Best Shareware Games Of 2003 Explored

Thanks to AVault for their feature discussing the best shareware PC titles for 2003, as the writer points out: "As software stores stock fewer new computer games, shareware titles and Internet releases offer an alternative for those who want to play on their PCs. Most of my favorite recreational offerings from the past year never made it into retail outlets." Picks include Chain Reaction ("Remember the old Dynamix game The Incredible Machine? Even though the company is defunct, its creators have developed a new 3D version"), Ultraball ("combines the fun of a Breakout game with all the action and excitement of a pinball game"), and Dr.Blob's Organism ("...a fast-paced shooter in which you blast gelatinous one-celled organisms as they try to escape from a Petri dish.")

Comments

Do people still call them that?

[MMaestro]

Mod me down if you want; but as far as I'm concerned, shareware died the day games grew too big to fit on less than 10 floppy disks. One of the whole points of shareware was to copy, share, and distribute the games cheaply and easily. I'm not gonna spend the time and effort to burn a CD for an incomplete game that may not be all that fun after the first five minutes. In the eariler days if a shareware game wasn't that great, hell you just erased the contents of the disks and made ANOTHER copy of Doom to share. CDs? You just got your millionth coaster or frizbee.

Re:Do people still call them that?

[PainKilleR-CE]

Even CD-RWs are cheaper than those floppy disks were back when shareware was really big. Beyond that, you don't need to burn a CD until you plan to give it to someone else, and if the game sucks just uninstall it and delete the installer.

Re:Do people still call them that?

[bugbread]

The easier it is to copy something, the more likely it is to be shared. For most people the amount of time and effort involved in burning 1 CD is way less than the amount of time and effort involved into writing a program to 10 separate floppy disks. In fact, you'd have to have an amazingly old CD burner to find writing and swapping out 10 floppies to be faster and easier than writing a single CD. So, yes, people still call it shareware, and with good reason: they share it.

Re:Ya know what?

[baywulf]

I don't understand the reasoning. Shareware implies that you can try before you buy. And if the game is not really good then people wouldn't want to pirate it. If it is good, then your argument breaks down and they shouldn't pirate the game.