Games That Weren't
@gamesthatwerent.com
3.7K followers 200 following 910 posts
Covering cancelled/unreleased video games and prototypes across a variety of consoles and home computers. Preserving unreleased video game history online since 1999, and longer offline. Check out our archive and more at: https://www.gamesthatwerent.com
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gamesthatwerent.com
Thanks to John Hardie contacting us, remains of a lost Earthquake game (with graphics by the late Jerome Domurat) were recovered in June 2025 for either #Atari2600 or #Atari8bit. We take a look to try and learn more about the game:
www.gamesthatwerent.com/2025/10/eart...
gamesthatwerent.com
Thanks to Csaba Virág, we've been given a rare bug report video from 1990 and for Novotrade's #PC Bugs Bunny's Cartoon Workshop package. This has been preserved by Péter Gyöngyössy, who found and digitized the tape.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cg2...
Bugs Bunny's Cartoon Workshop - Novotrade 1990 PC game test video
YouTube video by Games That Weren't - Cancelled & Unreleased Games
www.youtube.com
Reposted by Games That Weren't
gamesthatwerent.com
Planned for 1988 on the #AtariST by Lankhor, Mechanic Warriors blended shooter + strategy, with multiple space vehicles and missions. Canned due to funding, it became UbiSoft’s simpler Intruder game. Can the original be found?

www.gamesthatwerent.com/2025/07/mech...
Reposted by Games That Weren't
gamesthatwerent.com
More previously unseen content revealed from the Porky Pig #SNES prototype recovery thanks to @kungfufurby.bsky.social . By patching the subgame proto, you can now see more that was dropped from the final release, including a diving game which looks like a riff on Fiendish Freddy's Big Top O'Fun!
Reposted by Games That Weren't
gamesthatwerent.com
More Game Boy early builds, where today we're releasing prototypes of Populous for the #Nintendo #GameBoy for you to check out - mostly very minor title differences, plus various bugs not yet fixed. Can you find anything else?
Reposted by Games That Weren't
gamesthatwerent.com
Just to separately highlight some of the PORKATHLON #SNES subgames in the Porky Pig prototype that were dropped and were pretty decent too. A shame these never made the final cut, as clearly a lot of effort went into them:
gamesthatwerent.com
Something very special today with the release of Jeff Minter's 'Fastlife' for the ZX81 - based on Conway's 'Life', preserved for the first time by Steve Brown of the TZXVault and released by Games That Weren't today! More details and download here:

www.gamesthatwerent.com/2025/10/earl...
gamesthatwerent.com
Thanks to LiqMatrix’s incredible preservation work (with support from @museumofplay.bsky.social and wcnews.com), the KATT Games Master Keyboard (obscure 90s gaming device) is archived. We've uploaded raw scans and files, + an unboxing video by LiqMatrix here:
www.gamesthatwerent.com/2025/10/the-...
gamesthatwerent.com
This week at Games That Weren't, we recovered a lost EA proto called Path of the Little Dragon (#Amiga) + added a lost preview of Blues Brothers 2 (Amiga), added entry for Conspiracy of the Deadlock Files (#PCDOS) and a lost Amiga conversion of EA's NHL Hockey. Links in replies.
Reposted by Games That Weren't
freeze64.bsky.social
--=#> NEW ISSUE <#=--
FREEZE64 issue 79 now available to buy from:
freeze64.com/freeze64-iss...
Features 2 developer interviews:
- SID Maestro Allister Brimble
- Graphics Artist Terry Lloyd - Part 2
+ a whole host of new and exclusive #Commodore64 #C64 content to devour.
Reposted by Games That Weren't
Reposted by Games That Weren't
richardtroupe.bsky.social
This is a fascinating article on early software preservation.

Stories of games running on old mainframes always amaze me - the nascent computer scene is very interesting to study and full of hypothetical possibilities.
gamesthatwerent.com
Fellow preservationist Robert Robichaud got in touch to share that he was recently involved in a game preservation project regarding Norway's first adventure games. A great article worth checking out:
spillhistorie.no/2025/09/11/n...
Norway's first adventure games, part 2 - Spillhistorie.no
For years, Ringen was considered lost and not much was known about it. Here's the full story of the game, and how it was saved.
spillhistorie.no
gamesthatwerent.com
Fellow preservationist Robert Robichaud got in touch to share that he was recently involved in a game preservation project regarding Norway's first adventure games. A great article worth checking out:
spillhistorie.no/2025/09/11/n...
Norway's first adventure games, part 2 - Spillhistorie.no
For years, Ringen was considered lost and not much was known about it. Here's the full story of the game, and how it was saved.
spillhistorie.no
Reposted by Games That Weren't
Reposted by Games That Weren't
breakintoprogram.co.uk
This article rings true to me, having recovered data from 3” and 3.5” floppies, my first-pass success rate at the moment is about 70%. I’ve recently recovered data for a friend off a 40MB hard drive including an unfinished book.
gamesthatwerent.com
Prompt as always! FREEZE #79 arrives thanks to @freeze64.bsky.social with a great feature on Prince Clumsy, plus more from Terry Lloyd. More Hidden Harmonies from Warren Pilkington, Ccrapback from Julian Rignall and more. Details + ordering info can be found at: freeze64.com/freeze64-iss...
Reposted by Games That Weren't
bhgross144.bsky.social
So this #SHOT2025 panel has nearly wrapped up. But if you want to read more about historical issues surrounding multimedia and the preservation of born-digital collections, check out this piece on #DigiPres at @theul.bsky.social.

(Thanks for bringing this to my attention, @rhiggitt.bsky.social!)
A digital dark age? The people rescuing forgotten knowledge trapped on old floppy disks
From lectures by Stephen Hawking to the letters of British politician Neil Kinnock – it's a race against time to save the historical treasures locked away on old floppy disks.
www.bbc.com
gamesthatwerent.com
Ocean Software had once planned an #Amiga conversion of EA's NHL Hockey from the Mega Drive, alongside Shaq Fu & Jungle Strike. While those two appeared, NHL Hockey never materialized. Were Enigma Variations the team behind the conversion? Read more at:
www.gamesthatwerent.com/2025/10/nhl-...
NHL Hockey (Commodore Amiga) - Games That Weren't
A short entry for now to highlight that Ocean Software had once signed a deal with Electronic Arts to convert a bunch of their SEGA Mega Drive titles to the Amiga. One of those titles would be a conve...
www.gamesthatwerent.com
Reposted by Games That Weren't
frankcifaldi.bsky.social
Collectors! Store owners! Hoarders! Help us out! @gamehistoryorg.bsky.social is looking to source copies of this 1985 NES pack-in poster for fundraising reasons, and we need them asap. We already cleaned out eBay. Note that they need to be the ones that say copyright 1985, as pictured! Can pay!
gamesthatwerent.com
In 1989, Accolade planned Conspiracy: The Deadlock Files - a "fully digitised" VGA #PC adventure using 500+ photos of NYC landmarks. A six-disk, 24-hour race against the CIA, FBI, KGB & more - but it never saw release. Could anything of it be recovered?

www.gamesthatwerent.com/2025/09/cons...
Conspiracy: The Deadlock Files (IBM PC) - Games That Weren't
A CIA Agent is viciously murdered in a top class New York Hotel and suddenly you're the number 1 suspect. You'll find yourself thrust into an ingenious plot by a murderous clutch of financiers with wo...
www.gamesthatwerent.com