Quake Advance, Randy Linden's impressive 2002 Game Boy Advance experiment, featuring fully 3D environments, enemies, lighting effects and more. The prototype was eventually recovered from Randy's own flash cartridge and preserved in 2022.
Had a fantastic weekend at PLAY Expo Blackpool celebrating the launch of Paul Drury's superb The Arcade 1971-1999! We're very proud to have contributed the unreleased arcade games chapter, and had a brilliant time celebrating with Paul, Martyn Carroll, John Szczepaniak and the legendary Eugene Jarvis.
A few words and photos from the weekend:
https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2026/10/celebrating-the-arcade-1971-1999-at-play-expo/
Our September 2026 Commodore 64 update is here, with 3 new GTW entries, 12 updates, a Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo prototype and 11 previously lost/missing titles located thanks to Nicol Walder. Another busy month for the archive!
Something a little different for GTW. John Hardie got in touch after uncovering original FlexiCAD vector drawings for Atari's unreleased Jaguar/CD combination console on an old Atari floppy disk. We've added a quick entry and the surviving design images:
https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2026/09/atari-jaguar-cd-combo-unit/
MELT, a lost 1997 PC game featuring Iron Maiden's Eddie, has been recovered! We're releasing a build for the first time, along with source code and an updated version for modern PCs. We also speak to developer Paul Tebbutt. Thanks to Tamaracade for their earlier research.
More details:
A fascinating piece of early Atari 2600 dev history! "City by the Lake" was a 1981 technical demo by Western Technologies, featuring a jet flying over a shimmering city landscape. We take a look at its story and share footage of the surviving demo.
Were the Apple II and Macintosh editions of Magnetic Scrolls' Fish! ever actually released?
We've added a new entry looking at the mystery surrounding the two 1988 versions. Can you help us establish what happened to them?
https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2026/09/fish/
Image courtesy of https://www.atarilegend.com/games/fish
Square Enix's bizarre Xbox 360 exclusive Gun Loco was cancelled in 2011, but several development builds have since been recovered. We look back at the game and its preservation, and highlight Aeritha's incredible six-hour prototype longplay.
https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2026/09/gun-loco/
Video/Images courtesy of Aeritha
Lost for 38 years, until today! A set of completely different Amstrad CPC builds of Vixen have been preserved. Following our earlier ZX Spectrum discovery, we take a look at once lost builds of Martech's 1988 game, thanks again to Dean Hickingbottom.
The Settlers almost made it to Game Boy Advance, with a small Hyperion team developing for Ubisoft. Simon Butler recalls it being only a month or two from completion when suddenly cancelled. Could a prototype still survive? (Amiga shot via Lemon Amiga)
Amazing to see this surface this morning! Rare's Project Dream, the SNES RPG that evolved into Banjo-Kazooie, has had its early proof-of-concept prototype anonymously released after all these years. Thanks to Vincius Medeiro (via Twitter) for the heads up!
Added a quick entry to cover details of the leak: https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2026/09/project-dream/
Hired Guns almost had an enhanced AGA/CD32 incarnation, with improved graphics, lighting, sound, weapons and more. We take a detailed look at the surviving prototype and speak with Steve Hammond about its history, preservation and the ideas that never made it, as well as sharing scans of the original previously unseen manual.
More details:
Upon Westminster Bridge was a mysterious adventure planned at Magnetic Scrolls, seemingly as a personal project for Anita Sinclair. Long confused with Corruption, evidence suggests it was a separate, little-known project that never got off the ground.
https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2026/09/upon-westminster-bridge/
An early prototype/demo of Dro Soft's Duck Out for ZX Spectrum has been preserved from the Clockwize archives. Likely sent out while seeking a publisher, the build contains two levels, cut scenes and some interesting differences from the final game.
https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2026/09/duck-out-prototype-zx-spectrum/
Sony once planned its own PlayStation Home-style social world for the PSP. R∞M reached closed beta in Japan, offering 3D avatars, personal rooms, blogs, chat and mini-games before cancellation in 2010. Thankfully, the client has since been preserved.
https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2026/09/room-for-psp/
Screenshots taken from video by PSP Mav: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dm7piM9I2w
After previous cancelled attempts on consoles, DC's Lobo almost got another shot in 2003. Kemco's action game was planned for Xbox, GameCube and PS2, with ten environments, multiple weapons and even different forms for Lobo, before being cancelled.
https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2026/09/lobo/
Clip: Yassine Bakrim + Evan Hanley (original source unknown).
While researching the cancelled LMNO, we spoke with design consultant Jason Rohrer about his work prototyping its "Memory Dive" concept. Jason dug out his old archives and has now generously released the playable proof-of-concepts and source code!
More details:
https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2026/09/lmno-memory-dive-prototypes-preserved/
Czarny Kruk was an ambitious adventure in development for the Amiga by Seven Stars, before problems completing its painted backgrounds brought the project to an end. Thanks to Rygar, we're today revealing previously unseen materials from the game:
Our August Commodore 64 archive update is here, with 1 new GTW entry, 15 game updates and a fantastic batch of 15 previously unpreserved Grolier/Mindflight titles recovered thanks to MalcSeventyFour. Another busy month for C64 preservation!
Before Interplay's Fallout, there was another, but not quite the same! Created for the Amiga in 1991, this prize-winning AMOS game was distributed only in small numbers and now appears to be lost. Could a copy still be out there waiting to be discovered?