Welcome to Games That Weren't 64!
We cover Cancelled & Unreleased Video games for the Commodore 64 computer. A non-profit large archive dedicated to preserving lost games that were never released to the public, as well as prototypes and the odd preservation of released titles. Our aim to share 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 and have saved over the years.
Latest News and Posts
Mega Twins
1991 U.S. Gold
Platforms: Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC
Mega Twins (known as Chiki Chiki Boys in Japan) was a sickly cute platformer produced by Capcom in the early 90’s, a slight sideways turn from the likes of Strider, Final Fight and Ghouls n Ghosts, no doubt to tap into the younger players and their 10 pence pieces. Many of us probably would have vomited at the sight of it and went back to kicking several barrels of crap out of bad guys in Final Fight.
The game consisted of you controlling two twins who carry swords and had to cross various platform levels to kill the dragon which killed their Father and find the Dragon Blue Eyes stone and save their world. The game was predominantly a sideways scrolling platformer, but with some vertical scrolling portions and a later castle level, where you would climb vertically to mix things up a bit. Large guardians would feature throughout as well to provide a fair challenge to even the most hardened of gamers. Continue reading
GTW64 July 2021 update
Slightly slower month as the days get hotter, but here is another GTW64 update for the month. This month we take a look at an Alternative Software game that never was, but has been out there for some time. Details of a strange planned reworking of S.T.U.N Runner with a Duck protagonist that was found lurking around in the code of Dreamraider. An obscure early German adventure game that is missing from GB64 and much more. Enjoy!
4 new entries added
Domain, Jungle Adventure, Unicorn Software titles, Zanga-duck and the gribblies
17 updates added
Accilatem, Adam Caveman, Ah Type, Alvin and The Chipmunks, Aquablast, Astrodome, Astromine, Aurum, Buffalo Roundup V1, Dune 2, Murder!, Pang V1, Plotting, Questerious, Quo Vadis, Rigor, Spy vs Spy 4
My tribute to Jason Kelk
Recently my good friend of 27 years, Jason Kelk, sadly lost his 15 month battle with COVID. It’s still sinking in that he’s no longer with us, so to try and help process things I wrote a blog post about my memories of meeting Jason and the time we spent over the years.
It’s been written freely and from the heart, so its quite a long piece, but hopefully gives an insight to what a good friend he was.
https://fgasking.wordpress.com/2021/06/27/my-memories-of-jason-kelk/
GTW64 June 2021 update
Still just about managing to sit at the computer long enough in the heat to produce another GTW64 update for a new month. This month we have a 30+ year long lost Kele Line game recovered, a 32 year old RPG preview recovered, details of an Artic game conversion never released and a big list of updates to pre-existing entries. Certainly check out the updates to Worron if you have missed the other news posts this month. Enjoy!
6 new entries added
A.E, Accilatem, Alladin’s Cave, Hungry Dead, Roadburner, The Mad Scientist
16 updates added
Aurum, Blood Bowl, Covermount casualties, Force Of Four, Future Bike Simulator V1, Ladders To Learning, Murder!, Mutant Zone, Mythos, Otherworld, Penguin Tower, Super Thief, Tiger Road 2, Time Crystal, Trooper, Worron
Shao Lin’s Road C64 master disk
There are some nice surprises that turn up from time to time in the C64 scene, and one recent one has been the surfacing of the Tape / Disk masterer of Edge/Softek’s conversion of Shao Lin’s Road on the C64.
Thanks to Nawfal Firas who found the disk in their collection, it was passed onto archivist John Watson, who has produced a G64 image of the disk for posterity.
Below you can find a download of the image, plus scans of the disk itself and instructions on how to run and compile the master. It is very likely to be exactly what was mastered as the final game, and therefore no differences. However, this is an important preservation of what was used to create the final copies of the game that people loaded up. And as fellow preservationist Havar Bruvold Hojem perfectly summed it up – “A peak behind the curtain”.
Thank you to Nawfal Firas and John Watson for their fantastic work.
