What was your favorite shareware game?

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• AbnormalHumanBeing@lemmy.abnormalbeings.space ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  It’s a simple choice, really, considering how many hours I managed to invest as a kid:

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• BoxOfFeet@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Jazz Jackrabbit, Jetpack, and Combat Tanks.

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• ksigley@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Jesus, that’s a deep cut.

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• bonegakrejg@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Quake was awesome, especially since you could play the online multiplayer from the free version.

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• renrenPDX@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  We had to be memory experts back then. QEMM FTW!

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• ICastFist@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  To me, it was Raptor Call of Shadows, a very nice shmup where you could buy new weapons between missions

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• ivanafterall@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Probably Rise of the Triad.

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  Pretty sure I even bought the full game and never ended up getting very far. I also remember spending a little chunk of time on Hugo 3: Jungle of Doom, but could never figure it out enough to progress very far.

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  • mysticpickle@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Loved the Hugo games. The jungle one was probably my favorite up to the point where I needed to find out some trivia question about the name of some person’s dog before the time of Internet.

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    • ivanafterall@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I spent more time with Police Quest, which was similar. I remember trying the Hugo Jungle Shareware multiple times and getting frustrated going back-and-forth, stuck.

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• Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  ITT: everyone had the same “500 games on two CDs!” Shareware compilation CDs that I had growing up.

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  • renrenPDX@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Or we are old enough to remember them the first time around vs reruns.

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  • mysticpickle@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I’ll show you mine if you show me yours:

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• s38b35M5@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  So many great titles in the comments. I’ll add a few of mine:

  Jill of the Jungle Zaxxon Heretic (Doom clone) Stellar 7 (can’t recall if shareware or if I just shared it)

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  • Awesomo85@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    All great selections!

    I was a fan of all of the Apogee platformers:

    Commander Keen Cosmos Cosmic Adventure Monster Bash

    Also Lucasfilm games: Loom Maniac Mansion

    What a great time for PC gaming!

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  • rob_t_firefly@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Heretic was more than a Doom clone, it was developed using a modified Doom engine with the participation of Doom developers. It was a clever game in its own right, adding a lot of fresh elements to the then-budding FPS genre.

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  • Zombiepirate@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I don’t know if it was their SDK or what, but Epic’s sound design in this era was so good. Jill of the Jungle still stands out to me for that.

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  • s38b35M5@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

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• bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Commander Keen!

  Jumping around with the pogo stick in Keen 6 was so much fun. I recently found the full game. Was surprised how hard that factory level was. But the music was still how I remembered it.

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• SwordInStone@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  brave dwarves 1

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  • Zombiepirate@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    The graphic design looks so much like Spelunky. Cool!

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• Akasazh@feddit.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Realmz

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• BlueSquid0741@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I think this question just fried my brain. I don’t even know where to start.

  Most played shareware of all time though was probably Transport Tycoon.

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  • Horrabin@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Was It shareware? Didn’t know it!

    I’m still enjoying It with OpenTTD www.openttd.org

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    • BlueSquid0741@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      The original Transport Tycoon was distributed as shareware, would have been 95 or 96 when I was playing it off a shareware disc.

      Not sure if TTD got a shareware release too, but i got that one as a retail boxed version.

      But for 94 or 95 if you didn’t have a shareware version then your game was pretty much doomed.

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• JustARegularNerd@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Colobot - don’t think it was “shareware” but it absolutely came as a demo on ceebot.com (still hosted there today I believe). Literally THE game that got me into computer programming and whatnot.

  Otherwise for actual shareware, I loved Jazz Jackrabbit 2, Crazy Gravity and some game unfortunately titled “Worm” (snake clone) with MIDI and sound effects still stuck in my head to this day

  I really wanted to play a couple shareware games called Jetpack Joyride, and Hot Chix n Gear Stix as a kid, but neither of them would play on my Windows XP netbook as they had a hard check for if you were on either Windows 95 or 98, even with compatibility mode.

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  • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Jazz Jackrabbit always crashed out on my 486 D: I wanted to play it so badly.

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    • JustARegularNerd@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Oh, would’ve been so frustrating! I remember having a Pentium 4 laptop with an NVIDIA GPU and that thing unsurprisingly cooked itself, so I then tried 1NSANE (Codemasters’ soft body physics car game) on my crappy little netbook and it just couldn’t handle it.

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• weirdo_from_space@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I’ve been playing some Jazz Jackrabbit and Duke Nukem 1, they are both great. I think I prefer the design of DOS games to the design of console games.

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• Lizard@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Comanche: Maximum Overkill, the very first game to use VOXELS, the FUTURE of PC GAMING!

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• Omega_Jimes@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I can’t tell you how many times I played the shareware version of Gazillionaire.

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  • zarathustrad@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Great deal.

