Welcome to Games That Weren't

Games That Weren't is a long-running archive dedicated to cancelled and unreleased video games, prototypes and lost gaming history. Since 1999, we have been preserving rare information, assets and developer stories from across all eras of gaming.

Explore a vast collection of cancelled video game projects, unseen prototypes and behind-the-scenes development history from consoles and computers past and present. Our non-profit work aims to document and preserve titles that were never released to the public, before they are lost forever.

Browse the archive and discover thousands of lost and unreleased games across multiple platforms.

Latest News and Posts

Two Lost Atari 5200 Prototypes Recovered from Frank Cohen’s Archives

Posted: by Frank Gasking

News of another fantastic preservation story to share, this time for the Atari 5200. Thanks to a collaborative effort between several members of the Atari community, two long-lost prototypes by prolific Atari programmer Frank Cohen have been recovered from original source code.

mail large

While examining Frank Cohen’s archive, John Hardie discovered a disk case simply marked “5200”. After preserving the disks, he found source code for two previously unseen games: Mail Boy and Topsy Turvee. The source was then passed to Ken Van Mersbergen (Dutchman2000), who successfully compiled both projects into working Atari 5200 ROMs before going back to Frank to learn more about their history. Continue reading →

In: Atari 5200, News | Leave a comment

Rimini, Mare Azzurro

Posted: by Frank Gasking

1988 Simulmondo

Platform: Commodore Amiga

Before Simulmondo became famous for sports titles, comic book licences and adventures, the company had grander ambitions for its debut line-up. One of the earliest announced projects was Rimini, Mare Azzurro (also referred to as Rimini, Blue Sea), a graphic adventure that unfortunately never progressed beyond planning stages.

Rimini2

The title appeared in previews during 1988, including MC Microcomputer issue 73, where it was presented alongside several of Simulmondo’s other forthcoming projects. At the time, the game was described as being well underway, featuring digitised graphics in the style of Déjà Vu and taking place in the Italian seaside resort of Rimini during the 1950s. The intention was to create a murder mystery or thriller with a distinctly Italian setting, something quite unusual for the period. Continue reading →

In: Commodore Amiga, Reviews | Tagged: | 2 Comments

Games That Weren’t C64 – July 2026 updates

Posted: by Frank Gasking

As predicted, a bit quieter this month, but we still have an advanced preview recovery, a pre-release of Eye of Horus, 1 new entry in the Commodore 64 archive and 17 various updates to existing entries to check out (see “History” tab for changes). We’ll have more again for you next month!  Thanks to @2SlyGuy for link fix!

Trigger Happy advanced preview added

Earlier this month we added a more advanced preview of Trigger Happy, the Delta clone which was recovered by Genesis Project.

Trigger Happy

Eye of Horus pre-release disk added

We also added a pre-release disk version of Eye of Horus, which may have very minor differences compared to the final retail release.

Eye of Horus Pre-release

1 new entry added

Inertia

17 updates added

Ala Software, Arcade Wizzard, Australian Games, Epsilon, Mewilo, Nightflight, Pride & Prejudice, Quantarallax, Reel Fishing, Rhesus, Space Vegetables Corp, Spindizzy V1, Steam Powered Computer Company titles, The Sanctuary, Void, Who Dares Wins, Zambeezi

In: GTW64 news, News | 3 Comments

World Geography C64 disks preserved

Posted: by Frank Gasking

world geography

Allan Pinkerton has been busy once more, preserving World Geography 1985, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1992 and 1993 editions which you can check out with full scans here:

https://archive.org/search?tab=all&query=commodore+bobco&sort=-publicdate

These are the English editions, and there are other language versions out there that need preserving. Allan has also flagged that 1986 and 1989 are missing, so please get in touch if you can help with those!

