Welcome to Games That Weren't!

We are a cancelled and unreleased Video games archive with prototypes, developer history and assets for many computers and consoles of all ages. A non-profit large archive dedicated to preserving lost games that were never released to the public. Sharing history and stories from the developers, assets and more before it is too late. GTW has been preserving lost video game history online since 1999, and long before that offline.

Please Browse our archive and discover the many entries that we host for many different platforms.

Latest News and Posts

Mission: Impossible

Posted: by Frank Gasking

2005 Argonaut

Platforms: PC, Sony PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, Microsoft Xbox

This week we had a surprise submission to the site, with a set of videos showcasing gameplay and rendered scenes from an unknown cancelled development of Mission: Impossible, which we believe was underway around 2005.

mission1

Details are sketchy at this stage, but it is assumed at this stage the Argonaut were planning to do the game for all the main platforms of the time, including Sony PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Xbox and what we can see here is what may have formed a pitch to get the development licence to the game. Continue reading →

Posted in: Microsoft Xbox, Nintendo GameCube, PC, Reviews, Sony PlayStation 2 | Tagged: | Leave a comment

GTW64 March 2026 digest

Posted: by Frank Gasking

A much larger update for Commodore 64 users this month for GTW64. You will have already seen the release of Bomb Race, though behind the scenes have been a number of new entries for other titles and also updates for others too. Thanks to everyone for their submissions and updates!

Different version of Bomb Uzal recovered

Earlier this month, we added a different and unseen build of Bomb Uzal, with Mirrorsoft titles and possible other differences:

Bomb Race

6 new entries added

We had a number of other new entries and submissions too, some of which we hope were released and just need to be found:

Coma, Hen Pecked, Miss Mouse, Rhyme Land, Ripper, The Bartender

15 updates added

Then finally we have our usual set of updates to existing entries, with a number of findings, scans and new bits of information. Please check the “History” tab for each game to see details of what has changed.

Cavey, Escape, Micrograms, Inc titles, Nightflight, Orbyte Software titles, Oriental Games, Penitentiary, Purple Saturn Day, Quick Eddie, Raid on Romaro , Sewer Sam, Stack Light Rifle games, Talvisota, Zambeezi, Zzap Italia homebrew

See you all next month!

Posted in: GTW64 news | Leave a comment

Vaderz

Posted: by Frank Gasking

2000 Scott Wakeling

Platforms: PC Windows

Next up in the archives is a show reel game that was produced back in 2000 to tout to potential publishers in the form of this neat Space Invaders clone called Vaderz.

vaderz1

This was produced by Scott Wakeling and was done as a learning exercise for getting the hang of DirectX in around three months or so, tweaking and trying to get right to make as smooth a title as possible.

The game itself is a simple clone, but is fun to play with some nice graphics for its time and a great starfield at the back. Graphics are all borrowed, and there are some placeholder sounds as well which were borrowed from other sources just as part of a demonstration. The game is pretty much complete, but there were plans for powerups that never made it. It is possible that Scott did a later version. Continue reading →

Posted in: PC, Reviews | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Solar Wind

Posted: by Frank Gasking

1990 Light Source Productions

Platform: Commodore Amiga

Following on from Maximum Overdrive, we’re adding a very early entry for a title called Solar Wind, which didn’t get particularly far unfortunately. We’re not sure if it was to be a 3rd person flying game, or a 2D scrolling game at this stage.

SolarWind

On a few disks, we found some source code at various stages – when compiled, it unfortunately doesn’t run properly. One demo just shows a mountain scape and another shows a bit more with a score panel – which looks like an aeroplane panel. Might be a configuration issue in WinUAE, or this was as far as things got. Continue reading →

Posted in: Commodore Amiga, Reviews | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Small Soldiers: Close Combat

Posted: by Frank Gasking

1998 Tiger Electronics

Platform: Tiger Game.com

A short entry for a missing Tiger Game.com game that was due for release back in October 1998 called Small Soldiers and based on the DreamWorks film, where toy soldiers transform sleepy suburbia into a combat zone.

Small Large

The game was a fighting title, where you would choose your alliance with the Commando Elite, or the Gorgonites and prepare for a tour-de-force of hand-to-hand fighting action. You would play as your favourite character and fight against opponents with a variety of fighting and weapons based moves.

