{"product_id":"shareware-heroes","title":"Shareware Heroes","description":"\u003cspan\u003e\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eShareware Heroes\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is a comprehensive, meticulously researched exploration of an important and too-long overlooked chapter in video game history\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eShareware Heroes: Independent Games at the Dawn of the Internet\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e takes readers 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.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cspan\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. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eRaptor\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTyrian\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e) or racing games (e.g. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWacky Wheels\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSkunny Kart\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e) or RPGs (\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGod of Thunder\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eRealmz\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\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.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57588213219710,"sku":"NW9781800181748","price":11.75,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9781800181748.jpg?v=1781970833","url":"https:\/\/mediaplace.com\/products\/shareware-heroes","provider":"MediaPlace","version":"1.0","type":"link"}