History MissingEpisode / VideoGames

* The ''SuperMarioWorld'' [[GameMod romhack]] ''Notte Luminosa'' was taken down from SMWCentral after it was revealed that the creator lied about having terminal cancer, in an attempt to get other people to make LetsPlays of the game.

* There's actually quite a lot of SuperMarioWorld [[GameMod rom hacks]] that fall into this. Some examples include anything from before the time SMW Central was 'hacked' and wiped clean six or so years ago, any resources use in the Japanese hacks Ore World 2 and The Mario (since the authors websites have vanished along with their asm and code), anything from the first VIP 5 uploader (taken down because people used it for things other than VIP 5 submissions), anything from the original Japanese hack hosting/submission site (which vanished without a trace a few years back) and Super Mario World Freedomn since the author's website has been taken down.

* Speaking of ''Fallout'', there's the original sequel to ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}'' made by Black Isle, code-named "[[http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Van_Buren Van Buren]]", which was almost more than half done before Black Isle's parent company Interplay went bankrupt and the game was never seen again. ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' was eventually made 10 years later by Bethesda yet had nothing to do with Van Buren.
** VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas, however, does reference several concepts that would have been part of Van Buren, specifically Caesars Legion, the Van Grafs and Hoover Dam. It's no coincidence that the development team for New Vegas was comprised of many former members of Black Isle.

* Here's an interesting example: the sequel to the original ''[[VideoGame/StarFox1 Star Fox]]'', ''VideoGame/StarFox2'', was never released, even though development on the Japanese version was already completed. The plot would have continued the story from the previous game, and would have introduced Star Wolf as najor antagonists. The game was canceled most likely due to the pending release of the Nintendo 64. Shortly after the game's termination, ''VideoGame/StarFox64'' began development, and rebooted the storyline from scratch. Eventually the ROM was leaked to the internet, and an English FanTranslation was released.

* Here's an interesting example: the sequel to the original ''[[VideoGame/StarFox1 Star Fox]]'', ''VideoGame/StarFox2'', was never released, even though development on the Japanese version was already completed. The plot would have continued the story from the previous game, and [[spoiler:would have introduced Star Wolf as one of the main antagonists]]. The game was canceled most likely due to the pending release of the Nintendo 64. Shortly after the game's termination, ''VideoGame/StarFox64'' began development, and rebooted the storyline from scratch. Eventually the ROM was leaked to the internet, and an English FanTranslation was released.

* The [[UltraSuperDeathGoreFestChainsawer3000 excessively violent and knowingly offensive]] ''ThrillKill'' was pulled from distribution before it could offend, likely to avoid fears of a [[MurderSimulators moral outcry]], and because AO-rated games are not allowed on consoles. The game developers were rightfully [[CreatorBacklash annoyed]] by this; leaking a beta version of the game before releasing another fighting game using the same game mechanics, albeit marginally toned-down (i.e., LESS bloody and gory).

*** Leisure Suit Larry 4 turns up as a gag/plot point in SpaceQuest 4. [[spoiler: Vohaul smuggled his consciousness onto a disk of LeisureSuitLarry 4, and the Xenonian scientists are so eager to play it that they load it into the planet-controlling supercomputer.]] When you're in Vohaul's lair later in the game, one of the programs on his computer is "[=LSL4=]."

* Video game example, kind of: The entire fourth installment of the original seven-part (six-part?) ''LeisureSuitLarry'' series was never made, largely because lead designer Al Lowe couldn't figure out how to logically continue the series from the third game on and chose to skip straight to the fifth one. Its lack is a major plot point in the fifth game and it pops up in other series by the same company, never playable.

* Here's an interesting example: the sequel to the original ''[[StarFox1 Star Fox]]'', ''StarFox2'', was never released, even though development on the Japanese version was already completed. The plot would have continued the story from the previous game, and [[spoiler:would have introduced Star Wolf as one of the main antagonists]]. The game was canceled most likely due to the pending release of the Nintendo 64. Shortly after the game's termination, ''StarFox64'' began development, and rebooted the storyline from scratch. Eventually the ROM was leaked to the internet, and an English FanTranslation was released.

* The [[UltraSuperDeathGoreFestChainsawer3000 excessively violent and knowingly offensive]] ''ThrillKill'' was pulled from distribution before it could offend, likely to avoid fears of a [[MurderSimulators moral outcry]]. The game developers were rightfully [[CreatorBacklash annoyed]] by this; leaking a beta version of the game before releasing another fighting game using the same game mechanics, albeit marginally toned-down (i.e., LESS bloody and gory).

