PC Shareware Appreciation Thread

[Cauterize]

I can't believe this hasn't been done already! Where is the love for Commander Keen, Duke Nukem, Wacky Wheels, Rise Of The Triad, Monster Bash, Jill Of The Jungle, Cosmos Cosmic Adventure and so on!?

For me Shareware was the start of something great. The word Shareware to me (as a kid) meant 'a free game with more to offer than a demo'. I loved it, I suddenly had a wealth of games (or half games) to enjoy, but what made it better was that these were (back then), triple A titles!

Commander Keen though, was without a doubt quite possibly best platforming game to grace the PC for years to come. Commander Keen 4 was easily the pinnacle of the series and could easily rival alot of Nintendo/Sega platformers at the time...



And Wacky Wheels... For some of us, Super Mario Kart was something we could only dream of. Instead, Wacky Wheels kept us quiet... While it doesnt hold up as well today, it was a pretty decent game for it's time and was great fun to play...



And as for Shmups, well there are two that instantly pop into mind... Raptor and Tyrian... The videos can do the talking here...





Tyrian had one of the best PC gaming Soundtracks I can remember...


And finally, how could I forget you Jazz!?



I know you will all have played at least one of these classics at some point, so lets hear your memories.

[samanosuke]

Sorry bud, never played any of them. Believe it or not I've never actually owned a PC!

[abigsmurf]

I remember really enjoying Traffic Department 2192 and liking the story (then getting annoyed when the shareware version ended on a cliffhanger).

The game was released for free under creative commons a few years back. You can download it at http://www.classicdosgames.com/genre/shooter.html . Probably needs dosbox to run.

[CrispyXUK]

Played all of those, great games.

Lots of stuff like this on OSX these days, cave story being one of the best examples.

[nem]

Hear hear! This is the stuff I grew up with. Apogee was amazing back then, Alien Carnage, Blake Stone, the Commander Keen series, Crystal Caves, Death Rally, Duke Nukem 1 & 2, Raptor, Rise of the Triad, Secret Agent, Wacky Wheels and Wolfenstein. Amazing stuff

A close second the Apogee was Epic with the Epic Pinball series, Jazz Jackrabbit, Jill of the Jungle, Ken's Labyrinth, One Must Fall 2097 and Solar Winds

Anyway, I'm going to end this post on the highest of notes. Probably my favorite game ever, SkyRoads



Get it here, it was made free by the devs

[jamesy]

Those apogee games were great, used to love blake stone. Boppin' was another cracker and my favourite: Megarace! Looked so good compared to anything else I had at the time. I would've been about 7 or 8 when playing these. Good memories as we got loads of shareware stuff with the first pc we had in our house.