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Eventually, though, I gave in and bought a Gourmia 7-quart digital air fryer — I was astounded and delighted by how easy it was to use. Now, I love cooking with the appliance so much that I've even bought a second one.

From breakfast to dessert, here are some of my favorite things to make in an air fryer.

Stuffed portobello mushrooms make for a quick, tasty dinner.

There's no end to the list of things you can pile on a portobello cap and pop in the air fryer.

A recipe from the blog Spend With Pennies pairs them with cheddar and bacon, but I know some people swear by spinach and cream cheese or garlic and Parmesan. I've also been inspired by crab-stuffed mushrooms with Gouda or ones that are a play on French onion soup. 

I make mine with whatever I have on hand, but I particularly liked the batch I made with feta, cheddar, spinach, artichokes, breadcrumbs, and lemon.

I pop the caps in the air fryer for a few minutes, gill-side down, to let any water drain out before flipping them and adding toppings.

Breaded or panko-crusted shrimp turns out incredibly well in an air fryer.

There are tons of recipes out there for air-fried breaded shrimp. 

I prefer mine served with a hint of heat, like the "bang bang" shrimp recipe from the recipe blog Stay Snatched. I also like the shrimp paired with lemon aioli. 

Setting up a three-bowl dipping station is the best way to bread the shrimp quickly and efficiently — one bowl for flour, one for a whisked egg (sometimes I add mustard or mayo), and one for panko.

However, I've also made crispy shrimp by simply dipping lightly oiled shrimp in panko before tossing them in the air fryer. 

I put nut-crusted chicken on the menu again and again.

Air-fried, nut-crusted chicken comes out moist, delicious, and with a perfect crust in just 20 minutes. 

Depending on what kind of air fryer you have, it might take a little more or less time — I've found my basket air fryer cooks faster and my convection-oven air fryer takes slightly longer.

The blog Where Is My Spoon has a delicious, easy recipe for panko-breaded chicken. I adapted it by using half crushed nuts and half panko and adding smoked paprika and Parmesan for extra flavor.

Crab cakes with fire-roasted green chiles are my favorite appetizer.

Crab cakes are one of the tastiest things I've cooked since getting an air fryer. 

I followed a Food Network recipe, substituting a can of fire-roasted green chiles and chipotle powder for the listed chipotle chiles and adobo sauce, just for convenience.

A creamy, lemony chipotle sauce is the perfect accompaniment. It's so tangy and delicious that I could drink it.

Crispy tofu can be made with or without cornstarch.

I like the simple recipe for cornstarch-free, garlic-and-soy sauce tofu on the blog Live Eat Learn. It reminded me how much better the texture is after pressing the moisture out of the tofu before cooking (I used a heavy Dutch oven to squash my block).

I've also made crispy fried tofu with a ginger, tamari, and garlic marinade, finished with sesame seeds for extra crunch. The resulting tangy saltiness makes it a good bacon substitute for vegetarians and a delicious addition to Buddha bowls. 

Corn "ribs" are an excellent air-fried option for vegetarians.

You can make corn "ribs" in an air fryer using all sorts of recipes.

I've used one from the blog Plant Based Folk. These corn "ribs" can be paired with elote-style seasoning, barbecue sauce, or even masala spice for an Indian-inspired take on the trend. 

Pro tip: Microwave the cobs for seven to nine minutes before cutting them to make quartering easier.

Every batch of Buffalo cauliflower I make is devoured almost immediately in my house.

Buffalo cauliflower "wings" are a top choice any night of the week — it takes just 15 minutes to make crispy, spicy florets.

Simply whisk hot sauce, oil, garlic powder, and salt, and use the mixture to coat the cauliflower before tossing it into a single layer in the air fryer. I found the recipe I usually follow on Live Eat Learn.

Serve with blue cheese or another creamy dip.

Grilled cheese is a quick, simple air-fryer favorite.

Air-fried grilled cheese is a good, quick lunch. Larger air fryers easily fit a few sandwiches, or you can chop them into half-sized sandwiches to cram more in a smaller basket.

My favorite grilled cheese is a take on a recipe from The Kitchn, but with added apple slices.

I also love rustling up any cheese and jam, jelly, or fruit combination; a current favorite is ham, cheddar, and banana. 

Pro tip: Cook at a lower temperature until the cheese melts, and then turn the heat up to toast the bread for an extra few minutes.

I throw garlic in alongside whatever vegetables I'm roasting.

Cooking garlic in the air fryer takes half as long as cooking it in a regular oven.

