Ambrosia Software
| Ambrosia logo | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Macintosh software industry/Computer and video game industry |
| Founded | August 18, 1993 |
| Headquarters | Rochester, New York |
Key people | Andrew Welch — President |
| Products | Shareware games and 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 current business model is shareware/crippleware; demo versions of their programs can be downloaded and used for up to 30 days.
Ambrosia's best-selling program is the utility Snapz Pro[1], although the company is better known for the production and the distribution of games. The first game produced by Ambrosia was Maelstrom, a remake of the Asteroids arcade game. Maelstrom quickly became popular in the Macintosh community, and won the 1993 Shareware Industry Award for Best Game.[citation needed]
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.
Products
Games
Ambrosia Software's games are, in descending order of release:
- File:DEFCON.png DEFCON
- File:SketchFighter 4000.png SketchFighter 4000 Alpha
- File:Redline icon.png Redline
- File:El Ballo.png El Ballo
- File:Darwinia.png Darwinia — Mac OS X port
GooBall
Apeiron X — Mac OS X port of the original, with enhanced graphics- File:Aki icon.png Aki
- File:Uplink icon.png Uplink — Mac OS X port
- File:Pop-pop.png pop-pop
- File:Bubble Trouble.png Bubble Trouble X — Mac OS X port of original, with minor gameplay changes
- File:EV Nova.png Escape Velocity Nova
- File:Coldstone game engine.png Coldstone game engine
- File:Deimos Rising.png Deimos Rising
- File:Pillars of Garendall.png Pillars of Garendall
- File:Ferazel's Wand.png Ferazel's Wand
- File:Ares icon.png Ares
- File:Cythera icon.png Cythera
- File:Slithereens.png Slithereens
- File:EV Override.png EV Override
- File:Mars Rising.png Mars Rising
- File:Harry the Handsome Executive.png Harry the Handsome Executive
- File:Bubble Trouble.png Bubble Trouble — later ported to Mac OS X, original no longer available
- File:Avara.png Avara
- File:Escape Velocity.png Escape Velocity
- File:Barrack icon.png Barrack
- File:Swoop icon.png Swoop
- Apeiron — later ported to Mac OS X, original no longer available
- File:Chiral icon.png Chiral
- File:Maelstrom icon.png Maelstrom
Ambrosia's announced upcoming games and utilities, as of January 2007, include:
- File:Pop-pop.png pop-pop With Universal Binary
- 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.
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
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 20,000 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.
"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.[2]