Download
Scans
New final release of Worron (C64)
Happy Sunday everyone!
A lovely surprise today, where author of the unreleased Firebird game Worron, Richard Paynter got in touch to provide GTW with an upgraded and fixed version of his 34 year old game.
After GTW recovered Richard’s work in 2015, it was found that the game wasn’t quite finished in places and there were a number of issues which made it impossible to complete without cheats enabled. It was something that bothered Richard for a few years, so this year he decided to decompile and fix it all.
Not only has he fixed a lot of the collision and crash issues, but he’s added an introduction picture and a variety of music and sound effects to round off and polish up the game he created when he was just 17 years old.
Check out the full story here and grab a copy for yourself to check out – yet another new and complete C64 game for your enjoyment and a happy outcome for a game once lost.
GTW64 May 2021 update
How is it May already? A slightly smaller update this month with just 3 new entries, but there are 32 updates to various titles in the archive. Mostly tidy ups of old pages, but also some new information too for some of them and some new scans.
3 new entries added
Alien Syndrome V1, Miami Vice, Stareggs V1
32 updates added
Arc Doors 2, Batty Builders, Big Nose The Caveman, CJ’s 4th Adventure, Cattivik, Covermount casualties, Double Dragon V1, FSS Liberator, Frixxion, Hangman’s Hazard, Inspector Gadget, Last Ninja V1, Make My Day!, Mega Games, Moebius Strip, Murder!, Nimitz, Obliterator, Operation Mindcrime Xertyn-X, Plum Duff, Prince Of Persia, Pyramids Of The Sun, Rolling Ronny 2, Rugby World Cup 2, Sonic the Hedgehog, Subclavian, Super Thief, System X, The Search For Sharla, Twin Turbo V8, UXB, Ultrabulb
Games That Weren’t book back in stock!
I’ve been completely blown away by the support when The Games That Weren’t book was launched late last year, and even more so when it completely sold out by the start of the new year.
After a number of queries asking if there was going to be another production run, i’m pleased to announce that there has been and the book is now available once more via https://www.bitmapbooks.com/products/the-games-that-werent
So if you missed out the first time and would like to grab a copy, then now’s your chance. Thanks for all your support everyone!
Frank
GTW64 April 2021 update
Slightly late this time round, with an odd game that turned up which we thought was previously unseen (until the name was established from the end sequence :D ) and more unreleased Commodore 64 games posts for your enjoyment.
Operation Mindcrime Xertyn-X – early preview recovered
A bizarre finding for the GTW archives, found on a Hungarian disk collection by contributor Csaba Virag. The game is seems has been out there for some time in preview form (once the name was established). Check it out for yourselves below:
Then we have 9 new entries added
Bird Mother V1, Buffalo Roundup V1, Big Nose The Caveman, Covermount casualties, , Robocop 2 V1, Silverwolf, Splish Splash, Sword Of Aragon, System X
And finally – 20 updates added
A Chance In Hell, Beep Boy, Dungeons, Amethysts, Alchemists ‘n Everythin’, Gold Train, Gotcha Maths, Heavy Barrel, Ixion, King, Mysterious Worlds, New Zealand Story V1, Portal, Pubjumper Mario, Scramble 2010, Sorderon’s Shadow: The Legend of Elindor, The Bobby Yazz Show, Trojan, Ultrabulb, White Feather Cloak, Winning Streak, Zone Of Darkness
Ixion
1983 SEGA
Platforms: Arcade, Atari 2600, Atari 8-bit and Commodore Vic 20 (Probably C64 too)
Ixion is an intriguing arcade title that was due for release from SEGA back in 1983, and was based on Zaxxon’s hardware, even though you may not think it looking at the game. The game was a top-down 2D grid based action title, where you must collect all the letters to spell out the word IXION, whilst shooting enemies and avoiding being shot yourself.
According to Segaretro.org , it is suggested that Ixion likely failed its location test, considering that it was largely finished. Thankfully the game has been dumped and is actually fully playable in MAME.
