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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Clyde's Revenge
DOS1995freeware Moonlite Software
Death by Backgammon
DOS1990
Lost Adventures of Kroz
DOS1990freeware Apogee Software
Druglord
DOS1991
EGA Trek
DOS1988remake
Redhook's Revenge
DOS1993 ImagiSoft
Kingdom of Kroz 2
DOS1990 Apogee Software
The Adventures of Maddog Williams in the Dungeons of Duridian
DOS1992freeware Game Crafters
Amazing Maze
DOS1983
Don’t be fooled by the name—Amazing Maze is more of a slightly-better-than-average maze. But hey, in 1983, navigating a screen full of walls and hoping you guessed right was enough to set hearts racing. It’s just...
Alice in Wonderland
DOS1989
Step into the rabbit hole - no, really, step carefully, or you’ll glitch right through the floor. Alice in Wonderland (1989, DOS) is a surreal, side-scrolling adventure that loosely follows the Lewis Carroll classic, if Lewi...
Gateworld
DOS1993 HomeBrew 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...
Bomb Run
DOS1991 PC Solutions
Bomb Run (1991, DOS) sounds like an action-packed thriller—and then you play it and realize you’re just trying to drop bombs in the right spots while flying what feels like a pixelated paper airplane. The game has that...
Caverns of Chaos
DOS1992
Megapede
DOS1992
Monuments of Mars
DOSWindows XP/98/95Mac OS1991freeware Scenerio Software
Batalia
DOS1986 The Right Brothers
Batalia (1986) is what happens when war games and spreadsheet programs fall in love. This early DOS strategy title throws you into tactical battles with graphics that would struggle to impress a calculator. But don’t be fool...
Round 42
DOS1986