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.
Pure was a fun, stylish trick-racing game originally released for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. But unlike most off-road racers lost in the mud of their competitors, Pure stood out thanks to its exhilarating stunts and the clever twist of rewarding style as much as speed.
Vehicle concept work by Young Ko.
Upon release, the game was met with glowing reviews. Critics praised its responsive controls, thrilling mechanics, and visual flair. But as is often the case, critical acclaim didn’t guarantee commercial success—Pure only managed to sell around 300,000 copies back then. Continue reading →
Next up into the ever-growing prototype archive at Games That Weren’t are a set of prototype builds for Mia Hamm Soccer for the Nintendo 64, dated 1st August and 1st September 2000. The game was a hastily reskinned version of Michael Owen’s WLS 2000 game, done in 12 weeks by DC Studios.
Comparing to the released version, we haven’t noticed any major differences – so its likely that any differences are for missing bug fixes and glitches and the game is pretty much the final game. Text in the released version seems to be encrypted slightly, where as it can be read clearly in a text editor for these builds. Continue reading →
Our next entry is a very early start of an isometric engine for the Game Boy Color, and for a BMX game that was being created by Charles Doty. The idea was to develop into a sort of R.C. Pro-Am clone with BMX bikes and jumps.
Charles was then asked to turn it into something similar to Skate and Destroy, which ironically was cancelled on the Color Game Boy. Basically, DC Studios were looking to do the conversion of Dave Mirra’s Freestyle BMX on the platform for Acclaim and put in a pitch to get the rights to develop it. Continue reading →
A short entry now for an unknown and early game engine that was created during the very early days of DC Studios. It has a working title of “Some Metal Head”, which was set in the game’s header and seems to be the start of a sort of Metal Slug/Turrican style game.
It is extremely early days with the engine, with a main army character who can jump around and walk along sloped platforms. There are no guns or anything at this stage, though graphical assets found suggest that an explosion was included. There are what seem to be springs/lifts which don’t do anything yet, so there are parts of the map which are inaccessible. Continue reading →
More GameBoy Color Prototypes for you, with two for Road Rash which was released in 2000 by Electronic Arts. These two builds are from the 7th and 10th August, around 2 months or so before the final release.
However, there seems to be very little different compared to the final version – the main difference we spotted was with the opening credit screen, with a large Nintendo logo compared to the final version which is just text.
The rest of the game seems to be the same, but we assume that there are a few bugs and minor glitches present which would have been ironed out in the final game. If you spot anything which is majorly different between these and the final game, please let us know.
After more than 40 years lost to time, Stairway to the Stars (the third game in Mike Taylor’s Magic Mirror Commodore VIC-20 adventure series) has finally been saved! And it’s been a long journey…
Stairway to the Stars – finally saved!
Back in 2009, Mike found a tape of his lost works and passed it over to Games That Weren’t in the hope it could all be recovered. Two of the games were saved (thanks to combined efforts of Mat Allen, Luigi Di Fraia and Bo Goeran Kvamme), but Stairway to the Stars was sadly thought to be unrecoverable due to severe tape degradation. After several attempts, it was eventually passed to Tom Roger Skauen around 2020 — whose initial recovery efforts also hit a brick wall.
But after a few years’ break and one last shot, the impossible has finally happened. This long-lost title has now been rescued thanks to the phenomenal work of both Tommi Lempinen and Tom Roger Skauen.
Mike himself hasn’t seen the game since the early ’80s (intended for release by Terminal Software) – and now, for the first time in over four decades, it’s playable again. We hope to hear more from Mike soon, once he’s had time to become reacquainted with his lost creation.
Read the full detailed story about the lost Magic Mirror series — and download all the games (now including Stairway to the Stars) here:
A very short entry for a set of extremely early NES Lion King prototypes that we found lurking within the Enigma Variations archives. They aren’t playable, but you can see the early structure for the game including test graphics throughout.
The first prototype seems to be built over the top of Populous’ codebase as a starting point and even features some corrupted graphics from the game. Starting the title, you just get three test sprites and you can move around the mansion from Pugsley’s Scavenger Hunt. Continue reading →
We’re today adding a NES prototype of Disney’s Aladdin, which was released by Virgin Games in 1994, only in PAL regions. What makes this special is that this is a NTSC build recovered and dated 23-08-94 and seems to be very close to final (though there are a number of glitches present). It has been stated that the NTSC version was never released until now.
Throughout the menus and the game itself, there are sprites not quite shaded properly, and with sprite glitches. We didn’t notice anything else at this stage, though if you spot anything majorly different, please do let us know. In particular, there could be content further in the game which isn’t quite finished. Continue reading →
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.
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.
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
Our next entry into the archives is something very interesting, which is sort of a set of prototypes of a game pack that was released, but then could be a cancelled attempt of some kind. Back in 2000, DC Studios helped produce a compilation for ToyMax in 2000, which was released and later re-released by JAKKS Pacific.
Within the Enigma Variations archives, we could a series of different builds from 2000, for surprisingly the Super Nintendo. It seems the games were being developed on that platform, and the console on a chip was essentially to be a SNES of some kind. However, when you look at videos of the final product, the menu is very different and looks almost NES-like. So, was this SNES development canned and made way for a NES version? Continue reading →
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.
