Ambrosia Software
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| Ambrosia Software | |
 |
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| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Founded | August 18, 1993 |
| Headquarters | Rochester, New York |
| Key people | Andrew Welch |
| Industry | Macintosh software industry/Computer and video game industry |
| Products | Shareware games & utilities |
| Website | http://www.ambrosiasw.com/ |
Ambrosia Software is a predominantly Macintosh software company located in Rochester, New York. Incorporated August 18, 1993 by its president, Andrew Welch, Ambrosia produces utilities and games. Their primary method of business is shareware; they allow for 30 day trials of any of their software. While registration is voluntary, most of the games have restricted feature sets if the user does not register.
While the utility Snapz Pro has sold the most copies, Ambrosia is most notable for the distribution of games. The first game produced by Ambrosia was Maelstrom (basically an updated version of Asteroids with improved graphics), which became rather popular in the Macintosh community and won several awards. This initial success led to a string of similar arcade-style games being released. Other popular titles include the Escape Velocity series, the Macintosh version of Uplink, and Apeiron (recently ported to Mac OS X).
The unofficial mascot of Ambrosia Software is Hector the Parrot.
Contents |
[edit] Titles
[edit] Anti-Productivity Software (Games)
Ambrosia Software's games include (in order of release date, latest at the top):
SketchFighter 4000 Alpha
Redline
El Ballo
Darwinia - Mac OS X port
GooBall
Apeiron X - Mac OS X port of the original, with enhanced graphics
Aki
Uplink - Mac OS X port
pop-pop
Bubble Trouble X - Mac OS X port of original, with minor gameplay changes
Escape Velocity Nova
Coldstone game engine
Deimos Rising
Pillars of Garendall
Ferazel's Wand
Ares
Cythera
Slithereens
EV Override
Mars Rising
Harry the Handsome Executive- Bubble Trouble - later ported to Mac OS X, original no longer available
Avara
Escape Velocity
Barrack
Swoop- Apeiron - later ported to Mac OS X, original no longer available
Chiral
Maelstrom
Ambrosia's announced upcoming games and utilities, as of May 2006, include:
- Defcon
- Siege - not on Ambrosia's upcoming page, presumed inactive
- Rockfall - not on Ambrosia's upcoming page, presumed discontinued
- Cythera X - not on Ambrosia's upcoming page, presumed inactive
Ambrosia, in conjunction with DG Associates, has also released the Escape Velocity Nova Card Game.
[edit] Productivity Software (Utilities)
Ambrosia Software's utilities include (in order of release date, latest at the top):
- Dragster - FTP client
- EasyEnvelopes - Mac OS X v10.4 dashboard widget
- Screen Cleaner Pro - April Fool's joke
- WireTap Pro
- Snapz Pro X - Mac OS X-compatible version of original
- iSeek
- Snapz Pro
- ColorSwitch Pro
- Eclipse
[edit] Community
Ambrosia Software has gathered a sizeable following in the Macintosh community in part due to forum-based discussion of its products, and the outgoing personalities of the company's employees. Mainly supported through the company's web site forums and their IRC server (irc.ambrosia.net), the community lists over 10,000 members with support forums for each of Ambrosia's utilities and games, complemented by general discussion forums focusing on politics, graphics, games and general camaraderie.
[edit] “Crippled” shareware
One of Ambrosia's founding mantras was that shareware software should not be distributed as crippleware. The company's software was released on the honor system with only a short reminder that you had used the unregistered software for "x" amount of time; so-called nagware. This policy has since been changed and the company today employs typical shareware piracy prevention measures. Their software products now fall under the category of crippleware. An article in the company's newsletter, the Ambrosia Times, outlines the factors that played into the policy change.[1]
