Shareware Heroes, the book by Richard Moss which chronicles the history of shareware, is now funding on Kickstarter! Previously the book raised over 50% of its required funding on Unbound, and now looks to raise the remainder to get it released.
More information about the book:
Shareware Heroes: Independent Games at the Dawn of the Internet 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.
This 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. Raptor and Tyrian) or racing games (e.g. Wacky Wheels and Skunny Kart) or RPGs (God of Thunder and Realmz), 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.
The book will be approximately 360 pages and include new, never before seen interviews with a bevy of content creators, looks to be a great addition to any DOS games fan's library. Consider backing Shareware Heroes on Kickstarter here!
