
The Shareware Scene, Part 2: The Question of Games - doppp
https://www.filfre.net/2020/05/the-shareware-scene-part-2-the-question-of-games/
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codazoda
My teen years right there; brings back the feels. I became a programmer just a
little too late to ride this wave, or perhaps I just didn't have the ambition.
I found a spreadsheet of my shareware sales on a 3.5" floppy disk just a
couple days ago. My most famous shareware program, ButtonWiz, was making $130
per month in 1998 or so. I think shareware only had a few years of life left
in it. I'm happy that I was able to participate, in some small way, in an
amazing era.

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mysterydip
If you think of shareware now as "free with in-app purchases", it's probably
never been stronger (or more profitable).

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LocalH
One of the defining traits of shareware is that you could give someone a copy
of such software. The modern App Store is not really like shareware in that
sense. A curated walled garden is a bit too restrictive for the true shareware
concept, IMO

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mysterydip
In the pure sense I agree. I'd much rather be able to get apps from anywhere
or anyone. Trying to give friends iOS games I'm working on is a major pain. At
least with Android I can upload an APK somewhere.

The original purpose behind giving anyone a copy was advertising and
distribution, which is done differently nowadays. Rarely does anyone I know
give someone a thumbdrive or equivalent of a piece of software, instead a
website or app store link is shared.

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pochamago
Shareware strikes me as too precarious of a compromise to last long as an
industry. It makes sense that in the longer term it would split into F2P games
and Open software, which are both better at maximizing the distinct virtues of
shareware

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aidenn0
Only about 25 years too late, but I just bought a copy of Excelsior that I
played to death in highschool. I might still have my graph-paper maps of that
darn tower where you could only see the 8 squares around you...

