Ambrosia Software

Ambrosia Software
Private
Industry Software, video games
Founded August 18, 1993
Headquarters Rochester, New York, U.S.
Key people
 Andrew Welch
Products Shareware video games and utilities
Website www.ambrosiasw.com

Ambrosia Software is a predominantly Macintosh software company located in Rochester, New York, U.S. Ambrosia produces utilities and games. Its products are distributed as shareware; demo versions can be downloaded and used for up to 30 days.

Ambrosia's best-selling program is the utility Snapz Pro X,[1] according to a 2002 interview with company president Andrew Welch, although the company is better known for the production and the distribution of games. It was incorporated August 18, 1993 by Welch after he graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1992.[2]

The first game produced by Ambrosia was Maelstrom, a remake of the 1979 Asteroids arcade game. Maelstrom won a number of software awards.[3] This initial success led Ambrosia to release several more arcade-style games, including Apeiron (a remake of Centipede), Swoop (a clone of Galaxian), and Barrack (a clone of JezzBall). In 1999, Cameron Crotty of Macworld wrote "No other company has gotten so much mileage out of renovating mid-1980s arcade hits."[4]

At least half of the company's ten employees were laid off in 2013, but Welch denied rumors of the company shutting down.[5]

Products

Games

Ambrosia Software's games, in order of release:

Ambrosia, in conjunction with DG Associates, has also released the Escape Velocity Nova Card Game.

Productivity Software

Ambrosia Software's utilities, in order of release:

No "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, creating what is commonly called nagware.[7] This policy has since been changed and the company today employs typical shareware piracy prevention measures,[8] as well as more innovative ones such as used in the Escape Velocity line of games where Hector the Parrot will use her heavily armed frigate to attack players of unregistered copies after the trial period has expired. Their software products now fall under the category of crippleware.[8] Matt Slot has written about the factors that played into the policy change.[7]

References

  1. ↑ "MacSlash Interview: Andrew Welch of Ambrosia". MacSlash (retrieved from the Internet Archive). 2002-01-23. Archived from the original on 2007-12-31. Retrieved 2011-04-28.
  2. ↑ "Home-grown Ambrosia feeds software niche", Michael Saffran. In RIT: The University Magazine, Vol. 10, #1
  3. ↑ "Into the Maelstrom". The Mac Observer. 1999-12-08. Archived from the original on 8 June 2011. Retrieved 2011-04-28.
  4. ↑ Crotty, Cameron (January 1999). "Mars Rising". Macworld.
  5. ↑ Mathis, Joel. "Despite layoffs, Ambrosia says it's still in business". Macworld.
  6. ↑ Salvador, Phil. "Barrack". The Obscuritory.
  7. 1 2 Slot, Matt (2002-03-11). "The Plain Truth about Casual Software Piracy". TidBITS. Retrieved 2011-04-28.
  8. 1 2 Welch, Andrew (2000-01-22). "Ambrosia Times: President's Letter: On CDs and Shareware". Ambrosia Software. Retrieved 2011-04-28.

External links

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