Cancelled & Unreleased Video Games for the Commodore 64 Since 1999
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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, and long before that offline.
Please Browse our archive and discover the many entries that we host and have saved over the years.
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.
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!)
Following on swiftly from the amazing recovery of Monster Muncher on the VIC-20, we now have the Commodore 64 edition of Stargate by Atarisoft for you. A long lost development by Tom Griner which has been part of our search for many years now.
It is all thanks to the brilliant Ken Van Mersbergen for his preservation efforts and saving the title for Games That Weren’t to add to its archives. It is another case pretty much closed!
More details at:
https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/gtw64/stargate/
Quick YouTube video of the gameplay:
As well as preserving unreleased games, we also try and preserve titles which are known to be released, but are not yet digitally preserved. We have another two Commodore 64 games for you today, as well as some extras which are unfortunately not working. Click each title to download.
A previously unpreserved SEUCK sequel by Outlaw-Emix Software in 1991 which has been found and recovered by Csaba Virag on some old disks that were very kindly donated by Zsolt Tarczali (who had sent Csaba hundreds of disks for free). When prompted with “:”, enter “VARAZSOL” (without the quotes).
A currently unpreserved 1984 educational title from Kerian software. It’s listed on Retrocollector.org with some scans, but there is currently no TAP image and its not in Gamebase 64. This was found in a bundle of games (without an inlay sadly) at Level Up Games in Canterbury.
Unknown BASIC files (Not working)
Along with Heli-Maths, I found a few blank cassettes that had some recordings on. They seem to be BASIC programs that were saved – possibly experiments or type-ins from a magazine. Unfortunately, after numerous attempts to try and load – I didn’t have any joy. The above download are a set of DMP files I created on my DC2N and the outputted TAP files. If you can get anything going, please do get in touch.
With thanks to Csaba Virag, Zsolt Tarczali and Level Up Games (Canterbury) for their help with seeing these items preserved.
Well, after a bit of a break there was quite some backlog to clear. Thank you for all the submissions and also kind words about my Dad. This month we have a slightly larger GTW64 update with the following below – which includes many Novotrade concept titles:
Altair’s Adventures, Butterflies, Chase on Wheels, Countdown 64, Flight Simulator, Hunting with the Columbia, In Search of the Aurora, Mandragore (Spanish edition), Nightmare around the Falklands, The Astronaut Eater, The Flintstones V1, The Blob, Unknown Chinese puzzle game, Unknown boat game, Unknown four-part game, Which one out of Seven, Whuppie Tale, Windsurf, Zoids 2
A stack of updated entries too to keep you busy, and with hopefully some findings around the corner:
Apprentice, Arthur, Ball Breaker, Black Bandit, Born In Space, Centurion Software titles, Cyber Cop, Freewheel Burning, Gremlins: Part 2, Memory Man, Metal Army, Moreta – Dragonlady Of Pern, Ooze, Quark, Software House, Splish Splash, Telmar’s Gold, Unnamed Star Trek game, Zzap Italia homebrew
Apologies all – its a very small GTW64 update this month, as my Dad sadly passed away at the beginning of the month. As a result, i’ve been busy making funeral arrangements and sorting out bits and pieces.
Normal service will hopefully start to resume from next week onwards and for next month. Thank you everyone for your support!
Arthur, Born In Space, Chinese Juggler V1, Game Maker
Dedicated to my Dad – Charlie Gasking (27/06/37 – 03/07/24)
Now in the middle of 2024, a bit of a slow down with new entries with just the one (a second Gremlins adventure game), but also 18 updates to pre-existing entries (check the “History” tab for each for more details), including some major findings on EastEnders (sadly not good news!).
Alien Vs Predator, Arthur, Beat Em Up, Corporate Raider, EastEnders, Eleroo, Galencia Khaos Sphere, Gremlins, Gunboat, Inside Trader, Maximum Retaliation, Paranoid Pete, Space Raider, Splish Splash, Squad One, Stargate, Sword Of The Samurai, Vietnam Gunboat
See you all next month!
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).
Centurion Software titles, Das Reich der Toten, Dragon’s Lair, Tron, Unnamed Star Trek game
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!
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.
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!
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
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 (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
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Games That Weren't® is the registered trademark of Frank Gasking.
