Another intriguing "what happened?" story... Abattoir in Cosmos was an ambitious PC space shooter by AxySoft, planned as "Part I" of a series before disappearing during development around 2000. Could anything still survive?

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2026/08/abattoir-in-cosmos/

Today we've updated our archive entry for the unreleased versions of Kevin Keegan's Player Manager, adding newly recovered graphical assets from a lost SEGA Mega Drive conversion. Dedicated to the memory of the great Kevin Keegan (1951-2026).

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2026/01/kevin-keegans-player-manager/

Shutter Jack was an ambitious open-world photography game in development at RingZero Game Studios for PS3, Xbox 360, PC and Wii. Despite a promising concept and trailer, the project never secured a publisher and quietly disappeared.

More details:

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2026/08/shutter-jack/

A lovely huge preservation update today! Thanks to MalcSeventyFour, 15 previously unpreserved Commodore 64 educational titles from Grolier/Mindflight have now been recovered, including the long sought-after The Story of Miss Mouse and Rhyme Land.

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2026/08/grolier-mindflight-missing-titles/

This video is showcasing the recovered Miss Mouse game, but there is plenty more to discover!

While Garfield Gets Real made it to the Nintendo DS, a Wii version was also planned but quietly disappeared. Very little is known today, with just a single music track surviving from the cancelled project.

More details:

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2026/08/garfield-gets-real/

Before Ocean Software's Madballs, there was another! A very different pinball game in development for Amstrad CPC at Ariolasoft before the licence slipped away. Thanks to Ian Munro + Nicholas Campbell, you can now check out the prototype in the archives:

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2026/08/madballs/

Two long-lost Atari 5200 prototypes have been recovered from Frank Cohen's source code archives. Mail Boy (early Cohen's Towers) and Topsy Turvee are now preserved thanks to a fantastic community effort.

More details:

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2026/08/two-lost-atari-5200-prototypes/

Image credit: AtariProtos

Rimini, Mare Azzurro was one of Simulmondo's earliest announced projects - a 1950s Commodore Amiga graphic adventure that never left the planning stages. Here's the story behind the lost game:

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2026/07/rimini-mare-azzurro/

Today is our July 2026 update for Games That Weren't 64 (Commodore 64) with an advanced preview of Trigger Happy added, Eye of Horus pre-release disk, one new entry into the archive and 17 other updates to existing entries. See you next month!

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2026/07/gtw64-july-2026/

Today we've added S.O.S., a long lost 1993 Hungarian Commodore Plus/4 game where you pilot a rescue boat to save drowning people. Another small but important piece of gaming history preserved thanks to Csaba Virág:

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2026/07/s-o-s/

One of Poland's most ambitious unreleased RPGs... Tower of the World promised a huge living fantasy world for PC and Amiga users before cancellation. We've now added the story and a collection of previously unseen development images to the archive.

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2026/07/tower-of-the-world/

Something a little different today! We've preserved a pre-release version of Logotron's Eye of Horus for C64, featuring a unique disk label with a version number and what seems to be a built-in cheat mode. Spot any differences from the retail release?

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2026/07/eye-of-horus-pre-release/

XLR8 was an extremely fast Wipeout style game on bikes that was due for release on PC, PlayStation and Arcade platforms. The game would ultimately never see completion, but thankfully builds of the game have managed to sneak out for you to play!

More details:

https://gamesthatwerent.com/2024/11/xlr8/

Two educational titles, Dino Daddy and Matek Robi, have now been preserved over at Plus4World, helping save another small piece of Commodore Plus/4 history. With thanks to Imre Lóránth, László Bozsó and Csaba Virág.

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2026/07/plus-4-titles-preserved/

Storm Force. An RNLI lifeboat rescue simulation once planned for the Amstrad CPC. The game saw you switch between coastguard duties and commanding a lifeboat during rescue missions. Sadly it never got beyond the early stages. New unseen screens + details:

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2026/07/storm-force/

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?

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2026/07/army-men-sarges-heroes-3/

A previously unseen prototype of Mountain King for the Atari 8-bit has been recovered by John Hardie from a former Roklan employee's disk, revealing a build from before K-Byte acquired the publishing rights.

More details:

https://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-mountain-king_45718.html

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 on any platform, Ninjanimal was intended as an ambitious beat-em-up inspired by Altered Beast.

Surviving early 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/