Games That Weren't

Army Men: Sarge's Heroes 3 was in development for the PlayStation 2 but never saw release. Only a small glimpse of the game has surfaced so far. Could more of the game still survive and can it one day be preserved?

Did you know a traditional Super Mario platformer was once in development for the Philips CD-i?

Super Mario's Wacky Worlds would have taken Mario on a bizarre adventure across Ancient Greece, Egypt, pirate ships, the Arctic and beyond before it was ultimately cancelled.

More details:

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2026/07/super-marios-wacky-worlds/

More for the Amstrad CPC today on Games That Weren't with release of a very early Shoot-Em-Up by Clockwize from the late 1980s. This recovery was made thanks to Dean Hickingbottom and a nice early glimpse at what could have been a nice budget title.

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2026/07/unnamed-shoot-em-up/

A more advanced preview of the unreleased Commodore 64 shoot-em-up Trigger Happy has surfaced! Featuring improved graphics and much more developed attack waves than the previously known build, it's a fascinating glimpse at what might have been.

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/gtw64/trigger-happy/

Huge thanks to Hedning/Genesis Project for the heads up.

Developed by Titus, but ultimately never released, Ninjanimal was intended as a beat-em-up inspired by Altered Beast.

Surviving Atari ST and Amiga prototypes along with developer insight reveal the story behind this strange lost project:

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2026/07/ninjanimal/

With Starglider 2 set to feature in the upcoming "Memories of Rainbird and Beyond Software" Kickstarter, here's a look back at the unreleased C64 conversion, its preservation story and the playable preview that survives today.

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/gtw64/starglider-2/

For more details on the "Memories of Rainbird and Beyond Software" Kickstarter, please check out:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zzap642021annual/memories-of-rainbird-and-beyond-software

Did you know a brand new Gauntlet game was completed for the Nintendo DS… but never released?

Despite being reviewed by magazines such as Retro Gamer, the game was cancelled before it reached the shelves. Thankfully it survives today.

More details:

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2020/11/gauntlet-ds/

Epsilon is an impressive early unreleased vertical shoot-em-up for the Commodore 64 by Paul Hughes and Dawn Drake, originally in development for Rainbird in 1988. Preview builds, source code and its fascinating story have thankfully survived:

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/gtw64/epsilon/

For more history and details on Rainbird, checkout the "Memories of Rainbird and Beyond Software" Kickstarter:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zzap642021annual/memories-of-rainbird-and-beyond-software

Missing He-Man games? U.S. Gold advertised Amstrad CPC, IBM PC and Commodore 16 versions of Masters of the Universe: The Super Adventure and The Arcade Game, but they never appeared. Can anything of them be found?

Source code has been recovered for Imagitec's unreleased Raiden (Amiga/Atari Falcon), with sources suggesting around 8 Amiga levels and additional Falcon content beyond the known 3-level shareware build. We've also added early Space Junk (Atari Falcon) sources. Huge thanks to tomseddon for preserving the archive and dlfrsilver for the heads up!

To coincide with Richard Hewison's new "Memories of Rainbird and Beyond Software" Kickstarter, we've added R.A.I.L to the archive - Rainbird's ambitious unfinished adventure creation system by John Jones-Steele. Could someone continue its development?

A new prototype preserved today. With huge thanks to Benedykt Dziubałtowski for securing permission from the original authors, we're delighted to release a very early Game Boy Advance prototype of the unreleased fighter, Franko 2: No Mercy.

Thanks also to Rygar for the heads up.

More info and download: https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2024/02/franko-2-no-mercy/

Raiden was one of the biggest arcade shooters of the 1990s. But did you know planned Amiga and Atari Falcon conversions never made it to release? Today we take a look at both surviving versions and what happened to them.

More details + downloads: https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2026/06/raiden/

Thanks to h0ffman and Karl Kuras for the heads up (and apologies for the delay!)

Very rare footage and screenshots of Big Five Software's unreleased Scraper Caper for the Atari 8-bit range has resurfaced. See Bounty Bob's abandoned firefighting adventure and what might have been.

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2025/04/scraper-caper/

Big month for the Commodore 64 archive! Arcade Wizzard finally recovered after 22 years of searching, joined by the complete unreleased game Void, an Australian prototype of Aussie Games, two newly preserved releases, 3 new entries and 14 archive updates:

Cinemaware's The Three Stooges was released on a number of platforms in 1987, and an Atari ST version was advertised too. However, no screenshots or builds have surfaced so far, suggesting the port may have been cancelled early on.

The Acrobat was an ambitious unreleased adventure game by Simon Price and Mike Lewis that turned gameplay into a living comic book. Developed for PC, with Atari ST + Amiga versions planned, the project was cancelled by MicroProse before release.

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2026/06/the-acrobat/

The preservation of The Acrobat has been in collaboration with Richard Hewison as part of the launch of Richard's new Memories of Rainbird and Beyond Software book Kickstarter, following on from his superb Firebird book. If you love gaming history and preservation, please take a look and consider supporting it:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zzap642021annual/memories-of-rainbird-and-beyond-software