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P.D and Shareware has always been a consistent source for new and innovative titles...
Of course, its also been the primary source for rehashed, half baked, badly written nonsense, but alike the Playstation owner in the face of imminent GC and X-Box launches, we'll forget about them for the moment and concentrate on our successes...
Although awareness of shareware and PD has increased at almost the same rate as the influence of the internet into our individual lives and collective consciousness, it was already developing a strong presence in the late eighties, early nineties, when the most popular ways to get PD was either through a direct dialled BBS or more commonly ordering from dodgy Ads from the back of computer mags...
One of the primary driving forces behind the increasing popularity of P.D. was games development (I even had a dabble myself, with my AMOS wonder 'Egg-Blasters') ... notably, utilities were also popular, however, since P.D utilities pre-date commercially sold software, and since this is going to be about games development, I'll leave forget about PD utilities for the moment...
Anyway... PD Games increased in popularity, and influence steadily, boosted enormously, as I’ve already said, from the Internet being accessible to the general public. Even, creating its own heroes, of sorts, of whom EPIC Mega games and of course id seem to be the most famous.
There was, I remember, much speculation at the time of computer software being sold solely over the Internet, and that software being held on a physical medium would become a thing of the past. However, since this was also the time when people speculated the internet would do away with all other form of communications, and that humans would live solitary lives sitting at the computer 24hrs a day, never to see the sun, I think that it can be chalked up as another case of the media talking rubbish and another reason never to believe anything you read, and to publicly, and vocally mock anyone in the media as loudly as frequently as possible. :)
Point is, and there kinda is one, that there were a lot of people writing their own games...
It was different to the early eighties, which is why I'm purposely missing it out and starting in the early nineties, it was possible then for one person to write a hit title, more importantly to note, it was possible for one person to write a titles that for the time, represented the state of the art. Partly because no one knew if gaming would last, partly because no one really knew what was going on, and where if anywhere, it was going. As the years passed, it seemed to die down as companies started to get formally formed, things started to get professional, and people started saying talking about the death of the bedroom programmer, and the need for teams to write a valid contemporary title.
By the time P.D. games were at their peak, many people were writing in teams... At the very least, there was a guy who just did the graphics, another composing the music and sound effects, a couple more writing the code...
Thing is stuff was actually being done, people were working together to write the code, and games were being produced, although, by this time it was more shareware than P.D.)...
We were at the beginning of the time where the popular press, and popular option started to consider games development solely to be the domain of professional developers, that games were too complex, graphics too advanced, music of too high a quality for the humble public to be able to develop titles of suitable quality without the required budget and time to back them up, an opinion which they stuck to during, despite and since the successes of Doom, Duke Nukem, etc.
Then (like in the eighties?) things moved on, the shareware/P.D. successes, including Epic and (most notably) id became 'professional' businesses, they started selling their games on CD through Activision, the worlds first third party developer (it was also at this point, that the playstation & co. became the toys that all aspiring international bright young things were required to own).
Anyway, time moved on, but things didn’t, consoles remained the dominate force in gaming entertainment, the popular press and popular opinion continued to state that games can now only be developed by companies with huge budgets, and that the humble member of the general public cant write software to compete without a huge budget and years of development time.
Although it seems, games are the ONLY form of popular entertainment were this is considered a valid point of view... every couple years, musically, cinematically, literally (okay that one doesn’t work as well, but you get the idea), there’s some home made movie, or album which was written and recorded in the basement, novel written in the spare time which is a huge success and helps propel the industry forward with new ideas, fresh momentum, and another cash cow to milk...
Its an easy excuse to allow people to have opinions and complaints about the lack of originality of games, how quality is being sacrificed for cash, how games should have been written, and what someone should write...
As a side note, to notice the popularity, of predicting the death of the PC, even the popularity of promoting its demise as a gaming machine, (within these forums!) though take note, after its demise, as you sit in front of your TV screens, with the next EA Sports franchise sitting in your console, there will be little left for the amateur developers work with.
