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 May 2024 update
As we near the middle of 2024, work continues in the Commodore 64 archive of Games That Weren’t, with more new entries added and also 23 titles updated in total. Much more on the way too for next month! (Apologies to Anonymous Contributor, whose recent set of new contributions I’ll add for next month).
5 new entries added
Centurion Software titles, Das Reich der Toten, Dragon’s Lair, Tron, Unnamed Star Trek game
23 updates added
Many more entries updated – each entry contains a “History” tab to explain what has been updated.
Arthur, Bacillus, Bubbles, Eleroo, Epsilon, Galencia Khaos Sphere, Halloween, Halo Jones, Judge Death, Lock On, Murder!, Operation Thunderbolt V1, Paradroid V1, Space Raider, Storm Warrior, Strider USA, Time Scanner V1, Toms Revenge, Top Wrestling, Trojan, Virus, Winnetou, Wonderboy V1
See you all next month!
GTW64 April 2024 update
It is a big week, as we celebrate our 25th Anniversary of Games That Weren’t. It’s also our monthly update to the Commodore 64 archive, with plenty of new and updated materials for you to check out.
2,500 entries now in the GTW64 archive!
To tie in with the 25th Anniversary celebrations which are due on the site this Wednesday, we have also hit a significant milestone with 2,500 entries now available within the GTW64 archive. Since 1999, we have been building the archive and recovering many unreleased games for the Commodore 64 for you to check out!
6 new entries added
Ok, I admit – to get up to that magic number, I may have made sure that I added at least 6 new entries this month. This includes news of a possible US version of Strider and some other promising titles which sadly seem to have been abandoned.
Bacillus, Beat Em Up, Bruce Lee 2, Galencia Khaos Sphere, Infared, Strider USA
24 updates added
Then we have quite a few updates and changes to 24 titles, with a lot of updates thanks to Anonymous Contributor. Each page has a “History” segment which explains what has changed.
ABC, Arthur, Breaker, Bushido Warrior, Chart Breaker, Euchre for Four, Field of Fire, Goremium, Habitat, Horror Drive, Koshimo, Lotya, Mindsmear, Orbital Run, Piracy, Quest for Cyrus, Starfighter One, Starglider 2, Super Elite, Super Pinball, Super Stardust, Time Scanner V1, Twintris, Ultra Games
See you all next month, and look out for the 25th Anniversary post coming up in a day or so!
Bushido Warrior
1988 Ariolasoft / U.S. Gold
Platform: Atari ST, Commodore Amiga, PC, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64
Bushido Warrior (or potentially just Bushido) was a new oriental themed Gauntlet clone that was due out for a wide number of platforms, published by Ariolasoft/U.S. Gold. The Commodore 64 edition is already well documented via our GTW64 page.
Although a Gauntlet clone, it was more than just a clone – and it seems that the entire 16-bit editions may have been based off the Gauntlet conversion codebase. Computer and Video Games magazine spoke with the ST developers, Graham Lilley and Teoman Irmak in August 1987. Continue reading
GTW64 March 2024 update
A slightly smaller update this month, as we focus efforts on preserving the rest of Archer Maclean’s disks and also the Micro-Antics collection for the VIC-20. However, still plenty of new content to take a look at – including the recovery of the lost Breakdown loading screen, a number of educational title findings, a strange Ocean Software game done for TV and more.
Breakdown loading screen found!
Missing for over 30 years, the lost loading screen for Breakdown that wasn’t included with the Zzap!64 covertape game, but shown in the magazine pages has been recovered thanks to Icon / The Preservers:
2 new entries added
Many preserved titles and a nice new Ocean oddity too:
Angler, Software for Schools titles
10 updates added
Body Slam, Caveman Ninja, Chariot Race 64, Last Ninja V1, Quizer, Race Through Space, Sunburst Communications titles, Undead, Field of Fire, Piracy (C128)
GTW64 February 2024 update
Already into the second month of 2024, and plenty more updates for the GTW64 archive. So here is what we have for February 2024:
Two new recoveries
Thanks to Csaba Virag, two more seemingly unpreserved games have been found. It isn’t clear if they were actually released or not, but here they are:
11 other new entries added
Then we have a new batch of titles added to the archives thanks to our contributors (each credited in each piece). The archive continues to grow even today!
3D Killer Piller, ABC, Bndrsntch, Bombuzal editor, Curse of the Pharaohs, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Euchre for Four, Field of Fire, Quest for Cyrus, Ruba e fuggi, Two hearts and a chickenpot
12 entries updates
Then as usual – we finish with a series of updates to entries already in the archive. Details of what has changed/been added can be found in the history tab for each title.
