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.

Latest News and Posts

Franko 2: No Mercy

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1995-2003 Mirage Media / World Software / Horn

Platforms: Commodore Amiga 1200/CD32, PC and Game Boy Advance

It may have been a basic fighting game with simple graphics, but Franko: The Crazy Revenge did pretty well in the Polish games market in 1994 and has a hardcore set of fans today. It resulted in a sequel that was started in 1995, with a whole host of new features and enhancements over the original game.

level1
Early build on either Amiga/PC.

When mentioned in snippets as early as 1995, the game was said to be including digitized backgrounds and characters, with a series of new moves being developed. You would be able to interact more with your surroundings, picking up garbage cans and the like and using as projectiles, and the game was to be a lot gorier! Your main character would also have over 200 frames of animation, compared to the dozen or so which the original game’s character had. Continue reading →

Posted in: Amiga, Amiga CD32, Game Boy Advance, PC, Reviews | Tagged: | 2 Comments

Snow Bros

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1992 Unknown

Platforms: PC Engine

Following on from our report about a possible Gods conversion on the PC Engine, we now take a look at what seemed to be a conversion of Toaplan’s Snow Bros that was due for release in the early 1990s.

snow bros shot
A screenshot from the arcade. Not PC Engine, as confirmed by article in scans.

Advertised in Electronic Gaming Monthly Magazines in September 1992, it appeared with a number of others for sale from a company called Gametronix. Present was a single screenshot, which may or may not have been from the PC Engine game.

Considering just how well Parasol Stars came out on the platform, there’s no doubt that Snow Bros would have been a great fit for the machine. But as with conversions on other platforms, such as the Amiga, the game would never see release in the end.

As the game was shown just in a short advert, there was no detail about when the game was coming out or how it was looking/playing. The screenshot may have even been from a different platform, and therefore we don’t know yet if any conversion was actually ever started or not.

Paranoia Dragon found a suggestion that Naxat Soft were the intended publisher, so there is a possible lead to try and found out more and if anything was ever started.

Did anything get started, or was it all just vapourware overall? If you know anything more about the conversion, please do get in touch.

With thanks to Paranoia Dragon for flagging up the title and for the scans, GDRI for digging out a news snippet on the game and Gaming Alexandria for the scan.

Gallery
Posted in: PC Engine, Reviews | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Two hearts and a chickenpot

Posted: by Frank Gasking

A short Amiga entry for a sequel to Lupo Alberto, which was considered whilst the first game was still in development.

The game was to be called “Two hearts and a chicken pot”, and presentation screens and graphic elements were made by Luca Stradiotto.

In the end, it was decided to do a different game instead called Cattivik, where some of the ideas from Lupo 2 were taken and used instead.

This game was at least started on the Amiga, but we’re unsure if a C64 version ever got beyond planning stages.

With thanks to Luca/FIRE for highlighting and Luca Stradiotto for the images.

Gallery
Posted in: Amiga, Reviews | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Matchmaker: Grammar disk preserved

Posted: by Frank Gasking

A quick post thanks to Bertrand / Atari Frog, to highlight the recent recovery of an unpreserved educational title for the C64 called Matchmaker: Grammar. Released in 1983 by American Educational Computer.

matchmaker

The disk was preserved by SoulBuster on the AtariAge forums, who has prolifically been preserving many a Atari 400/800 title. With Matchmaker, there was an Atari version one side, and C64 the other. The download can be found below.

Download

Matchmaker Grammar (1983)(American Educational Computer)(US)[disk]

Posted in: Commodore 64, GTW64 news, News | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Santa Monica FC European Challenge

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

2000 Frey United Software

Platform: Amiga 1200

Following on from last week’s post on Euro Round-Up: Czech Republic, another recovery has been made from the archives of Frey United Software with another football manager game due out for the Commodore Amiga 1200 in 2001/2001. The game was being created by the Barczyński brothers, and was written in AMOS.

euro challenge 11

Santa Monica FC European Challenge utilized a very similar engine/process to Euro Round-Up: Czech Republic and may have been part of the same series. We’ll add more details as we learn more over time. Continue reading →

Posted in: Amiga, Reviews | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Gods

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1992-2008 Bitmap Brothers

Platforms: PC Engine and Nintendo DS

The PC Engine/TurboGrax-16 is a wonderful platform with a wide range of titles, including my favourite – Parasol Stars. As the platform started to get a little bit of traction, we began to see a large number or promised titles – Gods would be one of many which were promised, but would never see the light of day.

pcengine gods scaled
Was this really a PC engine screenshot? Perhaps not?

