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.

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Mutant Speed Demons

1993 Electronic Arts

Platform: SEGA Mega Drive

Mutant Speed Demons was to be yet another title the Mutant League series on the SEGA Mega Drive, following on from the likes of Mutant League Football and Mutant League Hockey and created by New Wave Graphics.

Over the years, little has been known about the title apart from a few very brief press clippings about the game. Gamepro magazine described the title as a “rip-roaring motorcycle” game, but that was about it. The game subsequently disappeared without a trace and no more was heard about it.

In 2009, something of the game was almost found – when a prototype was unearthed. Tragically the game had long been wiped after the batteries were found to have failed that were keeping the game alive. Then in 2013, a detailed 100-200 page manuscript surfaced in an online auction, but has yet to have been digitally preserved and made available.

Then in February 2021, @IsaiahVinson1 got in touch with Games That Weren’t to flag up some assets that were found on an older version of Mike Kennedy’s website. Mike was one of the artists working on the game at the time and had once showcased some of the art he had produced. The sprites give a great glimpse of roughly how the game was going to look and feel – showing a racing/beat-em-up game in the style of Road Rash. As Mutant League Football was reportedly built upon the Madden 93 engine (though Michael Mendheim has said it wasn’t), we felt there was a strong chance that this game was built upon the Road Rash engine.

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Posted in: Mega Drive / Genesis, Reviews | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Hungry Horace

1983 Melbourne House

Platform: Commodore Vic 20

This came as a bit of a shock when Chris Poacher first highlighted on the Vic 20 Facebook group that Melbourne House had advertised a Vic 20 version of Hungry Horace in Personal Computer Weekly back in 1983.

Sure enough, within the set of small inlay covers advertising the different Horace games, there is a green + yellow variation of the cover advertising a Vic 20 edition. Just underneath the platform, it suggests that the game needed an 8K memory expansion.

Oddly though, although the cover is shown – on the order form there is no option to actually pick the Vic 20 version. So was this a mistake, and had Melbourne House decided early on to drop the title?

It would be amazing if a conversion was found to have been started, and we will try to get in touch with a few ex-Melbourne House developers to see if they know anything about it. Chances of finding something are slim, but who knows!

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Posted in: Commodore, Commodore VIC-20, Reviews | Tagged: | 6 Comments

Q-Bert Qubes

198? Parker Bros

Platform: Commodore Vic 20

Is this a vapourware title, or was something feasibly started of this Q-Bert sequel on the Vic?

The game’s manual for the Atari platform all but confirms that “Commodore” was due a conversion, but was it Vic 20 as well as Commodore 64?

Well, the Commodore 64 version was actually confirmed and found in its final state a few years ago. So it could be that it was just a C64 version that was ever planned.

Hopefully some day someone will step forward with more information, either confirming or denying such a conversion existed.

Posted in: Commodore, Commodore VIC-20, Reviews | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Caveman Species

1998 Black Flag and Vulcan Software

Platform: Commodore Amiga and PC

By 1998, things were looking extremely bleak for the Amiga platform, but there were people still trying to keep the dream alive. None more so than Black Flag and Vulcan Software with the development of Caveman Species. A version was also in development for PC too.

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

Transformers

1994 Argonaut

Platform: Super Nintendo

Following the success of Starwing, Argonaut sought to find a new title to utilize the Super FX chip once more and prove that the SNES still had plenty of life in it yet against the newcomers of the Sony PlayStation and SEGA Saturn.

Super Play magazine reported in 1994 that Argonaut had signed the Transformers licence, and this was to be their next big title on the platform. It was felt that producing large scale robots would work perfectly with the Super FX chip and something special could certainly be created. Continue reading

Posted in: Reviews, Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Wreckin Crew PC ECTS 1997 prototype

Bit of an odd one to kick off the week. Years ago my mum picked up a copy of Wreckin Crew by Telstar for the PC in a charity shop around 22 years ago, and I couldn’t get it working at the time. What was odd was that it looked like a pirated copy inside the box, with no instructions. So, I thought it was a dud and it was left to gather dust in my parents attic for many years.

Clearing out recently and finding the game again last week, I realised that all wasn’t what it seemed when I was a kid. The CD of course looked to be some kind of prototype burn of the game, so I quickly set about making a backup to ISO to run within Virtual Box and a copy of Windows XP.

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Posted in: PC, Prototype | Tagged: | 14 Comments

Cannon Fodder (Amiga) – Early screens

Following on from last week’s early screens from Beavers on the Amiga, Grzegorz Antosiewicz has dug out some early preview screens from Sensible Software’s brilliant Cannon Fodder.

These screenshots are from when it was in early development, taken from magazines such as Amiga Power (October 1992), Amiga Games (11/1993), TGM (issue 47), Generation4 (issue 46) and The One magazine.

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Some rather different looking frees and icon panels.

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Posted in: Commodore Amiga, Prototype, Unused materials | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Bazooka Sue

1994 Starbyte

Platform: Commodore Amiga

Our next entry is thanks to Grzegorz Antosiewicz, and is of a title that was eventually released on PC for the German market in 1997, but was due an Amiga release much earlier.

Bazooka Sue (or Bazuka Sue as one magazine oddly referred to the game) was first mentioned way back in 1992 as being a new SCUMM style game with a protagonist described as a cross between Kim Basinger and Miss Piggy. Not an insult to the looks of the character, but the fact that they are oddly part human and part pig!

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What seems to be a cut-scene image from the Amiga title.

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Posted in: Amiga CD32, Commodore Amiga, Reviews | Tagged: | Leave a comment

The Living Daylights

1987 Arcadia Systems / Domark

Platform: Arcade and Commodore Amiga

Following on from our recent post about the arcade version of Fire and Forget 2, comes yet another title that was being developed simultaneously whilst the home conversions were under way.  With The Living Daylights, it would have essentially been the Amiga game that users would have seen – well, had the Amiga version been released that is.

Arcadia Systems was set up by Mastertronic to try and break into the arcade market, and their business model was to essentially put an Amiga PCB with a game burned onto EPROMS, making for much more efficient development and a far easier way for arcade owners to swap games around. The plan would be for the home computer version to be made available 90 days after the arcade release. Continue reading

Posted in: Arcade, Commodore Amiga, Reviews | Tagged: | 15 Comments

Scavenger

1990 Hewson

Platforms: Atari ST and Commodore Amiga

John Phillips was a brilliant developer who created classics such as Nebulus and Eliminator, and was to extend his exciting catalog of games with a new title called Scavenger for Hewson software back in 1990.

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The idea of the game was to be a time travel title, and scrolled horizontally with a series of puzzles that had to be solved. Later though, it is documented that the game evolved into a sort of 3D version of Ghouls ‘n’ Ghosts, utilizing a sophisticated shadowing effect that was way ahead of its time. Continue reading

Posted in: Atari ST, Commodore Amiga, Reviews | Tagged: | 2 Comments