![old screensavers 1996 il3 old screensavers 1996 il3](https://www.throwbacks.com/content/images/2018/01/pjimage--82-.jpg)
(By the way, in case anyone is wondering, I have digitally modified the mailing address on these scans for privacy reasons.) It’s neat to be able to peek back in time and catch a glimpse of Epic Games’ early history during the years before Unreal sparked a company rebirth and revolutionized its business plan. I’m still a big fan of Epic’s shareware titles, and I interviewed the firm’s founder and CEO, Tim Sweeney, in 2009 for Gamasutra. Shareware demo of Traffic Department 2192 from Safari Software, 1996 (My only excuse is that I was 14 at the time.)
![old screensavers 1996 il3 old screensavers 1996 il3](https://c4.wallpaperflare.com/wallpaper/945/615/642/1996-chevrolet-chevy-g20-wallpaper-preview.jpg)
And even then, I didn’t actually pay for it myself - my father’s company footed the bill through its CompuServe account, which I regularly used. Despite my perennial love of shareware, this was likely the only time in the ’90s that I registered any shareware computer game. They arrived together in a nice bubble wrap mailer, seen below:Įpic MegaGames mailing envelope from January 1996.Īs you can tell from the invoice, I ordered the full registered versions of Castle of the Winds and the Jill of the Jungle Trilogy from Epic Games.
#Old screensavers 1996 il3 manuals#
Instead, Epic mailed an invoice, copies of the games’ instruction manuals (which have been displaced from this set, or else I would have scanned them too) and a shareware demo disk from Epic partner Safari Software. Since it was a special buy-and-download deal (very unusual in 1996), I didn’t receive copies of the games themselves on disk. Way back in 1996, when Gears of War maker Epic Games still went by “ Epic MegaGames,” I ordered a few registered copies of its shareware games through CompuServe. You’re looking at a rare physical artifact from the twilight of shareware’s golden age.
![old screensavers 1996 il3 old screensavers 1996 il3](https://c4.wallpaperflare.com/wallpaper/481/842/453/1996-chevrolet-impala-muscle-wallpaper-preview.jpg)
Epic MegaGames purchase invoice in January 1996.