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.
Battlezone 2000 was one of the early planned titles for the Atari Jaguar and mentioned in various magazines over a period of time, but it was never to surface – or did it in some form at least?
It is suggested that Battlezone 2000 was later reworked into Hover Strike, a futuristic tank battle game – which certainly matches up. However, Leonard Tramiel has claimed that both games were entirely separate, which has caused some conflict of information.
There is a suggestion that both games were even advertised side by side – was that the case? (we weren’t able to find an advert showing both together at the time of writing). If so, does it mean that an original Battlezone development was scrapped and replaced by a separate and unrelated development that was Hover Strike? Continue reading →
Elemental Force tells the story of a once-thriving city protected by a gem that ensured peace and stability. However, when a malevolent figure steals the gem and hides it across four elemental worlds (water, fire, air, and earth), the city falls into decline. The people choose a hero to retrieve the gem and defeat its thief in a climactic battle.
According to magazine previews at the time, the game consists of two phases. The first phase involves a series of tests to determine the player’s suitability for the quest. Once deemed worthy, the player selects one of the four worlds to explore, with the order of selection influencing the game’s difficulty. Continue reading →
In a winter CES feature in a 1994 issue of Power Play, a new game by Origin was reported as being in development. Chopper Attack was being developed by Andy Hollis (of Gunship fame), who had recently joined Origin. This apparently was to be an action oriented helicopter game released on both PC and 3DO.
Eventually the game was reworked and released as Jane’s Longbow, a more hardcore simulation. But what happened to the original planned incarnation, and especially a 3DO development? Continue reading →
And that is a wrap for 2024. Merry Xmas and happy holidays to everyone! Thank you all for your kind support in what has been a tough year and hope you have enjoyed the archive this year. Having a well needed break now, so see you all in 2025!
Whilst processing Archer’s Atari ST disks, we found a few bits of software and prototypes which are believed to be missing, or are at least marked as so at our friends at https://www.atarimania.com/
First up is a strange prototype of Karate Kid 2 that was found lurking, containing a slideshow of some images, but pressing F5 will bring up the main character:
Our next Christmas 2024 update sees Games That Weren’t take a look at a series of early concepts and prototypes from the late Archer Maclean’s disks. This includes the first ever look at concepts for an abandoned Atari/Commodore sequel to Dropzone, a special A8 Arcade version of Dropzone, early pre-release Dropzone materials, International Karate A8 prototypes + assets and various IK+ graphical assets.
Archer had previously spoken about working on a sequel to Dropzone, where the main character would drop into a cavern environment and go underground. Perhaps he was inspired by Atari’s Major Havoc?
We found nothing playable, but we did find a series of graphic files where Archer was playing with the idea, and you can see all of these concepts below in the gallery for the very first time. Continue reading →
As part of our Christmas updates, we present a set of preservations of various titles for the Commodore VIC-20 and ZX Spectrum. Many of the VIC-20 titles have already been preserved, but there are quite a few bits and pieces not yet preserved until now.
Our next Christmas 2024 update for the archive (and covering the late Archer Maclean’s work) takes a look at the early beginnings of Jimmy White’s Whirlwind Snooker, before Jimmy had any ties at all to the game. This includes an early 1989 test using GWBasic for the 3D routines for the table.
There was an ST preview present which unfortunately had a code protection on it. Thanks to Galahad, this was very quickly cracked and you can find the unprotected and tidied up version below. If you want to know the code – it is AC and then from the numpad: 0 and 4.
The 3rd prototype is much more advance, and more playable – though some of the collision is off in places, where you can’t pot the balls into some pockets. Hidden in the build is the text “THIS COPY TO NICK DAWSON 13;8;90 BY A;M” which can be revealed by holding down the “#” key. There doesn’t seem to be much else like hidden objects or debug views like with the previous proto. If you find anything else tucked away – please let us know.
We also have a number of different PC builds, which seem close to final, though one of them doesn’t run for us. We found an early MIDI file, which we believe was for Archer Maclean’s Pool. There are also a stack of NeoPaint files, showing the evolution of the game’s interface and different ideas and icons that never made it to the final game.
Check out the downloads below, but also our video that showcases much of the above if you don’t to fiddle around with emulators and DOSBox. We hope you enjoy it all!
With huge thanks to Chris Wilkins (Fusion Retro Books) for the loan of Archer’s disks to preserve and permission to add executables to the site, Alan Hammerton for hardware help and Mat Allen for the flippy PC drive loan. A huge thank you also to Galahad for breaking the protection on the 3rd prototype, which you can download a version of below!
In memory of Archer Maclean – 28 January 1962 – 17 December 2022.
Our final update of 2024 for the Commodore 64 archive. This year has gone in a flash as always, as we pass our 25th year of Games That Weren’t. We hope to finish with a bit of a bang, and have some surprise findings for you. We hope you enjoy them – here goes:
Wacky Races V1 recovered!
A surprise recovery for the GTW archives to kick things off, with a completely different and full version of Hi-Tec Software’s game (created by a completely different development team).
The complete conversion of Artic Software’s Alladin’s Cave has finally been recovered in its final and complete form. Check out this neat clone of Tales of the Arabian Nights:
Alternative Software’s 666 – Number of the Beast recovered!
No, we had never heard of it either! A complete surprise and incomplete development by Keith Purkiss of a flick screen arcade adventure, similar in some ways to Feud. Very early, but a very large map for you to explore!
Thanks to Csaba Virag, a full football management game has been recovered and which doesn’t seem to have been preserved. Still much to learn about this one, but here it is for now:
Mario Bros hacks added – Insect Kill and Clean All
Thanks to Marcin ‘Tenchi’ Świętoniewski, two strange 1994 Polish hacks of Mario Bros have been saved, which contain different sprites and added music. An interesting set of curiosities!
Keith has very kindly these past few months allowed us at Games That Weren’t to preserve all of his work disks that he recently found (which has resulted in our first four findings above). We have also preserved his master/work disks for the likes of Tiger Road, Rygar, Little Puff, Dragon Spirit, It’s a Knockout, Kenny Daglish Soccer, Lazer Tag, Last Mission, and Snoball in Hell:
Then finally, we have been busy making a lot of updates to various entries already in the archive. Please refer to the “History” tab for each entry to see what has changed and been added:
And that is it for 2024 for the Commodore 64 Games That Weren’t archive. Thank you everyone for all your help and support this year, in what has been a tough year for many reasons. I look forward to bringing you a lot more new discoveries in 2025!
Keith Purkiss was a regular games creator on the Commodore 64 back in the mid-late 80’s and early 1990s, and also created a few games under the pseudonym of Pakman for titles like Dragon Spirit and Little Puff. During his Probe days, he worked on the likes of Tiger Road, Rygar and Lazer Tag which would be released by U.S. Gold / Go!
Although in touch for a few years now, Keith reached out in 2024 after digging out all of his work disks. These would contain unreleased titles such as 666 – Number of the Beast, Aladdin’s Cave, Apprentice and a completely different version of Wacky Races. The links for these pages go to the individual entries we have set up that talk in more detail about those titles. 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.
