Shareware: a business model sorted by release date
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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Last Half of Darkness
DOS19893.9/5 SoftLab Laboratories
Legend of the Red Dragon
DOS19893.5/5 Robinson Technologies
Rockstar!
DOS19894/5 Wizard Games
Commander Keen 1: Marooned on Mars
DOS19904.2/5 id software
Commander Keen 1: Marooned on Mars is a platform video game developed by id Software and published by Apogee Software in 1990 as shareware for MS-DOS. The game follows the adventures of an eight-year-old genius named Billy Blaze, who uses his homemade spaceship to travel to various alien planets to save the Earth from alien invaders known as V...
Commander Keen 2: The Earth Explodes
DOS1990protected4/5 id software
Commander Keen 3: Keen Must Die!
DOS1990protected4.2/5 id software
Dark Designs 1: Grelminar's Staff
DOS19903.8/5 Softdisk Publishing
Dark Designs 2: Closing the Gate
DOS19904/5 Softdisk Publishing
Death by Backgammon
DOS19903.3/5
Hugo's House of Horrors
DOS19903.9/5 Gray Design Associates
Hugo's House of Horrors is an adventure game developed by David P. Gray and released in the early 1990s. The game is a text-based adventure with simple graphics, and it gained popularity for its witty and often tongue-in-cheek approach to the horror genre.The story of the game revolves around the main character, Hugo, who receives a letter from his...
Joust VGA
DOS1990remake4.4/5
Kingdom of Kroz 2
DOS19903.2/5 Apogee Software
LineWars
DOS19904/5 Safari Software
Lost Adventures of Kroz
DOS1990freeware3.3/5 Apogee Software
Mario Bros VGA
DOS1990remake3.9/5
Mario Bros VGA is a fan made remake of the original Mario Bros by Nintendo, the game that popularized the character of Mario, the Italian plumber that first appeared in Donkey Kong. Mario Bros VGA is a fixed-screen platform arcade game that truly shines when played in co-op with a friend.
Pharaoh's Tomb
DOS19904.1/5 Micro F/X Software
Return to Kroz
DOS1990freeware3.1/5 Apogee Software
Shooting Gallery
DOS19903.7/5 Arcanum Computing
Tank Wars
DOS19904.1/5
Temple of Kroz
DOS1990freeware3.8/5 Apogee Software
The Final Crusade of Kroz
DOS1990freeware3.7/5 Apogee Software
Aldo's Assault
DOS19913/5
Ancients 1: Deathwatch
DOS19913.8/5 Farr-Ware Software
Arctic Adventure
DOS19913.4/5 Apogee Software
Bomb Run
DOS19912.7/5 PC Solutions
Commander Keen 4: Secret of the Oracle
DOS1991protected4/5 id software
Commander Keen 5: The Armageddon Machine
DOS1991protected4/5 id software
Commander Keen 5: The Armageddon Machine is a science fiction action oriented platform game designed by Tom Hall, developed by id Software and released by Apogee Software in 1991 for DOS only. Commander Keen 5: The Armageddon Machine is part of the Commander Keen game series, specifically it's the second episode of Commander Keen in Goodbye, Galaxy.
Commander Keen 6: Aliens Ate my Baby Sitter!
DOS19914.1/5 id software
Crystal Caves
DOS1991protected3.9/5 Apogee Software
Dark Ages Volume I - Prince of Destiny
DOS1991freeware4/5 Scenerio Software