However, back to the point... We need people to be cutting their teeth as early as possible, people who have had the freedom to try things out, take risks with new ideas, see which of them work, which fail and to have the time to understand why, without having to worry about budget constraints, release dates and potential profitability of a title. P.D and Shareware is how the vast majority of the most popular developers got going today, British developers especially, and they site it as the reason for their success.
There doesn’t seem to be the same strength in P.D. games development now as there used to be, and although there seems to be more people with options of how games should be, there are very few who are actually doing something about it, without which, the gaming industry, and the gamer will suffer sorely and be much the worse for it.
Of course, its also been the primary source for rehashed, half baked, badly written nonsense, but alike the Playstation owner in the face of imminent GC and X-Box launches, we'll forget about them for the moment and concentrate on our successes...
Although awareness of shareware and PD has increased at almost the same rate as the influence of the internet into our individual lives and collective consciousness, it was already developing a strong presence in the late eighties, early nineties, when the most popular ways to get PD was either through a direct dialled BBS or more commonly ordering from dodgy Ads from the back of computer mags...
One of the primary driving forces behind the increasing popularity of P.D. was games development (I even had a dabble myself, with my AMOS wonder 'Egg-Blasters') ... notably, utilities were also popular, however, since P.D utilities pre-date commercially sold software, and since this is going to be about games development, I'll leave forget about PD utilities for the moment...
Anyway... PD Games increased in popularity, and influence steadily, boosted enormously, as I’ve already said, from the Internet being accessible to the general public. Even, creating its own heroes, of sorts, of whom EPIC Mega games and of course id seem to be the most famous.
There was, I remember, much speculation at the time of computer software being sold solely over the Internet, and that software being held on a physical medium would become a thing of the past. However, since this was also the time when people speculated the internet would do away with all other form of communications, and that humans would live solitary lives sitting at the computer 24hrs a day, never to see the sun, I think that it can be chalked up as another case of the media talking rubbish and another reason never to believe anything you read, and to publicly, and vocally mock anyone in the media as loudly as frequently as possible. :)
Point is, and there kinda is one, that there were a lot of people writing their own games...
It was different to the early eighties, which is why I'm purposely missing it out and starting in the early nineties, it was possible then for one person to write a hit title, more importantly to note, it was possible for one person to write a titles that for the time, represented the state of the art. Partly because no one knew if gaming would last, partly because no one really knew what was going on, and where if anywhere, it was going. As the years passed, it seemed to die down as companies started to get formally formed, things started to get professional, and people started saying talking about the death of the bedroom programmer, and the need for teams to write a valid contemporary title.
By the time P.D. games were at their peak, many people were writing in teams... At the very least, there was a guy who just did the graphics, another composing the music and sound effects, a couple more writing the code...
Thing is stuff was actually being done, people were working together to write the code, and games were being produced, although, by this time it was more shareware than P.D.)...
We were at the beginning of the time where the popular press, and popular option started to consider games development solely to be the domain of professional developers, that games were too complex, graphics too advanced, music of too high a quality for the humble public to be able to develop titles of suitable quality without the required budget and time to back them up, an opinion which they stuck to during, despite and since the successes of Doom, Duke Nukem, etc.
Then (like in the eighties?) things moved on, the shareware/P.D. successes, including Epic and (most notably) id became 'professional' businesses, they started selling their games on CD through Activision, the worlds first third party developer (it was also at this point, that the playstation & co. became the toys that all aspiring international bright young things were required to own).
Anyway, time moved on, but things didn’t, consoles remained the dominate force in gaming entertainment, the popular press and popular opinion continued to state that games can now only be developed by companies with huge budgets, and that the humble member of the general public cant write software to compete without a huge budget and years of development time.
Although it seems, games are the ONLY form of popular entertainment were this is considered a valid point of view... every couple years, musically, cinematically, literally (okay that one doesn’t work as well, but you get the idea), there’s some home made movie, or album which was written and recorded in the basement, novel written in the spare time which is a huge success and helps propel the industry forward with new ideas, fresh momentum, and another cash cow to milk...
Its an easy excuse to allow people to have opinions and complaints about the lack of originality of games, how quality is being sacrificed for cash, how games should have been written, and what someone should write...
