[swivelmaster]

I'll shake my fist :D

Id software pioneered the shareware model in 1990 with Commander Keen, six years before they used it in Quake.

In fact, Keen, Keen 4, Wolfenstein 3D, and Doom all used a three-episode shareware structure where the first episode was free and the rest were considered the "full version."

Doom 2 did not use this structure because Doom itself was a good enough advertisement for it. id then used it again in Quake, but fully broke from it with Quake 2, which just had a demo with a few levels.

[fsloth]

ID most certainly did not pioneer the shareware model. Shareware as a model is nearly as old as the personal computer.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shareware

[PhasmaFelis]

Technically correct, but the specific Apogee model of shareware (one free episode, two or more commercial episodes) was much more successful than the original model of distributing everything for free and politely asking people to pay for it; it was pioneered by Id's publisher Apogee.

[fsloth]

Ah, good point. I stand semi-corrected :)

[flukus]

This is the oldest I can think of, 1989 - Hugos House of Horrors:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo's_House_of_Horrors

[PhasmaFelis]

Not Id, but Apogee, pioneered "the Apogee model" of shareware with the Kroz trilogy in 1987. Apogee published Id's Commander Keen and Wolfenstein games.

[sien]

Which is playable on the internet archive at

https://archive.org/details/1990SuperKrozTrilogy

[npongratz]

I thought of Kroz immediately when I saw yesterday's Unscii submission:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13185932

http://pelulamu.net/unscii/

[swivelmaster]

Ah, yes, I forgot about this! Thanks for the correction!

[j2kun]

Commander Keen games were a staple of my early video game experience.

[godzillabrennus]

No reason to stop now: http://store.steampowered.com/app/9180/

They are available through steam.

[qwertyuiop924]

As a new player who tried these games... they don't hold up. I'm sorry, but without the nostalgia, it just isn't fun. Technically impressive? Yes. But not fun.

Personally, I don't think any of id's pre-DOOM games hold up well. But that could just be me...

[wapz]

Wow! I have to go back and play through these games. I really do wonder how hard the games will feel now that I'm a grown adult..