* Similar to the Leisure Suit Larry example above, there was an installment of ''SamAndMaxFreelancePolice'' made called ''Sam & Max: Freelance Police!!''. However, LucasArts cancelled it and it wouldn't be until another four years before Telltale Games would make a Sam & Max game. Like [=LSL=] above, the game is referenced in the Telltale Games series as a "particularly gruesome case".
** The gruesomeness (and bitterness) around the LucasArts sequel is that the game was ''finished'' before being caught up in the studio's decision to leave the adventure game business entirely.

* The [[UltraSuperDeathGoreFestChainsawer3000 excessively violent and knowingly offensive]] [[BeatEmUp beat]]/[[HackAndSlash slash]] 'em up ''Thrill Kill'' was pulled from distribution before it could offend, likely to avoid fears of a [[MurderSimulators moral outcry]]. The game developers were rightfully [[CreatorBacklash annoyed]] by this; leaking a beta version of the game before releasing another [[FightingGame fighting game]] using the [[ItsTheSameNowItSucks same]] game mechanics, albeit marginally toned-down (i.e., LESS [[BloodierAndGorier bloody and gory]]).

* Many computer games, after their initial publishing run, suffer from a problem somewhat unique to the medium. As ScienceMarchesOn, it can be quite rewarding to produce a VideoGameRemake or UpdatedRerelease especially designed for newer computers, except that the source code and other assets of many commercial games are rarely held onto. For example, when the ''[=xu4=]'' and ''[=Exult=]'' projects wanted to make source ports of ''{{Ultima}} IV'' and ''VII'', Origin admitted that it had lost everything. And when ''{{Fallout}} Tactics'' was under development just a few years after the previous ''Fallout'' game had been released, it turned out that virtually all of the original game's [=3D=] assets had been lost, and nearly all of it ended up being remodeled.
* Speaking of ''Fallout'', there's the original sequel to ''Fallout 2'' made by Black Isle, code-named "[[http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Van_Buren Van Buren]]", which was almost more than half done before Black Isle's parent company Interplay went bankrupt and the game was never seen again. ''Fallout 3'' was eventually made 10 years later by Bethesda yet had nothing to do with Van Buren.
** FalloutNewVegas, however, does reference several concepts that would have been part of Van Buren, specifically Caesars Legion, the Van Grafs and Hoover Dam. It's no coincidence that the development team for New Vegas was comprised of many former members of Black Isle.

* Yet another "lost video game": Despite what many fans believe, the ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' video game ''Defenders of the Universe'' never got past development stage. Dialogue and graphics were already produced at that time but Treasure Studios simply terminated the project because publisher Conspiracy continuously held off the release date from 2001 all the way up to the spring of 2002, had it been finished. According to rumors, Conspiracy had dire financial issues that led them to pushing the date numerous times. The company told Treasure Studios that "business complications" was the reason they had to wait. It was not until eight years later when an image of a prototype version was shown, and still it looked incomplete (even though the ESRB already reviewed the game at the time of termination, possibly citing that the game was ''almost'' complete). Another project, ''Scary Dreams'', was released the same year, but only in Europe (North America did not acknowledge that game's existence until ''three years later'').

* Yet another "lost video game": Despite what many fans believe, the ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' video game ''Defenders of the Universe'' never got past development stage. Dialogue and graphics were already produced at that time but Treasure Studios simply terminated the project, as publisher Conspiracy continuously pushed back the release date, later indefinitely. According to rumors, Conspiracy had dire financial issues that led them to pushing the date numerous times. It was not until eight years later when an image of a prototype version was shown, and still it looked incomplete.

* Yet another "lost video game": Despite what many fans believe, the ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' video game ''Defenders of the Universe'' never got past development stage. Dialogue and graphics were already produced at that time but Treasure Studios simply terminated the project, as publisher Conspiracy continuously pushed back the release date, later indefinitely. According to rumors, Conspiracy had dire financial issues that led them to pushing the date numerous times. It was not until eight years later when a ROM was released, and still looked incomplete.

* Video game example, kind of: The entire fourth installment of the seven-part (six-part?) ''LeisureSuitLarry'' series was never made, largely because lead designer Al Lowe couldn't figure out how to logically continue the series from the third game on and chose to skip straight to the fifth one. Its lack is a major plot point in the fifth game and it pops up in other series by the same company, never playable.

* Here's an interesting example: the sequel to the original ''[[StarFox1 Star Fox]]'', ''StarFox2'', was never released, even though development on the Japanese version was already completed. The plot would have continued the story from the previous game, and [[spoiler:would have introduced Star Wolf as one of the main antagonists]]. The game was canceled most likely due to the pending release of the Nintendo64. Shortly after the game's termination, ''StarFox64'' began development, and rebooted the storyline from scratch. Eventually the ROM was leaked to the internet, and an English FanTranslation was released.

