But in this case I was hacking the shareware payment enforcement. Rather than shutting down completely the game would send an invincible and fairly destructive enemy (Hector) after you. It was really a clever trick from the developers to make the game mostly unplayable if you didn't pay after the trial period.
Many of them (us) made software for the love of it, and didn't care if it was cracked. I never got a single sale from my software but I didn't care.
It got me thinking: could I somehow pay them now? There's some sad news here: one of the original creators, Peter Cartwright, passed away [1] in 2026 :(
His project to remaster EV: Override, Cosmic Frontier, was fully funded after his death though!
[1]: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cosmicfrontier/cosmic-f...