Vintage gaming community.
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I'm pretty sure Doom will be the most popular (and my pick too), but I'll throw a shout-out to Epic Pinball; that Android table was the best one in the game anyway.
It's a simple choice, really, considering how many hours I managed to invest as a kid:
MY DUDE
Save 5 rounds of cash for a death's head nuke
Shriek "Now tremble before Thor's Hammer mortals!" to your friends seated around you
Press fire
Accidentally blow yourself up when the wind pushes it back in your direction 🤡
Spending every lunch hour on the library computer with three friends in 1994 playing this is probably why I didn't have a girlfriend.
Probably Rise of the Triad.
Pretty sure I even bought the full game and never ended up getting very far. I also remember spending a little chunk of time on Hugo 3: Jungle of Doom, but could never figure it out enough to progress very far.
Edit: Another one I was trying to recall, the name was H.U.R.L.
Loved the Hugo games. The jungle one was probably my favorite up to the point where I needed to find out some trivia question about the name of some person's dog before the time of Internet.
I spent more time with Police Quest, which was similar. I remember trying the Hugo Jungle Shareware multiple times and getting frustrated going back-and-forth, stuck.
To me, it was Raptor Call of Shadows, a very nice shmup where you could buy new weapons between missions
Commander Keen!
Jumping around with the pogo stick in Keen 6 was so much fun. I recently found the full game. Was surprised how hard that factory level was. But the music was still how I remembered it.
We got mario kart at home
I loved Whacky Wheels so much but recently put it on my Steamdeck and eh, it did not age well. Very choppy gameplay. But it still has a place in my heart.
Quake was awesome, especially since you could play the online multiplayer from the free version.
One Must Fall 2097
You just heard the lightning strike
The theme song is the shit
Kenny Chou! He also composed Zone 66 which is another awesome DOS game soundtrack.
The .mtm master himself.
Cool, I'll check it out, thanks for the recommendation! I don't think I ever played Zone 66.
What a banger
ITT: everyone had the same “500 games on two CDs!” Shareware compilation CDs that I had growing up.
Or we are old enough to remember them the first time around vs reruns.
I'll show you mine if you show me yours:
Jesus, that's a deep cut.
Jazz Jackrabbit, Jetpack, and Combat Tanks.
So many great titles in the comments. I'll add a few of mine:
Jill of the Jungle
Zaxxon
Heretic (Doom clone)
Stellar 7 (can't recall if shareware or if I just shared it)
Heretic was more than a Doom clone, it was developed using a modified Doom engine with the participation of Doom developers. It was a clever game in its own right, adding a lot of fresh elements to the then-budding FPS genre.
All great selections!
I was a fan of all of the Apogee platformers:
Commander Keen,
Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure,
Monster Bash
Also Lucasfilm games:
Loom,
Maniac Mansion
What a great time for PC gaming!
Scorched Earth
A couple of people have mentioned Raptor: Call of the shadows, which was an absolute favorite of mine. Skyforce Reloaded is pretty close in terms of gameplay. I wish there were more games out there like Raptor
You try Tyrian? It was like raptor but dialed up to 11 with different planes and an actual storyline :o
Colobot - don't think it was "shareware" but it absolutely came as a demo on ceebot.com (still hosted there today I believe). Literally THE game that got me into computer programming and whatnot.
Otherwise for actual shareware, I loved Jazz Jackrabbit 2, Crazy Gravity and The Worm (found it!)
I really wanted to play a couple shareware games called Jetpack Joyride, and Hot Chix n Gear Stix as a kid, but neither of them would play on my Windows XP netbook as they had a hard check for if you were on either Windows 95 or 98, even with compatibility mode.
Oh, I just remembered Castle of the Winds, too. What a great era for games!
came here to post this. my buddy had it and i still play it every couple of years.
Sky Roads, Test Drive 2, Jill of the Jungle, Halloween Harry, Jetpack, so many great games that I played the hell out of their shareware versions.
I've been playing some Jazz Jackrabbit and Duke Nukem 1, they are both great. I think I prefer the design of DOS games to the design of console games.
I was a huge fan of Solar Winds: The Escape. Cool plot, aliens, dogfights, ship systems management, evil shadow governments, rebels.... what's not to love? It was my introduction to the genre and will always hold a special place
Solar winds blew my mind once I actually figured out all the controls. The universe they built was super cool and I really dug the combat. Can't count the number of times I got owned by this guy trying to blow him up from the get go.
