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
The Games That Weren’t book – coming soon!
After 5 years of work (give or take), we’re pleased to announce The Games That Weren’t book coming soon in May 2020 from Bitmap Books, covering unreleased games since the dawn of the industry.
More details coming soon, but very excited to finally share the news after keeping quiet for so long.
Official details from Bitmap Books: https://mailchi.mp/6f0f8bd57e2e/bitmap-books-crpg-1703525?fbclid=IwAR2MjfMZqmIE0GP1Ea6nygOryTX3fDT0UawaoK2VLqF5No9xM_kxeLDWEmU
Daley Thompson’s Decathlon early version
A short post thanks to contributor Daniel Meléndez, who spotted Daley Thompson playing a slightly different looking Daley Thompson’s Decathlon game on the Commodore 64:
Not massive differences it has to be said, apart from the panel boards and the score display section. Here is the released version as a comparison (Screenshot taken from Lemon64)
Often early builds would change their panels/layouts slightly over time. Would be interesting to know if there were any other major differences between what Daley was playing above and what we got to see in the end.
Basic Tools, Creators Revenge and Math Flash preserved
Thanks to Allan Pinkerton, who has very kindly preserved missing copies of Basic Tools, Creators Revenge (Already out there as Metamorphosis III – The Creators Revenge), Math Pack and Math Flash.
They are not strictly ‘Games That Weren’t’, but we want to try and share any preservation work where possible for titles that had been missing – so here we go:
ODUS Eclipse pack preserved
Although not an unreleased game as such, this is an obscure C64 based compilation that was released late in the C64’s life, which featured commercial games as PD games. It’s likely not many sold, and as a result hasn’t really been seen in the wild that often.
Thanks to the kind loan from Steve Green, here it is fully preserved with scans of the inlays + tapes:
https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/wp-content/ODUS.zip
Everything is already in the wild already, but its an interesting curiosity preserved.
GTW Xmas update (ish!)
Well, 2018 went far too quick! It’s been almost a year since our last update, which wasn’t really the intention and isn’t the norm. I had planned to take a few months break and then continue as usual, but unfortunately various personal challenges got in the way and also there has been the completion/continuation of a project I have been working on for almost 5 years. All will hopefully be revealed on that soon in 2019!
As a result, I have not taken in any donations for hosting costs this year, as I haven’t really offered you anything in return this year.
Overall, our yearly Christmas update this year is not quite the same as previous years. For a start, I have no new findings to offer for the first time in a long time because i’ve not been working on the project. I have been determined to do *something* though, so I have created a number of new entries and made some updates for you. I hope the wonderful influx of new C64 releases this year will have counteracted the lack of input from my side, and I hope to be fully functioning again next year. There is still plenty of work to be done!
Merry Christmas to all and all the best for 2019, as we kick off our update:
26 new entries added
4 Games, Abandon Ship S.O.S., Angry Birds Style, Any Craps 64, Babies of the Dirt, Bimz, Cybex Escape, Dynaboys, Flyboy, Galaxy Patrol, Heartlight64, Le Fantome Vert, Lumberjack Deluxe, Magic, Mekka and Symposium 2000 missing 32k games, Murdlok, Pinball Dreams, Push It, R.I.O.T, Roll-Out, Scramble 2010, The Official Everton F.C. Intelligensia, Top 20, Transforming Overland Robot, Zulp, triFACTa
35 updates added
Academy, Am-Cup, American GI, Breaker, Buggy Ranger, Cave Wizard, Champions, Crossfire Canyon, Dark Sceptre, Dominator V1, European SuperLeague, Eye Of The Moon, International Soccer Challenge, Italian pirated games, Katia, Last Ninja V1, Megatanio, Meurtre À Grande Vitesse, Murder!, Opera House and The Pay Off, Outpost, PT-109, Pet Person, Prometheous, Proteus, Rex Hard, Rhyme Land, Sigue Sigue Sputnik, Test Drive 3, Tour De Force, Toyota Rally, Traffico, Turbo Cup Challenge, Unknown shooter by Kernal, Victory Road (UK version)
One final update – Spooky + unknown preview
We have one last surprise update for 2017, including a preview of an extremely promising game which could still hopefully be finished and taken out of GTW64. The coder still open to help and suggestions for continuing – can you help? Also, an unknown and very early shooter preview by Roy Fielding has been added and some quick updates.
All the best for 2018 everyone!
Spooky preview added
Unknown space shooter
5 updates added
Italian pirated games, Monster Maths, Quark, Quark IX, Traffico
Games That Weren’t Christmas update 2017
It’s that time of the year again, when we dig out some more findings to present for a large Christmas update. Apologies for the slowness of updates this year, but another project has taken priority of late. I hope this makes up for things. Merry Christmas everyone and all the best for 2018!
Q*Bert’s Qubes conversion found!
A shock recovery, thanks to Scott Stilphen, who obtained a rare late preview of the long lost C64 conversion of Q*Bert’s Qubes. It’s here ready for you to check out!
New Zealand Story V1 preview found!
A very early preview of Choice Software’s C64 conversion of New Zealand Story has been recovered and added to the GTW archives.
Big Top – Full game recovered
A great little 1984 educational title has been preserved thanks to Scott Stilphen and Robin Ballweg with some lovely music.