As a side note, to notice the popularity, of predicting the death of the PC, even the popularity of promoting its demise as a gaming machine, (within these forums!) though take note, after its demise, as you sit in front of your TV screens, with the next EA Sports franchise sitting in your console, there will be little left for the amateur developers work with.
However, back to the point... We need people to be cutting their teeth as early as possible, people who have had the freedom to try things out, take risks with new ideas, see which of them work, which fail and to have the time to understand why, without having to worry about budget constraints, release dates and potential profitability of a title. P.D and Shareware is how the vast majority of the most popular developers got going today, British developers especially, and they site it as the reason for their success.
There doesn’t seem to be the same strength in P.D. games development now as there used to be, and although there seems to be more people with options of how games should be, there are very few who are actually doing something about it, without which, the gaming industry, and the gamer will suffer sorely and be much the worse for it.
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To be honest, I didn't realise PD was still carrying on, to be honest.
Maybe I'm just not looking in the right places, but I'm sure it happened a lot more back in the days of the Amiga than it does now.
I remember get a couple of floppies, both stuffed full of PD games. Some of them were pretty damn good as well.
I suppose you could say that the last time something resembling PD turning big was the Worms games. The original (which was first released on the Amiga) was written by some geezer in his bedroom.
His mate ran an independant games shop, and the bloke asked his mate to put Worms on the Amiga in the shop, to get opinions from his customers.
Well, Worms turned into a huge cash cow that Team 17 are still milking today. In fact, Worms seem to be the only games they ever release...
Anyhoo, I don't think that PD will continue much longer (if it's still going) simply because of the time and effort involved in making a playable game these days. The simple fact is, it doesn't matter how good it plays - if a game looks s***e, no one will play it. Even if it's free.
Having said that, it could be argued that Mods are PD. Afterall, they're made by fans of the original game, and are available for free.
Does that constitue PD? Or does that fact that you have to buy the original game mean that it's not classed as PD?
Shanks - I mean, Dr Strangelove, do you know the answers?
:-D
Maybe I'm just not looking in the right places, but I'm sure it happened a lot more back in the days of the Amiga than it does now.
I remember get a couple of floppies, both stuffed full of PD games. Some of them were pretty damn good as well.
I suppose you could say that the last time something resembling PD turning big was the Worms games. The original (which was first released on the Amiga) was written by some geezer in his bedroom.
His mate ran an independant games shop, and the bloke asked his mate to put Worms on the Amiga in the shop, to get opinions from his customers.
Well, Worms turned into a huge cash cow that Team 17 are still milking today. In fact, Worms seem to be the only games they ever release...
Anyhoo, I don't think that PD will continue much longer (if it's still going) simply because of the time and effort involved in making a playable game these days. The simple fact is, it doesn't matter how good it plays - if a game looks s***e, no one will play it. Even if it's free.
Having said that, it could be argued that Mods are PD. Afterall, they're made by fans of the original game, and are available for free.
Does that constitue PD? Or does that fact that you have to buy the original game mean that it's not classed as PD?
Shanks - I mean, Dr Strangelove, do you know the answers?
:-D
P.D and Shareware has always been a consistent source for new and innovative titles...
Of course, its also been the primary source for rehashed, half baked, badly written nonsense, but alike the Playstation owner in the face of imminent GC and X-Box launches, we'll forget about them for the moment and concentrate on our successes...
Although awareness of shareware and PD has increased at almost the same rate as the influence of the internet into our individual lives and collective consciousness, it was already developing a strong presence in the late eighties, early nineties, when the most popular ways to get PD was either through a direct dialled BBS or more commonly ordering from dodgy Ads from the back of computer mags...
One of the primary driving forces behind the increasing popularity of P.D. was games development (I even had a dabble myself, with my AMOS wonder 'Egg-Blasters') ... notably, utilities were also popular, however, since P.D utilities pre-date commercially sold software, and since this is going to be about games development, I'll leave forget about PD utilities for the moment...
