A downloadable game

Take a trip down to the origin of PC gaming! Here are 43 handpicked shareware and freeware games in a nice, ready-to-play package. Each game has a short description and can be played right from the box without installation!

Included games:
Bouncing Babies • Doom • 1Pinball • SneeSnoo Snake • BlueBalls • XQuest II • Catchem • Astrofire • Epic Pinball • Overkill • 3-Demon • Blake Stone • Nitemare-3D • Depth Dwellers • Heretic • Shadow Caster • Megawolf • CodeMaster • Bounty Hunter Game • Big Rig • Advanced Robot War • Cyberbox II • Arena • Minefield for Everybody • Sleuth - A Murder Mystery • Captain Comic • Abuse • Bionic Menace • Secret Agent • Jetpack • Arcade Volleyball • One Must Fall 2097 • Scorched Earth • Gravity Wars II • BananaTron • Wacky Wheels • Redhook’s Revenge • Catacomb • Kaptajn Kaper i Kattegat • Chopper Commando • Wolfenstein 3-D • Quatris Pro • Boxmov

StatusReleased
Rating
Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars
(1 total ratings)
AuthorKasper Hviid
TagsDOS, Retro

Download

Download
The-Shareware-Motherlode.zip 26 MB

Install instructions

Just download, unzip, and run Shareware Motherlode.exe

Microsoft Smartscreen may complain that it's an "unrecognized app". Don't worry, the software is fine. It's Microsoft Smartscreen that has a problem. The .exe is just a renamed version of the DOS emulator DosBox Staging.

Development log

Comments

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(+1)

This is really a fantastic idea; reminds me of a modern version of those shareware CDs I used to buy in newsagents as a kid!

The main games I felt were "missing" were Commander Keen, Duke Nukem and Crystal Caves. I feel they are among the most iconic shareware games, after Doom and Wolf3D.

I would also love to see added (shareware versions):

Descent

Vinyl Goddess From Mars

Jill of the Jungle

Jazz Jackrabbit

Xargon

Traffic Department 2192

Highway Hunter

Solar Winds

Is there a reason any of those could not be added besides personal preference? Just checking because I'll make a private patch that adds them for me if not! :)

Thanks, good selection! Will see if I can get them added in the next update. This is still pretty much an in-dev project, so lots of classics are missing.

Had a bit of trouble with Jill of the Jungle though. It didn't return to the batch file it was run from (the menu) so I ended up just removing it. Might try it again!

Hi! Thanks for the reply (I forgot RADIX too, I think that had a shareware version?).

I just tried "inserting" Jill into your collection and got it working to return to the batch/platformers menu. If you need a hand with anything. please drop me a message or email; I'm an old DOS vet and grew up with these games as well as pretty pretty adept with DOSBox, and would be happy to help. :)

You got Jill to work? Splendid! Please tell me how. My mail is kasperhviid over at gmail

(+1)

What a nice idea! I feel like being thrown back into the mid-90ies, exploring one of these 9 bucks-shareware cds. Thank you for this experience! :)