The companies listed are the publishers, not developers.

It’s a little messy, but Cendant later became Vivendi, and then merged into Activision.

It was Blizzard since forever, I have never heard of Cendent or seen their logo anywhere.

For the majority of people who didn't yet have a BBS or internet connection (or a friend who would copy the shareware onto a floppy), they also sold a boxed version of the shareware version in stores for a low price, like 5 or 10 bucks I think.

When I was a kid there was a discount store in a strip mall by my house that would sell these shareware floppys for like $2 a pop. So i'd pick up Doom, Wolfenstien, etc for cheap. I imagine many peple did the same.

Also keep in mind that the Doom Shareware floppy had like the entire first episode on it and eventually if you managed to get on a decent internet connection or knew someone who had the rest of the game you could copy that to your shareware version.

Also id games were notoriously easy to pirate. I mean hell Quake 3 Arena for example all you needed was to find pak0 and you were pretty much off to the races. Today it's one of the easiest games to "pirate" on linux. I have the damn pak files on a codeberg repo.

You had to pay for the disk it came on; the internet wasn't publicly available until the year this article was published. Demos for games were typically $5 at retail. You'd also find compilations of demos on a single disk being labeled as "50 games in 1!" even tho they weren't even full games.

The shareware version was available multiple ways.

Most probably got a floppy at a local store for $9 or less that had the 1st 9 levels of Doom (basically paying for the disk/shipping, for a fee demo that was still a great game). Then you were supposed to pay full price for the rest of the disks/levels if you wanted the full game ($30-40 I think).

However, you could (though. Most didn't have the ability to) download the shareware for free on a BBS at dial up speed. Then up grade with the full game with the floppy disks/CD (or a copy... Yo ho).

I was just starting college in 95, had purchased my 1st real PC, and had access to university Internet. So I was one of the lucky ones that made copies for my friends, so we could play on LAN.

Also, Eventually the shareware version was released on those CDs with a ton of free software demos and such that came with gamer/PC magazines back then.

try the "remake" that came out this year (IMO it's more like a "reboot" not a remake)

if you want to play the original...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5rBc_T8x2g

https://www.uhs-hints.com/uhsweb/t7g

I remember it taking forever to get it to run properly on my computer

The 'Company' in the list is apparently the publisher, not the developer. The Westwood Monopoly is indeed the one in the list, as it was published by Hasbro according to the wiki entry.

Some of us had to buy shareware disks back then. The full game cost to much.

Also remember buying shareware disks for Jazz Jackrabbit, Gods, Raptor, one I can't remember the name but the games was like exploring a castle in isometric view..

It might mean people converting from the shareware version to full

Gather 'round, young ones, while I relate the tales of the dark times when we had computers before myst...

(AOL CDs were coasters, though).

My Dad bought it like nearly 10 times cause it kept giving it away to his friends like a book so he'd end up rebuying it over and over to replay and eventually give away. if it were floppy based I imagine he would just copy it and hand out but since it was like the first major CD release he just bought it over and over.

And we also got the game a few more times as freebies from like buying a new PC or graphics/sound card/whatever. Christ we had so many damn copies of that game.

I liked exploring it as a kid, but going back to it as an adult it kinda lost me with how gamey some of the puzzles were despite it trying to sell you on the idea that this is a lived in world. Like, who is going to design a door lock to correspond to some nearby whistling holes in the ground?

From what I've read, the sequel Rivan did a better job of making the puzzles feel more integrated into the world, but I only played that briefly as a kid and haven't gotten around to trying it again.

Wouldn't sales through pack-in games also count?

I bought the entire series and played most of them through happily. (Except for Myst V, mostly because of the darn tablet mechanics.)

it's tough! I think you were just expected to spend a long time with the game, like months...

I think that counts as a sale still. PCs would buy bulk licenses or report back sale #s and pay some $ for the games they bundled and tossed in "for free" with the different computer bundles. They still kinda do that too, sometimes graphics cards or individual components even have "free" games or software.

So it still counted as a sale from their side. You just got it "free" as a bonus.

My PCs came with some phenomenal free disks over the years.

Wing Commander 2, Strike Commander (F-16 combat), Syndicate Plus, Ultima VII on a single CD was a really good one. I think that same PC also had Magic Carpet on CD as well. I treasure all those games.

I still have my OG Doom on like a stack of 4? 3.5 Floppy Disks from our 386 Windows 3.1 PC.