* Here's an interesting example: the sequel to the original ''[[StarFox1 Star Fox]]'', ''StarFox2'', was never released, even though development was already completed. The plot would have continued the story from the previous game, and [[spoiler:would have introduced Star Wolf as one of the main antagonists]]. The game was canceled most likely due to the pending release of the Nintendo64, which many developers desired the most. Shortly after the game's termination, ''StarFox64'' began development, and rebooted the storyline from scratch.
** English translation was never completed, but nowadays [[FanTranslation fans have come up with ways to translate it]].

** English translation was never completed, though, but nowadays [[FanTranslation fans have come up with ways to translate it]].

* Here's an interesting example: the sequel to the original ''[[StarFox1 Star Fox]]'', ''StarFox2'', was never released, even though development was already completed. The plot would have continued the story from the previous game, and [[spoiler:would have introduced Star Wolf as one of the main antagonists]]. The game was canceled most likely due to the pending release of the Nintendo64, which many developers desired the most. Shortly after the game's termination, StarFox64 began development, and rebooted the storyline from scratch.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* Web cartoon ''Bonus Stage'' never had an Episode 4 - Ep 4 being a number of previews for the artist's other works that was eventually removed. But one day, a "Lost Episode" was hidden behind a fake Internet Explorer 404 page. But the episode was clearly new as could be: references to later episodes and the series' oft-obnoxious fan community were animated half in full, early-series lazy animation, half with frame-by-frame animation. The episode was later re-re-lost in a site redesign.
** Which might have been because of Phil erasing the series from history in the 87th episode.
* The ''HomestarRunner'' Strong Bad Email series played with this. Sbemail 22 was a missing episode for five months, but not because it had been suppressed or anything; the creators, in the process of creating the emails, had inadvertently skipped over that number. Between emails 40 and 41, they went back and created "sbemail 22" and jokingly promoted it as a missing episode.
** Two cartoons, "Marshmallow's Last Stand" and "A Jumping Jack Contest" are absent from the site, but were both released on the "Everything Else, Vol. 2" DVD.
* Several ''HappyTreeFriends'' episodes have not been uploaded to Mondo Media's YouTube channel. Among them are a "Smoochie" episode with Cuddles, an entire episode of the TV series, one brief Christmas sketch and two shorts starring Cro-Marmot (one of which is a pastiche of 1930s black and white cartoons, the other being an "interview" with him).
[[/folder]]

