Shareware: Difference between revisions
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The degree to which shareware can be played prior to purchase varies:
* '''Honorware:''' Some games have no limits whatsoever prior to purchase, merely relying on anything from a line of text reading “registered to: {{color|red|u}}” in the corner of the opening splash screen to increasingly strident, sometimes unskippable admonitions of shame (thus the occasional pejorative of '''Nagware''') in order to remind receptive players to pay for the game…[[Good Feels Good|and the warm, fuzzy feeling of supporting independent game development]].
* '''Crippleware:''' One or more features are inactive until the game is purchased. This might mean that you can't exit a certain area, level up beyond a certain point, obtain certain powerups, create or use [[Game Mod
* '''Trialware:''' You can only play the game for a certain span of time (typically about a month,) a certain number of times, or something similar. After that, it can't be played any more until it's purchased. In the early days, this could often be circumvented by [[Good Bad Bugs|setting your system clock forward several years before installing it; on reverting to the normal time, you would be told that you are on day -3467 of your 30-day trial]].
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{{examples}}
== Companies and Creators
* [http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/ Spiderweb Software] still operates on the classic shareware model, releasing 20%-40% playable versions of ''Nethergate'' and the ''[[Exile]]''/''[[Avernum]]'' and ''[[Geneforge]]'' series.
* [http://www.ambrosiasw.com/ Ambrosia Software] also operates on the shareware model for all the titles it develops and publishes, such as ''[[Escape Velocity]]'' and ''[[Aquaria (Video Game)|Aquaria]]''.
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* [http://www.mikesedore.com/ Mike Sedore] has "light" versions of all three of his games: ''Mike's Cards'', ''Mike's Marbles'' and ''Mike's Arcade''. Registering "Mike's 3-Pack" allows one to unlock all three games for the price of two.
== Games and Series
* ''Bio Menace''
* ''[[Blake Stone]]: Aliens of Gold''
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** ''[[Mount and Blade (Video Game)|Mount and Blade]]'' had a similar set up during its development - one could download it for free, and play for one in-game month, or pay to get full access to the game as it was, and all future versions (including the completed game). The price steadily increased as the game neared completion, so the earlier in development one bought the game the cheaper it was.
* ''[[Crystal Caves (Video Game)|Crystal Caves]]''
* ''[[Doom]]''
* The ''[[Duke Nukem (Video Game)|Duke Nukem]]'' series -- [[Duke Nukem I (Video Game)|The]] [[Duke Nukem II (Video Game)|first]] [[Duke Nukem 3D (Video Game)|three]] main games in the series had a complete “episode” released as shareware first, with further episodes then being available to buy.
* ''[[Heretic]]''
* ''[[Immortal Defense]]'' allows you to play through the first third of the game for free, downloadable from their website.
* ''[[Jazz Jackrabbit (Video Game)|Jazz Jackrabbit]]''
* ''[[Jill of the Jungle (Video Game)|Jill of the Jungle]]''
* ''[[Laxius Force]]''
* ''[[Monster Bash]]''
* ''[[Quake (Video Game)|Quake]]''
** Nine if you count the Hub Level "start". Which is also a cool deathmatch level.
* ''[[Real Space]] 3: Apocolypse Returns''
* ''[[Rise of the Triad]]''
* ''[[Secret Agent (Video Game)|Secret Agent]]''
* ''[[Shadow Warrior]]''
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