posts

GTW64 August 2025 update

Posted: by Frank Gasking

2025 is going past in a flash as we enter into August, and GTW64 is continuing to evolve and grow too. This month we have added 6 new entries, including the great looking Indy 3 adventure game homebrew that sadly was cancelled, an early development of Skateball and lots more.

We then have 9 updates for you, which includes the recent recovery of Bryan Robson’s Super League, not only for the C64, but ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC. See you all next month!

5 new entries added

Competition Karate 2, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Adventure), Infinite Inferno, Programmerings-Tävling entries, Skateball

9 updates added

Bryan Robson’s Super League, C64GS cartridge titles, Footy game, Gem-X 2, Graham Gooch World Class Cricket, Hollywood Poker, Sword of Sodan, Xtron, Zolo

Posted in GTW64 news, News | 2 Comments

Bryan Robson’s Super League preserved

Posted: by Frank Gasking

Way back in Commodore User issue 25 (October 1985) is how far we’re travelling for our latest preservation work – a board game tie-in that blurred the lines between digital and physical play: Bryan Robson’s Super League, published by Paul Lamond Games. And that is the key thing, at first on our C64 entry we wasn’t sure if it was published or not, but turns out it was.

Super League Box (With Ends)

The game sees players building a football team and battling their way to the top of the league, facing random hazards like weather, injuries, and bank managers. These events play out across a physical game board that was bundled with the software – merging board game mechanics with home computer interactivity. Continue reading →

Posted in Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 (C64), GTW64 news, News, Preservation, ZX Spectrum | Tagged | Leave a comment

GTW64 July 2025 update

Posted: by Frank Gasking

Our seventh update of the year is a special one, as July featured one of our holy grail titles finally being found with the release of Nigel Mansell World Championship. There were also seven new entries added to the archives, including the full recovery of The Mystic Zone graphic adventure and the sad inclusion of the very promising Moonspire 2.

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Then to conclude, we have 12 existing entries updated, including confirmation that Runestone was the work of Sensible Software, and that Special Agent 2 sadly was merely vapourware. See you all next month!

The Mystic Zone full graphic adventure (Hungarian) recovered!

Thanks to the amazing recovery work of team member Csaba Virag, yet another full game has been recovered – this time a complete Hungarian graphic adventure game called The Mystic Zone.

The Mystic Zone

7 new entries added

1944, Bug Off, Get Ready to Think with BJ the Bear, Get Ready to Write with BJ the Bear, Mega Race, Moonspire 2, Magic Voice Vocabulary

Nigel Mansell World Championship recovered!

Posted separately during July – we recovered and released the full remains of the long lost Gremlin racer that many of us had been waiting for since 1992

Nigel Mansell World Championship

12 updates added

Castle Capers, Counting Bee, Delta Mission, Dominion, Magic Workshop series, Nefarious, , Obliterator, Project Sparkk, Runestone, Special Agent 2, The Magic Garden Talking Book Series, The Spelling Bee

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GTW64 June 2025 update

Posted: by Frank Gasking

Our sixth update of the year for our ever-growing Commodore 64 archive is mostly updates this month, with 3 new entries, including Dominion (a long lost shooter), details about a Stephen Hendry snooker game from Zeppelin that fell through and a rather risqué adventure game which many feel could have been a fake.

All finished off with 16 updates with various new scans and also new updated screenshots for the Mega Games entry after the recent better quality BBC Commercial Breaks upload, and news of an Alien 3 prototype. Oh, and keep an eye out on the site tomorrow! ;)

Dominion – a full shoot-em-up recovered!

dominionlarge

Thanks to Hedning / Genesis Project, a surprise and complete Delta-style budget shoot-em-up has been recovered from the strangest of places, written by the team that did Black Tiger for U.S. Gold. Check out a fun little shooter!

Dominion

2 new entries added

Stephen Hendry Snooker, Ifigonia

16 updates added

3 2 1 quiz game, Castle Capers, Commando 86, Covermount casualties, Crystalopis, Drive, Elevator, Intruder, Jeeps, Mega Games, Mindstone, Night Walker, Psyclapse, The Last Stuntman, Ultra Games, Unknown Educational game

Alien 3 prototype recovered

In case you missed it the other week, Sailor/Triad has recovered a rare prototype of Alien 3 for the C64 which has some minor differences compared to the final version.

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2025/06/alien-3-c64-prototype-recovered

A surprise for tomorrow!

An extra surprise is coming hopefully tomorrow morning for the site. Watch this space ;-)

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Alien 3 C64 prototype recovered

Posted: by Frank Gasking

Thanks to Sailor of Triad, a rare prototype of Alien 3 for the Commodore 64 has just been discovered recently. This was a demo that was seemingly produced for producer Joe Bonar to take a look at back in the day to see progress with the project.

alien3 4 large

It is possible that it could have been also passed onto magazines for screenshots – which makes it a shame that it wasn’t included as a demo on the likes of Commodore Force or Format at the time. Continue reading →

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

Ifigonia

Posted: by Frank Gasking

1985 Quickly

Platforms: ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 (GTW64 entry)

Our next entry into the GTW archives is a slightly controversial title due to its rather risqué advertisement that featured in the Italian press at the time. Ifigonia was an erotic/adult themed text adventure, with graphics created by artist Mauro Mazza. The game was based on a poem from 1928.

After a few adverts for the ZX Spectrum, C64 and Amstrad CPC – the game disappeared without a trace, and some even wondered if it was a hoax of some kind. One magazine (Sperimentare) showed a rather different looking cover-art case and talked about the game. We don’t think they actually review it, as the details about the title are quite vague. It is mentioned though that the graphics would be a mixture of comic-like graphics and animations throughout. Continue reading →

Posted in Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 (C64), ZX Spectrum | Tagged | Leave a comment

Podcast appearance with Mamemeister

Posted: by Frank Gasking
I had the pleasure of being a guest on the “Nice and Nasty Gaming Podcast” with Mamemeister recently! We chatted about Games That Weren’t, how I first got into gaming, and picked out three games I’d take to a desert island… and three I’d happily launch into the sun!
 
If that sounds like your thing, you can have a listen here on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5hZzC1TwOxahT569p5ETyX

Or you can also listen via YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NW81sZ90DG0

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GTW64 May 2025 update

Posted: by Frank Gasking

Our fifth update of the year has a number of new entries added, including a game that was once submitted to Zzap and just disappeared, beginnings of a Pacman game that never was intended for Mastertronic, and Elite’s strange Commando-themed game that would eventually be renamed to Duet. We also have some updates to existing entries (details of each update in the history notes). More for you again next month!

8 new entries added

Commando 86, Drive, Miner 2049er, Miner on Mars, Politique Economique, The Honeymooners, The Pacman Strikes Back, Twilyte

9 updates added

666 – The Number of the Beast, Airwolf 2 V1, Charlie Chaplin, Moonshadow, Rim Raiders, The Last Stuntman, Twilight Zone, Undead, Whuppie Tale

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