Thank you, Clint. I watched it, and game back to this video to see if there was a game I'd like to ask you to blerb about. Kris already covered _Mystic Towers_ in _ADG Episode 29,_ but I'd like your blerb on it, and _Seek & Destroy._ I had seen _Seek & Destroy_ on my cousin's husband's computer in 1996, but it took me until August 2019 to rediscover it.
"I decided to make LGR Blerbs, so I could have a place to put shorter, less structured videos about smaller things. Anyway, here's a 27 minute video about my Shareware collection!" Never, ever change, Clint.
Heh, I don't believe I ever claimed Blerbs would be short. My only goal here is to post unscripted videos about random crap with little to no editing. And this certainly fits that description :)
The blurbs remind me of your early videos of just showcasing stuff without a script. I appreciate them just as much as your full blown edited video projects.
Omg...those "The Bay" price tags are so nostalgic... If you want some colour commentary on them, The Bay is a department store which is actually a permutation of The Hudson Bay Company, a company that was founded in 1670 in the UK. No, I didn't stutter or mistype... 1670. It started out as a fur trading business, but diversified and became an institution here. I believe they own your Saks chain of stores, among others. It acted as the government for the parts of (not yet) Canada for nigh on 200 years before they sold the land to the newly forming Canadian government, thus consolidating into Canada. They started out as trading posts, evolving into small shops, and eventually, they became the department stores that are the cornerstone of a lot of our malls. It's a crazy history from a crazy time in North America. Sorry to drag this out, I have a couple days off before I get back to work, so I thought it might be interesting to someone. Lol
@@SlocumJoe7740 is funny that you mentioned that xD I just remembered the face Romero made when he was asked what he thought about the upcoming game xD!!! It was priceless
Shareware man... My granpa had a few installed on his windows machine (he wouldn't let us touch his 3.1 machine lol) but I remember Wolfenstein most fondly. It took me YEARS before I realized it was a shareware version because we never played long enough to realize the other episodes didn't unlock after completing the first one.
@@CarrotConsumer Absolutely, going to grandma's house and playing about 10% of every game that was inexplicably installed there likely by my uncle without her knowing. So many games, could only play a bit of each. My favourites were Wolfenstein 3D and Jazz Jackrabbit. Also a pirated disc with Genesis ROMs bought at the local market.
The typical life of a PC person trying to game. While many of you were fiddling with scraps others actually played actual video games on home consoles or in arcades. Even tho I would never again go into the arcade but was a great introduction to some titles that never got released home. And this PC gaming never changed really so that is why I would gladly never go back to that pile of mess and money burning pit and stick to only the things that actually work and painless which is console gaming.
These have the price tag from The Bay, a large high end department store in Canada. Never thought shareware would be sold at these outlets. Live and learn.
The screenshot of skunny cart seems to have been placed upside down intentionally, since its the Australia track and you know.... southern hemisphere hilarity.
Thanks Clint! Man I used to love hitting my local Zellers in the early 90's to pore over their shareware collection. I didn't have much money as a kid so this was my jam. Take care and stay safe!
Highly recommended: "Microforum's Encyclopedia of 1000 Games" which is a 2 disc (CD) set. It has mostly Shareware, but some full games on it - and is literally around 1000 Games. I found it online as Abandonware as 2 ISO files, but it works best on Windows 95/98 and MS DOS. Had it as a kid. That's how I discovered MOST of the early PC games market, which were all on those 2 CDs alone!
Unfortunately I can't find the shareware disc I grew up with. I got it with my PC in 1996 and I was still playing it up until 2002 when I accidentally broke it. It was part of a larger collection of discs, but even though I remember most if not all of them, I can't find the same pack to buy or even download anywhere.
Canadian here.. can confirm, I bought tons of these shareware disks back in the day. this was pre-internet to early BBS days for me. downloading games was not an option. Trading shareware was basically how we tried out games and figured out what to actually buy. I'm still in love with the early 2000's CD that would come out with PG gamer magazines. 300MB OF DEMOS!
Thanks for this video Clint. You are indeed correct that these are strange times. Seeing my favorite RUclipsrs still making videos makes me feel happy and is a welcome distraction.
This is why I love Blerbs - so many cool things that maybe don’t quite need a whole LGR video are out there and this lets us get a look! Thank you for this and stay safe!
I remember that in 1996 I was able to find a 6 disc cd-rom collection of shareware. Was incredible to find so much shareware in a same place at the same time. Unfortunately I lost this collection a couple of years later during the process of moving from a house to an apartment. I wish I had the chance to save it.
I had something similar, and it was a very smart buy by my parents. That one huge collection of shareware fulfilled my need for new games to play for like a year
Man what a trip. I remember picking through these games at the store as a kid whenever I got my hands on 5 bucks. Got many of these over the years and forgot about a number of them until you showed them here.
