tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6993165553021868648.post7524198143912010277..comments2024-03-27T05:39:24.505-04:00Comments on Nerdly Pleasures: The Shareware Publishing Concept - Challenging the Big Box PublishersGreat Hierophanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04409413307024477304noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6993165553021868648.post-83862188493326027972015-10-01T12:39:22.247-04:002015-10-01T12:39:22.247-04:00> Windows 95 foretold of the impending doom of ...<b>> <i>Windows 95 foretold of the impending doom of the shareware model. Shareware games had to compete with a platform that was far more friendly to cheap, casual games than DOS ever was.</i></b><br /><br />I disagree with this. A lot of shareware titles were catered to casual gamers. SW platformers were much easier than Nintendo/Sega games mostly because of their save feature.<br /><br /><b>> <i>In addition, Windows games frequently came on multiple CDs and ran to hundreds of megabytes in size.</i></b><br /><br />That's not strictly true either. Excluding "interactive" "full-motion" titles, most commercial games would fit on a CD. Until the mid nineties they were rarely larger than 100 megs. The rest was usually cutscenes and audio tracks.<br /><br /><br />In my opinion, the shareware model collapsed partly because of lack of copy protection (as you said), and partly because in the mid-nineties, a lot of developers flooded the market with poor arcade/console platformer knock-offs, uninspired puzzle and board games with simplistic graphics, and so on. Even the best Apogee/Epic titles were paled to that Nintendo, Sega and even Amiga had to offer. Id Software was the odd one out because they're actually innovative (until Quake 3 Arena, I think?).Negirnohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12440593682143717159noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6993165553021868648.post-13949854210450763572015-09-27T20:40:20.408-04:002015-09-27T20:40:20.408-04:00It's kind of funny how ubiquitous physical sha...It's kind of funny how ubiquitous physical shareware software was back in the day. I remember finding the first 'episode' of Castle of the Winds in a rotating kiosk filled with $2 shareware CDs...in a pharmacy. Any establishment that had a cash register inevitably had a selection of shareware discs somewhere. I don't remember this being the case before CDs, though that may be simply due to how young I would have been then.Raifieldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08478524519453417677noreply@blogger.com