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• ninjakttty@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  A couple of people have mentioned Raptor: Call of the shadows, which was an absolute favorite of mine. Skyforce Reloaded is pretty close in terms of gameplay. I wish there were more games out there like Raptor

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  • mysticpickle@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    You try Tyrian? It was like raptor but dialed up to 11 with different planes and an actual storyline :o

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    • Klear@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      There’s a pretty good Android port now! Look up OpenTyrian.

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• h0rnman@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I was a huge fan of Solar Winds: The Escape. Cool plot, aliens, dogfights, ship systems management, evil shadow governments, rebels… what’s not to love? It was my introduction to the genre and will always hold a special place

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  • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Oh my gawd. I was reading the comment above yours when Solar Winds popped into my head. Then I scroll down to see this. Bless you.

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  • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I’m so stoked to see this here. It was my first thought when I saw the thread.

    It was a stand out experience from my childhood.

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    • h0rnman@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      For real though, I’d love to see a modern take on this - something in between NMS, Mechwarrior, and FTL. I’ve not found anything out there with the correct combination of exploration, ship customization and management, and sinister plot. Several games get closer, but they’re all missing something

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  • mysticpickle@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Solar winds blew my mind once I actually figured out all the controls. The universe they built was super cool and I really dug the combat. Can’t count the number of times I got owned by this guy trying to blow him up from the get go.

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• Thcdenton@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  We got mario kart at home

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  • ddash@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I loved Whacky Wheels so much but recently put it on my Steamdeck and eh, it did not age well. Very choppy gameplay. But it still has a place in my heart.

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  • TheEighthDoctor@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    What is the name of this game, I played it so much as a kid but I always forget the name

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• zabadoh@ani.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  “Stars!” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stars!

  A 4X game for Win95 that was set up for multi-player by email and ftp turbo.

  Fantastically ergonomic use of early GUI features.

  You could design your own alien race and ships.

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• SplashJackson@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  One Must Fall 2097

  You just heard the lightning strike

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  • banazir@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    So good. I wish OpenOMF matures soon.

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  • Poop@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    The theme song is the shit

    youtu.be/1FA6UdL7-ls

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    • TGTX@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Kenny Chou! He also composed Zone 66 which is another awesome DOS game soundtrack.

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    • Akasazh@feddit.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      What a banger

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    • BobsAccountant@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Man. I love that game. Still fire it up every so often. That sequel was also an early example of just how terrible a sequel can be. So disappointing.

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• mysticpickle@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

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  • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    My first internet game was a Scorched Earth-inspired game where you’re in space, on planets, with gravity and stuff. I wish I remembered the name of it, it was amazing.

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  • Adderbox76@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Spending every lunch hour on the library computer with three friends in 1994 playing this is probably why I didn’t have a girlfriend.

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  • Couldbealeotard@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Great game.

    Did this exist before or after worms?

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    • s38b35M5@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Long before

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  • Thcdenton@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    MY DUDE

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    • mysticpickle@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Save 5 rounds of cash for a death’s head nuke, accidentally blow yourself up when the wind pushes it back in your direction 🤡

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• __Lost__@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I played a lot of 2 games that nobody I’ve spoken to has ever heard of: Mordor the depths of dejenol Exile escape from the pit Both were great, I think exile had been remade by the programmer with a different title too

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  • KeenSnappersDontCome@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    There was a Mordor 2 shareware as well. The game never got a full release but laid the foundation for Demise: Rise of the Kutan (2000). The rights to the game were sold to Decklin and they released expansions Ascension (2016) and Revenge of the Tavern Keeper (2024). Demos for Demise and the expansions are available at www.decklinsdemise.com

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    • __Lost__@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Wow, that’s awesome, thanks!

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• Madblood@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Shadow Warrior Who want-a some Wang?!

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  • s38b35M5@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    “I am da Shaddo wahdiyah. Lessuh fight!”

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  • ramenshaman@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Memory unlocked

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• ouRKaoS@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  There was some bootleg Tetris game I played the hell out of, because it ran on my shitty hand-me-down 286 with dual 5 1/4" floppy drives & no hard disk.

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• Bilbob_Tubbins@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Don’t remember the name of it but it was a Geometry Wars style shooter where the playing field would tilt as you moved. Played a ton of that game.

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• hark@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Monster Bash! It was one of the better-playing platformers on the PC back in the day and I loved the halloween aesthetic.

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• killeronthecorner@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold

  My first FPS and an excellent one. Sooo many hidden rooms and insane enemies.

  Apogee was on fire during that whole era

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  • happysplinter@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I’ve been trying to remember the name of this game for ages. Thank you!!!

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    • killeronthecorner@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Such a gem… Oh go on then, I will revive my dosbox and play it all evening. You’ve twisted my arm :-P

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• iStone@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  [deleted]

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  • AbidingOhmsLaw@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Was that a Dominos pizza sponsored game? I seem to remember “Avoid the noid” was a slogan of theirs.

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    • ouRKaoS@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Yup! There was also “Yo! Noid” on NES

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