MacUser/Ziff-Davis Shareware Awards
Once again Ambrosia Software has been honored by MacUser and Ziff-Davis Interactive with their annual shareware awards. Ambrosia’s classic arcade game Maelstrom won the award in 1993 and our molecular puzzler Chiral won in 1994.
This year we faced some stiff competition but still won an honorable mention for our hit game Apeiron.
Below is the text released by MacUser/Ziff-Davis announcing this years winners:
BOSTON, MACWORLD Expo ’95, Aug. 8 /PRNewswire/ — Ziff-Davis Publishing today announced the winners of the fourth annual MacUser/Ziff-Davis Interactive (ZDI) Macintosh Shareware Awards, recognizing the year’s best in shareware and freeware programs for Macintosh computers. More than two dozen programs and their developers will be honored at a ZDI event on Wednesday, August 9 during MACWORLD Expo/Boston. The awards are sponsored by MacUser magazine and Ziff-Davis Interactive, Ziff-Davis’ electronic publishing division.
“It’s been an explosive year for Macintosh shareware and today we’re celebrating the hottest of the hot,” said Ben Templin, director of Macintosh services for ZDI. “Shareware has always been an intrinsic part of the Macintosh community and culture, delivering sophistication and ingenuity that rival commercial software. With the boom in online services and the Internet, shareware and freeware programs have become even more accessible and have become a very significant, creative and ’bottom-line’ contributor to the Mac software market.”
Editors from MacUser and Ziff-Davis Interactive evaluated more than 1000 programs in nine categories, selecting one overall winner and two honorable mentions in each category based on the programs’ innovativeness, quality and overall value.
The 1995 Macintosh Shareware Awards winners and honorable mentions are:
Fun and Games
Winner:
Realmz by Tim Phillips and Fantasoft — This very popular
role-playing adventure game plunges you into a world of crypts, dungeons and castles.
Honorable Mentions:
Apeiron by Andrew Welch — A great shareware version of the classic Centipede arcade game.
Prince of Destruction by Andrew Barry and Tonio and Pamina Loewald — This arcade-like adventure game sets you off on an exciting
journey.
Once upon a time, shareware was usually associated with low quality software. Ambrosia Software would like to congratulate and thank the development teams of Realmz, Prince of Destruction and all of the other finalists in this year’s shareware awards. Thanks to talented individuals such as these, shareware has a better name, more people are willing to support it, and we as developers can continue to bring you great games and handy utilities.
Ambrosia as a company is looking forward to competing in next year’s competition. We have a couple of hot little projects in the production pipeline and are eager to take first place again.
BMUG Choice Product Awards
Berkeley Macintosh Users Group, one of the largest MUGs in the United States, gave Swoop and Apeiron their coveted Choice Product Awards. Ambrosia’s two arcade hits share the same page in BMUG’s newsletter as Marathon™ and Dark Forces™. Below is what the folks at BMUG have to say about Ambrosia’s addictive shareware games.
If you like Maelstrom you are going to love Apeiron. This is the latest contribution from Ambrosia’s resident Mac wizard, Andrew Welch, to Ambrosia’s growing collection. Apeiron is Ambrosia’s interpretation of Atari’s Centipede, cranked up a notch for the nineties. The game revolves around battling a horde or insects in a mushroom patch. A really great game for the young and the young at heart.
Developed by Dave Wareing, of Adelaide, Australia, Swoop is an arcade classic combining pulse-quickening game play with state of the art computer animation and audio effects. Swoop strikes close to Space Invaders in terms of game play. Smooth flowing action, detailed full color graphics, and custom sound effects all provide for an exciting game. The only thing missing is the cash box in which to pump your coins.
Ambrosia’s Maelstrom was similarly honored last year with BMUG’s Choice Product Award and we are looking forward to having a full page worth of kudos from these fine folks.
Ambrosia would also like to extend a hearty thanks to the unsung members of our development team. You. That’s right, you. Literally, we could not have done it without you. Ambrosia’s sole source on income is shareware registrations. Without your support, we would not be able to bring you the high level quality products, supports and services that you deserve. Thank you for your continued support and enthusiasm.
