Editing Shovelware (section)

==Shovelware CD-ROMs==
''[[Computer Gaming World]]'' wrote in 1990 that for "those who do not wish to wait" for software that used the new CD-ROM format, [[The Software Toolworks]] and [[Access Software]] planned to release "game packs of several classic titles".<ref name="cgw19900708">{{cite magazine | url=http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/index.php?year=1990&pub=2&id=73 | title=The Maturation of Computer Entertainment: Warming The Global Village | magazine=Computer Gaming World | date=8 July 1990 | access-date=16 November 2013 | pages=11 | archive-date=3 December 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203063559/http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/index.php?year=1990&pub=2&id=73 | url-status=live }}</ref> By 1993 the magazine referred to software repackaged on CD-ROM as "shovelware", describing one collection from Access as having a "rather dusty menu" and another from The Software Toolworks ("the reigning king of software repackaging efforts") as including games that were "mostly mediocre even in their prime"; the one exception, ''[[Chessmaster 2000]]'', used "stunning [[CGA graphics]]".<ref name="cgw199304">{{cite magazine | url=http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/index.php?year=1993&pub=2&id=105 | title=Forging Ahead or Fit to be Smashed? | magazine=Computer Gaming World | date=April 1993 | access-date=6 July 2014 | page=24 | number=105 | archive-date=2 July 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140702235842/http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/index.php?year=1993&pub=2&id=105 | url-status=live }}</ref> In 1994 the magazine described shovelware as "old and/or weak programs shoveled onto a CD to turn a quick buck".<ref name="miller199401">{{Cite magazine |date=January 1994 |title=The Shiny New Face Of Shareware |url=http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/index.php?year=1994&pub=2&id=114 |department=Best of the Rest |magazine=Computer Gaming World |pages=128, 130 |access-date=8 November 2017 |archive-date=3 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171003001556/http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/index.php?year=1994&pub=2&id=114 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The capacity of a CD-ROM was 450–700 times that of the [[floppy disk]], and 6–16 times larger than the hard disks with which personal computers were commonly outfitted in 1990. This outsized capacity meant that very few users would install the discs' entire contents, encouraging producers to fill them by including as much existing content as possible, often without regard to the quality of the material. Advertising the number of titles on the disc often took precedence over the quality of the content. Software reviewers, displeased with huge collections of inconsistent quality, dubbed this practice "shovelware" in the early 1990s. Additionally, some CD-ROM computer games had software that did not fill the disc to capacity, which enabled game companies to bundle demo versions of other products on the same disc.

The prevalence of shovelware has decreased due to the practice of downloading individual programs from a [[crowdsourced]] or curated [[app store]] becoming the predominant mode of [[software distribution]]. It continues in some cases with [[bundled software|bundled]] or [[pre-installed software]], where many extra programs of dubious quality and functionality are included with a piece of hardware.