The most popular shareware games
Shareware is a type of software distribution model that allows users to try a program before purchasing it. It's a marketing strategy and distribution method that was particularly popular in the early days of personal computing, primarily during the 1980s and 1990s.
Shareware games were released for free with limited functionality (for example: no saving, missing levels, time limit), often via a BBS (Bulletin Board System), a floppy disc or a CD included in a printed magazine or by direct download (when internet was in its infancy). If the user liked the shareware product, they could pay to obtain an upgrade and unlock the full game. When digital distribution started to become popular, shareware games slowly faded into oblivion.
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Moraff's World
DOS1991 Moraffware
Battlestar
Windows 3.x1996freeware
No, not that Battlestar. Battlestar (1996) is more obscure than a reboot that never happened. Set in deep space with a top-down view and UI only a Windows 3.x user could love, it mixes tactical combat and sci-fi storytelling like ...
Exile III: Ruined World
Windows XP/98/95Mac OSWindows 3.x1997freeware Spiderweb Software
Monuments of Mars
DOSWindows XP/98/95Mac OS1991freeware Scenerio Software
Shooting Gallery
DOS1990 Arcanum Computing
EGA-Roids
DOS1986freewareremake Designer Software
Kingdom of Kroz 2
DOS1990 Apogee Software
Clyde's Adventure
DOS1992freeware Moonlite Software
Bass Tour
DOS1992
Think of Bass Tour (1992) as the road trip version of virtual fishing. More simulation than arcade, it lets you travel, pick locations, study conditions, and obsess over bait types like you're preparing for a National Geographic s...
Monster Bash
DOS1993protected Apogee Software
Aldo's Assault
DOS1991
Think of Aldo's Assault as what happens when Mario forgets his plumber license and joins a bootleg army. This 1991 DOS gem throws you into a side-scrolling frenzy of ladders, barrels, and the kind of platforming logic that predate...
Caverns of Chaos
DOS1992
Paganitzu
DOS1991protected Apogee Software
Paganitzu is a classic puzzle-adventure game released in 1991 by Apogee Software. Set in an ancient pyramid, the game follows the exploits of its protagonist, Alabama Smith, who must navigate through a series of increasingly compl...
Hovertank One
DOS1991 id software
Joust VGA
DOS1990remake
Monopoly
DOS1985
The Adventures of Maddog Williams in the Dungeons of Duridian
DOS1992freeware Game Crafters
Exile II: Crystal Souls
Windows XP/98/95Mac OSWindows 3.x1996freeware Spiderweb Software
Snood
DOSWindows XP/98/95Mac OS1996freeware
Super Battleship
DOS1988
Super Bubble Mania
DOS1997
Castle Elsinore
DOS1992 Temple Software
If Hamlet had a sequel directed by a DOS programmer, Castle Elsinore would be it. This interactive fiction game drops you right into Shakespearean drama with murder, betrayal, and the occasional parser error. You’ll solve pu...
Dark Designs 2: Closing the Gate
DOS1990 Softdisk Publishing
Last Half of Darkness
DOS1989 SoftLab Laboratories
Subhunt
DOS1997
Epic Baseball
DOS1995 MicroLeague Multimedia
Othello
DOS1986
Round 42
DOS1986
Dungeons of Kairn
DOS1989
Chain Reaction
DOS1996 Webfoot Technologies