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Available today in the US and Canada in paperback and Kindle format — my latest book, *Shareware Heroes: The renegades who redefined gaming at the dawn of the Internet*, delves into the 90s indie games scene and the rise of the shareware business model that presaged free-to-play.
I managed to pack in lots of dev stories, biz insights, and meta-narrative into this one. It covers the origins and early work of id Software, Epic (Mega)Games, Apogee/3D Realms, Ambrosia Software, Jeff Minter, and more, along with surprise hits such as Elasto Mania, Snood, Scorched Earth, etc, market failures like Star Quest 1, and quirky games like Grandad and the Quest for the Holey Vest, plus shareware distributors like TUCOWS and Public Brand Software, the UK licenceware and PD scene, the market shifts that happened as the big indie publishers emerged and then left the shareware scene, and more.
If you're wondering if it's worth buying, there's a thoughtful and fun article/review-ish thing over on Eurogamer: https://www.eurogamer.net/the-legacy-of-shareware-is-everywhere
And you can learn more and buy via sharewareheroes.com
I managed to pack in lots of dev stories, biz insights, and meta-narrative into this one. It covers the origins and early work of id Software, Epic (Mega)Games, Apogee/3D Realms, Ambrosia Software, Jeff Minter, and more, along with surprise hits such as Elasto Mania, Snood, Scorched Earth, etc, market failures like Star Quest 1, and quirky games like Grandad and the Quest for the Holey Vest, plus shareware distributors like TUCOWS and Public Brand Software, the UK licenceware and PD scene, the market shifts that happened as the big indie publishers emerged and then left the shareware scene, and more.
If you're wondering if it's worth buying, there's a thoughtful and fun article/review-ish thing over on Eurogamer: https://www.eurogamer.net/the-legacy-of-shareware-is-everywhere
And you can learn more and buy via sharewareheroes.com
@ultranurd @mac84tv I'd love to do a book on Ambrosia specifically one day. I wonder sometimes if the market is big enough to justify the work (it'd be a labour of love, but I'd at least need to make *some money*), but it's been encouraging to see even a few years later I get a steady 200-300 people digging into the PAX talk I republished about Ambrosia at https://lifeandtimes.games/episodes/files/pax-aus-19-ambrosia-sw-talk
The Life & Times of Video GamesThe Rise & Fall of Ambrosia Software, '90s Mac Legends - PAX Aus 2019 talkFor Mac gamers in the 90s, the people of Ambrosia Software were rockstars. Heroes. And with brilliant games like Maelstrom, Escape Velocity, Harry the Handsome Executive, Apeiron, and more, plus a company newsletter that spoke directly to the fans, they could do no wrong. In light of Ambrosia's recent closure (finally!), Secret History of Mac Gaming author Richard Moss recounts the studio's high and lowpoints and tells the stories behind its best games.
@mac84tv @MossRC @ultranurd hey neat to see an article about them! While it being at pax there’s not as much discussion of all their utilities but they were my publisher for iToner *right* after the original iPhone came out. Which did both them and I well until after the second release when Apple finally caught up on making ringtones better
@savaran @mac84tv @ultranurd It'd be interesting to see an article or a list covering all the excellent and popular third-party products that Apple has killed or neutered over the years through system updates that replicated all or most of their features. I can think of several just off the top of my head.