Shareware and free demos

What you're actually buying

The remainder of the game after a free, complete first episode. The free part is not crippled: no timers, no missing pieces, nothing that wears you down. You pay a one-off price for the rest, direct to the developer.

How it works

Scott Miller's 'Apogee model' gave away a complete first episode, let people copy and share it, and shipped the order form inside it. Bulletin boards (early dial-up message systems) moved the files for free, with no trucks, no cardboard and no gatekeeper. Buyers mailed about $40 for the remaining episodes, with no publisher cut and no retail cut. The free episode had one job, to earn the sale on its own, so people upgraded because they wanted more game, not because artificial limits had worn them down.

When it's fine

Whenever the free part is a real piece of the game and the full game is a one-off price. Be wary of 'free' versions that only look like this, then charge inside the game.

Where it came from

Scott Miller pioneered the Apogee model with Kingdom of Kroz (1987): the first episode went free on bulletin boards with a mailing address attached, and buyers mailed in for the rest. id Software's Commander Keen (14 December 1990) used the same split, and Wolfenstein 3D (5 May 1992) sold about 4,000 copies a month by mail order, its first Apogee royalty cheque coming in at $100,000 against a $60,000 forecast. Doom shipped on 10 December 1993 with Episode One free and Episodes Two and Three at $40 through 1-800-IDGAMES. id president Jay Wilbur said in 1995 that the free episode had reached at least 15 million computers, though only about 1% of downloaders paid. John Carmack's claim that more PCs ran Doom than Windows 95 is widely repeated but hard to verify. The idea of giving away the entry point resurfaced decades later as free-to-play, with a very different kind of free part.

Historical prices and revenues are in US dollars at the time unless marked A$.