![]() ![]() However, many of those varied genres such as platform or scrolling shooter (that were much of Apogee's early releases) were slowly dying out in the late 1990s, which made this strategy unnecessary. This enabled Apogee to target different markets. Instead of publishing every game under Apogee as it had been in the past, the goal of this strategy was to create a different brand for each type of game genre, making each new game identifiable based on which brand it belonged to. With the original intent to create a division for every genre of game Apogee produced, the two brand names 3D Realms (formed in July 1994) and the now disused Pinball Wizards were created. Apogee later moved to the traditional retail model through distributors like GT Interactive however, it still offers its earlier titles via shareware. The former model has some similarities with the episodic model currently used by some game companies.Īpogee's commercial success led to the widespread adoption of the shareware model (and most of the time, the specific Apogee Model) by other major publishers such as Capstone, Parallax Software, id Software, Activision and Epic MegaGames, and also led to a growth of Software Creations BBS, which would become the largest BBS in North America. Later games did not offer the option to buy a specific episode the customer could play the shareware version (first episode) for free, and buy the full registered version (all episodes) if they liked the game. Initially, each episode of a game was sold separately, with discounts for buying all the episodes together. This method became known as the Apogee Model. Registering the first episode would also enable the customer to receive support for that game, as well as giving them cheat codes for it. Starting with Kingdom of Kroz, Apogee would provide the first installment of a game composed of several episodes (usually three) for free (as shareware), and sell the remaining installments by mail order. However, this marketing model did not prove to be profitable enough, so Apogee decided to implement a variation on the shareware model. Upon registering, the customer would be able to receive support and help for the game. Initial Apogee games ( Beyond the Titanic and Supernova) were distributed as traditional shareware that is, giving away the full game for free, and asking the customer to pay for it if he/she liked it. ![]() President George Broussard explained, "We started marketing our games as shareware because it was an inexpensive way to get started." Unlike traditional larger publishers that sold games in retail outlets, Apogee (like many independent developers) sold their products using the shareware method, depending mostly on BBSes, such as Software Creations, for distribution of their software. ![]()
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