One writer from the blog Tasty Oven suggests slicing off the bottom of each head of garlic, cooking a big batch, and freezing the extras. 

I like cooking the heads alongside roasted vegetables such as honeyed parsnips or carrots and then crushing the cloves to make garlic bread.

Apple hand pies are fiddly to make from scratch, but worth the effort.

Empanada-sized pies are a breeze to make with store-bought apple filling and pie dough. However, making your own lets you choose how much sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and lemon to add.

The blog BellyFull has a great recipe for air-fryer hand pies, whether you're making a premade or homemade version. Both turn out crisp and delicious in a basket air fryer or an oven air fryer. I tried both and couldn't tell the difference.

According to the recipe, the pies last in the fridge for three days and in the freezer for up to two months.

Even cake can turn out perfectly in an air fryer.

I didn't believe you could bake cakes in an air fryer, but I was proven wrong.

I've made some excellent cheesecakes in my basket air fryer, but the one I keep going back to is a simple coffee cake. I like a recipe from the blog Fork to Spoon.

I'll be working my way through the other recipes on the site, too. I've also enjoyed the air-fryer banana-walnut pound cake and banana-nut bread.

Molten lava cakes are gooey and gorgeous.

Oozing with liquid chocolate, molten lava cakes are irresistible.

I liked a small-batch recipe I found on the blog Essential Omnivore, but I use orange-flavored chocolate for even more flavor.

Pro tip: Only fill your ramekins around ⅔ of the way, or the gooey middles might bubble up all over the bottom of your air fryer.

This story was originally published in February 2023 and most recently updated on August 18, 2026.

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Aefa Mulholland is a writer and chef who lives in Toronto, Canada, and Glasgow, Scotland. She has worked in restaurants and hotels in Scotland, Ireland, Australia, Canada, and the US, and written about food and travel for The Irish Times, Miami Herald, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Budget Travel, AOL, Curve, and many, many more publications.  Her travel memoir, "The Scottish Ambassador: Learning How to Be Scottish in America" was published by P+H Books.  A graduate of the Scottish Hotel School, Strathclyde University, Glasgow, Aefa also has a degree in Creative Writing from Canada's University of Guelph.

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Long after the goodbye cake is gone, you could still be valuable to your employer.

The digital trail that employees create at work has become a hot commodity for companies looking to build and train AI models — sometimes, as with Spirit Airlines, outlasting the businesses that accumulated it.

Google won a bidding war, paying $10 million for Spirit's internal data, according to a bankruptcy court filing dated August 14. The trove includes the airline's internal documents, workflows, emails, some 500 million Teams messages, and its codebase. It excludes customer data and has been anonymized, Google said.

Spirit stopped flying in May after going bankrupt. It employed about 9,700 full-time workers in 2025, according to its most recent annual report.

For Google, the deal appears to be a bargain. For Spirit employees — and workers everywhere — it's a reminder that work emails and other workplace communications ultimately aren't yours.

What's changing is the value of that information, and what companies might do with it. The data generated through everyday work could, for example, be used to train AI assistants to handle customer complaints or help developers debug websites.

Earlier this year, AI training startup Micro1 announced a program offering 50 midsize companies between $100,000 and $2 million for access to anonymized data.

Business Insider spoke with attorneys about what workers should know about the data they generate on the job and how to protect their privacy.

Ask your company

Most of the time, your digital handiwork — from the email to the boss you spent an hour perfecting to the droll Teams messages you sent to your work bestie — belongs to the company.

Those records are becoming more valuable as demand for AI training data grows, said Jared Pope, an employment attorney and CEO of HR platform Work Shield, which manages workplace misconduct. Pope said he's spoken with CEOs and company owners receiving calls from companies that want to buy their workplace data.

"It could be extremely valuable to the bottom line of a company," he said.

That's one reason it can be worth asking about data-retention policies when you start or leave, Pope said.

Many companies are still figuring out their AI policies.

George Socha, an attorney and senior vice president of brand awareness at AI e-discovery platform Reveal, said there is no single standard place where companies outline their policies around employee data and workplace surveillance.

Companies "ought to be trying to establish appropriate, reasonable boundaries and then conveying them clearly to employees and making sure the employees understand them," Socha said.

Until businesses establish more rigid policies, though, it's a bit of a free-for-all. Employers may discuss those policies during onboarding, when introducing employees to the tools available to them and explaining how to use them.

Employees can also contact HR to ask where they can find the company's policies on employee data and workplace monitoring, Socha said.

