Slashdot Mirror
The Return Of Shareware Games
An anonymous reader writes "CNN has a new column up looking at the re-emerging trend of shareware as a means to distribute games. With development prices soaring and space on retail shelves getting scarce, smaller companies like PopCap Games and GarageGames are returning to gaming's roots - and making money in the process."
Ambrosia Software has been doing this on the Mac for ages. Their games are always fun, reasonably priced shareware.
I've bought more than a handful of their titles, and have had more fun with them than most commercial releases provide.
--
the strongest word is still the word "free"
The poor site didn't stand a chance. Here's Google's cached version.
I don't know about you guys but I miss the days of being able to try a demo before buying a game
You can still do that. Many games usually have a downloadable playable demo.
Oh and another great thing about shareware is it can be freely ported and released on different platforms without it being considered piracy
Eh? Perhaps you are confusing shareware with, say, open source.
No sig
UT2003 had a demo before release - but only a couple of weeks before, which wasn't enough for Epic to use it for feedback like they said they wanted to. It was Unreal 2 which had the demo after release.
... the king of the weird and fun shareware for Mac (and some Windows):
Freeverse Software
Freeverse is one of my all-time favorite shareware companies. Games that work well, play well, can be as addicting as all heck, and often have an odd sense of humor.
Between Ambrosia and Freeverse, most Mac users don't need any other games. Okay, maybe some others, but those are usually enough for many people.
-Jellisky
I found most of the "Incredible Machine" series available for download at The Underdogs (a great site for info/downloads of old games).
I haven't tried to install any of them yet, but I grabbed v3.0 and the original. Getting old DOS games to run under XP can be tricky, but there is always DOSEMU, which usually works. There are some tips on the site if you have trouble.
- "When you want something with all your heart, the entire universe conspires to give it to you" -Paulo Coelho
We've been making money selling shareware products (really, just electronically distributed/sold products these days) for the past 15 years, and making money at it. Yes, with a real office, real employees, and real paychecks.
The best new shareware games I've played recently are Space Tripper and Mutant Storm from PomPom, a two-man UK company.
Alright, I admit it, I used to work with the guys who wrote them, but they're still the most awesome Defender / Robotron-style (respectively) updates I've ever played.
Oh... they have windows, mac and *linux* versions, so I guess the slashdot crowd should appreciate that.
The ZX Spectrum Book 1982-199x
Fortunately, Ambrosia Software is porting Escape Velocity Nova to Windows so a wider audience can enjoy it as well. I look forward to being able to play it on my computer at home instead of having to find someone with a Mac.
The GPL does not forbid selling the software. Its main restriction is that source code must be available to everyone who gets the executable program.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
I don't feel like doing shareware is an act of desperation either. The fact the the conversion rate is a low percentage doesn't matter if enough people buy the game for you to make a living. For instance if my game sold 50,000 copies that would be a phenominal success where it would be considered quite poor for a retail title. Getting 2.5 million to play my demo is the trick.
Finally. You say "instead of selling their work as regular products". Shareware games are regular products. They just aren't retail products. That was the whole point of the CNN article. Shareware is being accepted as a legitimate way to operate. Importantly I do not aspire to be a retail developer.
The bottom line is: we are still in business. if we do things right we make money. We just do it differently.
-- That which does not kill us has made its last mistake.
Jeez, Uplink isn't by Ambrosia, that's just the Mac version's publisher. It's by Introversion!
I remember the phrase "crippleware".
Haven't seen it for a while though, guess it sounded to negative.
"GNU's not Unix....it's Linux" / Kami "kokamomi" Petersen
It seems that the the low cost and ease of distribution and charging that the internet gives us is once more making it viable for the small one-man firms to trade.
A prime example of this is Llamasoft, Jeff Minters old company. Back in the 80's and early nineties he produced what many people would say are some of the finest examples of really addictively playable games. Revenge of the Mutant Camels, and Llamatron being some of my favourites.
For many years since the Yak has put most of these old versions on his website for people to download and enjoy, claiming it wasnt worth the expense of trying to sell anymore, but with little or no new material available.
Now it seems he has relaunched Llamasoft and is releasing new improved games as shareware, with full versions available for about 5UKP, which is serious value for money for work of this high a calibre.