{"product_id":"shareware-heroes-by-richard-moss-9781800181748","title":"Shareware Heroes","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\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\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eShareware Heroes: The renegades who redefined gaming at the dawn of the internet\u003c\/i\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\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46817009303788,"sku":"9781800181748","price":39.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/26003363482828.jpg?v=1757871779","url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/products\/shareware-heroes-by-richard-moss-9781800181748","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}