I’m pretty sure Doom will be the most popular (and my pick too), but I’ll throw a shout-out to Epic Pinball; that Android table was the best one in the game anyway.
What was your favorite shareware game?
Submitted 2 months ago by Zombiepirate@lemmy.world to retrogaming@lemmy.world
Comments
mysticpickle@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
Thcdenton@lemmy.world 2 months ago
MY DUDE
mysticpickle@lemmy.ca 2 months 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 🤡
Adderbox76@lemmy.ca 2 months 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.
Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months 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.
SplashJackson@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
One Must Fall 2097
You just heard the lightning strike
Poop@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
The theme song is the shit
TGTX@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
Kenny Chou! He also composed Zone 66 which is another awesome DOS game soundtrack.
Akasazh@feddit.nl 2 months ago
What a banger
BobsAccountant@lemmy.world 2 months 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.
banazir@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
Thcdenton@lemmy.world 2 months ago
ddash@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months 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.
TheEighthDoctor@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
What is the name of this game, I played it so much as a kid but I always forget the name
Zombiepirate@lemmy.world 2 months ago
dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I got my ass handed to me by Castle of the Winds when I was a kid. And that doofy-ass default barbarian sprite…
We always called that one Castle Of The Windows, since the entire game engine is constructed of 32x32 pixel Windows icons.
CrayonRosary@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Native Windows UI controls for a game. Classic.
ddash@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
it’s like that Indiana Jones Adventure game.
hobbsc@lemmy.sdf.org 2 months ago
came here to post this. my buddy had it and i still play it every couple of years.
Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
Castle of the Winds 1 and 2 were incredible!
RainyTank@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
Wow what a throwback. I feel like i was always getting cursed and poisoned. Now i feel the need to find this game and finish it.
pauldrye@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Commander Keen is probably the one that I liked the most that is also well known.
My personal favorite was Bass Class, which is weird because I’ve zero interest in real-life fishing, then or now.
Thassodar@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Sky Roads, Test Drive 2, Jill of the Jungle, Halloween Harry, Jetpack, so many great games that I played through hell out of their shareware versions.
Zombiepirate@lemmy.world 2 months ago
nailbar@sopuli.xyz 2 months ago
Oh boy I loved Jetpack and Skyroads!
almost1337@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Raptor: Call of the Shadows
iStone@feddit.org 2 months ago
Avoid the Noid, Raptor, Commander Keen, Epic Pinball, Nibbles
AbidingOhmsLaw@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
Was that a Dominos pizza sponsored game? I seem to remember “Avoid the noid” was a slogan of theirs.
ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 2 months ago
Yup! There was also “Yo! Noid” on NES
iStone@feddit.org 2 months ago
Indeed it was. Despite being mediocre, I played that game extensively. This was before Domino’s Pizza existed in our region - they wouldn’t expand here until a decade later.
bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 2 months 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.
ninjakttty@lemmy.world 2 months 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
mysticpickle@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
You try Tyrian? It was like raptor but dialed up to 11 with different planes and an actual storyline :o
Klear@lemmy.world 2 months ago
There’s a pretty good Android port now! Look up OpenTyrian.
lordnikon@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Tyrian
ivanafterall@lemmy.world 2 months ago
mysticpickle@lemmy.ca 2 months 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.
ivanafterall@lemmy.world 2 months 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.
Madblood@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Shadow Warrior Who want-a some Wang?!
s38b35M5@lemmy.world 2 months ago
“I am da Shaddo wahdiyah. Lessuh fight!”
ramenshaman@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Memory unlocked
Nemo@slrpnk.net 2 months ago
ZZT, the game that launched Epic. Say, there’s gotta be a ZZT community somewhere on lemmy, right?
__Lost__@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
I didn’t realize anybody else had ever played that game. I downloaded that from AOL back when I was signing up for a free month trial every month from those CDs in the mail.
Nemo@slrpnk.net 2 months ago
There’s a whole community around self-made games using the editor that came with it, including a website full of games and a forum. A few years back one of us published a book about the community (and how we all turned out trans).
rob_t_firefly@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I was so addicted to ZZT back then! The player-made worlds were such a delight, and my slow-ass computer which choked on so many then-current games ran them without trouble.
Now I want to try it out again.
Nemo@slrpnk.net 2 months ago
People are still making games using it! When I get a bit more free time I want to polish up and republish the ones I made.
Gerudo@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Might be pushing the limits of shareware, but the demo of Quake 1 on cd for a buck. A simple console command unlocked the full version.
Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
ITT: everyone had the same “500 games on two CDs!” Shareware compilation CDs that I had growing up.
renrenPDX@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Or we are old enough to remember them the first time around vs reruns.
mysticpickle@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
zabadoh@ani.social 2 months 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.
eRac@lemmings.world 2 months ago
Want a fun piece of trivia? Epic Pinball launched Digital Extremes, the developer behind Warframe.
argentcorvid@midwest.social 2 months ago
And is named Epic because of Epic (Mega)Games
ICastFist@programming.dev 2 months ago
To me, it was Raptor Call of Shadows, a very nice shmup where you could buy new weapons between missions
h0rnman@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months 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
mysticpickle@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months 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.
h0rnman@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months 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
Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months 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.
Glytch@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I spent a lot of time playing Raptor: Call of the Shadows, a vertically-scrolling shooter with an upgrade system.
There was also Rise of the Triad, a pretty decent Doom-clone
mysticpickle@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
I actually bought the boxed version of the game on 4 separate 3.5" floppies :o
Was in a clearance bin at Toys R Us for like 5 bucks. I remember being so stoked to be able to buy all the different weapons they teased at the end of the shareware episode!
Kaput@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Wolfenstein 3d, and commander Keen
KeenSnappersDontCome@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Mordor 1 The Depths of Dejenol
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still available from Decklins DemiseIts the game that got me into dungeon crawlers particularly Demise: Rise of the Ku’Tan, and the epxansions Ascension and Revenge of the Tavern Keeper
JustARegularNerd@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months 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.
Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
Jazz Jackrabbit always crashed out on my 486 D: I wanted to play it so badly.
JustARegularNerd@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months 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.
weirdo_from_space@sh.itjust.works 2 months 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.
Omega_Jimes@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
I can’t tell you how many times I played the shareware version of Gazillionaire.
killeronthecorner@lemmy.world 2 months ago
My first FPS and an excellent one. Sooo many hidden rooms and insane enemies.
Apogee was on fire during that whole era
ProfessorProteus@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I spent so many hours as a kid on my dad’s Thinkpad playing Gravity Well. It came on one of those “50 Great Games” CDs or something like that. The goal is to claim all the planets in the system, which you do by simply landing on them, then building defenses against your opponents. It’s so much fun because your ship has pretty realistic inertia and the planets have actual gravity wells. The AI opponents can be quite difficult and aggressive. Challenging and fun, with great sound effects for the time!
This screenshot is from an Internet Archive page for the game, but I’m pretty sure it’s only the shareware version. I gotta check again when I get off work!
loam@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
I played a lot of TetriNET and Subspace Continuum with my old online community. Great times.
DmMacniel@feddit.org 2 months ago
Hail to the King Baby (Duke Nukem 3d)
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abbadon420@lemm.ee 2 months ago
I’m getting flashbacks