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 online since 1999, and long before that offline.

Please Browse our archive and discover the many entries that we host for many different platforms.

Latest News and Posts

Q-Bert Qubes

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

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

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

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.

cavesp02

Continue reading →

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

Transformers

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

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

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

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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Continue reading →

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

Cannon Fodder (Amiga) – Early screens

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

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.

Clipboard08
Some rather different looking frees and icon panels.

Continue reading →

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

Bazooka Sue

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

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.

Continue reading →

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

The Living Daylights

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

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

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

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.

scav2

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

Ted Bear’s Rainy Day Game preserved!

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

It’s been on the Gamebase64 and GTW64 missing list for many years now and was unknown if it was released or not. Well, it can be confirmed that the game was indeed released and has been fully preserved.

diskimage

The game is an educational game from 1987, and is yet another piece of C64 history now preserved.

Check it out at https://csdb.dk/release/?id=199870

With thanks to Chris Kraus and Simon Quernhorst for their preservation efforts!

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

GTW64 Jan/Feb 2021 update

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

First update of 2021, and hopefully first of many more this year with the following:

16 new entries added

After The Fire, Beyond the Infinite, Chinese Juggler V1, Daxis, Felix the Cat, Midwinter, Pyramids Of The Sun, Sorderon’s Shadow: The Legend of Elindor, Teacher Trouble, Terror Tunnels, The Legacy of Light, The Wooden Box, Trooper, Valley Of The Source, Winning Streak, Wrath of Magra

24 updates added

Bloo’s Magic Trip, Body Slam, C64GS cartridge titles, Chainsaw Warrior, CubeSim64, Dreamraider, Great Giana Sisters, Heavy Barrel, Italian pirated games, Katabatia, Mad Crash Racing, Magic Sword, Movie Monster, The, Mr. Pilic, Ooops Up, Operation Thunderbolt V1, Paku Paku, Restrictor, S.D.I, Space Hop, Spooky, The Reactor, The Soul Gem Of Martek, Touchlight

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