Works chats are 'not a diary'

It's generally up to companies to decide whether they want to sell de-identified data, said Pope.

That possibility is a good reminder for workers to be mindful about what they put on their work devices.

"Your work email and chat are actually not a diary," he said. "Assume anything you create on a company system could outlive your own job there."

Sensitive information remains protected

Most of the sensitive personal information your employer has about you — things like Social Security numbers and other information — is likely to be protected by various state laws, said Vanessa Matsis-McCready, VP of HR services and associate general counsel at HR company Engage PEO.

That's the case, even if your employer goes under. "Bankruptcy laws are not going to override that," she said.

At the same time, Matsis-McCready said, it's worth maintaining a defensive posture when it comes to not using your work laptop, for example, for personal tasks. Another reason: the possibility of data leaks.

For Pope, it's another reason for employees to be smart about the digital trail they create on the job.

"Be careful with what you put out there, because it doesn't go away," he said.

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Tim Paradis

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Tim reports on the workplace and how forces like automation, artificial intelligence, and remote work will reshape how many of us make a living. Previously, Tim was Business Insider's future-of-business editor where he oversaw coverage of sustainability; diversity, equity, and inclusion issues; the future of work; careers; and C-suite developments. He previously worked in various corporate research roles, in higher ed, and wrote about Wall Street and the stock market for the Associated Press.Contact Tim via email or the encrypted messaging app Signal at tparadis.70.Links to some of his most popular stories: 

• Meta and Salesforce are looking to rehire some workers they just laid off. It's putting those people in an awkward spot.
• I thought I landed my dream job at Amazon. But after being put on an impossible performance plan, I quit even though I lost a $110,000 deposit on a house.
• Gen Z calls it 'quiet quitting.' Millennials call it setting boundaries. Gen X calls it 'slacking off.' 3 generations unpack the buzzy workplace trend.
• Meta's latest round of layoffs will hurt productivity and damage employee morale
• Yes, there are work-from-home jobs nobody wants
• Employers need to stop treating workers like 7th graders, says ADP talent expert

Ana Altchek

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Selling nearly four million albums worldwide, winning five Grammys, writing a bestselling autobiography, “Spirit Rising,” with its foreword by Desmond Tutu, and becoming the first Black African artist to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame are all just icing on a very sweet cake.

“This is everything to me,” she says loudly with a laugh (via Zoom) of her music, her mission and her mother, as she gesticulates wildly for punctuation at every turn.

She’ll receive her star Aug. 18 at 11:30 in a ceremony at 7011 Hollywood Blvd. Audiennces can watch on walkoffame.com.

Since the start of her reign as a queen of West African music (this journalist first spoke to Kidjo in 1991 when “Logozo,” her debut album in the U.S., was released), or now, with 2026’s “Hope,” the singer-composer has been sure to acknowledge the ongoing influence of her mom — a choreographer and theater director — with zeal.

As for the universality of her hypnotic, soulful sound and her dynamic, jazzy mezzo-soprano voice, Kidjo’s singing in five languages (Fon, French, Yorùbá, Gen-Mina and English) has forever been key to the funk, its frankness and her grace.

Discussing “Hope’s” tour through 2027, “the stretching of my own physical boundaries” and playing music in a world that, though troubled, “may be better off and more unified than we think,” an energetic Kidjo talked about the need for reinvention.

“How do I keep my mental health, my priorities and my values in check, and still be the person that I want to be, but evolving in this ever-changing ecosystem?” Kidjo wonders.

But inventing herself in the first place is what leads listeners to every magical Kidjo milestone: 1996’s “Fifa” where she first sang in English; 2007’s “Djin Djin,” for which she won her first contemporary world music album Grammy; her back-to-back 2019 albums, “Remain in Light” and “Celia,” where she imaginatively captured the music of Talking Heads (“When I met David Byrne, I asked if he’s sure he’s American as he’d been speaking about my culture like he lived there forever,” she says) and Celia Cruz.

Her new Africana-laced R&B album, “Hope,” with Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers, takes Kidjo to sleek pop places she’s rarely visited while maintaining her earthen, conscious lyricism. Then there are the works with minimalist classical composer Philip Glass on the poetic “Ife”: “Three Yoruba Songs” and “Symphony No. 12” (which additionally paid tribute to David Bowie’s “Lodger”) that Kidjo called “my greatest aesthetic challenges.”