In: Commodore 64 (C64), GTW64 news, Preservation | Leave a comment

S.O.S

Posted: by Frank Gasking

1993 Zsolt Asztalos and Robert Horvath

Platform: Commodore Plus 4

Today we have a new recovery for the Commodore Plus 4, and a long lost Hungarian game called S.O.S, created in 1993 by Zsolt Asztalos and Robert Horvath. The recovery is thanks to GTW’s Csaba Virág, who has been very busy preserving disks of late.

sos full new

The game is a sort of mixture of classic Snake, with something like Professional Speedboat Simulator by Codemasters (it has that kind of feel about it). You have to drive a boat and rotate whilst moving constantly to pick up drowning people and then drive them back to the gate in the middle bottom of the screen. Continue reading →

In: Commodore 16 and Plus/4, Reviews | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Tower of the World

Posted: by Frank Gasking

1996 Yavor / Metropolis

Platforms: PC and Commodore Amiga

One of the most ambitious Polish role playing games of the 1990s. Tower of the World was a huge fantasy RPG that had been quietly evolving for a number of years before eventually being taken under the wing of Metropolis, creators of TeenAgent and Tajemnica Statuetki.

TOW Large1

The project originated with programmer Jarosław Chrostowski and acclaimed Polish science fiction author Wiktor Żwikiewicz, who set out to create what they hoped would be a completely new kind of role-playing game. Work reportedly began around 1990, initially targeting the Commodore Amiga before later expanding to the PC. As development continued, the game was repeatedly redesigned to take advantage of higher resolutions, protected mode memory and more powerful processors, whilst the storyline and interface also grew considerably. Continue reading →

In: Commodore Amiga, PC, Reviews | Tagged: | 2 Comments

Eye of Horus pre-release disk (Commodore 64)

Posted: by Frank Gasking

Something a bit different for the Games That Weren’t archives today, with preservation of what seems to be a strange pre-release version of Logotron’s Eye of Horus on the Commodore 64.

eye large

The disk was discovered at Level Up Games in Canterbury last year from a collection that was saved from Ashford, Kent. I thought the disk label was particularly curious, as it states a version number on the label and even suggests a built-in cheat mode. Continue reading →

In: Commodore 64 (C64), GTW64 news, Preservation | Tagged: | 2 Comments

Two Commodore Plus/4 Educational Titles Preserved

Posted: by Frank Gasking

Thanks to Csaba Virág, we’ve learned of two more pieces of Commodore Plus/4 software that have thankfully been preserved. Dino Daddy is an English language learning program where players translate words, whilst Matek Robi is an educational mathematics title. Both programs were provided by Imre Lóránth and digitally preserved by László Bozsó.

dino daddylarge

Interestingly, the software was written by the same author behind the commercially released Rabló Rulett, though it isn’t currently known if either educational title was ever commercially published themselves. The software can be downloaded from Plus4World, who continue to do fantastic work preserving Commodore Plus/4 software. Continue reading →

In: Commodore 16 and Plus/4, News, Preservation | Leave a comment

Storm Force

Posted: by Frank Gasking

1990 Clockwize

Platform: Amstrad CPC (possibly ZX Spectrum too)

Next into the Games That Weren’t archives is an Amstrad CPC game that never was, called Storm Force. The game was a RNLI simulation which had graphics created by Lee Burns and code by Jeremy Fowler. Unfortunately, it seems that only a few test routines were completed and just some graphic screens were produced which you can see here.

storm5

These were recovered thanks to Dean Hickingbottom from a CPC disk. There was some code, but it was just quick routines for displaying the map or panel on the screen. At somepoint we may be able to add the source code for people to have a poke around. Dean did find a game plan for the game on one of the disks, which describes a little about how the game was to play and some of the different sections. Continue reading →

In: Amstrad CPC, Reviews, ZX Spectrum | Tagged: | Leave a comment

Army Men: Sarge’s Heroes 3

Posted: by Frank Gasking

2001 5000 Feet / Climax

Platform: Sony PlayStation 2

Army Men: Sarge’s Heroes 3 was in development at 5000 Feet and Climax for the PlayStation 2, but was ultimately never released. Very little has surfaced from the project over the years, though footage from a prototype build was thankfully saved and re-uploaded before the original source disappeared.

army2

The available footage shows a main menu, a level where the player can explore a military base whilst battling Tan forces, and a very early boat section. It is possible that additional vehicles may also have been planned, though little else is currently known about the game’s development.

Sadly, no dump of the prototype is currently available and only a limited amount of material has surfaced. Whilst the prototype is believed to survive, it has not yet been made available for preservation. Continue reading →

In: Reviews, Sony PlayStation 2 | Tagged: | 1 Comment