Preserving Cancelled & Unreleased Video Game History Since 1999
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.
As you know, we occasionally like to also do posts that highlight assets that were not used in a final and published game. Thanks to Grzegorz Antosiewicz, we now have a short post to share some earlier screens from the Amiga version of Grandslam’s Beavers with some minor differences compared to the final released game.
A short post on what should have been the 17th Castlevania title and released on the SEGA Dreamcast back in 2000, where you were to control Sonia Belmont and Victor Belmont in a 3D third person title.
Recently we were informed about a website that has been set up recently to try and preserve all information on the game, which you can find at:
https://drmarchive.netlify.app/crp/start-home
So far the site contains a series of sketches, screenshots and various footage – as well as part of the development story so far. Over time it is expected that more information will be added, and it is hoped that something of the development itself will be saved some day.
Just months later after this post, something was indeed saved – a playable beta surfaced which you can see in action over at: https://www.sega-dreamcast-info-games-preservation.com/castelvania-resurrection-dreamcast
This is fantastic news, and it is hoped that now the game itself will be dumped and shared with the community!
When discussing about the unreleased Conquest for the GTW book with Larry DeMar, we already knew that the source code had been preserved. Jeff Vavasour had kindly provided screenshots of it running for the book.
We asked Larry if it would be possible to release the game in its final state, and he had no objections. After informing Jeff of Larry’s blessing, Jeff got to work on building the game into a playable state and you can now check it out at:
http://www.codemystics.com/conquest/
A great end to 2020 where you can finally check out a game that has been hidden for almost 40 years. For more of the story and assets, check out: https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2020/10/conquest/
The yearly tradition of a large GTW64 xmas site update continues, even if this year has been pretty shite overall. We kick off with the following updates for you:
A ton of new entries, mostly with downloads for you to check out of various previews that have been floating around for some time but may have passed you by. Ultrabulb is worth a look – a previously unknown Gremlin Graphics game.
Bad, Brain Tumour, City Champ, Coloris, CubeSim64, Eelona – The Warrior Princess, Flex, FootMan, Immensity, Jagged Sword, Jump-Kid, Jumpy64, Katabatia, Lingo, Mad Crash Racing, Mad Ninja, Mario Clone, Mario Run, Minimus, Misfire, Motorman, Mr. Pilic, On Table, Oolong, Outbreak, Oxygen Racer, Pac Man Arcade, Paku Paku, Phantasm, Proxima, Rip Off, Space Ball, Squad Force Five, Squirm 2, Squost, Star Fighter, Star-Wars, The Last War Brains, The Lost Vikings, The Sixth Sense, Ultrabulb
Then the usual updates for a number of posts, including tidy ups and new scans.
3 Days In Carpathia, Alloyrun, Atlantian, Bubble Blaster, Defensive, Dux, Futureball, Great Giana Sisters, Klartz and the Dark Forces, Nightbreed RPG, Nuclear War, Outrage, Pipe Mania 2: Plumber’s World, Play and Learn series, Savage Platforms, Teladon, Total Recall V1
Not C64 related, but over the past few months we have been adding a plethora of new content, detailed write ups and assets for a number of different platforms. Most of these are in relation to articles covered in the book and assets that didn’t make it to print. There are also a number of multi-format posts which you may want to check out via the links below:
As you can see, we didn’t get to dig out any new big C64 findings in time for the update, which was mostly due to being tied up over the past few months with the release of the Games That Weren’t book and committing to adding bonus content to the site which was referenced in the book. Just hasn’t been time i’m afraid. The aim is to resume trying to find more lost C64 titles once more in the new year, now things are beginning to settle.
However, my good friend Vinny Mainolfi has come to the rescue this year and has two previously unreleased and complete games being released as part of his Xmas newsletter to subscribers to FREEZE64. These are in the shape of Trooper (by Barbarian 2 developer Rob Stevens) and Winning Streak with graphics by Jon Temples (artist for CJ’s Elephant Antics). This is along with some new titles as part of his Christmas pack to supporters. Well worth checking out at https://freeze64.com/
Finally – thank you to everyone for all their support during 2020 and for those especially who have brought the book and shared their love of it online and personally. It has meant a great deal seeing all the positive reviews and photos, and has been very humbling. Happy holidays to you all and here’s hoping for a more positive 2021!
Frank.
(Long suffering GTW webmaster!)
Thanks to Grzegorz Antosiewicz, we present a series of earlier screens from Arabian Nights on the Amiga, showing various differences from the final game. I will hand over to Grzegorz to explain what he’s found:
Today I would like to share a page from old magazine “Joystick” from November 1992. There is a preview of Krisalis’ Amiga platform game “Arabian Nights” (released in 1993).”
In the preview, you can see how different the main protagonist looks. His red fez in the early version has some white material, plus his face was more chubby. All pictures from preview show different parts of the first level, and layout was not changed in released version. Continue reading
I never played the SNK arcade, but remember seeing the terrible Commodore 64 conversion by Sentient Software and wondering just how it got past quality control at Ocean Software at the time.
Also in production though were conversions for the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST platforms. It seems that these were being arranged by Ocean France, and the work was subcontracted out to a team called Prestasoft, which only seemed to have the one game to its name – Expressing.
Apart from adverts, nothing much was mentioned or shown of the conversions at all, especially in the UK press. It would be the French press which would see exclusive screenshots of at least the Atari ST edition.
For years, screenshots from magazines have taunted us for the many games that got away from us, and none more so than Ramrod by Gremlin Graphics. Previewed in the likes of Zzap!64, Zero and various other magazines over the years – we salivated over the wonderful Marble Madness‘esq graphics with a character that looked like the distant cousin of Robocop.
Following on from Grzegorz Antosiewicz’s recent asset differences post for Alien Breed 3D, comes a set for Alien Breed Tower Assault.
Grzegorz summarizes the following differences to the final game, which you can check out in the gallery below. Continue reading
A quick post thanks to Grzegorz Antosiewicz, with some images showing some minor differences and what seem to be some unused assets not seen in the final game.
The One magazine showed a preview with some early screens, one showing screens with a mountain background layer. In the final game, that level section would feature just plain blue sky and some small white clouds.
A quick post thanks to Grzegorz Antosiewicz, with a series of screenshots and magazine scans showing unused assets and features not found in the final version of Alien Breed 3D. The game was previewed in many magazines during 1995, with some of the most interesting screens being shown in CU Amiga magazine. The first preview is from March 1995:
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