Shareware Heroes
The renegades who redefined gaming at the dawn of the internet
Shareware Heroes is a comprehensive, meticulously researched exploration of an important and too-long overlooked chapter in video game history.
Shareware Heroes: The renegades who redefined gaming at the dawn of the internet takes readers on a journey, from the beginnings of the shareware model in the early 1980s, the origins of the concept, even the name itself, and the rise of shareware's major players — the likes of id Software, Apogee, and Epic MegaGames — through to the significance of shareware for the ‘forgotten’ systems — the Mac, Atari ST, Amiga — when commercial game publishers turned away from them.
This book also charts the emergence of commercial shareware distributors like Educorp and the BBS/newsgroup sharing culture. And it explores how shareware developers plugged gaps in the video gaming market by creating games in niche and neglected genres like vertically-scrolling shoot-'em-ups (e.g. Raptor and Tyrian) or racing games (e.g. Wacky Wheels and Skunny Kart) or RPGs (God of Thunder and Realmz), until finally, as the video game market again grew and shifted, and major publishers took control, how the shareware system faded into the background and fell from memory.
Richard Moss is an award-winning writer, journalist, and storyteller who explores the future – and the past – of innovation, video games and technology. His previous book, The Secret History of Mac Gaming, shares stories of the thriving – but mostly hidden – Mac gaming scene of the 1980s and 90s. He also creates the documentary-style games history podcast The Life & Times of Video Games and is co-producer/writer on CREATORVC’s documentary film First Person Shooter.
@MossRC
mossrc.me
