Preserving Cancelled & Unreleased Video Game History Since 1999
Total results: 214
I’m pleased to announce that pre-orders for our Games That Weren’t book are now open at https://www.bitmapbooks.com/products/the-games-that-werent To give a bit of background to regulars of the site (as well as new visitors). Primarily my aim was to produce something … Continue reading
Great news, but a reprint of The Games That Weren’t book is now available for pre-order. The Games That Weren’t chronicles 40 years of video game projects that never made it past ‘work-in-progress’. Discover more than 80 unreleased gems from … Continue reading
A tough year for many reasons – so winding down slightly whilst preparing our special GTW Christmas posts from the 17th to the 23rd December. Including some big recoveries once more! Until then, we’ll now reflect back daily on our … Continue reading
GTW Highlight No.2: Also in December, we made a hugely important discovery from the disks of the late Archer Maclean. The origins of Dropzone were recovered in the form of Defender and Stargate conversions on the Atari 800: https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2023/12/defender-and-stargate-discoveries/ In … Continue reading
GTW Highlight No.3: Our annual #Commodore64 Christmas update saw various International Karate and IK+ prototypes recovered, with other Archer Maclean materials and many other games preserved for the first time. What will we have this year I wonder? https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2023/12/gtw64-christmas-update-2023/
GTW Highlight No.4: In January, we took a look at a complex 3D space simulator called Tantalus for the Amiga, Atari ST and PC from 1991. Due for release in 1992 by Electronic Arts, it disappeared without a trace: https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2024/01/tantalus/
GTW Highlight No.5: At the end of January, we presented a #PC demo of the lost Battle Bowls, a Puzzle Bobble clone due for release on #AtariST, #Falcon, #Amiga + #PC. Now you could see just how good this puzzler … Continue reading
GTW Highlight No.6: In March, preservation work of Archer Maclean’s disks continued with a look at many arcade concepts that Archer had created on the Atari 800 and sadly abandoned, including an early Robotron development. https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2024/03/archer-macleans-atari-concepts/ As well as our … Continue reading
GTW Highlight No.7: Again in March, we released an early prototype of Prehistorik Kart on the #Nintendo #GameBoyAdvance for the first time – a Mario Kart clone due as a compilation bonus for the GBA release of Prehistorik Man by … Continue reading
GTW Highlight No.8: Finally in March, we carried out a huge preservation project on Micro-Antics, the company that produced the amazing Chariot Race for the Commodore VIC-20. All titles were fully preserved, including dev materials + an unreleased game: https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2024/03/a-tribute-to-micro-antics/
GTW Highlight No.9: In April, we looked at Into The Shadows – an impressive 3D fantasy fighting game developed for Scavenger in 1996 for PC, PlayStation + Sega Saturn. Only a rolling demo currently exists, but something playable is hoped … Continue reading
GTW Highlight No.10: Again in April, another recovery was made – this time with Bushido Warrior on the Amstrad CPC. A neat oriental themed Gauntlet clone due for release in 1988. https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2024/04/bushido-warrior/
GTW Highlight No.11: In May, we celebrated an incredible 25 years of Games That Weren’t, which was first born back in 1999. Covering the history of how the site first started and some of the key events and recoveries over … Continue reading
GTW Highlight No.12: June was certainly busy, and we did a huge investigation into The Godfather on the Sega Master System + others. It vanished after a rough first cut that wasn’t up to scratch. We made some big breakthroughs … Continue reading
GTW Highlight No.13: Again in June, we took a look at an ambitious Alien VS Predator game for PC (possibly Amiga too) in 1993, where you had essentially three different games in one. It was tragically canned after licence issues. … Continue reading
GTW Highlight No.14: July saw us covering the lost PC prototype of The Ravaging by Pukka Games from 1999-2000, where you control an angel from hell in a 3rd person action-adventure. Check out the demo and video here: https://gamesthatwerent.com/2024/07/the-ravaging/
GTW Highlight No.15: In August, we took a look at Die Hard 2 on the #SegaMasterSystem that was canned. We shed light on this version, its developer + how far it got. Could it be found? https://gamesthatwerent.com/2024/08/die-hard-2-die-harder/
GTW Highlight No.16: In September, we recovered and saved the last build of The Last Job (aka The Heist) on the Sony Play Station 2. Missing for 20 years, and due for release back in 2004 by Acclaim: https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2024/09/the-last-job/
GTW Highlight No.17: In September, we recovered and saved Matthew Smith’s long lost Commodore VIC-20 game Monster Muncher (missing 41 years). It was miraculously spotted in the Retro Computer Museum and was quite a recovery: https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2024/09/monster-muncher/ A fixed version was … Continue reading
GTW Highlight No.18: September was busy, and also saw the recovery of AtariSoft’s Stargate on the Commodore 64 at GTW thanks to Ken Van Mersbergen. Check out Tom Griner’s long lost conversion for yourself at: https://gamesthatwerent.com/gtw64/stargate/
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