If she goes back to the start of her career, then before that to her childhood on stage at her mother’s Theatre du Benet company at age 6, Kidjo admits that “my values are the same values as always. They’re about me telling a compelling story, my compelling story… humanity stories,” all filled with the core values passed down to Kidjo by her parents.

“Don’t come up with funny excuses,” she says. “When you do something wrong, you stand for it. If you deserve respect, give respect back. And if you deserve to be loved, you have to start loving yourself to be able to see the other person important to you. … My mom made me this person that I am by making me think about how my words can hurt. Mom always used to say a word is like an egg. When it falls, you can’t put it back. When you hurt somebody with your words, it stays. It’s pain. The pain you inflict on somebody’s soul with words has consequences for you too. Because when you put that bad stuff in the universe, it comes back changed. You might not like that change, and you don’t choose the time when it comes back.”

Thinking about such consequences while living and thriving among her family (seven boys, three girls) during childhood, Kidjo was blessed with being loved and seen and given the opportunity and the freedom to speak freely and be herself.

Those elements are the very core of her lifelong values, aesthetically, spiritually and humanistically.
“I have been told by my uncles and aunties in the village that I was that child that always asked all the questions and never got enough answers,” Kidjo says, laughing.

It’s important to note that as much gravitas and import that Kidjo placed upon her mother’s words and questions, there was a playful life lesson to be had between mother and daughter. Like having her mom, until the time of her passing during COVID-19, pushing Angélique to eat, nagging her to gain weight.
“She told me that I needed to eat hamburgers in America, or to come home so that she could put some flesh on my bones,” Kidjo remembers.

Earlier in their relationship, there was the back-and-forth between mother and child when it came to 6-year-old Kidjo demanding to play lead roles in her mother’s plays (“Why can’t I be the little girl that’s singing and doing all these things? I knew all the stuff by heart”), to being frightened when that same lead princess suddenly contracted malaria, and young Angélique had to go on.

“Mom grabbed my ankle and I said, ‘Nah, I ain’t going on.’ Until she then put the costume on me and shot me on stage. I was just shaking like crazy. But I said to myself, ‘The heck with it. Just go for it.’ So, I start singing. Then I did all the crazy stuff that I do. Move around. Singing and playing the part. Then I finished, walked back, and suddenly, ovation. And my mom said, ‘You gotta go back.’”

Young Angélique went back.

But the child Kidjo turned into the teenage Kidjo, seeing success on national radio singing Miriam Makeba songs. That same teen sensation left West Africa due to troubles from its dictatorship, and moved to Paris under cover of night and a clandestine air flight. Once in Paris, Kidjo picked up where she left off, playing packed pop and jazz clubs and making African-French recordings until signing with Island and becoming an international sensation — all of which is reminiscent (save for secret night flights) of the trajectory of a Taylor Swift or a Sabrina Carpenter.

What did it mean for Kidjo, then and now, to be a young woman growing up in the public eye in pop music?

“You have to be aware,” she insists. “You have to be strong. You have to remind yourself that there’s always gonna be somebody that’s gonna say something nasty about you, gonna drag you into the mud. You can’t allow that. … You also can’t be the person who wants somebody to feel miserable for us to feel better. My mom said to me all the time, ‘Don’t be that. Don’t be that miserable person.’”

Kidjo quickly told a tale about being a successful 12-year-old star, and coming back from school one afternoon with a crowd of people popping out of nowhere.

“Boys and girls were spitting on me, calling me prostitute,” Kidjo says. “When I told my grandmother and my mother, they cleaned me up, and said ‘Do not let anyone define who you wanna be.’ You were talking about the ‘Logozo’ album right? I can remember, then, how the stylist who was hired told the record company, ‘Why are you calling a stylist to style an African girl? Don’t they walk naked in their countries?’ And, I was like, ‘Really? Let me show you what modernism looks like in my country.’ And I went out and bought that catsuit that is on the album cover — beautiful, no? I was fearless. No one could stop me.”
Does she still have that iconic zebra-print catsuit from “Logozo’s” cover?

“Oh yeah, I do. My daughter wore it for Halloween once.”

Mothers and daughters and their bonds: their impact and import will never cease for Kidjo. There’s a reason her nickname is “Mama Africa.”

Her “Eve” album of 2014 is dedicated to women, young and old, of her homeland. The Afrobeat-driven “Mother Nature” from 2021 is ripe with the vision of gentle feminine wisdom while 2019’s “Celia” sings praises to Cuba’s queen of salsa. And on the tracks “Aye Kan” and “No Stopping Us,” on “Hope,” the spirit of Kidjo’s mother lives on in her words and image.

