Alien Carnage Released as Freeware

[SonnyBonds]

Interesting read.. too bad that desktop game was never released, I'd love to try it out.

Oh I need to get that sequel.. perhaps I should look for it on eBay or something. Really curious about that one now.

[dlink]

awesome 3drealms. i sure remember halloween harry from when iw as smaller and it was very very fun.

[006 3/4]

Holy ****, it works! *orgasms* *hyperventilates* *hyperorgasms*

[Qbix]

Originally Posted by 006 3/4

Holy ****, it works! *orgasms* *hyperventilates* *hyperorgasms*

Duh

[Dopefish7590]

Originally Posted by Joe Siegler

I know who they all are. I worked here before, during, and after that time.

good ol' randy

Spoiler:

show spoiler

aka: rambo what the majority of family calls him

Originally Posted by Joe Siegler

I have a CD sitting right in front of me. Gold Medallion was shareware. FormGen was not.

dang i didnt see that cd, yes i know that gold medallion was for s-ware and formgen wasnt i just didnt see the alein carnage software, i phoned him ealier today and found out he did

[Joe Siegler]

More from John:

http://passfieldgames.blogspot.com/2...rry-stuff.html

[Dopefish7590]

nice

[Rellik66]

Woo hoo, I just beat Alien Carnage, did anybody else play all the way through?

The last boss was way too easy though...beat him on my first try

Funny, I got to the office levels and thought, "these look familiar.." only to realize that I played Halloween Harry before it became Alien Carnage to which the sewers and the office were reversed with the name change.

[Travis]

i just realized that i really like the music in this game.

[szevvy]

I was talking to John Passfield the other day, and he mentioned that 'Joe from 3D realms was constantly hassling him to release Alien Carnage as freeware' - before it was released, of course.

Just thought I'd say thanks to our dear friend Mr. Siegler. People sometimes complain that games aren't being released for freeware; let it be known that once he did a poll and we chose a game, he was working behind the scenes to make it happen.

Thanks mate!

[Kalki]

Well said!

All hail Joe!

[Joe Siegler]

let it be known that once he did a poll and we chose a game, he was working behind the scenes to make it happen.

Just for completeness' sake.. That poll had no factor in what was released. I knew what I was going to do before I made the poll - I was just curious to see what people wanted.

It was cool that they matched.

[Brick_Sledge]

Originally Posted by Joe Siegler

There was no retail box version. This was a direct sale only through us.

This was never in retail to my knowledge, except some shovelware FormGen CD's that were out there, but that was a very small release.

I am pretty sure that I own a retail box version of Alien Carnage, the full game on 3.5 floppies. Perhaps it was only made in small quantities but I do think it existed. If it did exist I'll have the box in my attic. However since I am away for school now I cannot prove that it exists.

[Joe Siegler]

As I said. "shovelware FormGen CD's".

[MrBlackCat]

Originally Posted by Joe Siegler

As I said. "shovelware FormGen CD's".

I do not understand the use of the term shovelware in this context... the boxed FormGen game of Alien Carnage I have is have is the full version on two floppies.
The only use of the term shovelware that I am familiar with (and can find definition of) is relative to volume as in compilation disk sets. The only contexts I have seen this used in before is relative to add-on level disks for many popular games such as Duke Nukem 3D, DooM, etc... and of course BBS shareware compilations.

Can someone please explain this usage of ShovelWare?
MrBlackCat

[Joe Siegler]

I call them shovelware, as Formgen put them out without our knowledge, created substandard box artwork (for games that didn't have artwork like Paganitzu & the like), and for the most part poor install programs. At the time we weren't too happy about it. Now it doesn't much matter, but at the time it was a big headache for our tech support. (But it's your game, support it! - We didn't write that install, we can't! Arrrrrgh!)

The use of shovelware in this instance is technically incorrect, but it's what I've refererred to those releases as over the years.

[peoplessi]

Originally Posted by Joe Siegler

As I said. "shovelware FormGen CD's".

How did they manage to release such things? Did they have Apogee's consent? Sounds pretty odd for me.

[Joe Siegler]

Well, I don't get involved in contracts, but my guess is their contract allowed them to do it, but they (if memory serves) did it without any consultation with us. They probably legally had the right to do that, but it's generally not done that way.

[whozeduke]

I actually purchased a retail copy of Alien Carnage many years ago at EB Games for 80 some cents. It had all the episodes. It came on two floppy discs that had the Apogee logo on them. Man, that game was awesome.

