Welcome to the Software wing of the 2023 Shacknews Hall of Fame class. This category recognizes programs that contributed to gaming in some way, and in some cases, made it possible. Some entries include Further Reading sections where you'll find features and other stories that further illuminate this year's inductees.

When you're finished, use the Table of Contents links below to visit other areas of the Shacknews Hall of Fame Class of 2023.

Linux’s nature as open-source software has made the operating of choice for many PC enthusiasts. That’s because early on (and even to a varying degree in 2023), it wasn’t as accessible or straightforward to install and use as Windows and Mac OS. Fortunately, the relationship between Linux and PC gaming has evolved over the decades. 

The open-source nature of Linux means that anyone who spins off a variant can include certain games with it, as long as they’re noncommercial. Early distributions included formative hits such as NetHack, clones of coin-op games such as XAsteroids and XGalaga, and FreeCiv, a clone of Sid Meier’s Civilization. Doom was one of the first big-budget commercial games to hit the OS; it was made possible thanks to Dave Taylor, one of the handful of programmers at id who worked on Doom in 1993. Quake followed in 1996, again courtesy of Dave Taylor. More releases big and small followed over the years, from SimCity to Ultima Online.

In November 2012, Unity published their game-creation engine of the same name to Linux, opening the door to more developers eager to port games from other platforms, or to design games specifically for the OS. However, Linux is best utilized in the modern gaming landscape when it’s unseen. SteamOS, Valve’s fork (spinoff) of Linux, powers its popular Steam Deck handheld and countless titles from Steam’s vast library. As more gaming platforms support Linux, and as more developers support it, it’s guaranteed to remain a fixture in the industry. 

*See our entry on Linus Torvalds in the People wing of the 2023 Shacknews Hall of Fame.

Although it never reached the ubiquity of America On-Line’s free messenger, Yahoo’s instant-messaging software enjoyed a long stretch of popularity thanks to its feature set. It was formally known as Yahoo Pager and was part of Yahoo Chat, but one of its biggest claims to fame was the ability to send files up to 2GB in size, a nearly unfathomable amount of data in the late ‘90s and early aughts. The service had attracted over 10.6 million users in the US by August 2000.

Messenger boasted features that would become standard accoutrements in future social media platforms. There was a like button attached to messages and files, the ability to unsend messages, group conversations in chat rooms, and voice and video calls were introduced in the iOS version in 2014. The free-to-use, ad-supported Messenger was an indelible piece of Yahoo’s portfolio for most of its run. Later abbreviated Y!M, it was rolled into Yahoo Messenger in 2015 before being shuttered two years later.

If Windows 95 was Microsoft’s proof of concept for a next-generation graphical OS, Windows 98 was its realization. The advantages it offered to PC gaming fell more on the hardware side. Drivers were included, and support improved, across the board, for a wider arrange of hard drives. Microsoft shored up support for accelerated graphics port (AGP)-supported 3D accelerator cards, which gave graphics cards a direct connection to the CPU rather than sharing bandwidth with other PCI devices. 

DVD media, still relatively unknown at the time of Windows 95’s launch, received built-in support. This, too, was good for PC gamers, since the increasingly large footprint of games meant publishers were shipping games on a single DVD as opposed to three or more CDs. Microsoft also improved networking enhancements, with greater performance for high-speed networks and multiple improvements for online connectivity in general—a must for the growing number of players enjoying online multiplayer. 

Perhaps most importantly, Windows 98’s overall performance was a huge improvement over Windows 95. That, combined with more game studios finally leaving MS-DOS in the rearview and developing games for Windows, have cemented the Windows 98 era as one of the best for PC gaming.

If you want to run graphics software such as Photoshop, you need a beefy PC and lots of experience using tools suited to pro users. Besides complexity, it’s also too expensive for most consumers to invest in. Meanwhile, Paint has been synonymous with Microsoft’s flagship OS since the launch of Windows 1.0 in 1985. It’s simple, lacking the robust features of a commercial-oriented software suite. That perceived weakness is also its greatest strength.

Users of any age can easily grok how to use Microsoft Paint’s basic features. It’s also lightning-fast, especially compared to Adobe’s historically un-optimized behemoth. That speed also makes it handy for common tasks such as resizing and changing the format of images. You can load, alter, and save an image, and exit MS Paint in the time it takes Photoshop to launch. 

Microsoft shipped Paint 3D alongside the traditional Paint app with Windows 10, but the tried, true, and free “vanilla” version is still arguably among the most versatile and useful pieces of free software associated with Windows PCs.

Although defunct since 2007, Adobe ImageReady was a sharp and handy bitmap editor available across Mac and Windows PC platforms. It looked like Photoshop and had access to Photoshop’s filter set, but its Image Map tools was unique. Those tools allows users to show and hide pieces of image maps, preview a piece of media’s effects, save media in various formats, and export to Photoshop for more advanced editing options.

Like Photoshop, ImageReady held more advantages for commercial use. It was a standalone app, meaning Mac OS and Windows users were more likely to boot up software included with their OS of choice, and it came with a price tag, another disadvantage compared to apps like Paint. Still, it was one of the more popular and flexible programs in Adobe’s portfolio, especially among users who weren’t fluent in Photoshop.