GTW Highlight No.12: By April/May, we had recovery and release of Anco’s Tip-Off for NES + SNES. You can now experience early developments of the game, and also hear the long-lost David Whittaker NES music, compiled from source.
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
GTW Highlight No.11: Mechanoids 2 lost SNES brawler released
GTW Highlight No.11: Switching focus to the SNES in April, we preserved the unfinished Mechanoids 2: The Final Conflict. An early side-scrolling mech fighter planned for 1993. We recovered two prototype builds you can check out and play:
https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2025/04/mechanoids-2-the-final-conflict/
GTW Highlight No.10: Magician’s Apprentice release for a Console that never was!
GTW Highlight No.10: No April Fools when we recovered a full game for a console that never was. Magician’s Apprentice (1993) was for the mythic Multi-System 2 (successor to the Konix Multi-system), and is now emulated + playable thanks to SavourySnaX !
https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2025/04/magicians-apprentice/
GTW Highlight No.09: Populous on the NES recovered
GTW Highlight No.09: In March, we also had a massive discovery with the release of the long-lost god sim Populous for the NES. A full conversion lost for 33 years – which now you can finally play.
GTW Highlight No.08: Sensible Soccer on the NES recovered
GTW Highlight No.08: A huge surprise in March, when we recovered a previously unknown NES conversion of Sensible Soccer. A complete conversion that had been missing for 32 years, and which you can now finally play. Go be a goal-scoring superstar hero! ⚽
GTW Highlight No.07: Games That Weren’t talk at The Retro Collective
GTW Highlight No.07: In February, we were honoured to give a talk at Retro Collective about Games That Weren’t and 25 years of uncovering unreleased, cancelled, and forgotten games. Here is a link to the full talk:
GTW Highlight No.06: Dropzone 2 and International Karate assets and protos (Atari 800, Commodore 64)
GTW Highlight No.06: One of our final December updates saw unseen screens from the lost Dropzone 2 on the Atari + Commodore64, along with a strange Arcade edition of Dropzone. Also various International Karate protos and IK+ graphical assets too:
https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2024/12/archer-maclean-a8-prototypes-and-unused-assets/
GTW Highlight No.05: Early origins of Jimmy White’s Whirlwind Snooker (Atari ST, PC)
GTW Highlight No.05: Also in December, we revealed early prototypes of Jimmy White’s Whirlwind Snooker, including early PC tests, Atari ST protos. Also showcasing concept artwork + icons from the game – created by the late and great Archer Maclean:
https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2024/12/archer-macleans-snooker-prototypes/
GTW Highlight No.04: Wacky Races V1, Apprentice and more! (C64)
GTW Highlight No.04: Last year’s Commodore 64 Christmas update saw the recovery of the unreleased Wacky Races V1, Aladdin’s Cave, Apprentice and 666 games and a lot more. More is on the way for this year’s update – so watch this space!
https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2024/12/gtw64-christmas-update-2024/
GTW Highlight No.03: Unseen IK+ design docs revealed (Commodore 64)
GTW Highlight No.03: Not unreleased, but we took a look last December at rare, never seen IK+ development documents from the late Archer Maclean’s archive, including ideas + graphical concepts that led to creation of the famous fighting game.
https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2024/12/ik-design-and-development-notes/