[Nukkus]

Originally Posted by Joe Siegler

I call them shovelware, as Formgen put them out without our knowledge, created substandard box artwork (for games that didn't have artwork like Paganitzu & the like), and for the most part poor install programs. At the time we weren't too happy about it. Now it doesn't much matter, but at the time it was a big headache for our tech support. (But it's your game, support it! - We didn't write that install, we can't! Arrrrrgh!)

The use of shovelware in this instance is technically incorrect, but it's what I've refererred to those releases as over the years.

Why not call it "Arrrrrgh!ware" then?

Slightly off-topic, is the formgen ROTT: Dark War cd considered around the same level? the artwork on it is the same as the floppy version, and it seems to have a decent installer.

[MusicallyInspired]

I remember my father bought me and my brother these FormGen small-boxed CD-ROM versions of Duke Nukem II, Hocus Pocus, and Alien Carnage. Sadly, my Alien Carnage CD got stepped on, so I'm doubly glad this is now freeware! I still have Hocus Pocus but my brother still has Duke Nukem II and I've long since moved out. That's ok, though, seeing as I still have Duke 1.3D on CD which has Duke 1 and 2 on it! The Hocus Pocus CD was purple, Duke's was red, and Alien Carnage was green.

Installers were all fine. Never had a problem with it *shrug*.

[Joe Siegler]

Well, the installer didn't affect everyone, but there was a decent percentage of people that had problems with the FormGen installer.

[fast-1]

Do you need dos-Box to play Alien Carnage.

[Nukkus]

here's something weird, today i found Alien Carnage at the local retro computer store, formgen release, and as far as i can tell it's the original Apogee-made floppies!

[Joe Siegler]

Originally Posted by Nukkus

here's something weird, today i found Alien Carnage at the local retro computer store, formgen release, and as far as i can tell it's the original Apogee-made floppies!

Pictures?

[Nukkus]

The manual seems to be standard Apogee fare, no mention of Formgen, and the installer is the Apogee original.

[DOSGuy]

That's an awesome find!

[sailorman]

I hate to disappoint you, but that's what all FormGen releases of Apogee games look like. The manual might be the same, but the Apogee mail order floppies look slightly different:

[Nukkus]

sorry, guess i'm a tard then. the installer is still the standard apogee installer, as far as i can tell.

[Joe Siegler]

Define "standard Apogee installer". We had several of them from that era.

I know - I created them all from 1993 onwards.

Nukkus, the box is Formgen retail, the print manual looks from this image to be ours, but the floppies are I believe the Formgen version. Cannot recall if they used our floppy masters or not.

[Nukkus]

well, i'll let you see for yourself.

aren't formgen installers the ones that have all the screenshots and shareware, and are prone to crashing?

[Joe Siegler]

That looks like one of mine.

Formgen installers have crash issues, but some of our earlier ones do too.

[Nukkus]

well all i know is that it installed without issue, and plays great
i kinda wish i still had my 486 laptop to play this on though, but it croaked.

[Sillygostly]

I remember buying the full versions of both Halloween Harry and Mystic Towers at a mall several years ago. They didn't come in a box, but the CD and manual wrapped onto a piece of cardboard [I think]. Both games were stored on a CD distributed by Manaccom, and the CDs included a few random demos of Apogee and Copysoft (Skunny) games.

Does this mean that Halloween Harry is freeware too?

[Joe Siegler]

HH & AC are the same game. Just the episodes are in a different order.

[Bryan3DR]

Formgen installers did more than crash (if you attempt to install on anything other than C:, if you have more than a Gig, etc..) the best one was (I could be wrong on the game name here) when you tried to install Raptor and the install would fail because you the installer was looking for Alien Carnage.

Although it was fixed quick, it was there.

I still get the "Too little space, you need -1243454234 more Megs of ram" I had one 2 days ago via email.

[MusicallyInspired]

I ran into something like that once! I was trying to install one of the games (can't remember which) on another of my computers and it kept wanting to install it on C:\CARNAGE for some reason and it wasn't even Alien Carnage.

[The Cool One]

good thing most of those SHR files are just zips... most of them are, I dunno why all of them aren't

[Sillygostly]

Originally Posted by Joe Siegler

HH & AC are the same game. Just the episodes are in a different order.

I know, but I was asking if both versions are freeware. :P

[Joe Siegler]

Check the legacy interview with John Passfield -that's where it was released. I can't recall what the story with that is right at the moment.