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He didn't pioneer shareware distribution or the free demo model. This is a good write-up on the history of shareware:

http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.24/feat/

(Has this been posted to HN before? Good stuff in there.)

When I think of shareware I think of id Software, Apogee, McAfee and PKZip. It might not be official but to me that is as close to pioneering as it gets.

Can you elaborate on why you think of Apogee? When I think of Apogee I think "Gee, I wish my Apogee product worked on Windows"

Different Apogee. Presumably you are thinking of Apogee Electronics, he is talking about Apogee Games, which more or less* became 3D Realms (of Duke Nukem infamy), and who back in the day published a lot of the classic shareware games from other developers as well, including id's early stuff like Commander Keen and Wolf 3D.

* "more or less" because the business structure is more complicated than that and there was still an Apogee Software alongside 3D Realms, but for all practical purposes, what was Apogee Games became 3D Realms and then died due to the Duke Nukem Forever project.

Ahh yes I was thinking of Apogee Electronics, thank you that clears things up.

Depends on the meaning of "pioneer" I guess. Certainly Doom was the first real shareware hit that matched sales numbers with commercial titles.

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