Outrun 2 – an abandoned pitch demo added
Video images were attempting to pitch for a new Outrun 2 game, before Outrun Turbo or Europe came about. Check out their preview and mockup screens.
Three new full games from Francesco Milioni added!
Thanks to Francesco Milioni, we have three new unreleased games for you which were meant for release on an Italian compilation tape, but was cancelled due to the dwindling C64 market.
Take Em Out – early preview found
A very early, but neat looking Operation Wolf clone has been recovered thanks to Dean Hickingbottom.
Garfield – Early build found
A very early build of Garfield by The Edge has been found on Mat Sneap’s workdisk, as well as the game’s map designer.
Runner – Mat Sneap assets found
Unknown art assets by Mat Sneap for a game called Runner has been recovered. Who was the coder and was it started?
Molecale more graphics recovered
Some additional hi-res mockups have been recovered of this intriguing Video Images game that never was.
Egy kis kiruccanás – adventure preview recovered
Thanks to Csaba Virág, Hungarian text adventure preview Egy kis kiruccanás (A Little Fling) has been recovered and added to the archive.
Spellcast pre-Zzap preview added
A preview of Spellcast, used to send round to companies for interest, has been added to the archives. Only very slight differences present.
Competition Karate
Thanks to the wonderful preservation efforts of Jerry Kurtz, an additional bonus is the complete preservation of an obscure 1984 karate game called Competition Karate. As it is a released game, we haven’t created a GTW entry for it, so here are both the download and scans. Enjoy!
Unpreserved demos and cracks
Whilst sifting through some developer disks of Dean Hickingbottom and Cory Kin, we found a number of demos (a lot of Compunet demos), tunes and cracks which don’t seem to be preserved at present. We may have missed a few, but here is an extra bonus anyway:
Bonus unpreserved demos + cracks
Then finally, a digest of updates and new entries since our last site update:
21 new entries added
Alien Garden, Alpha Runner, American Dream, Avant-Garde titles, Commando 88, Drive, Italian pirated games, Kukulcan, Learning and Training Systems software, MicroLeague Sports titles, Monster Maths, Playful Professor – Word Factory, Pontoon, Pop Quiz 85, Secrets of the Magi, Sherwood Forest, Squire, Sword of Sodan, Tangram, The Elysian Fields, Unknown football game
53 updates added
3 2 1 quiz game (confirmation of existence), Ace Attacker (scans added), All Terrain Gardener (added alternative name), Alloyrun (sfx credit), Alvin & The Chipmunks (competition scan added), Arcane Quest (full game preserved), Black Bandit (details from author added), Bubbles (notes added from author), Chelsea of the South Sea (spelling fix), Coven (scan added), Crossfire Canyon (added photos), Delphian (coder confirmation + article link), Edward Randy (scan added), Enterprise (credit + more details added), Escape from London (author resurface news), F-86 Sabre Strike (added notes), Formula 1 Simulator (new scans added), Gi Hero (sfx credit), Hit and Run (game preserved!), Illusions (download added), IndeflataBall (additional builds added), Into The Nature (confirmed released), It came from the desert (scan added), Isolation (confirmed released), Judge Death (more scans added), Karnov V1 (rare screenshots added), Katakis (scans added), Last Ninja 4 (additional development notes), Legend Of Kyril (info added from Joerg Droege), Lock On (scans added), Mega Games (more scans added), Miami Vice (scans added), Milk Tray Game (credits fix), Minder (review + screenshot added), Nighthunter (sfx credit), Obliterator (new screenshots), Orel Hershiser’s Strike Zone (new scans), Play and Learn series (new scans), Savage Platforms (tidied up review), Ski Run (game preserved), Sophisticated games (few titles preserved), Squad One (found and confirmed released), Star Fighter (advert added), Super League Manager (scans added), T-Wrecks (scans added), The Future Zone (scan added), The Micro Zone (scan added), Trojan (reverse engineer details), Twice Shy (screenshots added + scans), Tyger Tyger (details added by Gary Liddon), Warlord (confirmation of existence + credits), Who Dares Wins (update about game release), Zynon (sfx credit)
IndeflataBall full game found and released!
Sorry for the lack of updates recently everyone – i’ve been really swamped on another project recently, but we have been preparing for our annual Christmas update, where we have a few bits and pieces for you as well as a digest of updates that have been happening in the background.
As an early Christmas present, we thought we’d share a recently recovered full version of Silverbird’s IndeflataBall with you, thanks to Cory Kin finding a last batch of disks which contained the final edition.
https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/gtw64/indeflataball/
Next update will be the Christmas update itself with some more unreleased games and previews, along with some recovered CNET demos which may not have been preserved yet.
Enjoy!
Rare edition of The Quill + Illustrator preserved
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.
More details can be read here:
http://8-bit.info/2017/04/15/tapes-from-the-crypt/
With the files and downloads from here:
http://8-bit.info/the-gilsoft-adventure-systems/
Thanks to Crispin for the news!
Another quick February update
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! ;-)
5 new entries added
Equinox, Maze Patrol, Soda Shop, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The Liquidator
5 updates added
C64GS cartridge titles, Chelsea of the South Sea, Lauren of the 25th Century, Pyramid, Streethawk