These are amazing - as a Canadian who grew up through the late-eighties and into the 90s these were the releases I saw all the time at dollar stores and check-out lines! Huge memories flooding back here.
Man I remember discs like these. Both floppies and CD-Roms. Also remember a subscription Disc service called Launch. You got a CD-Rom 1 time a months, with music, and at least 1 full game, as well as a crapton of game demos & Shareware.
All the French text looks as if it's been translated with a very early machine translator or someone that just did not give a f**k. "Disk enregistrer au Canada" on the back should actually be "Disque enregistrée au Canada"...
@@niklasblh7298 this is the kind of result that canada's "french" "education" produces they don't tell you how to congugate "to be" (etre) until grade 9 lmao
Shareware meant a ton to me as a kid, I grew up in the 80s in rural Canada and I mostly just had shareware pc games.... I'd watch you play every single one! Thanks, Clint, and take care.
As a Canadian, this nostalgia is sooooo nostalgia. They used to have these on spiral racks at tons of stores. I'd flip through them as a pre 12 year old.
Oh man this takes me back; I have such a soft spot for shareware copies of old DOS games. I'm going to credit the shareware copies of Crystal Caves and Tyrian that came with our first computer as the sole impetus for my love of pc gaming today. I miss those days. Thanks for making this.
The demo disks that came with old PC gaming magazines were pure gold. Spent a ton of my childhood playing the huge variety of games thanks to these, found a lot of classic games that way.
"They all say this." It's like late night hosts. Every day they say, "We've got a great show for you tonight." They'll never say, "We've got an OK show for you tonight." I'd love to see it.
In Australia I remember going to the newsagent to get most of my shareware games. They usually came in these plastic, folded cases with a printed paper cover inside that were hanging on spinning racks. I believe it was common to get 1-3 different games in each pack but it was always a bit of a tossup whether the games would be playable, since sometimes they were a screenshot demo with no gameplay, or the usual compatability issues. I have some floppy discs here still from these. One here is from a JLM Software company; Games Volume 74 with Jazz Jackrabbit, Battlestar and Bear Storm'n. Another has Paganitzu, Pirates, Dungeons of Grimlor and Loader Larry.
Ahh... I remember fondly looking at these exact disks back in Canada while my mom paid for groceries at Safeway. I tried to get her to get me some of these. Oh how I did try, but 75% of the time I was unsuccessful, but this is how I got introduced to Commander Keen!
I have fond memories of my dad buying me shareware disks like these when we would go to the dollar store. The CDs would often come with a huge collection of shareware, but you'd also get a single "full version" game. I know my parents didn't throw these out - I'm gonna snap some pictures next time I return home.
Used to pick up those shareware disks at the dollar store on a spinnable rack. My mom would buy me one usually every time we went! So I had quite a few of them.
OMG. This video was great! I would love to see them ALL played. Im from Canada and I see some of those are from The Bay! I never knew they had shareware.
I live in Nova Scotia Canada and I remember buying not CDs but floppy disks with games on them. They were usually around five bucks apiece and sold at my local pharmacy. These are definitely strange times and it's getting very scary out there thank you Clint for this video
Of all the collections to find! I had ALL of these when I was a kid, my school did a flea market fundraiser thing and I picked up each disk for like 25 cents. Someone had the whole set boxed.
i remember when my dad bought a copy of Doom episode 1 shareware from a store, he managed to format the disks when trying to install them. We had to get a replacement, which my brother successfully installed haha.
Man, me and my older brother had a shareware version of Brutal Paws of Fury, and I still fondly remember us fighting against eachother and having the most hillarious time of our lives.
It was magical looking at the colorful pictures, imagining what the game might play and getting excited about it. Usually the games weren't as good but you made it look better in your head. Really magical times. I did that with gaming magazines, in my country we had 2 huge magazines about video games, one was called 576Kbyte and the other is COV (which stood for COmmodore Világ or COmputer Világ which means Commodore/Computer World). I didn't have access to many games back in the days and I just drooled over the pages of these magazines imagining one day I might be able to play those games. One game I fell in love this way was Leisure Suit Larry 6 and ended up liking the whole series though not every entry is good, I think 6 stands out.
I'm from Canada, and I have fond memories of these....especially in the late 90's when they were in clearance bins and "Clearance centers". Although I do not recall ever seeing them in The Bay...
In the early '90s my dad used to pick up shareware disks for my brother and I from K-Mart. In the late '90s when I had an allowance, I would often buy shareware disks of older games from the $1 store.
A long time ago, I was at a mom & pop dollar store in a certain South Dakota college town. It was the early or mid 2000s. I remember seeing CD-ROM shareware games packaged in sleeves like these, sold for $1 each. Each disc had a single game. Many of them appeared to be for DOS. I still had a Windows 98 PC at the time, so there was probably a portion of the population that still could run those old games.
