Early PC Shareware

[kupomogli]

Hover. I'm not sure if it was shareware or the full version that came with Windows 95, but it was an awesome game.

As for shareware. I had a CD that had a bunch. Jazz Jackrabbit and Cannon Fodder were my favorites.

[Genesaturn]

My two favorites, by far, were One Must Fall 2097... and Traffic Department 2192 (I might have that number wrong).

One Must Fall was a 2D fighter where you chose a robot and a pilot. Since the pilot used some direct brain link to control the robot, your choice of pilot determined the stats of your robot... while the robot had some base stats of it's own, as well as it's own special moves. This game is a true classic, and I still consider it the definitive PC fighting game. It had all the aspects that made 2D fighters great, including finishing moves, secret characters, tough bosses, interesting and diverse characters, a surprisingly deep combo system, interactive levels, and even a nicely done "career" mode where you made money from fights and used it to upgrade your robot and buy new ones. The game was also very configurable, so you could change the speed (unfortunately, the game didn't limit it's speed, so trying to run it on your 35THz machine might be tricky), or remove the ability to "juggle" characters and other such things. The only thing I didn't like was that some of the robots weren't balanced very well, so you'd get some robots that simply weren't very useful. Still waiting for a (good) sequel to this game to come out

Traffic Department was an overhead view shooter. You'd pilot your ship (which was horrendously fast) around the streets of a city in the distant future on a distant planet. You were a fiesty female policeman (well, not really a policeman, but the Traffic Department basically took over the job of enforcing the law it seems) named Velasquez, and the whole game had a continuing storyline of your fight against a gang called the Vultures who were conducting many illegal activities in the city. The storyline took a LOT of twists, which included your character getting abducted and brainwashed, the death of fellow T.D. members, and many other strange turns of events. Not only did it have an engrossing storyline, but the gameplay was simple and fun, and the missions showed a surprising amount of diversity. Sometimes you'd be on search and destroy missions, or you'd have to escort convoys out of town, or you'd have to steal Vulture ships or plant bombs in Vulture hideouts. No one ever seems to remember this game, but it was truly excellent.

--Zero

I'm really glad to see me and my neighbor weren't the only ones obsessed with one must fall. That was the first fighting game I ever played. Loved watching bits of metal and bolts flying all over. I remember when Worms first came out...played the demo to pieces...never liked any of the follow ups really. Jazz Jack Rabbit was another one of my fav games....there are way to many to name. I spent so many hours in front of my old P1 lol. Between Stonekeep, and Warcraft...those games sucked my life away...and thats not even including all the hours spent playing the Kyrandia, Kings Quest, and every other awesome PC game.

I used to buy PC Gamer mag's just to get demo disc's...back when demo's were demo's and not like timed crap or anything. They gave you a fairly good portion to play and see how the game was...I played the Fire Fight demo by Epic Mega Games like it was no bodies business back in the day.

[DragonMaster Sam]

One Must Fall 2097 and Blake Stone were my favorites.

[Gameguy]

Hover. I'm not sure if it was shareware or the full version that came with Windows 95, but it was an awesome game.

I used to play that all the time too, I still have the PC that came with it. It was a full game that came with Windows 95 so it's not shareware.

For actual shareware I have a CD with a bunch of games, but the one that sticks in my mind is a type of rat shooting game where you pick the location and weapon. I remember a taser and flame thrower being available, it was fun to play for a few minutes at a time. It's been ages since I've played it, I usually avoid any actual shareware and stick to full software versions of retail games.