Anyway... PD Games increased in popularity, and influence steadily, boosted enormously, as I’ve already said, from the Internet being accessible to the general public. Even, creating its own heroes, of sorts, of whom EPIC Mega games and of course id seem to be the most famous.
There was, I remember, much speculation at the time of computer software being sold solely over the Internet, and that software being held on a physical medium would become a thing of the past. However, since this was also the time when people speculated the internet would do away with all other form of communications, and that humans would live solitary lives sitting at the computer 24hrs a day, never to see the sun, I think that it can be chalked up as another case of the media talking rubbish and another reason never to believe anything you read, and to publicly, and vocally mock anyone in the media as loudly as frequently as possible. :)
Point is, and there kinda is one, that there were a lot of people writing their own games...
It was different to the early eighties, which is why I'm purposely missing it out and starting in the early nineties, it was possible then for one person to write a hit title, more importantly to note, it was possible for one person to write a titles that for the time, represented the state of the art. Partly because no one knew if gaming would last, partly because no one really knew what was going on, and where if anywhere, it was going. As the years passed, it seemed to die down as companies started to get formally formed, things started to get professional, and people started saying talking about the death of the bedroom programmer, and the need for teams to write a valid contemporary title.
By the time P.D. games were at their peak, many people were writing in teams... At the very least, there was a guy who just did the graphics, another composing the music and sound effects, a couple more writing the code...
Thing is stuff was actually being done, people were working together to write the code, and games were being produced, although, by this time it was more shareware than P.D.)...
We were at the beginning of the time where the popular press, and popular option started to consider games development solely to be the domain of professional developers, that games were too complex, graphics too advanced, music of too high a quality for the humble public to be able to develop titles of suitable quality without the required budget and time to back them up, an opinion which they stuck to during, despite and since the successes of Doom, Duke Nukem, etc.
Then (like in the eighties?) things moved on, the shareware/P.D. successes, including Epic and (most notably) id became 'professional' businesses, they started selling their games on CD through Activision, the worlds first third party developer (it was also at this point, that the playstation & co. became the toys that all aspiring international bright young things were required to own).
Anyway, time moved on, but things didn’t, consoles remained the dominate force in gaming entertainment, the popular press and popular opinion continued to state that games can now only be developed by companies with huge budgets, and that the humble member of the general public cant write software to compete without a huge budget and years of development time.
Although it seems, games are the ONLY form of popular entertainment were this is considered a valid point of view... every couple years, musically, cinematically, literally (okay that one doesn’t work as well, but you get the idea), there’s some home made movie, or album which was written and recorded in the basement, novel written in the spare time which is a huge success and helps propel the industry forward with new ideas, fresh momentum, and another cash cow to milk...
Its an easy excuse to allow people to have opinions and complaints about the lack of originality of games, how quality is being sacrificed for cash, how games should have been written, and what someone should write...
As a side note, to notice the popularity, of predicting the death of the PC, even the popularity of promoting its demise as a gaming machine, (within these forums!) though take note, after its demise, as you sit in front of your TV screens, with the next EA Sports franchise sitting in your console, there will be little left for the amateur developers work with.
However, back to the point... We need people to be cutting their teeth as early as possible, people who have had the freedom to try things out, take risks with new ideas, see which of them work, which fail and to have the time to understand why, without having to worry about budget constraints, release dates and potential profitability of a title. P.D and Shareware is how the vast majority of the most popular developers got going today, British developers especially, and they site it as the reason for their success.
There doesn’t seem to be the same strength in P.D. games development now as there used to be, and although there seems to be more people with options of how games should be, there are very few who are actually doing something about it, without which, the gaming industry, and the gamer will suffer sorely and be much the worse for it.
Of course, its also been the primary source for rehashed, half baked, badly written nonsense, but alike the Playstation owner in the face of imminent GC and X-Box launches, we'll forget about them for the moment and concentrate on our successes...
Although awareness of shareware and PD has increased at almost the same rate as the influence of the internet into our individual lives and collective consciousness, it was already developing a strong presence in the late eighties, early nineties, when the most popular ways to get PD was either through a direct dialled BBS or more commonly ordering from dodgy Ads from the back of computer mags...