I remember playing Skunny Kart a lot as a kid. I was trying to remember the name of it a couple weeks ago but couldn't. And by golly there it is in this video, ty Clint
Yes, please play anything that looks interesting to you. Just simple gameplay videos with some of your first impression thoughts would be tons of fun, and watching someone with an appreciation for it play old titles like this is so cozy relaxing - I think for a lot of us it just reminds us of carefree childhood afternoons in front of a cheap beige computer, listening to a loud powersupply fan and staring at a small CRT for hours on end. I think we all need just a bit of a safe oasis of happy memories like that at times, and if you have the time to play some of the games and give some of your thoughts, I know a lot of us viewers would highly appreciate it.
There was a shareware shmup I loved growing up that I could just not remember. Ray-traced backgrounds, great music... Thankies for reminding me about KILOBLASTER! The ost is on RUclips and is exactly as I remember!
In the 90s I constantly went to my local Kroger which had an isle that had shareware games (for like $1-$5 depending on title). I use to have a lot of shareware disks. That's how I was exposed to CMDR keen and the first Duke nukem. It was a weekly ritual until they stopped carrying then. Seeing those packages take me back. A few years later Walmart started carrying those CDs that had thousands of games on them. And it became another weekly thing until they stopped carrying them.
Great video Clint! Watching this video has inspired me to track down the shareware demos from the 90s. I managed so far to grab the demos for Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Jazz jackrabbit, x wing, tie fighter, X-Men children of the atom, mortal Kombat 2 and 3, super street fighter 2 turbo, epic pinball and others.
Ah this brings back so many memories used to go to the sunday market every weekend here in Australia and pick up tons of shareware in 3.5 inch floppies its how i originally got into commander keen im pretty sure i still have the original diskette lying around
Mystic Towers looks really interesting. It was the only game that kind of stood out from the entire set as something unique. I'd love to see you review that sometime in the future.
It's also quite hard. And it's on Steam. And it had epic tracker music like an Amiga game had at the time. (And boobies, somehow the ratings board missed those)
This just reminds me so much of those days in the 90s. For me it was going to certain malls and either a radio shack or computer shop, and either going through the bargain bins or checking out the shareware selection. Well also I'd order some stuff through the mail but I wasn't always patient enough. I can't ever forget the amazing games i went home with, commander keen, Blake stone, Duke nukem, hugos house of horror.... The Sierra adventure games, many other random adventure games. So many amazing games. And here's the thing. Even with all the indie games now, it just doesn't compare to variety and experimental feel games had in the 80s and 90s. I had no clue back then how much the world would change, and really, unless you were there to experience this yourself you probably won't understand. How unique and original games were back then. Or is this just nostalgic ramblings? No... I swear there was just so much more originality then
Really awesome to see the Halloween Harry shareware version on actual physical media. Quite rare indeed to see that considering the name change! That is a fantastic piece to have. It was just one of those titles I loved seeing in BBS file sections.
Some of those were pretty good, like _Mystic Towers._ In our house, by the time we saw the shareware, we figured either the software or the company was no longer available. We missed out on a lot of great games back then because of it. Slowly making up for it now.
As a Canadian, it's funny to me how these were sold at The Bay (or 'Hudson's Bay' as they want to be called now). I know they have an electronics section, and my family did get TV's and such there, but I never recall anything video game related being sold. Perhaps they did, and all this was slightly before my time; I just remember going to The Bay to buy clothes. Toys R Us, Zellers (which was also owned by The Bay before Target bombed here), Walmart and EB Games were where I bought games growing up.
Bio menace! I loved that game, the music is awesome and so is the main character with his mustache and Chuck Norris-y attitude fighting aliens and mutants... Such an underdog! Definitely worth a review imho, would love to hear that adlib machine gun sound effect again
WOW, I remember getting a bunch of these old shareware disks as a kid in Canada, the packaging (3.5' disque) is a nostalgia bomb. Jazz Jackrabbit is one I remember fondly.
my uncle was a big pc nut, he had a ZX Spectrum, even though that "evil capitalist machine" wasn't sold here, and in the 90s, he always had the best pc he could get. He had a 486 when my cousins and I were little, and he collected these shareware games and played it on the 486. Raptor Call of the Shadows, Wolfeinstein 3D, Prehistorik, Vikings, Screamer, Dune, Micro Machines and countless others. We played the crap out of those with my cousins back then. 5 kids sat in front of a crappy old 486, running win95,. man. good times.
