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
GTW64 October 2024 update
Its now getting cold, but the updates are still coming – and quite a few this month in the Commodore 64 archive with the following:
Alleykat rare non-playable demo preserved
A nice little bonus to kick off the update thanks to Marco Das, with a rare non-playable demo added to our prototypes area. Could it be made playable perhaps, and does it contain anything not in the final release?
https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2024/10/alleykat-non-playable-demo/
22 new entries added
Ajax, Around the World in 80 Days, Back in the USSR, Blood’n Guts 2, Cuthbert in the Tubes, Enchantress, Football Boss, Goodnight Cruel World, Mad Mission, Mars Cops, Paradroid V1, Parisian Knights, Penitentiary, Racer, Raid on Romaro , Road Frog, Sinister, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Red Carnation, Unnamed Ice Fishing Game, Unnamed Shoot’em up, Warp One
46 updates added
There were a lot of updates to pre-existing entries this month. More details can be found in the history tab for each title.
3D Formula One, Alternate Reality – Missing parts, Bamboo, Battle Truck, Chronic the Badger, Crystal Castles V1, Daxis, Deadly Summer, Diabolik, Donkey Kong Jr, Dropzone 2, Eagle Storm, Erik The Destroyer, Escape 2, Euchre for Four, European SuperLeague, Geister, Giana 2 – Arthur And Martha In Future World, Goremium, House of Changes, Hydrogenese, Joust, King Of Chicago, Lasertrain, Logger Mania, Mario Bros, Missile Command, Mission Extreme, Monster Bash, Ms. Pac Man V1, Neiw, Planet 10, Psyclapse, Reach For The Moon, Stargate, The Magic Roundabout, The Ronin, Tran, Typo Attack, Unicorn Software titles, Unknown Educational game, Unnamed Game, Valley Of The Source, Vanguard, Vietnam Gunboat, Warriors
See you all next month! It might be a shorter update whilst we prepare for the end of year update – we’ll see how things go.
Alleykat non-playable demo
A lovely curiosity added to the archives today thanks to Marco Das, with the preservation of a very rare non-playable demo of Alleykat distributed by Hewson back in the day. It was likely for shops to showcase the game in their stores, or for magazines to get a sneak preview before release.
The tape was purchased from a Norwegian retro gaming site by Marco and has been fully preserved as a TAP image, and with the original DMP images too. Below are the downloads and a video of the demo too.
I wondered if the demo may actually still contain any joystick related code to make it playable once more, and if there could be content that was cut from the final release. Well, Martin Piper came to the rescue and produced the following:
Below is an added download for the playable version that Martin has very kindly created. It seems that the game is pretty much the final game, just had the demo/preview code adding in. If we’re wrong, please do let us know.
A huge thank you to Marco Das for saving the demo and for Martin Piper for making playable!
Download
- Demo_Alleykat
- Alleykat demo play – thanks to Martin Piper!
Gallery
Bug Blitz (C64) prototype
Just a short post to add a slightly earlier prototype of Ariolasoft’s Bug Blitz which has been recovered thanks to Csaba Virag and Janos Szeitz (who digitized the turbo tape where it was found).
Contact form issues
Hi all – just a heads up that our contact form had a few issues over the weekend. If you have contacted us, then your message may have got lost. Apologies in advance! Should be all fixed now.
Frank
It Came From The Desert
1989 Cinemaware
Platforms: Atari ST, Commodore 64, SEGA Mega Drive
A pretty famous Cinemaware title which was originally released on the Amiga and PC, but also had other versions planned that never saw the light of day. The Commodore 64 version we are already covering within the C64 archive, which has had mentions of being in development – but there is little evidence at this stage that anything was started.
For the Atari ST – ST Action mentioned in issue 11, 1990 that the game was coming soon for the platform, and may have showed a screenshot for that platform. It is very likely it could also just be a screen from the Amiga version. Continue reading
GTW64 September 2024 update
As we leave Summer and begin to enter into Autumn, we have more updates to the Commodore 64 archive with the following for the month:
Stargate found!
If you missed it earlier this month, then the long lost AtariSoft development of Stargate has been recovered.
5 new entries added
Harris House Software titles, Mission Extreme, Monster Bash, Sinister, Time Capsule
10 updates added
7 Minutes To Midnight, Black Cauldron, Championship Run, Covermount casualties, Industria 14, Make My Day!, Murder!, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3, Tetris, Xamitlu
See you next month!
Mars Cops
1988 Arcana Software
Platforms: Atari ST, Commodore Amiga, Commodore 64
Mars Cops is game that we’ve long covered within our C64 archive and we found after a mention A game in Zzap issue 49 on page 3 – listed as coming soon on the Amiga, Atari ST and C64. A few mentions were done of the game across a few issues, but sadly nothing was to ever surface.
Thanks to contributor Jason Lethert (who has trawled through and dug out a lot of information about the game via archive.org and Stephen Stuttard’s amazing scans), we learn now a lot more about the Amiga and ST editions which seemingly got much further ahead compared to the Commodore 64 edition. We are sceptical that an 8-bit version ever existed, but we keep an open mind until confirmation.
As you might guess, the game has you flying around the Mars terrain, but with a Afterburner’esq viewpoint with your ship travelling along the surface and in space. Perhaps it may even be closer to SEGA’s Galaxy Force, which was released around the same time – was that a major inspiration perhaps? Continue reading
Hydrogenese – Preview of a game missing for 35 years on the Commodore 64
Missing for 35 years, a preview of the long lost Hydrogenese on the Commodore 64 has finally been recovered by CBA/SCS+TRC. A brilliant early look at what could have been an amazing space shooter!
In addition to the shooter part of Hydrogenese being recovered, parts of the platformer elements were also saved. These have been added to the download thanks to CBA/SCS-TRC.
Read more about the title at:
https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/gtw64/hydrogenese/
Time Capsule
1987 Keypunch Software
Platforms: Atari ST, Commodore 64, Atari 400/800, Apple II and PC
A very short entry for a title that was advertised within the manual of Aliants at the very end. Time Capsule was listed as “Coming Soon” and was a strategy action game.
Nothing else is known at this stage, and no version seems to have surfaced for any other platform. If you know anything more – please do get in touch.
With thanks to Michael Huth for highlighting.
Gallery
Early Paradroid screens added
Thanks to Andrew Braybrook, rare prototype Paradroid screens on the Commodore 64 (including early unused “fishbone” designs) were preserved for the excellent Graftgold book by Retro Fusion Books. Many didn’t make it inside, but thanks to Ste Day, here is a glimpse of them all in full.
All the screens can also be viewed in full glory on our prototype page on the game at: https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/gtw64/paradroid-v1/
To order the Graftgold book, please visit: https://fusionretrobooks.com/products/graftgold
(NOTE: Copies are running out fast!)