Developed by Handheld Games (who had developed Centipede and Frogger for the platform) – unfortunately, the game was never to see release and was likely due to the failure of the Game.com handheld. An advert was shown with a screenshot, and a digital screenshot was found on diskman.com. It seems the screenshot came from the developer’s own website. Continue reading →

Posted in: Reviews, Tiger Game.com | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Steve Ralph Amstrad CPC adventure games preserved

Posted: by Frank Gasking

Thanks to Patrick Furlong, the recently found Steve Ralph games (which were likely homebrew titles) have been almost been fully preserved for the Amstrad CPC and you can now download the progress so far to check out for yourself. The download consists of the following titles:

  • Lost Legacy (Needs further preservation of main adventure or a file)
  • Pools Winner
  • Haunted House
  • Captain Ralph’s Island

captainralph2

With Lost Legacy, it seems that it tries to load an extra segment or the main adventure, though listing the BASIC code seems to suggest that the game is present anyway. Just needs tidying up the code to access by the looks of it, but could be wrong. If you have any more joy, please let us know. Continue reading →

Posted in: Amstrad CPC, Preservation, Reviews | Tagged: | 3 Comments

Maximum Overdrive

Posted: by Frank Gasking

1991 Light Source Productions

Platform: Commodore Amiga

After the success of ShockWave on the Amiga, Lance Abson decided to try and re-use and pivot the engine towards a racing game. The result was Maximum Overdrive, which was used as a demo and pitched to various different publishers for interest.

maximumoverdrive (3)

The demo itself is more of a technical demonstration of the road effect. There is a simple dashboard, and you can drive the car around the track with weather effects and with a target for shooting other vehicles. Shooting is disabled in the demo and you can just go around the track and fly past other enemy vehicles. There’s no concept of laps and the demo will just run continuously. Continue reading →

Posted in: Commodore Amiga, Reviews | Tagged: | Leave a comment

New York Warriors missing levels recovered!

Posted: by Frank Gasking

This isn’t an unreleased game as such, but at least half of the game was! New York Warriors on the Amstrad CPC is an interesting tale, as the special 128K disk version release was missing half of the content, with the first disk side repeated on both sides (whoops!). This also included a bunch of cut scenes and the final end sequence too.

5

Troubling users for 36 years, it is now time to put it all to rest and give you the opportunity to play those missing levels as intended, and crucially be able to play through the entire game. Developer Fred Williams thankfully kept all his 3″ development disks, and passed these onto Kevin Edwards (ex-BBC Micro programmer) who now helps to preserve and rescue old game development disks during his retirement. Continue reading →

Posted in: Amstrad CPC, Preservation | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Merlin Enterprises missing games

Posted: by Bertrand / AtariMania

1982-83 Merlin Enterprises

Platforms: Atari 8-bit, Apple II, Commodore VIC-20, Commodore 64

Merlin Enterprises was a mysterious publisher based in Torrance, California that exclusively advertized in Compute! in 1982-83. It seems none of the software titles mentioned has surfaced on any platform, which makes it an even more interesting case.

merlin ad bit

The first publication in November 1982 lists five games for the Atari 8-bit, Apple 2 and VIC-20:

  • Codename: Cobalt
  • Laser Arena
  • Mind Lexica
  • Arthur Davis Detective Encounter Series #3 – Murder in the Manor
  • Arthur Davis Detective Encounter Series #4 – Death for Dessert

Continue reading →

Posted in: Apple II, Atari 400/800/XL, Commodore 64 (C64), Commodore VIC-20, GTW64 news, Reviews | Tagged: | 4 Comments

Mortal Kombat 3

Posted: , last updated: by Frank Gasking

1996 Various

Platforms: Atari Jaguar, SEGA Saturn, 3DO and Apple Mac

Mortal Kombat 3 was once officially announced for the Atari Jaguar, SEGA Saturn, Apple Mac and 3DO platforms way back around 1995, but sadly would never see release on any of them. Despite its high-profile status, the project quietly disappeared. However, from research by Games That Weren’t’s Ross Sillifant – available documentation, magazine press and developer recollections suggest the game progressed further than people might realise on those platforms.

mk3 logo

Our main focus at the moment is on the Atari Jaguar version that Ross has looked at in particular, though over time we will cover more details regarding the Saturn, Mac and 3DO versions. For the Jaguar – Atari Corporation and Williams Entertainment had issued a joint press release in March confirming that Mortal Kombat 3 was in development for the Atari Jaguar, with a planned release window of Q2 1996. Atari described the title as one of the most frequently requested games from Jaguar owners and positioned it as a major upcoming release for the system. Continue reading →

Posted in: 3DO, Apple Macintosh, Atari Jaguar, Atari Jaguar CD, Reviews, SEGA Saturn | Tagged: | 2 Comments