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Based in California, ShareData was the parent company of AGCI, and sold games for platforms like Commodore 64 and PC. Before AGCI was formed this obscure version of Chiller appeared. Where AGCI licensed Color Dream's chip technology, ShareData licensed the cartridge design from Color Dreams too, which is why this looks like a Color Dreams release.
A engineer named Richard Frick worked at ShareData at the time, and later went on to found AGCI, and eventually AVE. Frick and a fellow engineer named Christopher Erhardt, who passed away in 2012, worked together on Chiller for ShareData. Another engineer at ShareData named James Ferguson was in charge of cartridges, including Chiller. Frick says that Ferguson, who passed away in 2018, would have made a small batch of Chiller carts in Color Dreams shells as production samples, but that an actual print run for retail sale was never done until Chiller became AGCI's first release. Unlike prototypes, production samples are usually finished products that are made in small numbers
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Advertisement for ShareData Chiller
GamePro Magazine Volume 8
specifically to be used for demonstration purposes and as promotional samples. If production samples lead to orders, then retail-ready packaged products are manufactured in much larger quantities.
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ShareData Chiller was advertised for sale via phone order in a few issues of GamePro Magazine. According to Frick, the phone number listed in the ad was Ferguson's number at ShareData, and while it's possible they may have sold a few copies as a result of the ad, the real reason for running it was to show large retailers like WalMart that they were a serious game publisher when trying to secure distribution. Frick was also involved in the founding of GamePro Magazine, so using that platform to build some credibility leading up to the launch of AGCI made a lot of sense. In the end, ShareData Chiller was primarily a launchpad for AGCI, not a retail release. Only about 10 copies are known to exist, and unfortunately James Ferguson was the only person who could have told the entire story. For collectors, ShareData Chiller will forever be a legendary game. Infamous, and nearly impossible to obtain.
Chiller