VGCollect Forum
General and Gaming => Classic Video Games => Topic started by: htimreimer on April 07, 2012, 08:20:52 am
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for me i played these
Bow and Arrow - In Search of the Greatest Archer
Slam!
some i cant remember the name of
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None. The Internet didn't exist and the Commodore 64 is the only computer I had ;)
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I played a shareware version of Wolfenstien 3D. And Doom, I think.
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Commander Keen, Wolfenstien 3D, and the original Duke Nukem, to name just a few. Hell, most of the computer games I played during the late 80s early 90s were mostly shareware.
I remember my local computer store at the time had all their 5 1/4 floppy shareware games in little ziplock baggies hangin off of hooks. Kind off a strange setup but it was super cheap. $10 bought a lot of shareware
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I Remember I used to buy them at the $1 store. The ones I remember are Wolfenstien 3D, Duke Nukem, and The Incredible Machine.
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Commander Keen, Doom, Secret Agent, Jazz Jackrabbit, One Must Fall 2097
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Jazz Jackrabbit comes to mind.
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Wolfenstein 3D, Jetpack, Stunts (some racing game with customizable tracks)
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I guess I don't know much about shareware. You could just buy this stuff at the store? I always thought of it as an Internet thing but I got a computer really late as I grew up on consoles. Got my first PC when I was in college, just a used 486. That was back in 1995 I think.
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Yeah, some stores would sell you a floppy with a shareware game or two on it for a couple of bucks - as a service. Kinda like paying for a Linux magazine so you don't have to go and download the distro ISOs yourself.
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None. The Internet didn't exist and the Commodore 64 is the only computer I had ;)
Me too, but I didn't even have a C64. My first modern computer (at the time) was a Windows 95 machine that I got in 97 or 98, when I was in college.
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I had TONS of shareware. My dad loved computer shows and at $2-$3 he'd always cave for games I wanted. I vividly remember Jill of the Jungle, Duke Nukem, Commander Keen, a bunch of Apogee games (like Word Rescue) and Heros: The Sanguine Seven, among many, many others. Didn't really know games could be NOT shareware until we got a CD-Rom drive in our second PC.
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Im still confused on the term. Sounds like you are saying you basically bought a demo of the game and when you were done, you could add to it?
If thats the case, I played none.
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Im still confused on the term. Sounds like you are saying you basically bought a demo of the game and when you were done, you could add to it?
If thats the case, I played none.
what most shareware games do is give you the first few levels in the case of bow and arrow the first 12 levels and if you want the rest of the game you have to call a phone number and pay and then they will mail you floppy disk or cd that has the full version
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So it does sound like how I described. What a scam! Buy the first half of the game and then have to buy the second half after waiting for you to have it mailed to you.
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I totally forgot about Commander Keen!
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So it does sound like how I described. What a scam! Buy the first half of the game and then have to buy the second half after waiting for you to have it mailed to you.
It really wasn't too bad. The games were seriously a dollar or two, just the cost of the media it was delivered on. If the game was awful, you had the floppy, for sometimes less than new floppies cost at that time. Honestly isn't really much different from downloadable demos now, except that there was no way to connect and download the demos back then. They had to give you something physical to provide exposure to the project. Most shareware was made by someone who just was transmitting it themselves.
Think of it as if it's a new band getting started (pre-Internet). They sell their demo CD at their shows for $5, and it only has 5 songs on it. You are only getting half a CD, but you are getting something. A lot of times, these little games stood on their own, but the full version of the game provided more characters or levels. It wasn't really like demos we see online today, where it's timed or whatever.
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Heh I can see where you are coming from. But to me its like buying a car without the wheels and once you decide to drive the car, you have to call the shop and have the wheels delivered. :p
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Heh I can see where you are coming from. But to me its like buying a car without the wheels and once you decide to drive the car, you have to call the shop and have the wheels delivered. :p
I think a more accurate car analogy would be you bought the car but can only drive it a certain distance from your home. If you liked driving it and wanted to go farther, you'd call the shop and they'd send you a bigger fuel tank.
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So it does sound like how I described. What a scam! Buy the first half of the game and then have to buy the second half after waiting for you to have it mailed to you.
Nowadays you by the game and then have to pay to unlock content that is already on the disc.
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Scorched Earth <-- really fun.
Doom
Jazz Jackrabbit
Rise of the Triad
Halloween Harry
Duke Nukem
Duke Nukem 3D
Heretic
I'm sure they're plenty more, but I can't really think of them off the top of my head.
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Scorched Earth <-- really fun.
Doom
Jazz Jackrabbit
Rise of the Triad
Halloween Harry
Duke Nukem
Duke Nukem 3D
Heretic
I'm sure they're plenty more, but I can't really think of them off the top of my head.
I'd completely forgotten about Rise of the Triad. That one came in one of those 10 CD-ROM games for your computer packs when we got our first PC with a CD-ROM drive. Also in that same set were Jewels of the Oracle, Sam and Max: Hit The Road, and Day Of The Tentacle. Pretty amazing set for a freebie, now that I think about it...