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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Moraff's Dungeon of the Unforgiven
DOS1993 Moraffware
Robotron 2084
DOS1983 Williams Entertainment
Hugo's House of Horrors
DOS1990 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 app...
Mission: Mainframe
DOS1987
Yendorian Tales: The Tyrants of Thaine
DOS1997 SW Games
Escape from delirium
DOS1995 Virtual X-Perience
Secret Agent
DOS1992protected Apogee Software
Last Half of Darkness
DOS1989 SoftLab Laboratories
Aleshar World of Ice
DOS1997
Aleshar: World of Ice is what happens when someone says, “Let’s make an RPG, but crank the realism to 11.” Set in a cold, brutal land where your sword arm is only as strong as your calorie intake, this 1997 DOS c...
Night Raid
DOS1992remake Argo Games
Secret Agent: The Escape
DOS1996 PhreAk Software
Mario Bros VGA
DOS1990remake
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...
Yendorian Tales: Book I - Chapter 2
DOS1996 SW Games
Aldo Again
DOS1989remake
Aldo Again (1989) is the platformer that dares to say, “Hey, what if Donkey Kong but with 100% more confusion?” You play as Aldo, a mustachioed man of mystery (and questionable balance) who’s trying to climb plat...
Beyond the Titanic
DOS1986 Apogee Software
Before Titanic was a movie with a lot of weeping, there was Beyond the Titanic, a text adventure where surviving the iceberg is just the beginning. The game takes the historic disaster and then says, “What if we added a secr...
Galactix
DOS1992 Cygnus Studios
Xenophage: Alien BloodSport
DOS1996freeware Argo Games
Aquanoid
DOS1992remake
Aquanoid (1992) takes the classic Breakout formula and throws it underwater, because bricks are apparently much more intimidating when they're wet. You control a paddle, you bounce a ball, you try to pretend you're not just playin...
Aldo's Adventure
DOS1987remake
Aldo’s Adventure is what you get when someone squints at Donkey Kong and decides to remake it after four cups of coffee and a long nap. You play Aldo, a brave little guy whose hobbies include climbing platforms, dodging haza...
Invasion of the Mutant Space Bats of Doom
DOS1995 Pop Software
The Final Crusade of Kroz
DOS1990freeware Apogee Software
Jazz Jackrabbit
DOS1994protected Epic MegaGames
Jill of the Jungle 3: Jill Saves the Prince
DOS1992 Epic MegaGames
Armchair Quarterback
DOS1985
Armchair Quarterback lets you live the dream of yelling at your TV — but on your DOS machine, and with even less control. It’s part simulator, part quiz show, and all weird. You make play calls, analyze stats, and pray...
Epic Baseball
DOS1995 MicroLeague Multimedia
Nitemare 3D
DOSWindows 3.x1994protected Gray Design Associates
Nitemare 3D is a first-person shooter video game developed and published by David P. Gray under the Gray Design Associates label. It was released in 1994 as a follow-up to the earlier adventure games in the "Hugo" series. The...
Temple of Kroz
DOS1990freeware Apogee Software
The Big Three
DOS1989 SDJ Enterprises
Captain Comic, The Adventures of
DOS1988freeware
LineWars 2
DOS1994 Safari Software