[[folder:WebOriginal]]
* Several early ''{{lonelygirl15}}'' videos have been removed from the official listing (in some cases, probably due to copyright infringement); namely, "First Blog / Dorkiness Prevails", "School Work in Summer... BLECHH!!!", "Grillz feat. Danielbeast, [=LG15=], P. Monkey and O'n.", "Proving Science Wrong", "My Lazy Eye (and P. Monkey gets Funky!)", "The Tolstoy Principle (and Dad "talks" to Daniel)" and "Daniel, Be Careful". The videos are referenced on numerous occasions in later episodes and still viewable on [=YouTube=].
** The later series 1 episode "Uncle Dan (D-Bone Remix)" is missing from both [=lg15.com=] and [=YouTube=], but is viewable on Revver.
* The earliest portions of the ''LeagueOfIntergalacticCosmicChampions'' were erased from the web (although various posters had offline copies of most of it), the copies were later put up on a GeoCities site.
** Thanks to Yahoo shuttering GeoCities in 2009, it is now gone again from the web.
* Most of the first season of ''LoadingReadyRun'' is unavailable; in the early days, videos would be phased out to make room for newer ones (this was before the existence of [=YouTube=]). Most of the episodes have not been reposted, due to some of them having copyrighted music, the crew being busy with other things, and that most of them [[OldShame were just plain bad]].
* ''CUT!'', a SlenderMan blog that was distinguished by its heavy use of GallowsHumor, has been wiped clean of entries.
* [[LimyaaelsFantasyRants Limyaael's]] first Faean novels, the Orlath trilogy, were taken down from Fiction Press due to someone plagiarizing them (Or something). Which is a real shame, because what little is known about the plot of those novels, both through Limyaael's comments and the other novels taking place in the same universe, seem to indicate that the trilogy was an absolutely '''brilliant''' DeconstructiveParody of cliched fantasy.
* Some {{Creepypasta}}s are based on this kind of thing. Some examples include "[[TheSimpsons Dead Bart]]", "[[MickeyMouse Suicide Mouse]]", "[[SpongebobSquarepants Red Mist/Squidward's Suicide]]", and "CandleCove" (which is technically a lost SERIES rather than a lost episode).
* ''DrawYourOwnStory'' episode 1-9 and a good chunk of episode 10, due in part to moderators deleting old threads on the forum where they were hosted, and in part due to the site being hacked and a lot of uploaded files (i.e. images that made up episode 10) ending up lost forever. What little we know of them is pieced together from memories as well as old episodes still on the contributors' hard drives.
* Several writers of the ''original'' DarwinsSoldiers RP on Furtopia played out scenes via private messaging. Those scenes were never released.
* Game music podcast NitroGameInjection has two missing episodes: #6, which happened but wasn't recorded, and #54, which [=KyleJCrb=] isn't sure [[UnInstallment ever actually happened...]]
* An early website for ''BackToTheFuture: The Ride'' featured a tour of Doc Brown's institute. One page contained some clever blueprints of Doc's post-trilogy inventions, including a personal time travel suit, a hover-bike, and an improved Mr. Fusion. Sadly, the Internet Archive only saved [[http://wayback.archive.org/web/*/http://www.universalstudios.com/unicity/btf/archive.html two captures]] of the blueprints section, and neither one successfully captured all of the blueprints.
* TheNostalgiaChick's first livestream, which was unrecorded.
* The website [[http://www.romhackers.org/modules/news/ PO.B.R.E.]] is dedicated to archiving translation and romhacks in brazillian portuguese. Unfortunately, the are a few [[http://www.romhackers.org/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=64 missing translations]].
* Pornographic pay websites often have some videos that simply vanish after a while. Reasons vary, from the video being unpopular to unforeseen legal troubles to the girl turning out to be underage, but one rather heartwarming example is the "Sandra" episode from the famous ''Bangbus'' site. The reason Sandra's video dissappeared from the site? [[RomanceOnTheSet She and the webmaster got married!]]
* The first episode of ''IncognitoCinemaWarriorsXP'' (''Bride of the Gorilla'') is no longer available for order or download: a combination of [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness format changes in subsequent episodes]], dissatisfaction with the quality of the episode and a lack of desire to redo it in the current format.
* ''BrowsHeldHigh'' episode on ''TheGirlfriendExperience'' was made before Oancitizen joined TGWTG, and it was reposted on the site when he was too busy to make new episodes. Problem was, that on the initial run, the show was known by few people, and most of them friends, so no one pointed out the sexist undertones in many jokes. On the site, several fans got angry, which lead to Oancitizen removing the video from his account, and recording a commentary apologizing for it. And the less we say about ''Shit TGWTG Fans Say'', the better...
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* The original form of [[http://coachrandom.zzl.org/Chronological/comic-043.xml Strip #43]] has only been mentioned in the author's (Scott Ruhl) comments. Even the ''webmaster'' of the site has never seen it - although considering the pun involved with the final strip, one can imagine why Scott Ruhl withheld it from publication.
* A lot of the original ''{{Magiversity}}'' strips were lost when DrunkDuck crashed in 2005, as the creator didn't have backups.
* [[http://images.cryhavok.org/d/1969-1/Penny+Arcade+Strawberry+Shortcake.jpg This]] ''PennyArcade'' comic was taken down after a cease-and-desist from American Greetings.
* Most of David Willis's "proto-Webcomic/{{Shortpacked}}" strips have been completely removed from his sites. A few were later on brought back when some filler was needed, but the majority are gone.
* The website for PlatypusComix is missing several stories from ''Webcomic/{{Mulberry}}'', ''Webcomic/{{Keiki}}'', ''Webcomic/ScrambledEggs'', and the Variety Section. Most of them have apparently become {{Old Shame}}s for creator Peter Paltridge. Examples that should stick out to people who don't read the [[http://www.platypuscomix.net/onlyme/thelist.html list]] he wrote of all the comics he posted on the website include the first ''Mulberry'' comic, the second ''Keiki'' story[[hottip:*:Actually, the part where the archive skips from 1 to 3 skips over more than one story]], and half of "Raiders of the Lost Arc" (one of the comics found in the Variety Section). Sometimes, he publishes books containing comics he deleted from the website.
* The Internet era has created a new type of Missing Episode. Increasingly, promotional web-only tie-in stories or games are used on official sites to promote a product, event, or work. Once the promotion has run its course, the official sites may disappear, along with all that tie-in material. And the relative complexity of a web-hosted multimedia work makes it difficult to just KeepCirculatingTheTapes. To take just one illustrative example, comics writer Gail Simone wrote a {{Superman}} interactive webcomic story for an official Pepsi ''SupermanReturns'' promotion. Since the Pepsi promotion ended long ago, and its site is now defunct, if you didn't read it at the time, odds are you never will.