Chain Reaction V1, Delphian, Forbidden Planet, Further Adventures of Alice in Videoland, Metal Piramid, Morgol, Pirates of the Ocean, Pulsator, Speed Fighter, The 4th Dimension, Tyger Tyger, Who Dares Wins
New area on Archive.org for Allan Pinkerton
Allan has been helping out GTW64 for many years with various preservation efforts, and he is now uploading many more over at Archive.org, so be sure to check things out:
Matchmaker: Grammar disk preserved
A quick post thanks to Bertrand / Atari Frog, to highlight the recent recovery of an unpreserved educational title for the C64 called Matchmaker: Grammar. Released in 1983 by American Educational Computer.
The disk was preserved by SoulBuster on the AtariAge forums, who has prolifically been preserving many a Atari 400/800 title. With Matchmaker, there was an Atari version one side, and C64 the other. The download can be found below.
Download
Matchmaker Grammar (1983)(American Educational Computer)(US)[disk]
GTW64 January 2024 update
A new year, and to hit the ground running we have had a large amount of updates to the Commodore 64 archive this month. Here goes:
3 games recovered – Metal Piramid, The Spirit and Jump People
In case you missed it, this month thanks to Csaba Virag, we added two lost full games and a preview, one of which is a neat little platformer.
Metal Piramid, Jump People, The Spirit
Further Adventures of Alice in Videoland
A bit of a strange one, where this odd sequel to Alice in Videoland was released by Bug Byte on budget, but was incomplete. A game where there is much more to find!
Further Adventures of Alice in Videoland
6 other new entries added
As well as the above, we have 6 other new entries added – some of which might be titles that are out there and just need preserving.
Chemistry Tutorial, Global Conquest, Gumby, Heckle and Jeckle, Istar Crossword Jr., Morgol
17 further entries updated
Then almost last but not least, we have 17 entry updates, with new information, scans and more – including a number of missing titles that have been preserved under the likes of the Dynacomp catalog, Orbyte Software titles and Sunburst Communications thanks to Allan Pinkerton!
19 Boot Camp – Part 2, 2400 A.D., Bomb, Car Game, Derek Bell’s Le Mans, Dynacomp catalog titles, Grubz, Infection, Jaceman, Laser Disc to C64 interface, Mad Planets, Murder!, Orbyte Software titles, People from Sirius, Sunburst Communications titles, The Ronin, Undead
Chevy Tech 1987 disk preservation
And finally we have preservation of a vehicle advertisement/catalogue disk from Allan Pinkerton which we have shared on the site.
Enjoy and see you next month!
Educational and bible titles preserved
Contributor Allan Pinkerton is on fire at the moment with his preservation work, and he has preserved a large bundle of educational titles from Kidware and also Bible research files for the Commodore 64.
There is also a Quiz Minder title which Allan has tried to dump, but has been having issues with so far. We’ve added what Allan has preserved so far.
We haven’t created GTW entries, as these titles were actually released – but we are sharing the preservation work that Allan has done, so here you go and please feel free to add to any digital archives:
- BibleConcordance
- Kidware_Games
- KJV-3-2-BibleSearch
- KJV-GospelDemo
- NewTestamentGame
- NIV3-2-Biblesearch
- QuizMinder (currently broken)
In March 2024, Marco Das then preserved some more Kidware titles, which you can find links to below:
Missing Train Simulations
1984-1995 Ashley Greenup/Dee-Kay Systems
Platforms: BBC Micro, C64, ZX Spectrum and Amiga
It is thanks to Ivan S that it has come to light that a series of Train games created by Ashley Greenup/Dee-Kay Systems are currently missing and not yet preserved. Many of the ones preserved you can find on the likes of CPC-Power, Gamebase64 and Hall of Light.
In February 2024 – all the Amiga titles that were missing were found and recovered thanks to Belgarath from the EAB forums. Thanks to Ivan S for flagging this up and passing on the files.
Chevy Tech 1987 disk
A slightly obscure title now for the archive in the form of a Chevrolet advertisement disk, which has a series of prices and specifications for different Chevrolet vehicles.
8-Bit Show and Tell have previously covered the disk and its various formats, and look at an 1986 edition of the disk, which even contains a game called Depreciation Derby. This particular disk seems to be a 1987 edition with a different loading screen and music.
It is with huge thanks to Allan Pinkerton for preserving, so that we can make it available. It’s an interesting curiosity, and at the very least another SID tune for HVSC :-)
With thanks to Allan Pinkerton for preserving and sharing!