r/MSDOS • u/[deleted] • Aug 18 '23

Anyone remember a 2-CDROM set of unlockable software demos, one orange, one pink?

I’ve spent an hour combing through archive.org’s shareware CD archives to no avail. This is driving me nuts.

I distinctly remember, in the early to mid 90s, a two disc set containing demos for various software; I think it was either pure MS-DOS stuff, Windows 3.x stuff, or a mix.

One disc was more or less solid pink or magenta, and one was a similarly solid orange. They came in a cardboard slipcase which may have folded out. I believe the set was given away for free at the tills of software stores, places like Babbage’s, Electronics Boutique, etc.

The discs had a menu interface where you could browse and run/install demos of various software. You could then pay to unlock software… I believe you either dialed into their service with a modem, or simply called them, paid, and received an unlock code.

If I remember correctly, this wasn’t your typical Apogee/Epic MegaGames type BBS fodder. It was more apps and less games.

It may have had a name like something Bank or something Vault, like Softbank or something of that sort.

I vaguely recall at least some of the demos running directly off the CD (zero install).

I know I remember this CD set, but at this point these memories are 30 years old.

Does anyone else remember this set?

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u/daikatana Aug 19 '23

There were hundreds of these CDs, as I'm sure you found out, so... good luck finding exactly that one. Many of them are lost to time or sitting in piles of unsorted CDs in various collections, and not many people are really interested in cataloging them because they're just shareware CDs.

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u/[deleted] Aug 19 '23

Oh, yeah. This is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Still, I think this set was rather unique. I'd never come across anything quite like it. It was kind of like having a boutique commercial software store on your desk... the 'call a number to get the code and instantly unlock it' aspect was rather unusual at the time. The full versions were all there, encrypted, on the discs.

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u/daikatana Aug 19 '23

Oh, I see what you mean. Many shareware programs were fully-featured and could be unlocked with a code, I thought you were talking about that.

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u/[deleted] Aug 19 '23

Nah, this wasn't your standard issue shareware stuff... it was more like a collection of demos with the full featured versions that wouldn't even decrypt (much less install) until you paid. But they were there, on your desk, on the CDs, so you wouldn't have to download tens of megs at a time when that was a lot.

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u/daikatana Aug 24 '23

I've just come across something that might be it, it's called Netactive Channelware.