Preserving Cancelled & Unreleased Video Game History Since 1999
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.
Not quite unreleased news, but an improved A06 version of The Quill and Illustrator for the Commodore 64 has recently been preserved, after it being realised that it hadn’t yet been done. Version A05 has been around for a long time, but it had only just been noticed that the last version with an improved word parser wasn’t available.
Had another few more bits and pieces come through over the past week or so – so here is another digest of recent updates – including two new full games (Equinox + Soda Shop) that were recovered by Peepo, Tom Roger Skauen and Triad, thanks to Rich Hinton for providing the disks.
Also – check out Streethawk for two of the most detailed screenshots we’ve seen yet of the game. Discovered on the Spanish release cover for the Amstrad version of all places!
If you think the font looks familiar, then you’d be right – the same font was used eventually in Top Gun. So something of the game did surface! ;-)
Second update of the year with two new previews added to the site:
Escape from London remains added
An adventure game due for release for 2013 has now been added in what could be its final state. Full story about the game included, and sketches + artwork by John Henderson
Just a quick post to put back up the Alligata Master disks and Maniacs of Noise SFX files that we had on the old site. It seemed a shame they were tucked away out of sight – so here they are again below. Some basic details follow for each.
Way back in 2005, James Grayson contacted GTW and informed us that he some years back bought a box full of Alligata labelled floppies at a boot fair in Sheffield. A quick photo of some of the disks showed that there was possibly about 5 GTW’s there waiting to be archived. James kindly loaned GTW all of the disks to try and archive what it could in the hope of finding more GTW titles. Disks were sadly in such poor condition from their previous owner, that they would not read properly and required a week’s worth of careful cleaning and restoration to get reading again. Here are all of what we found below in the zip archive. Scans follow in the gallery.
With the Maniacs of SFX files – these were found thanks to disk copying by Pete (Myth) Baron. Due to his work with the Maniacs Of Noise with Myth, they MoN had sent Pete a disk load of music and SFX previews. Unknown to Pete, on this disk were a number of SFX demos never heard before. This included rare SFX for 2400AD and Nighthunter, but also some unused SFX in a selection of released titles like Myth and Outrun Europe. Disk image below:
First update of 2017, and a few new goodies for you to check out already. More to come soon we hope.
Two unreleased games found
Two more final findings on Ashley Routledge’s C64 disks, this time on the Compunet download disks. Firstly a preview of an unknown side scroller game, and then a full Quill adventure game.
Many thanks to you all for your support and contributions over the years. Thanks to you, we have reached a milestone today with our 2000th GTW64 entry into the archive. To celebrate we are proud to present the full game – Yogi Bear – The Big Clean Up by Hi-Tec Software.
This has been carefully reconstructed from source, with a lot of code developed from scratch to be able to bring you a complete and playable game, thanks to Martin Pugh. The special development also features new loading screen and end screen artwork by Steven Day, and a specially composed ending tune by Joachim Wijnhoven. Full story and download can be found below:
From Ashley Routledge’s work disks, we have recovered an early version of Alloyrun, when it was originally named Antaeus and was intended for Firebird.
A fixed up version of Alloyrun has also been added to the entry:
As a bonus, we have added three additional early editions of released Ash and Dave games, with mostly just title/logo differences. Some interesting curiosities to check out:
In case you didn’t see the preview news post, we were hoping to bring you two exclusive and complete unreleased Alternative Software games to download and play, as an extra bonus.
Unfortunately, there are some remaining issues that need ironing out before we can make them available. We will continue to discuss releasing them onto the site, and will hopefully see them made available in 2017.
Also – 11 new entries added
As well as the above, we have added the following new entries, which led up to the 2000th entry.
And so another year closes. I am hoping to announce a new project sometime next year, so watch this space. For now, thank you all for your support and all the best for 2017!
Games That Weren’t has been running for almost 20 years now, with its first on-line presence appearing way back in early 1999. After years of research and preservation work done in our spare time, we are now about to mark to our 2000th archive entry. To celebrate the milestone, we have a special full game for you which will launch for our Christmas update coming soon. No, it is not ‘Murder’ before you ask!
UPDATE FOR BELOW (20-12-16) – The Alternative games will not be included as part of the Christmas update, and will hopefully be added to the archive in the new year. There are one or two final details that need ironing out before we can proceed with permission. Apologies for this, but we will have some new games for you to check out still. Update looking good still for before Christmas! :)
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That is not all, but recently we have preserved a number of disks which contained two full Alternative Software games that didn’t quite make it, due to the dwindling 8-bit market. The disks were heavily decayed (a familiar story these days), and the data was only just recovered. No doubt, if it had been any longer – both games could have been lost forever.
Alternative Software are still going very strong today, and have recently celebrated 31 years in the industry – a remarkable achievement. It only feels like yesterday when I used to regularly purchase their C64 games from my local sweet shop and Boots. Their most recent release is Rugby Union Team Manager 2017, and you can also check out their other titles via the link above.
We contacted Roger Hulley at Alternative Software, and he has very kindly given permission for us to add both games to the digital archive. So we will be pleased to be adding both mystery games as part of our Christmas update and as part of our milestone celebration. Both games are (c) 2016 Alternative Software.
Barring any hiccups, we should hopefully launch our update just before Christmas. So watch this space!
It seems like Commodore User magazine were a little naughty with their Nemesis review back in the 80’s.
Featuring screenshots from what seem to be an earlier version of the game – just look at the brown/orange score panels, which were dropped for something that looked a lot better in the final release.
The released game with tidied up panel. Screenshot thanks to Gamebase64.
At least they reviewed a working version of the game, compared to sister magazine Sinclair User, who reviewed mock up screenshots. Seemed to be a theme at the publisher though…
Here is the review and all the screenshots, thanks to Martin/Stadium 64 for highlighting it!
A rather different early preview of Bugs Bunny – Private Detective has been found on Ash and Dave’s work disks recently. This was done around 1991 time, and seems to have undergone some major changes that led up to the 1992/93 full game that we saw some years ago.
The map is very different, with different graphics, and the digging element of the game is gone – where you must climb up walls to get around. No doubt changes were made due to elements not working or Warner not being happy. It’s a great curiosity worth checking out here along with the full game:
Eagle eyed visitors may have noticed that we are close to our 2000th GTW entry. Watch this space for something a little special (no it’s not Murder… ;-) )…
DISCLAIMER: We are a non-profit digitisation project, aiming to digitally preserve software and history which would otherwise be lost for good. If for any reason there is anything that you do not wish to be on the website, please contact us for removal.
Games That Weren't® is the registered trademark of Frank Gasking.
