Preserving Cancelled & Unreleased Video Game History Since 1999
Welcome to Games That Weren't!
We are an 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 since 1999.
Please Browse our archive and discover the many entries that we host for many different platforms.
Our next entry into the archives is one which has tormented Amstrad CPC users for many many years. But were they then perhaps saved from the lack of a Street Fighter 2 conversion?
Back in early 1993, U.S. Gold finally got 8-bit editions of Street Fighter 2 out for the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum. The C64 edition was pretty terrible, due to how it was rushed out. The ZX version looked very impressive with its large sprites, but was far too slow. However, the CPC version was nowhere to be seen.
Would the CPC edition been as bad as the Commodore 64 release? (pictured)
During early 1993, places like Software City and MJC Computer Supplies were listing the game as being available to purchase on the CPC, when it clearly wasn’t available. There seemed to be all the right signals that the game was coming soon, and adverts for the home computer versions made that clear with it listed as coming soon on tape and disk. Continue reading →
Our next entry into the archives is a collective one for a number of currently missing Spectrum Games titles that were advertised around 1983 time for the likes of the ZX Spectrum, ZX81 and Commodore VIC-20.
After the recovery of Monster Muncher for the VIC-20, I noticed that there were a number of other Spectrum Games titles that had yet to be fully preserved. Were they unreleased, or had they suffered a similar fate to Monster Muncher, and were just sold in very small numbers? Continue reading →
Not technically a Game That Wasn’t, but a lovely story from Ready64, where Modulus on the Commodore 64 was released with content missing, so it was not possible to complete.
One of the coders Ivan Del Duca has now restored it to full glory. More details and download can be found here:
Back in the days before SEGA’s trusty blue mascot appeared on the scene, the company would licence its various games to the likes of Activision, and U.S. Gold – resulting in conversions of Afterburner, Outrun and many more for home computers of the time.
What we believe is a mock-up of Sonic the Hedgehog on the Amiga.
When Sonic first appeared, it blew everyone away – including U.S. Gold, who were keen to snag the home computer rights quickly, and were very confident that they would get them given their current relationship with SEGA. Continue reading →
International Karate and IK+ are two titles which helped to really put System 3 on the map, along with of course the Last Ninja series. Archer Maclean did a superb job of creating two wonderful fighting games which got rave reviews in the press – so much so that a sequel was always on the cards.
There were not just one attempt to produce a sequel, but a few over the years. Archer in particular was rumoured to have been working on a IK++/IK Deluxe game for the C64, though later confirmed he never started anything. Then in an interview with Retro Gamer, he spoke of working on an Amiga/ST IK++ where you collected moves.
Platforms: PC, Xbox, GameCube, PlayStation 2, PSX, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4 + others
Also known as: “The Last Ninja – Return to Lin Fen Island”
When you think of System 3, The Last Ninja series probably comes to mind – along with memories of frustrating lake crossings and those infamous mud pits in the first game. Despite the therapy I needed after that segment, the series was iconic. But when the third instalment was released in 1991, many thought it marked the end. Not quite!
Just a few years later though (around 1997 time), there was a change of heart, and the time was now right to resurrect the franchise and continue the series once more on modern platforms. At the start, an isometric style game similar to the original series, and graphically similar to the Little Big Adventure series with inspiration from the Oddworld series. Continue reading →
After the recent amazing recovery of Garden Wars on the Commodore 64, our attention now turns to the lost VIC-20 edition of Chess Wars by the same company JCE, which was found in the same advert by Andrea Pachetti.
Advertised in various magazines for the unexpanded VIC-20, you play against the computer with nine levels of difficulty – all the special moves allowed by the rule set are made possible (Fabrizio, who suggested covering this title, assumes that they are referring to gambit, promoting pawns to higher pieces, casting and so forth.) Continue reading →
Its now getting cold, but the updates are still coming – and quite a few this month in the Commodore 64 archive with the following:
Alleykat rare non-playable demo preserved
A nice little bonus to kick off the update thanks to Marco Das, with a rare non-playable demo added to our prototypes area. Could it be made playable perhaps, and does it contain anything not in the final release?
A lovely curiosity added to the archives today thanks to Marco Das, with the preservation of a very rare non-playable demo of Alleykat distributed by Hewson back in the day. It was likely for shops to showcase the game in their stores, or for magazines to get a sneak preview before release.
The tape was purchased from a Norwegian retro gaming site by Marco and has been fully preserved as a TAP image, and with the original DMP images too. Below are the downloads and a video of the demo too.
I wondered if the demo may actually still contain any joystick related code to make it playable once more, and if there could be content that was cut from the final release. Well, Martin Piper came to the rescue and produced the following:
Below is an added download for the playable version that Martin has very kindly created. It seems that the game is pretty much the final game, just had the demo/preview code adding in. If we’re wrong, please do let us know.
A huge thank you to Marco Das for saving the demo and for Martin Piper for making playable!
Just a short post to add a slightly earlier prototype of Ariolasoft’s Bug Blitz which has been recovered thanks to Csaba Virag and Janos Szeitz (who digitized the turbo tape where it was found).
Comparison between title screen of prototype (left) and final game (right).
Comparison between prototype (left) and final game (right). No visible differences.
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.
