Freeware, and Shareware, and Demo Discs, Oh My!

Something that feels as ancient as the Pyramids now is the demo disc. That little sample platter of bite sized morsels of digitized delights. In a time before we had YouTube reviewers telling you if you should buy a game or not we got to have a little taste before we invested our time and money.

Shareware was my favorite word growing up as a nerdy little PC gamer. I played some of the all time greats because of shareware versions I got my tiny hands on. For the younger audience shareware was basically a free "lite" version of the game. They usually broke the games down into episode and they would give you typically the first full episode. The episode usually contained 10+ levels and an end boss. Once you beat the episode or hit the wall of free content you where given a telephone number to be able to order the full game. Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Heretic, Quake, Duke Nukem 3D, Blood.. I originally played all these for the first time from a shareware disc. When I say disc I also mean 3.5 inch floppy...yah.. I'm that old.

Demo disc where also always a good time. Sometimes it would include some kind of freeware game as a bonus. The demo disc wasn't just a PC phenomenon. When consoles started to transition from cartridges to CDs that era also ushered in the demo disc for console players. I distinctly remember the joy of playing demos on the first PlayStation. Sitting in my friends basement playing games like Spyro the Dragon and MGS in glorious 3D pixels is a memory that will never leave me.

Freeware is something I enjoy to this very day. Freeware is basically free fully functioning software. Some games came out as shareware and then became Freeware like God of Thunder (kind of a Zelda Clone). Then there are games that where fully licensed purchase only games that eventually became Freeware. Championship Manager 01/02 is a great example of this (football manager predecessor that has an active community who still update the games database 20+ some years on). Outside of gaming I always try to look for a free or open source alternative. I like fooling around with photography as a hobby. Instead of a costly subscription to Adobe for Photoshop and Lightroom I use free open source alternatives GIMP and Darktable. GIMP is a great graphics manipulation tool where Darktable is the photographers best friend.

So my friends always remember it's just better when it's free.

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