From the price tag you can see those copies were bought from the Bay. For non-Canadians that's a department store that's kind of like Sears. I remember shareware games at the grocery store on a spinner rack that typically cost $4.99 but sometimes the odd title was $6.49. My brothers and I were very into them since these were videogames we could actually afford. The packaging was extremely cheap though. The disks came in what looked like a yellow sandwich bag with a typed label stuck on it with the game title, description and system requirements. Yes, there were NO SCREENSHOTS so we bought games based entirely on the description. Often we couldn't even tell what genre the game would be until we installed the thing. It got a little easier after we accumulated a few games as companies like Apogee would often have ads for other titles in their games, usually with screenshots, and then we would recognize those titles at the store.
Love it! Thanks for making a rad video. I kinda miss getting shareware disks. It was a huge deal for us. I only ever remember getting 5 or 6 ever. One of my favorites was Kroz!
Tubular Worlds is a pretty solid side scrolling shooter. I ordered it when I was a kid from a shareware catalog named Reasonable Solutions. I wish I could track down a copy of that catalog to flip through again.
those PC magazines i used to buy in the early 90s for the game cheat codes and walkthroughs used to always include a free floppy disk with shareware and freeware, i really sorta miss those simple gaming days back then on my dads PC with a CGA monitor playing Leisure Suit Larry in black & white and King's Quest in 4 colours
I remember in the early 90s there was a shop that sold shareware, they would charge something like 5 dollars per disk, but you could fill it with all the programs you wanted, until full capacity. they had a printed catalog, and you could choose wich programs and they would make your disk in the moment, or for the next day. This is how I got Neopaint for example. those mystic towers look like something to try
Here's the first follow-up video! Taking a look at four of these games:
ruclips.net/video/4Pd18OBG8p8/видео.html
Thank you, Clint. I watched it, and game back to this video to see if there was a game I'd like to ask you to blerb about. Kris already covered _Mystic Towers_ in _ADG Episode 29,_ but I'd like your blerb on it, and _Seek & Destroy._ I had seen _Seek & Destroy_ on my cousin's husband's computer in 1996, but it took me until August 2019 to rediscover it.
First? As in there will be more follow-ups?
That's something to look forward to indeed :)
I managed to get a copy of jazz from software evolution. It's so bilingual.
"I decided to make LGR Blerbs, so I could have a place to put shorter, less structured videos about smaller things. Anyway, here's a 27 minute video about my Shareware collection!"
Never, ever change, Clint.
Heh, I don't believe I ever claimed Blerbs would be short. My only goal here is to post unscripted videos about random crap with little to no editing. And this certainly fits that description :)
The blurbs remind me of your early videos of just showcasing stuff without a script. I appreciate them just as much as your full blown edited video projects.
Omg...those "The Bay" price tags are so nostalgic... If you want some colour commentary on them, The Bay is a department store which is actually a permutation of The Hudson Bay Company, a company that was founded in 1670 in the UK. No, I didn't stutter or mistype... 1670. It started out as a fur trading business, but diversified and became an institution here. I believe they own your Saks chain of stores, among others. It acted as the government for the parts of (not yet) Canada for nigh on 200 years before they sold the land to the newly forming Canadian government, thus consolidating into Canada. They started out as trading posts, evolving into small shops, and eventually, they became the department stores that are the cornerstone of a lot of our malls. It's a crazy history from a crazy time in North America. Sorry to drag this out, I have a couple days off before I get back to work, so I thought it might be interesting to someone. Lol
It was. May your work be unhindered, especially in these trying - and sometimes irritating - times.
Very good comment!
That is super interesting. Thank you for sharing.
Yes he is right and Winnipeg is where they keep the Hudson bay archives
Thank you so much for this informative comment! It was fun to read! 😊
Need sequel, would be cool to see what some of these are like.
Just go into lgr game reviews he does all the classic PC games reviews
Bethesda is turning Commander Keen into a crappy Cell Phone game...
@@chrisplissken4626 I am aware of that. It would just be neat to see the shareware versions of a lot of these games.
@@SlocumJoe7740 is funny that you mentioned that xD I just remembered the face Romero made when he was asked what he thought about the upcoming game xD!!! It was priceless
I'd like to see 'True Blood' running. I haven't found anything about it online.
7:17 You know that's some high quality software when the box calls you an IDIOT in all caps.
I like how the French is using formal writing but also calling you an IDIOT
Was this software made by Rian Johnson?
Shareware man... My granpa had a few installed on his windows machine (he wouldn't let us touch his 3.1 machine lol) but I remember Wolfenstein most fondly. It took me YEARS before I realized it was a shareware version because we never played long enough to realize the other episodes didn't unlock after completing the first one.
@@CarrotConsumer Absolutely, going to grandma's house and playing about 10% of every game that was inexplicably installed there likely by my uncle without her knowing. So many games, could only play a bit of each. My favourites were Wolfenstein 3D and Jazz Jackrabbit. Also a pirated disc with Genesis ROMs bought at the local market.
