I'm pretty sure Doom will be the most popular (and my pick too), but I'll throw a shout-out to Epic Pinball; that Android table was the best one in the game anyway.
Scorched Earth
this post was submitted on 05 Mar 2025
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I think this question just fried my brain. I don’t even know where to start.
Most played shareware of all time though was probably Transport Tycoon.
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I can't tell you how many times I played the shareware version of Gazillionaire.
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ZZT, the game that launched Epic. Say, there's gotta be a ZZT community somewhere on lemmy, right?
I was so addicted to ZZT back then! The player-made worlds were such a delight, and my slow-ass computer which choked on so many then-current games ran them without trouble.
Now I want to try it out again.
People are still making games using it! When I get a bit more free time I want to polish up and republish the ones I made.
I always wanted to play with the editor and make a game with it back then, but never got around to it. Perhaps it's still not too late!
ZZT is officially freeware these days, too! The last original floppy was purchased about five years ago, and afterwards Sweeney declared the program officially free to use, though sadly not open-source. I believe it has been successfully decompiled for over a decade, though.
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Might be pushing the limits of shareware, but the demo of Quake 1 on cd for a buck. A simple console command unlocked the full version.
Tyrian
Want a fun piece of trivia? Epic Pinball launched Digital Extremes, the developer behind Warframe.
And is named Epic because of Epic (Mega)Games
We had to be memory experts back then. QEMM FTW!
I spent a lot of time playing Raptor: Call of the Shadows, a vertically-scrolling shooter with an upgrade system.
There was also Rise of the Triad, a pretty decent Doom-clone
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brave dwarves 1
The graphic design looks so much like Spelunky. Cool!
Wolfenstein 3d, and commander Keen
Mordor 1 The Depths of Dejenol
still available from Decklins Demise
Its the game that got me into dungeon crawlers particularly Demise: Rise of the Ku'Tan, and the epxansions Ascension and Revenge of the Tavern Keeper
My first FPS and an excellent one. Sooo many hidden rooms and insane enemies.
Apogee was on fire during that whole era
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Realmz
I spent so many hours as a kid on my dad's Thinkpad playing Gravity Well. It came on one of those "50 Great Games" CDs or something like that. The goal is to claim all the planets in the system, which you do by simply landing on them, then building defenses against your opponents. It's so much fun because your ship has pretty realistic inertia and the planets have actual gravity wells. The AI opponents can be quite difficult and aggressive. Challenging and fun, with great sound effects for the time!
This screenshot is from an Internet Archive page for the game, but I'm pretty sure it's only the shareware version. I gotta check again when I get off work!
Edit: I'm 99% certain it's from this exact CD for anyone interested. I've never been able to find a full version unfortunately...
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I played a lot of TetriNET and Subspace Continuum with my old online community. Great times.
More detail edit: TetriNET walked so Tetris 99 could run. Version 1 does not install on Windows anymore (but has a Linux version). Version 2 works, complete with its archaic user registration that asks for too many details.
Continuum is a large PvP arena Asteroids-like 2D space shooter. It's on Steam now. Starts tough to control and with a high skill ceiling, so be wary of the veterans. The Death Star Battle map is a blast with a big group. It feels like trying to speed through a narrow maze on bumper boats during a huge battle.
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Pinball Fantasies, Raptor, Heretic
Doom, Wolf3d, Diablo, and Castle of the Winds