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
Polar Bear in Space prototypes
2023 Silvan Reinhold / Psytronik Software
Platform: Commodore 64
If you haven’t seen Polar Bear in Space already, then you are missing out on a wonderful shooter/platformer which has elements of Wizball, Retrograde and even Dropzone with the explosion of the main protagonist.
At the time of writing, a new Black Edition of the game is immiment, which features new music by Jon Wells and a specially produced loading screen by Robin Levy. Silvan has also written a brilliant book that details how the game was all put together, which we recommend you keeping an eye out for. Continue reading
Penguin Tower source code released!
Various C64 educational titles preserved
A huge thank you to Allan Pinkerton, who has preserved several educational titles from Micro Labs and Cymbal Software for the Commodore 64.
As they are not unreleased game entries, we have just made this post to make them available to all, and hopefully over time they will get integrated into various other digital archives, including Gamebase64.
Here are the links below and a huge thanks once more to Allan for all his hard work!
Downloads
Wizard of Wor (C64) early build
A small post on an earlier build of Wizard of Wor that has been highlighted to us by Roberto Nicoletti.
Some years ago, Jeff Bruette released all of the source code to the game, which was then very carefully compiled up by Commodore International Historical Society. Continue reading
Linkword German (C64) preserved
Just a quick post to share some preservation work by our friend Allan Pinkerton, with Linkword German by Artworx on the Commodore 64.
As it was released, it doesn’t warrant creating a GTW64 entry, so we’ve done a post with it instead for people to grab.
With thanks to Allan Pinkerton for preserving and passing on.
Download
GTW64 October 2023 updates
With Autumn well and truly under way and the nights drawing in, there is less time outside and more time trying to update the archive as best as we can. This month we have the following for you:
5 new entries added
Details about an earlier build of Chain Reaction, a possible sequel to Special Agent, an April Fools and more.
Chain Reaction V1, Daniel Shutters games, Special Agent 2, TJ, Zak McKracken 2
16 updates added
Plenty more updates to the archive too, including some rare screenshots of Curse of the Mushroom People added, more scans added to Bomb and a lot more.
Amok, Bomb, Curse of the Mushroom People, Nedime – The Caliph’s Daughter, Operation Mindcrime Xertyn-X, Operation Thunderbolt V1, Orbyte Software titles, Phantomas, Plan 9 Outer Space, Super C, The Critters Company, The Western Game, Twilight Beyond, Unicorn Software titles, Unnamed Andrew Braybrook game, Wild Women Of Wonga
GTW64 September 2023 updates
Well, seems like summer doesn’t want to end and if anything it feels hotter than August! Whilst we melt away, the updates continue within the GTW64 archives with the following additions and updates:
7 new entries added
As well as a strange (early?) version of Poltergeist, we have a number of previously unpreserved Hungarian games thanks to Csaba Virag and also some new titles highlighted by Baracuda:
Poltergeist V1, Raceday, Sakkozo Elefant, Strike Back, Szigethy Quest, The Stock Exchange, Time Quest
19 updates added
As well as the usual updates, tucked away is the recovery of Monkeybuilder and Bible Baseball and joining the dots for Ash and Dave’s car game – Switchblade (nothing to do with the Gremlin game!):
Anty Up, Bible Baseball, Bomb, Brain Death, Combat Chess, Deadhead, Diskovery titles, Donkey Kong Jr, EastEnders, Matterhorn, Money Minefield, Monkeybuilder, Murder!, Pharaoh’s Pyramid, Phoenix Lair, Switchblade, Typo Attack, Vanguard, Vapour
Gamebase64 needs you!
Gamebase64 has been a hugely important digital archive for the Commodore 64 for over 25 years now, bringing together all of the games that have made the platform so special.
Webmaster and developer Steven Feurer tragically passed away suddenly in July 2023 which has hit the team incredibly hard. Steve was a great friend to all the team and was the glue that kept everything together and running for so long. Without Steve, there is no web presence – which is important to promote the site and encourage submissions/corrections.
Leaving the team without a web developer and maintainer has now put the project at huge risk of losing its online presence. Michael Plate (Database project leader, creator and maintainer of the collection) has put out a plea via the Lemon64 forums for any help to keep this great project going.
I wish personally that I could step in to help, but we have too much going on at the moment with preservation work and Games That Weren’t.
If you feel you might be able to help, or know someone who could, please do get in touch via the forum at: https://www.lemon64.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=83094 and help save this amazing digital archive.
Mountain Valley Software unreleased C64 games
A bonus post to finish the week. Recently Fabrizio Bartoloni flagged up someone called BloodyCactus looking at an unreleased C64 adventure game called The Mermaid and the Crown.
Whilst looking into details to try and add entries onto the site, via the CASA Solution Archive we found that there were about 5 other adventure titles by Mountain Valley Software that were also never completed and released.
So, here are entries for all six of the titles overall, in case you hadn’t seen them before:
- https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/gtw64/the-mermaid-and-thecrown/
- https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/gtw64/the-curse-of-cranbury-manor/
- https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/gtw64/sorcerers-of-ravenswood/
- https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/gtw64/crypt/
- https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/gtw64/ophir-2/
- https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/gtw64/treasure-of-dead-mans-cay/
With thanks to Fabrizio Bartoloni, BloodyCactus and CASA Solution Archive.
GTW64 August 2023 updates
As summer starts to near the end, we continue to squeeze out more updates for the C64 archive – which seems to have no end in sight! Check out the following updates for August:
Early Karl Hörnell game found
Karl Hörnell’s early title Puzzle Mania has been found and preserved by Genesis Project. Check out some of Karl’s earliest work.
19 Boot Camp – Part 2 graphics found
A big recovery has been made by GTW64 on a series of assets for the adventure version of 19 Boot Camp – Part 2. Check them out below if you missed the recent update.
Also … 5 new entries added
Anty Up, Connections, Funfair Inc, Matterhorn, 1990
And … 19 other updates added
Arthema, Bomb, Chess, Crystal Castles V1, Denny’s Quest 2, Devious Designs, Footloose, Joust, Messiah 3, Phoenix Lair, Prince Of Persia, Quo Vadis V2, Rockus, Shear Panic, Switchblade, Typhoon Thompson, Victory Road (UK version), Worron