One of the primary driving forces behind the increasing popularity of P.D. was games development (I even had a dabble myself, with my AMOS wonder 'Egg-Blasters') ... notably, utilities were also popular, however, since P.D utilities pre-date commercially sold software, and since this is going to be about games development, I'll leave forget about PD utilities for the moment...
Anyway... PD Games increased in popularity, and influence steadily, boosted enormously, as I’ve already said, from the Internet being accessible to the general public. Even, creating its own heroes, of sorts, of whom EPIC Mega games and of course id seem to be the most famous.
There was, I remember, much speculation at the time of computer software being sold solely over the Internet, and that software being held on a physical medium would become a thing of the past. However, since this was also the time when people speculated the internet would do away with all other form of communications, and that humans would live solitary lives sitting at the computer 24hrs a day, never to see the sun, I think that it can be chalked up as another case of the media talking rubbish and another reason never to believe anything you read, and to publicly, and vocally mock anyone in the media as loudly as frequently as possible. :)
Point is, and there kinda is one, that there were a lot of people writing their own games...
It was different to the early eighties, which is why I'm purposely missing it out and starting in the early nineties, it was possible then for one person to write a hit title, more importantly to note, it was possible for one person to write a titles that for the time, represented the state of the art. Partly because no one knew if gaming would last, partly because no one really knew what was going on, and where if anywhere, it was going. As the years passed, it seemed to die down as companies started to get formally formed, things started to get professional, and people started saying talking about the death of the bedroom programmer, and the need for teams to write a valid contemporary title.
By the time P.D. games were at their peak, many people were writing in teams... At the very least, there was a guy who just did the graphics, another composing the music and sound effects, a couple more writing the code...
Thing is stuff was actually being done, people were working together to write the code, and games were being produced, although, by this time it was more shareware than P.D.)...
We were at the beginning of the time where the popular press, and popular option started to consider games development solely to be the domain of professional developers, that games were too complex, graphics too advanced, music of too high a quality for the humble public to be able to develop titles of suitable quality without the required budget and time to back them up, an opinion which they stuck to during, despite and since the successes of Doom, Duke Nukem, etc.
Then (like in the eighties?) things moved on, the shareware/P.D. successes, including Epic and (most notably) id became 'professional' businesses, they started selling their games on CD through Activision, the worlds first third party developer (it was also at this point, that the playstation & co. became the toys that all aspiring international bright young things were required to own).
Anyway, time moved on, but things didn’t, consoles remained the dominate force in gaming entertainment, the popular press and popular opinion continued to state that games can now only be developed by companies with huge budgets, and that the humble member of the general public cant write software to compete without a huge budget and years of development time.
Although it seems, games are the ONLY form of popular entertainment were this is considered a valid point of view... every couple years, musically, cinematically, literally (okay that one doesn’t work as well, but you get the idea), there’s some home made movie, or album which was written and recorded in the basement, novel written in the spare time which is a huge success and helps propel the industry forward with new ideas, fresh momentum, and another cash cow to milk...
Its an easy excuse to allow people to have opinions and complaints about the lack of originality of games, how quality is being sacrificed for cash, how games should have been written, and what someone should write...
As a side note, to notice the popularity, of predicting the death of the PC, even the popularity of promoting its demise as a gaming machine, (within these forums!) though take note, after its demise, as you sit in front of your TV screens, with the next EA Sports franchise sitting in your console, there will be little left for the amateur developers work with.
However, back to the point... We need people to be cutting their teeth as early as possible, people who have had the freedom to try things out, take risks with new ideas, see which of them work, which fail and to have the time to understand why, without having to worry about budget constraints, release dates and potential profitability of a title. P.D and Shareware is how the vast majority of the most popular developers got going today, British developers especially, and they site it as the reason for their success.
There doesn’t seem to be the same strength in P.D. games development now as there used to be, and although there seems to be more people with options of how games should be, there are very few who are actually doing something about it, without which, the gaming industry, and the gamer will suffer sorely and be much the worse for it.
Page: