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Ambrosia Software

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"Andrew Welch" redirects here. For See also Andrew Welsh (disambiguation), see Andrew Welch (disambiguation).
Ambrosia Software
Company typePrivate
IndustrySoftware, video games
FoundedAugust 18, 1993
HeadquartersRochester, New York, U.S.
Key people
Andrew Welch — President
ProductsShareware video games and utilities
Websitewww.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 its president, Andrew 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 Asteroids arcade game. Maelstrom won a number of software awards.[3] This initial success led Ambrosia to release several more arcade-style games. These included Apeiron (a remake of Centipede), and Swoop (a remake of Galaxian).

As of the summer of 2013 Ambrosia appears to no be active with many disgruntled customers unable to receive service. Their website remains active and will apparently still take customers money. There are extensive problems with their applications and OS X 10.9 known as Mavericks but no hint of updates have been given.[4]

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.[5] This policy has since been changed and the company today employs typical shareware piracy prevention measures,[6] as well as more innovative ones such as used in the Escape Velocity line of games where Hector the Parrot will use his 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.[6] Matt Slot has written about the factors that played into the policy change.[5]

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. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  4. ^ http://www.ambrosiasw.com/forums/index.php?s=476f2c42252e1fc118fc35aedf041cf4&showtopic=132543
  5. ^ a b Slot, Matt (2002-03-11). "The Plain Truth about Casual Software Piracy". TidBITS. Retrieved 2011-04-28.
  6. ^ a b Welch, Andrew (2000-01-22). "Ambrosia Times: President's Letter: On CDs and Shareware". Ambrosia Software. Retrieved 2011-04-28.
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