Frank Gasking

One of my main roles in the digital world is as curator for The Games That Weren’t – a Cancelled & Unreleased Video games archive with prototypes, developer history and assets for many computers and consoles of all ages. A non-profit large archive dedicated to preserving lost games that were never released to the public where we share history and stories from the developers, assets and more before it is too late.

I started out around 1994/95 collating, preserving and researching about unreleased games, with an article eventually started up for Commodore Zone fanzine called Games That Weren’t. The online digital archive was then born in 1999, and so (as of 2024) preservation of lost games has been a large part of my life for over 30 years now during my free hours.

If you are interested, you can read more about the history of the site and how it came to be on our 25th Anniversary post. In 2020, in collaboration with Bitmap Books, I authored a book on the subject called (unsurprisingly!) Games That Weren’t, which exceeded all expectations and has had a few print runs.

Then in early 2025, I gave a talk about Games That Weren’t at The Retro Collective in Stroud which you can check out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsLHpIC2Ycs

Occasionally, I write articles for magazines and websites from time to time, which has included over the years: Good Old Games, Official PlayStation magazine, Nintendo Life, Retro Gamer, FREEZE64 and Amiga Addict. I have also contributed content for other books, including the unreleased games section for the Commodore 64 Visual Compendium.

When not doing unreleased games work, I also contribute to digital preservation projects such as Gamebase 64, Gamebase VIC-20 and HVSC. One of my big soft spots is for the Commodore 64 and Commodore VIC-20, and so I try and preserve titles not yet in the archives, but also find lost music and help to establish credits for programming, graphics and music on my travels.

During the day, I work as a Senior Technical Specialist at the University of Kent, where I carry out a variety of software/web developments, as well as teach students/staff how to create their own psychological experiments using Python and PsychoPy. I am an Agile evangelist, using tools to work with customers to map out project flows, gather requirements and then create user stories to get from start to finish. My page linked above gives more details of the areas that I specifically focus on.

When i’m not doing the above, I am spending quality time with my family and going out for walks, watching various shows on TV (a current favorite being Only Murders in the Building!). I also occasionally try and keep up doing artwork, attending life classes and doing portraits – which helps to switch off from everything. Some of my work can be found on my Instagram.

That is pretty much it! This blog is an outlet generally for content that doesn’t quite fit for Games That Weren’t or Instagram, so very occasionally you’ll see posts here covering a particular subject close to my heart.