“In mourning, I was in shambles because I never thought that my mom gonna leave us so quickly,” Kidjo says quietly. “The day before she died, we had a wonderful conversation. Talking about music, about songs, this rhythm for that part. My mom was always looking for music all around the world, singing so many different songs to me, always giving me stuff to think about when it comes to music. If I was in front of this rhythm, what will I do? My mom was that person. She was still saying how people commented on how she don’t feed that kid, I’m so skinny. As we finished the conversation, she said, ‘Before you put me in the grave, you gotta sing my life after me. Make me that promise.’ And I’m telling her, ‘I’m not sure I’m gonna keep that promise. In my grief, I might not be able to.’ Now, remember, I’m taught that before you promise something, think about the commitment that you’re about to take. If you can’t do it, say no,” she says. “So, as I’m mourning, this is what I’m thinking to myself: How can I make the world discover her principles, those values that my mother gave all of us, even as we’re living in different parts of the world, being who we are?”

Kidjo’s response to keeping that promise shines through — effortlessly, sonorously — on the 21st century African diasporic R&B of “Hope,” songs of empowerment against authoritarianism such as “Bando,” and lyrics dedicated to “opening each other’s eyes, that’s the mission.”

“Hope was my mom’s favorite word; she used to say, ‘Your day starts with hope, your life starts with hope.’ Without hope, there’s nothing.”

Making that promise another element of her responsibility to herself and to the world comes through in Kidjo’s consideration of becoming the first Black African artist to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

“For me, it is still like I’m in a dream. But you know what? My parents always used to say, ‘You have to dream big. Otherwise, shut up, don’t talk about it.’ So, for me, this is a door being open, on American soil, to welcome in artists from around the globe. And I am the first Black African to have this honor. For me, it becomes a responsibility. How do we sustain this and get the people that give me this honor to understand that I’m just the first one, that the door must stay open for all the trailblazers in Africa, Latin America, Europe, wherever in the world that should be there. Let’s keep that door open. Let’s remind ourselves that when we have something and we share it, that we have more to give.”

Angélique Kidjo’s mother would be proud. %!s()

Buying your first proper camera used to mean picking a brand, determining a budget and perhaps arguing with yourself about how much zoom you really needed. Now, there's another consideration that's been added to the top of the list: DSLR or mirrorless?

Mirrorless is the simple answer for most people who are just beginning. Over the last few years, camera manufacturers have been investing their latest autofocus technology, video capabilities and lenses into their mirrorless lines. There are models available for all levels of experience, from APS-C beginner-friendly cameras to full-frame models for professionals. Our favorite cameras right now are overwhelmingly mirrorless for much the same reason.

DSLRs haven't suddenly become bad cameras. They simply are not in the direction of the majority of the industry. There's one little terminology trap to clear up here. DSLR stands for digital single-lens reflex camera, which means both DSLRs and mirrorless models are digital cameras. The difference lies in how they get light from the lens to your eye and the image sensor.

What actually changes when you remove the mirror?

A DSLR has a mirror inside that redirects light from the lens into an optical viewfinder. Press the shutter, and that mirror flips up so the sensor can capture the image. A mirrorless camera skips that mechanical detour, sending light straight to the sensor and showing you its feed through the rear display or an electronic viewfinder. While it seems like a minor engineering adjustment, it really isn't minor at all.

Modern mirrorless cameras can have more autofocus points in the frame, since the sensor is always exposed to the scene, can detect subjects like eyes, animals or vehicles and preview exposure changes before you shoot, and can even feature electronic shutters that allow for very fast bursts without a mirror slapping around inside the camera body. It can make photography easier for the novice, because what you see through the viewfinder is much closer to what you'll get. The optical viewfinders on DSLRs, however, do not use a small screen to view the image, so battery life is typically superior since the camera does not have to power a screen to see everything when composing a picture.

Removing the mirror also makes the camera body smaller, but attaching a huge telephoto lens to the front of the camera soon shatters the pocket camera illusion. 

Things are less clear-cut with image quality. With a good sensor and a good lens, you can take great photographs in either format. But the larger mirrorless improvements are in autofocus, shooting speed, video and the overall shooting experience, which is why Canon and Nikon turned to mirrorless cameras.

A DSLR can still make sense if you already own one

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If you're buying your initial interchangeable-lens camera, this comparison becomes a lot simpler. Get yourself a mirrorless model.

