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

Gun Fury

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1997 Binary Emotions

Platform: Commodore Amiga

Described as a thinking man’s shoot-em-up, Gun Fury was a late Amiga release that was due from Binary Emotions, and to be published under the Guildhall Leisure label in 1997.

gun fury shot

The aim of the title was simply to repel waves of alien invaders with your tank. The aliens are in various colours, and as you shoot one, your tank turns that colour and then you can only shoot another alien of the same colour. Essentially the game was very similar to Zoop, which was released on platforms including the SEGA Mega Drive. Continue reading →

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

Crystal X – Amstrad CPC games preserved

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Although digital preservation has been happening for quite some time now, there are still many games actually released that are still very much at large. Often perhaps because some of these titles didn’t sell in great numbers in the early days, or even later days of a machine’s commercial life.

cloaker page

Back in the early 1990s, there was a software company called Crystal X that sold games by the homebrew developer Angela Swinbourne – a mixture of strategy and action games. A young David Crookes at the time had obtained these games, which he believes Angela sent to him, as he was in touch with a lot of PD people and home brewers at the time. Continue reading →

Posted in: Amstrad CPC, Preservation | Leave a comment

Dwagons

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1992 Imagitec

Platform: Commodore Amiga, Atari ST and PC
Dwagons is a game which is not too dissimilar in style to the classic Pengo, with the concept of being able to push blocks. The blocks come in various different forms, which provide tricks and traps throughout. Joystick magazine described the game as a title that combines arcade, strategy and adventure. dwagons shot5 The graphics early on looked pretty good, showcasing a 2.5D view, and blocks could stack up too, with the characters being able to jump up onto them and give an extra level of depth to the game. The two main characters if you hadn’t guessed already, are dragons – or Dwagons, as the title suggests, going by the name of Snort and Snail. Continue reading →
Posted in: Atari ST, Commodore Amiga, PC, Reviews | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Funky Monkey

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1993 Images Software

Platform: Commodore Amiga (+ potentially others later on)
Also known as: Monkey Business

It was recently that team member Grzegorz Antosiewicz highlighted an abandoned Amiga game which had completely passed me by last year when artist Glenn Broadway created a detailed blog post back in May 2022. The majority of information and all images have been gleaned from Glenn’s excellent post to create the entry within our archives with his permission.

Funky Monkey was the first game Glenn had worked on, which started after being invited to help with graphics for the title already in development. A friend was on a YTS placement at Images Software at the time, and this resulted in an introduction to Karl Jeffrey (the founder) and a subsequent invite.

MonkeyBusiness mockup 02
Early image from Monkey Business, which eventually would see an overhaul on its design.

At the time in early 1991, the game was being developed under the name of Monkey Business. This was already under way by a development team called DC Software, which was none other than developer Daniel Clapson. Continue reading →

Posted in: Commodore Amiga, Reviews | Tagged: | 1 Comment

Day of Wrath

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1995 Damage

Platform: Commodore Amiga 1200

As well as titles you may well remember, we try to also cover titles which may have passed you by. Often due to how late they were to the scene or how little was actually produced. Our next title seems to have disappeared as quickly as it first appeared, in Polish magazine, Amiga Magazyn, back in the summer of 1995.

The game was called Day of Wrath (or Dies Irae, as listed in the magazine), and was being developed by the Finnish demo group Damage (developed by the Polish contingent of the group). A small news article referred to the game as a Polish Stardust clone, and looking at the screenshots, you can see why.

Dies Irae shot640

Day of Wrath utilized ray-tracing techniques to give an impressive visual quality. It isn’t quite clear if the screenshot shown was merely a mock up, though the piece talks of a large number of smoothly animated objects and scenery to give speed to the game. Perhaps though this was just plans of how it was going to be, rather than how it was running. Continue reading →

Posted in: Commodore Amiga | Tagged: | Leave a comment

GTW64 February 2023 update

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

A shorter month, so our monthly update to the GTW64 archives has come round fast. This month we have 1 new entry and a total of 20 entries updated overall. Thanks to our contributors for their help and enjoy!

1 new entry added

League of Light

20 updates added

Balls Of The Scrolling Thunder, Black Knight 2, Blinky In America, Bod Squad 2, The, Bugs Bunny, Chainsaw Warrior, Daybreak Software titles, Dreadnought, Educational Activities, Inc. titles, Gauntlet 3, Imperial Bodyguard, Mad Crash Racing, On Table, Parasol Stars, Reader’s Digest Software, Solar Jetman, Star Maze, Sunburst Communications titles, The Attack of the Blue Bomber, Trantor 2

Posted in: GTW64 news, News | Leave a comment

Blockie: C64 game finished and released

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

Richard Bayliss has been working hard the past few months to finish off an abandoned Columns clone which was infamously released into PD and onto Commodore Format’s covertape in an incomplete form around 30 years ago.

blockie2

This has now been fully completed and you can download a playable version of the game, with proper scoring and with the ability for the game to end.

Check it out at: https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/gtw64/blockie/

Posted in: Commodore 64 (C64), GTW64 news | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Access Denied

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1992 ICE

Platform: Commodore Amiga + possibly others

A very short entry until we can learn more, but Access Denied was a 3D game apparently programmed by the same people who did F-19 Stealth Fighter.

If that is the case, then we could be looking at the developers being:Adrian Scotney, Malcolm Hellon and/or Tim Walter

Apparently the game had been in development for around two years, and where there were two artificial intelligence’s controlling a world. You have to choose which to serve to restore peace to the world (described as being like Mercenary a little). The 3D landscapes in the game would feature lots of polygon objects to fly around, and lots of oversampled speech which was reportedly of CD quality. Continue reading →

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

Shut In

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1992 Ocean Software

Platform: Commodore Amiga + possibly others

A very short entry until we can learn more, but this was to be yet another Ocean Software title that was due for release around 1992/1993 time for at least the Commodore Amiga.

The game was reported in a brief news snippet by Amiga Power magazine, but with no other details given about the title and what it entailed.

We hope to learn more soon about the game and will continue to update this entry as we do. In the meantime, if you know anything more about the title – please get in touch. Continue reading →

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