The best 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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Dungeons of Kroz
DOS1989freeware Apogee Software
Flightmare
DOS1984freeware
Skyglobe 3.5
DOS1992
SkyGlobe is an astronomy software that was popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It was a DOS-based planetarium program that allowed users to explore the night sky in real-time or by adjusting dates and times. Some of it...
Borderworld
DOS1996 Midlothian Software
Borderworld (1996, DOS) is a sci-fi RPG with big ideas, a tiny budget, and enough ambition to fuel a space shuttle. You’re thrown into a galaxy of politics, smuggling, and star-hopping adventure, where everyone has a quest a...
Capture the Flag
DOS1993
Dungeons of Kairn
DOS1989
Assault Trooper
DOS1997 Webfoot Technologies
In Assault Trooper, you're the lone soldier with enough ammo to make Rambo blush, dropped behind enemy lines to shoot first and ask “was that a civilian?” later. This 1997 top-down shooter screams “keyboard-mashi...
8088 Othello
DOS1985
There’s something oddly poetic about 8088 Othello, a 1985 take on the classic board game that feels like it was programmed by someone who had a personal vendetta against flashy graphics. The visuals are almost nonexistent, t...
Hugo 2: Whodunit?
DOS1991protecteddemo Gray Design Associates
Hugo 2: Whodunit? is an old school graphic adventure game designed by David P. Gray, developed by Gray Design Associates and released in 1991 for MS-DOS only. Hugo 2: Whodunit? is the second installment of the Hugo game series.
Castle Elsinore
DOS1992 Temple Software
Tubular Worlds
DOS1994
Moraff's Revenge
DOS1988 Moraffware
Blackstar: Agent of Justice
DOS1995
In Blackstar: Agent of Justice (1995), you play a noir-style detective in a trench coat so dramatic it probably has its own union. Set in a dark, crime-ridden city where everyone talks like they’ve swallowed gravel, it&rsquo...
Bolo Ball
DOS1992 Soleau Software
Bolo Ball is a DOS game from the mid-1990s. It features a physics-based gameplay where the objective is to knock opponent balls out of an arena. When you start the game, you find yourself in a 2D arena set against a starry, space-...
CHAMP Pac-em
DOS1996remake ChamProgramming corp.
Clyde's Adventure
DOS1992freeware Moonlite Software
Ken's Labyrinth
DOS1993freeware
King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table
DOS1994 MVP Software
Moraff's World
DOS1991 Moraffware
Squarez Deluxe!
DOS1993freeware Adept Software
Super Battleship
DOS1988
Super Bubble Mania
DOS1997
Super ZZT
DOS1992 Epic MegaGames
Meteor Mission
DOS1995
Space Miner
DOS1983
Return to Kroz
DOS1990freeware Apogee Software
Flying Tigers 2
DOS1994
Skyroads: Xmas Special
DOS1994freeware Bluemoon Interactive
Arctic Adventure
DOS1991 Apogee Software
Arctic Adventure is the sequel nobody asked for to Pharaoh's Tomb, except this time you’re freezing your butt off. As Nevada Smith (not a typo, it’s his real name), you platform-hop through icy ruins in search of... so...
Clyde's Revenge
DOS1995freeware Moonlite Software