The typical life of a PC person trying to game. While many of you were fiddling with scraps others actually played actual video games on home consoles or in arcades. Even tho I would never again go into the arcade but was a great introduction to some titles that never got released home. And this PC gaming never changed really so that is why I would gladly never go back to that pile of mess and money burning pit and stick to only the things that actually work and painless which is console gaming.
These have the price tag from The Bay, a large high end department store in Canada.
Never thought shareware would be sold at these outlets. Live and learn.
Too bad it wasn't Eatons or Zellers - that would make them even more collectible.
Same here. These seem to be out of place at The Bay.
I had a few of these back in the day, I had bought them at a Zellers in Magog
The screenshot of skunny cart seems to have been placed upside down intentionally, since its the Australia track and you know.... southern hemisphere hilarity.
@@AfterBurnerTeirusu mystic towers was developed in Australia, so that makes perfect sense
Canadian born in 88 who spent every trip to the drug store looking at those exact disks
what a flashback thank you so much
ditto - played so many of these and that disk art was a real flashback
Thanks Clint! Man I used to love hitting my local Zellers in the early 90's to pore over their shareware collection. I didn't have much money as a kid so this was my jam. Take care and stay safe!
Yea i remember picking threw these exact disks at zellers also
We need a proper Shareware extravaganza on the main LGR channel :D of these and more that you have.
24 hour shareware stream!
Highly recommended: "Microforum's Encyclopedia of 1000 Games" which is a 2 disc (CD) set. It has mostly Shareware, but some full games on it - and is literally around 1000 Games. I found it online as Abandonware as 2 ISO files, but it works best on Windows 95/98 and MS DOS. Had it as a kid. That's how I discovered MOST of the early PC games market, which were all on those 2 CDs alone!
I think I have two volumes of that laying around in my stuff...bought them back in the late 90s. Those collections were very weird.
Unfortunately I can't find the shareware disc I grew up with. I got it with my PC in 1996 and I was still playing it up until 2002 when I accidentally broke it. It was part of a larger collection of discs, but even though I remember most if not all of them, I can't find the same pack to buy or even download anywhere.
Do you know anything about Shareware 2000?
Is that the one with "Megapede"? I have an old disc somewhere in storage if so.
My favourite on that disc was a space 4X game called Warpath.
Canadian here.. can confirm, I bought tons of these shareware disks back in the day. this was pre-internet to early BBS days for me. downloading games was not an option. Trading shareware was basically how we tried out games and figured out what to actually buy. I'm still in love with the early 2000's CD that would come out with PG gamer magazines. 300MB OF DEMOS!
Thanks for this video Clint. You are indeed correct that these are strange times. Seeing my favorite RUclipsrs still making videos makes me feel happy and is a welcome distraction.
Not strange, deceptive.
This is why I love Blerbs - so many cool things that maybe don’t quite need a whole LGR video are out there and this lets us get a look! Thank you for this and stay safe!
I remember NESticle! My first emulator. Trying to play “Earth Bound Zero”. Oh, man. Such nostalgia. :)
Bloodlust software, also made Genecyst.
I'd definitely love to see a closer look at some of these, disks and maybe some gameplay of the ones you've not seen before.
Lanthus Vernalis Same
I remember that in 1996 I was able to find a 6 disc cd-rom collection of shareware. Was incredible to find so much shareware in a same place at the same time. Unfortunately I lost this collection a couple of years later during the process of moving from a house to an apartment. I wish I had the chance to save it.
i am sure you can find those collections on the internet, with a bit of effort, the exact same discs... (iso files)
I had something similar, and it was a very smart buy by my parents. That one huge collection of shareware fulfilled my need for new games to play for like a year
Man what a trip. I remember picking through these games at the store as a kid whenever I got my hands on 5 bucks. Got many of these over the years and forgot about a number of them until you showed them here.
These are amazing - as a Canadian who grew up through the late-eighties and into the 90s these were the releases I saw all the time at dollar stores and check-out lines! Huge memories flooding back here.
I had a helluva time trying to get Highway Hunter working back in the day haha, it would always crash on me.
Actually hearing abut those early viruses could be cool. maybe run some on a period accurate machine.
Check out Danooct1, you're in for a great time
@@_me-ta-_3780 came here to post this too! haha ruclips.net/user/danooct1videos
More so with that Action Replay thingy
Man I remember discs like these. Both floppies and CD-Roms. Also remember a subscription Disc service called Launch. You got a CD-Rom 1 time a months, with music, and at least 1 full game, as well as a crapton of game demos & Shareware.
10:52 French text: "Epopee Megagrames" LOL Nice mix between Epic Megagames, Apogee and Infogrames
All the French text looks as if it's been translated with a very early machine translator or someone that just did not give a f**k. "Disk enregistrer au Canada" on the back should actually be "Disque enregistrée au Canada"...
*tries not to see e-poo-pee*
fuck it
e-poo-pee hehe
@@niklasblh7298 this is the kind of result that canada's "french" "education" produces
they don't tell you how to congugate "to be" (etre) until grade 9 lmao
@@qwertzy121212 well yeah but that's clearly just someone using a dictionary to translate word for word. Pretty badly too... ;)
@@Bannanawaffles2 because we _all_ have this inner 5 year old :)
Shareware meant a ton to me as a kid, I grew up in the 80s in rural Canada and I mostly just had shareware pc games.... I'd watch you play every single one! Thanks, Clint, and take care.
11:42 With the Upside down track... It's the Australian Cup Track...
These are so Nostalgic! These are all really cool, and it's great to see these older CDs
As a Canadian, this nostalgia is sooooo nostalgia. They used to have these on spiral racks at tons of stores. I'd flip through them as a pre 12 year old.
Honestly a chill multi hour shareware stream would be super comforting...
You and 8-Bit Guy are my go-to's during the pandemic, hats off my good lad
Yep... these bring back incredible memories.
These are my first PC gaming eexperiences.. we used to buy these at the pharmacy.
Oh man this takes me back; I have such a soft spot for shareware copies of old DOS games. I'm going to credit the shareware copies of Crystal Caves and Tyrian that came with our first computer as the sole impetus for my love of pc gaming today. I miss those days. Thanks for making this.
We had this store called McDuff Electronics where they had a rack of these and I was always picking up random ones. Loved it.
I still have all my old Dreamcast magazines and demo discs. Those were great! I got so much play time out of them.
The demo disks that came with old PC gaming magazines were pure gold. Spent a ton of my childhood playing the huge variety of games thanks to these, found a lot of classic games that way.
Man, I miss these so much. I also miss all the demos included with magazines. I had piles of them when I was a kid.
"They all say this." It's like late night hosts. Every day they say, "We've got a great show for you tonight." They'll never say, "We've got an OK show for you tonight." I'd love to see it.
Pretty sure Conan O'Brien used to say that, or "It's a decent show, but I can't stand the host"
This is exactly the distraction I was looking for thanks for digging out the old shareware and stay safe.
In Australia I remember going to the newsagent to get most of my shareware games. They usually came in these plastic, folded cases with a printed paper cover inside that were hanging on spinning racks. I believe it was common to get 1-3 different games in each pack but it was always a bit of a tossup whether the games would be playable, since sometimes they were a screenshot demo with no gameplay, or the usual compatability issues.
I have some floppy discs here still from these. One here is from a JLM Software company; Games Volume 74 with Jazz Jackrabbit, Battlestar and Bear Storm'n. Another has Paganitzu, Pirates, Dungeons of Grimlor and Loader Larry.
Thanks for sharing your collection of wares of the share variety.
I'm from southern ontario and I use to have a lot of these discs when I was a kid, great memories seeing them again
Ahh... I remember fondly looking at these exact disks back in Canada while my mom paid for groceries at Safeway. I tried to get her to get me some of these. Oh how I did try, but 75% of the time I was unsuccessful, but this is how I got introduced to Commander Keen!
I have fond memories of my dad buying me shareware disks like these when we would go to the dollar store. The CDs would often come with a huge collection of shareware, but you'd also get a single "full version" game. I know my parents didn't throw these out - I'm gonna snap some pictures next time I return home.
Used to pick up those shareware disks at the dollar store on a spinnable rack. My mom would buy me one usually every time we went! So I had quite a few of them.
OMG. This video was great! I would love to see them ALL played. Im from Canada and I see some of those are from The Bay! I never knew they had shareware.
I played SO many of these games.
Oh man, these old shareware disks are my JAM
Oh my god dude, I remember this. . . Something I didn't even remember that I forgot.
Thank you.
I live in Nova Scotia Canada and I remember buying not CDs but floppy disks with games on them. They were usually around five bucks apiece and sold at my local pharmacy. These are definitely strange times and it's getting very scary out there thank you Clint for this video
Holy memories! i remember picking some of these at Zellers and K-Mart back in the day!
Of all the collections to find! I had ALL of these when I was a kid, my school did a flea market fundraiser thing and I picked up each disk for like 25 cents. Someone had the whole set boxed.
my family bought some of these exact disks when I was a kid, from the dollar store. Good times. We live in Canada btw.
Thanks for all the rad vids during this bizarre time!
i remember when my dad bought a copy of Doom episode 1 shareware from a store, he managed to format the disks when trying to install them. We had to get a replacement, which my brother successfully installed haha.
Man, me and my older brother had a shareware version of Brutal Paws of Fury, and I still fondly remember us fighting against eachother and having the most hillarious time of our lives.
It was magical looking at the colorful pictures, imagining what the game might play and getting excited about it. Usually the games weren't as good but you made it look better in your head. Really magical times. I did that with gaming magazines, in my country we had 2 huge magazines about video games, one was called 576Kbyte and the other is COV (which stood for COmmodore Világ or COmputer Világ which means Commodore/Computer World). I didn't have access to many games back in the days and I just drooled over the pages of these magazines imagining one day I might be able to play those games. One game I fell in love this way was Leisure Suit Larry 6 and ended up liking the whole series though not every entry is good, I think 6 stands out.
I'm from Canada, and I have fond memories of these....especially in the late 90's when they were in clearance bins and "Clearance centers". Although I do not recall ever seeing them in The Bay...
and yes, Trekkie delight was EGA Trek... I did specifically buy that one...
These discs were everything for me as a kid! Without them I would have never played any Apogee!
In the early '90s my dad used to pick up shareware disks for my brother and I from K-Mart. In the late '90s when I had an allowance, I would often buy shareware disks of older games from the $1 store.
Skunny! Been trying for years to remember that name. Thank you
A long time ago, I was at a mom & pop dollar store in a certain South Dakota college town. It was the early or mid 2000s. I remember seeing CD-ROM shareware games packaged in sleeves like these, sold for $1 each. Each disc had a single game. Many of them appeared to be for DOS. I still had a Windows 98 PC at the time, so there was probably a portion of the population that still could run those old games.
Yes! This is how I played Blake Stone for the first time. These used to be everywhere (in Ontario, Canada) anyway and also many other games.
I remember seeing these everywhere growing up in Canada!
Man i have some really good strong memories of Jazz Jackrabbit, i played the shite out of that game growing up. It was so much fun back then.
I remember playing Skunny Kart a lot as a kid. I was trying to remember the name of it a couple weeks ago but couldn't. And by golly there it is in this video, ty Clint
Yes, please play anything that looks interesting to you. Just simple gameplay videos with some of your first impression thoughts would be tons of fun, and watching someone with an appreciation for it play old titles like this is so cozy relaxing - I think for a lot of us it just reminds us of carefree childhood afternoons in front of a cheap beige computer, listening to a loud powersupply fan and staring at a small CRT for hours on end. I think we all need just a bit of a safe oasis of happy memories like that at times, and if you have the time to play some of the games and give some of your thoughts, I know a lot of us viewers would highly appreciate it.
There was a shareware shmup I loved growing up that I could just not remember. Ray-traced backgrounds, great music... Thankies for reminding me about KILOBLASTER! The ost is on RUclips and is exactly as I remember!
In the 90s I constantly went to my local Kroger which had an isle that had shareware games (for like $1-$5 depending on title). I use to have a lot of shareware disks. That's how I was exposed to CMDR keen and the first Duke nukem. It was a weekly ritual until they stopped carrying then. Seeing those packages take me back.
A few years later Walmart started carrying those CDs that had thousands of games on them. And it became another weekly thing until they stopped carrying them.
Great video Clint! Watching this video has inspired me to track down the shareware demos from the 90s.
I managed so far to grab the demos for Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Jazz jackrabbit, x wing, tie fighter, X-Men children of the atom, mortal Kombat 2 and 3, super street fighter 2 turbo, epic pinball and others.
Heavy equipment mechanic here. I sure wish I could stay home, and watch LGR all day😂
Ah this brings back so many memories used to go to the sunday market every weekend here in Australia and pick up tons of shareware in 3.5 inch floppies its how i originally got into commander keen im pretty sure i still have the original diskette lying around
Would love to see you play through these with PUR. I miss the LGR+PUR commentaries. Regularly rewatch those :D
Do you have a few moments to talk about Steven Pickel? ( _Last Half of Darkness III_ )
She's probably too busy with her new art channel, and all her Murder she wrote commentaries.
Mystic Towers looks really interesting. It was the only game that kind of stood out from the entire set as something unique. I'd love to see you review that sometime in the future.
It's also quite hard. And it's on Steam. And it had epic tracker music like an Amiga game had at the time. (And boobies, somehow the ratings board missed those)
This just reminds me so much of those days in the 90s. For me it was going to certain malls and either a radio shack or computer shop, and either going through the bargain bins or checking out the shareware selection. Well also I'd order some stuff through the mail but I wasn't always patient enough.
I can't ever forget the amazing games i went home with, commander keen, Blake stone, Duke nukem, hugos house of horror.... The Sierra adventure games, many other random adventure games. So many amazing games.
And here's the thing. Even with all the indie games now, it just doesn't compare to variety and experimental feel games had in the 80s and 90s. I had no clue back then how much the world would change, and really, unless you were there to experience this yourself you probably won't understand. How unique and original games were back then. Or is this just nostalgic ramblings?
No... I swear there was just so much more originality then
I’m french-canadian and geez, the French translations are BAD on theses shareware packages!
It's because french canadian sucks. Stick to real french
i was about to comment about the shitty french translations! (i live in Switzerland)
@@WildVoltorb Canadian French is the real French.
Not only that, but their obsessive use of double exclamation marks is truly irritating !!
Andres Oberhaensli !!
Really awesome to see the Halloween Harry shareware version on actual physical media. Quite rare indeed to see that considering the name change! That is a fantastic piece to have. It was just one of those titles I loved seeing in BBS file sections.
Love the Software Evo logo. So 90ish clipart !
The people demand more Blerbs! These are perfect for passing time during the quarantine/sheltering in place
I would be down to see more of these played! Especially that "gorry" fighting game!
The first time I played castle wolfenstein was on a shareware disk. Brings back memories.
Sorry to tell you, but I want to see them all, including all the installations... :)
Some of those were pretty good, like _Mystic Towers._ In our house, by the time we saw the shareware, we figured either the software or the company was no longer available. We missed out on a lot of great games back then because of it. Slowly making up for it now.
@@Christopher-N oh man, I hated mystic towers so much 😑 👌
As a Canadian, it's funny to me how these were sold at The Bay (or 'Hudson's Bay' as they want to be called now). I know they have an electronics section, and my family did get TV's and such there, but I never recall anything video game related being sold. Perhaps they did, and all this was slightly before my time; I just remember going to The Bay to buy clothes. Toys R Us, Zellers (which was also owned by The Bay before Target bombed here), Walmart and EB Games were where I bought games growing up.
I remember those! My parents gated me constantly asking about them!
I can't believe I wasn't subscribed to Blerbs. Fixed that shit quick. Thanks for all the great content Clint.
Tandy in the UK had these ,i would go there every week after school .and just see what was new 😀
Bio menace! I loved that game, the music is awesome and so is the main character with his mustache and Chuck Norris-y attitude fighting aliens and mutants... Such an underdog! Definitely worth a review imho, would love to hear that adlib machine gun sound effect again
Well today I learned that not only was there a PC version of Body Blows but a shareware version too. Cheers Clint.
WOW, I remember getting a bunch of these old shareware disks as a kid in Canada, the packaging (3.5' disque) is a nostalgia bomb. Jazz Jackrabbit is one I remember fondly.
I would love to see you playing some of these games
1990's Macintosh shareware - sweet memories :)
my uncle was a big pc nut, he had a ZX Spectrum, even though that "evil capitalist machine" wasn't sold here, and in the 90s, he always had the best pc he could get. He had a 486 when my cousins and I were little, and he collected these shareware games and played it on the 486. Raptor Call of the Shadows, Wolfeinstein 3D, Prehistorik, Vikings, Screamer, Dune, Micro Machines and countless others. We played the crap out of those with my cousins back then. 5 kids sat in front of a crappy old 486, running win95,. man. good times.
From the price tag you can see those copies were bought from the Bay. For non-Canadians that's a department store that's kind of like Sears. I remember shareware games at the grocery store on a spinner rack that typically cost $4.99 but sometimes the odd title was $6.49. My brothers and I were very into them since these were videogames we could actually afford. The packaging was extremely cheap though. The disks came in what looked like a yellow sandwich bag with a typed label stuck on it with the game title, description and system requirements. Yes, there were NO SCREENSHOTS so we bought games based entirely on the description. Often we couldn't even tell what genre the game would be until we installed the thing. It got a little easier after we accumulated a few games as companies like Apogee would often have ads for other titles in their games, usually with screenshots, and then we would recognize those titles at the store.
my fav channel on the youtube. seriously.
Love it! Thanks for making a rad video. I kinda miss getting shareware disks. It was a huge deal for us. I only ever remember getting 5 or 6 ever. One of my favorites was Kroz!
Tubular Worlds is a pretty solid side scrolling shooter. I ordered it when I was a kid from a shareware catalog named Reasonable Solutions. I wish I could track down a copy of that catalog to flip through again.
I loved this so much, I would happily watch footage of any or all of these. Even just a long unedited blerb
Thanks LGR. Weird times and love your videos, always have. Help me get through hard times
those PC magazines i used to buy in the early 90s for the game cheat codes and walkthroughs used to always include a free floppy disk with shareware and freeware, i really sorta miss those simple gaming days back then on my dads PC with a CGA monitor playing Leisure Suit Larry in black & white and King's Quest in 4 colours
oh wow, so much nostalgia. I had a huge stack of those as a kid.
I remember in the early 90s there was a shop that sold shareware, they would charge something like 5 dollars per disk, but you could fill it with all the programs you wanted, until full capacity. they had a printed catalog, and you could choose wich programs and they would make your disk in the moment, or for the next day. This is how I got Neopaint for example.
those mystic towers look like something to try