There is a different calculation for existing DSLR owners. When you have a camera bag full of expensive Canon EF or Nikon F lenses, all the familiar accessories and a body that does everything you need, it can be an expensive way of solving a problem you don't really have to switch systems. Also, an adapter can help to ease the transition later.

Regardless, mirrorless has been the trend among professionals recently. The survey by Shotkit was conducted on 1,000 photographers and found that 63 percent of its professional respondents used mirrorless cameras. It should be noted that the respondents were not a representative sample of all working photographers, but rather from the audience and photography groups of Shotkit.

Canon and Nikon's product directions are reflective of the market shift. While Nikon denied a 2022 report that it had discontinued the development of DSLRs, describing it at the time as speculation, it has not released a new DSLR since 2020, and its more recent cameras have focused on the Z mirrorless system. Pentax is a notable exception, as Ricoh Imaging says it plans to continue working on SLR technology.

That puts DSLRs in a somewhat awkward position. They are still capable, known to millions of photographers and may be a great value on the used market. It's much more difficult to justify starting a brand-new system around one in 2026.

In 2025, interchangeable-lens camera shipments were dominated by mirrorless cameras, which represented about 90 percent of the total. %!s()

That's according to Fabien Sanglard, who's written a blog post on the curious case of the Quake shareware CD release. The game itself took up a mere 22 MB of a CD-ROM's 640 MB capacity, leading John Carmack to joke that if there was ever a CD version of Doom, it would come with a "Making of Doom" feature film to use up the entire capacity.

However, it was decided that all that extra space could be put to better use instead—by including locked versions of id Software's entire back catalogue of games. The idea being, you could gain access to the games by calling a hotline, paying for them over the phone, and then putting in an unlock code. Just like you could when unlocking the shareware version of Quake into the full release.

In the days before proper digital game distribution (and for many, decent internet connections), this was likely seen as a stroke of genius. However, there was one fatal flaw. Yes, you guessed it. Those dastardly pirates have struck again.

Just 39 days after the CD-ROM's release, Quakecrk.zip emerged on the interwebs. Contained inside was Qcrack.exe, a tool which allowed users to merrily generate codes that would decrypt every single game.

The technical details go a little bit above my head, but I'll try to explain it the best I can. When attempting to unlock a game, the CD-ROM's GUI provided a code number, which was then supposed to be relayed to a phone agent. The agent would then provide a serial number, which the user would enter, granting access to a game.

However, the serial number obtained over the phone was merely a way to inform the unlock program that payment had been made. Said unlock program was capable of generating valid serial numbers all on its own, and merely checked to see if the locally-generated serial and the serial entered by the user matched.

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Which meant a cracked program could create a valid serial using a generated code number in the same way, and voila, access to id Software's entire back catalogue (in 1996, anyway) was yours.

Sanglard has also found a quote from David Kushner's Masters of Doom regarding the whole fiasco:

"Gamers wasted no time hacking the shareware to unlock the full version of the game for free. Worse, all the mundane aspects of distribution and order fulfilment were spinning out of control. In a desperate measure, id tried to put the brakes on the retail shareware, but it was too late. They were stuck with almost 150,000 CDs sitting in a warehouse."

So, the whole thing was pretty much a disaster. While gamers could pick up the shareware release of Quake for around $10 from retail stores, those in the know could use it to gain access to not just the full version of Quake, but a whole heap of other games for no extra cost.

Worse still, the pirated experience was technically better than the legitimate one. Sanglard has dug around inside the Quake shareware CD file structure and found several glaring errors, including the fact that Final Doom could not be accessed by calling the unlock center because of a small typo in the filename:

"There is a typo in SKU.17 which makes GAME-ID 12 correspond to codename 'Final' (with a capital F). This makes the serial generation retrieve the wrong doc. The correct value was 'final'. This created an only-too-familiar situation where illegitimate users enjoyed a better experience than paying customers."

A scenario that may ring true for some today. Anyway, lessons were learned, and I'd imagine that many curse words were used in the id Software offices when all this was discovered. Now if you'll excuse me, I think I might go and have a blast through Quake myself. It's been a while since I've played the original, so I think I'm ready to make up for some lost time.

Andy built his first gaming PC at the tender age of 12, when IDE cables were a thing and high resolution wasn't. 26 years later (yes he's getting old), he now spends his days writing about and reviewing graphics cards, CPUs, keyboards, mice, gaming headsets and much, much more. You name it, if it's PC gaming hardware he'll write words about it, with opinions and everything. %!s()