{"product_id":"book-hb3a","title":"Shareware Heroes","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eShareware Heroes\u003c\/i\u003e is a comprehensive, meticulously researched exploration of an important and too-long overlooked chapter in video game history\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eShareware Heroes: The renegades who redefined gaming at the dawn of the internet\u003c\/i\u003e takes listeners on a journey, from the beginnings of the shareware model in the early 1980s, the origins of the concept, even the name itself, and the rise of shareware's major players—the likes of id Software, Apogee, and Epic MegaGames—through to the significance of shareware for the \"forgotten\" systems—the Mac, Atari ST, Amiga—when commercial game publishers turned away from them.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis book also charts the emergence of commercial shareware distributors like Educorp and the BBS\/newsgroup sharing culture. And it explores how shareware developers plugged gaps in the video gaming market by creating games in niche and neglected genres like vertically-scrolling shoot-'em-ups (e.g. \u003ci\u003eRaptor\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eTyrian\u003c\/i\u003e), or racing games (e.g. \u003ci\u003eWacky Wheels\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eSkunny Kart\u003c\/i\u003e), or RPGs (\u003ci\u003eGod of Thunder\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eRealmz\u003c\/i\u003e), until finally, as the video game market again grew and shifted, and major publishers took control, how the shareware system faded into the background and fell from memory.","brand":"Tantor","offers":[{"title":"Audiobook","offer_id":49355567300912,"sku":"BDhb3a","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Audio CD","offer_id":49355567431984,"sku":"ZEhb3a","price":49.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Audio MP3-CD","offer_id":49355567497520,"sku":"ZMhb3a","price":45.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0879\/2784\/9264\/files\/hb3a-Square-cover.jpg?v=1780324366","url":"https:\/\/downpour.com\/products\/book-hb3a","provider":"Downpour","version":"1.0","type":"link"}