back in the early pandemic, with way more time spent in my apartment than was healthy, i decided to run a solo podcast about 90s gaming on the Macintosh, Windows 3.1, and MS-DOS. my aim was introducing a level of technical and historical detail not often found on general audience video game podcasts.

each episode took 10-20 hours of research and writing to explore in depth. i tried to pick less popular games that hadn't been talked about much, were underrated, or fascinating from a programming perspective.

in 2022 we moved, i began new programming projects, and the podcast went on the shelf. i always meant to get back to it, and received many e-mails about future episodes.

today i'm relaunching the podcast.

website link:
https://podcast.vga256.com

rss link:
http://podcast.vga256.com/rss.xml

apple podcasts link:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/multimedia-hyperguide-windows-3-1-macintosh-and-ms/id1393890581

feedburner link:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/MultimediaHyperguide

while i write the next episode, please enjoy some of the earlier episodes, including everyone's beloved SimAnt (episodes 14 and 15).

here are some box and browsies shots of SimAnt: The Electronic Ant Colony (Maxis, 1991) for 16-bit windows. i use the physical boxes and their documentation during research and writing. this has a 150+ page manual, which is 50% ant science!

#dosGaming #msdos #ants #vintageApple #macintosh #shareware #podcast

Peter Cartwright, creator of Classic Mac game EV Override has passed. Override was the game that first showed me that you could fit a whole world in one of these 'game' things. I probably only spent a few summer hours inside actually playing the original Override in the Mac lab, but it made a powerful impression that lasts to this day. Thanks PAC. #retrocomputing #vintageapple #shareware

my first retrocomputing local pickup of 2026: an Apple Newton MessagePad 120.

almost passed on this one, as i'm more interested in an MP2100. but the seller's photo showed that it was running NewtonOS 2.0, which meant that it is an apple-upgraded MP120 with an 8MB ROM.

this is a rather huge upgrade, because it provides the exceptional Rosetta handwriting recognition (and mercifully puts an end to the lame simpsons meme)

thanks lunar. i *will* remember my shareware feel!

#newton #vintageApple #retroComputing #vintageComputing #shareware

Made a post-jam slightly updated version of Space Cats with redefinable keys and joystick support, among other things. Thanks to my nephew Ed for finding a glaring bug no one had yet spotted (you could fly through the doors in level 3 without keys! Wrong wall tiles, bah)

https://crussel.itch.io/attack-of-the-space-cats/devlog/1278732/post-jam-slightly-updated-version

#DOSember #shareware #dosgames

Happy Holidays! On Monday evening, I streamed a couple of Christmas-themed Shareware CDs. Hardly any of it worked, but it was a ton of fun regardless. If you have a few hours to kill and want to see me corpsing at an alarmingly squelchy MIDI, please enjoy: https://www.twitch.tv/lunarloony/v/2650488006?sr=a&t=1795s

#twitch #stream #vod #christmas #shareware

The "golden age" of indie software is as relevant today as floppy disks and physical cheques! 🙄 Apparently, coding isn't just about writing lines of code anymore—who knew? 🤔 The #nostalgia for the '80s, when #shareware was king and cheques reigned supreme, is downright touching... if you’re into that sort of archaic charm. 💾✉️
https://successfulsoftware.net/2025/12/22/is-the-golden-age-of-indie-software-over/ #indieSoftware #floppyDisks #codingCulture #HackerNews #ngated

Commander Keen - Le code source enfin libéré pour les 35 ans du jeu qui a lancé id Software

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://korben.info/commander-keen-code-source-release-id-software.html

25 years later i still find Avernum's character portrait artwork charming and unpretentious

it has that Photoshop 3.0 look - 256 colours with pillow-shaded tones and default brush softness

now that tools and styles have moved towards hyper-accuracy and realism, no one really does this style of digital art anymore

#art #1990s #shareware #retroGaming

Heute ist Tag der #Shareware.

"Shareware" - das Wort habe ich schon sehr lange nicht mehr gehört oder gelesen.

Guten Morgen zusammen,
wünsche euch einen tollen und #stressfreien #Samstag
Heute ist u.a. #Tag der #Shareware
Passt auf euch auf und seid #achtsam

Der #internationale_Tag_der_Shareware wurde ins Leben gerufen, um #Benutzern von #Shareware daran zu erinnern, welchen #Nutzen sie von diesen #Programmen haben und um sie möglicherweise dazu zu #inspirieren, die #Programmierer zu unterstützen und das Programm zu kaufen.
https://welcher-tag-ist-heute.org/aktionstage/tag-der-shareware

#Aktionstag

jobs demoing a codeless UI using NeXT/OpenStep's Interface Builder at macworld expo in 1997

making games in Adventure Game Studio taught me how fast games can be built when designers spend their time working on scenes and gameplay instead of coding scrollbar and button behaviour

i admire and get inspiration from hypercard for the same reasons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl0CbKYUFTY

i'm trying to implement something similar for my little game construction kit, called Exigy. if you've got UI suggestions on how to do this well, i'm all ears!
https://exigy.org

#exigy #shareware #indiegamedev #macintosh #hypercard

🏈🖥️ Ready to call the plays? In Football for Windows, created by an ex-college player, you step in as coach & run the game your way. It was once free to copy & play (with a $25 registration to unlock everything) — and now you can play it instantly in-browser at the @internetarchive ➡️ https://archive.org/details/FOOTFW

#shareware #retrogaming

@GamesMissed as promised - @burgerbecky's port of Ultima I for the Apple IIGS.

i am fascinated by this one, because i bought it directly from Joe Kohn, who ran Shareware Solutions II as a web (mail) order business in the 2000s. it arrived exactly as you see here: in a white envelope, with manuals printed on a laser printer.

sadly, joe passed away in 2010. but his happy Apple IIGS legacy lives on in the form of a website which carries all issues of his Apple II-centric magazine:
https://wannop.info/SSII/SSII_Index.html

#apple #vintageApple #appleIIGS #retroGaming #retroComputing #ultima #shareware

Jake Kaufman – Ultionus: A Soundtrack of Petty Revenge
#16bit #DOS #Electronic #FM #OPL3 #VGA #chiptune #chiptunes #gamemusic #hairmetal #novelty #retro #shareware #LosAngeles
CC BY-NC-SA (#CreativeCommons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike) #ccmusic
https://virt.bandcamp.com/album/ultionus-a-soundtrack-of-petty-revenge

Who can also hear this image? 😄

#retrogaming #retrocomputing #apogee #shareware #msdos #dosgaming

This game is NOT shareware.
Please do not redistribute it.

#msdos #dosgaming #apogee #shareware #retrogaming

The History of Glider
Bit pressed for time tonight, so let's just enjoy Classic Mac Gaming's video history of the popular shareware title Glider (10 minutes).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyeeQAcho00

It's a very simple game, but it had a surprisingly long life. There's something very Mac-like about it.
https://setsideb.com/the-history-of-glider/
#niche #CasadyGreene #ClassicMacGaming #Glider #macintosh #niche #shareware

In March 1996 our #indiegame DSTROY was in this "PHT Game Head" Cd rom compilation. (We kept it all these years in an box and just found it back). 🗝️⌛🧓💿

And we just discovered it's available here too: https://archive.org/details/game-head-march-96

#TBT #cdrom #dos #shareware