Gods was a stunning looking platform/puzzler that would see conversions to a number of platforms over the years. It was PC Engine Fan magazine in June 1992 which posted a preview of the game and mentioned it as coming soon for that particular platform. Continue reading →

Posted in: DS, PC Engine, Reviews | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Euro Round-Up: Czech Republic

Posted: by Frank Gasking

2000 Frey United Software

Platform: Amiga 1200

Another recovery and release in 2024, this time with a football manager game which was due out for the Commodore Amiga 1200 in 2001/2001. The game was being created by the Barczyński brothers, and was written in AMOS.

czman 13

Euro Round-Up: Czech Republic was the first of several management games planned by Frey United Software, which would simulate European football – all games would utilize the same interface and style. This particular development would focus on Czech Republic and its teams. Continue reading →

Posted in: Amiga | Tagged: | Leave a comment

The King’s Ransom

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1993 ReadySoft Incorporated

Platforms: Commodore Amiga and PC

Following on from Wrath of the Demon was a new title from ReadySoft called The King’s Ransom, with the same level of detailed animations, but a bit more in the way of interactions and inventory. The game was due for release on both the Commodore Amiga and PC back in 1993. The story would go as follows:

Long ago, a circle of the most powerful wizards in the land bound the myriad forces of evil into several small crystals and hid them within a distant mountain. This was not enough to contain them, however, and the evil festered and grew. Your king has asked you, the bravest warrior in the land, to seek out and destroy the crystals before the evil can consume the entire kingdom.

KingsRansom17

The game was a mix of arcade and graphic adventure – where you would build your character’s attributes and arm them with a variety of weapons and armour to battle over 40 creatures across 150 locations. Continue reading →

Posted in: Amiga, PC, Reviews | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Astrology – Atari prototype recovered

Posted: by Frank Gasking

Atari Mania are on it again, with a Atari 400/800 prototype recovered by John Hardie. This time an Astrology program which was developed in 1982.

http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-astrology_42800.html

This is what Atari Mania posted about it on AtariAge’s forums:

“It seems Astrology was only listed in a single Atari catalog in late 1980 before being canned, although the author appears to have continued tweaking it until early 1982. Rather surprisingly, this title was written by John Dunn of VCS Superman fame and looks complete. If you want to play around with the program, you’ll find some easy-to-follow instructions written by John Hardie with the .atr file.”

Posted in: Atari 400/800, News, Prototype | Leave a comment

GTW64 January 2024 update

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

A new year, and to hit the ground running we have had a large amount of updates to the Commodore 64 archive this month. Here goes:

3 games recovered – Metal Piramid, The Spirit and Jump People

In case you missed it, this month thanks to Csaba Virag, we added two lost full games and a preview, one of which is a neat little platformer.

Metal Piramid, Jump People, The Spirit

Further Adventures of Alice in Videoland

A bit of a strange one, where this odd sequel to Alice in Videoland was released by Bug Byte on budget, but was incomplete. A game where there is much more to find!

Further Adventures of Alice in Videoland

6 other new entries added

As well as the above, we have 6 other new entries added – some of which might be titles that are out there and just need preserving.

Chemistry Tutorial, Global Conquest, Gumby, Heckle and Jeckle, Istar Crossword Jr., Morgol

17 further entries updated

Then almost last but not least, we have 17 entry updates, with new information, scans and more – including a number of missing titles that have been preserved under the likes of the Dynacomp catalog, Orbyte Software titles and Sunburst Communications thanks to Allan Pinkerton!

19 Boot Camp – Part 2, 2400 A.D., Bomb, Car Game, Derek Bell’s Le Mans, Dynacomp catalog titles, Grubz, Infection, Jaceman, Laser Disc to C64 interface, Mad Planets, Murder!, Orbyte Software titles, People from Sirius, Sunburst Communications titles, The Ronin, Undead

Chevy Tech 1987 disk preservation

And finally we have preservation of a vehicle advertisement/catalogue disk from Allan Pinkerton which we have shared on the site.

Chevy Tech page

Enjoy and see you next month!

Posted in: Commodore 64, GTW64 news | Leave a comment