Players of baKno's games for Mac can now benefit (so to speak) from the ability to purchase (virtual) coins which they can use whenever their game trial expires. The new "pay per play" solution is an alternative to purchasing a traditional shareware license, baKno reveals.

Yes, it's no joke. You buy coins which you "pop in" when you reach the trial limitation of your baKno game of choice. The coins, of course, give you the chance to continue. Who is so undecided when previewing a game that they'll go into so much trouble saving the exact amount of cents that wouldn't have (presumably) been worth spending on the gameplay experience? How do you even determine that?

Anyway, according to baKno "Game coins are the same old way to pay for gaming at the arcade. An alternative way to pay as you play instead of purchasing a full license, and a convenient way to fully try all our games." The game developer notes that "after you purchase coins, you will receive an email with a Key Code to be entered on your game exactly as when you purchase a license. This key code will unlock the same amount of plays as coins purchased."

"When playing, at the moment you reach the trial limitation, one of your coins is deducted with a distinctive sound, and you can keep playing until the end of that play. It is necessary that you are connected to the Internet when playing with coins, otherwise the game won't be able to verify your current coins," baKno says.

Basically, if you purchase game coins, you receive your credentials via email and they have to be entered just once per game. From there the game takes care of charging each coin at a time. You know that the game is deducting one coin when "the distinctive sound" (coin drop sound) is played.

If you find the Game Coins an interesting idea note that they are sold in packages, with each coin at 10 US cents, and available packages of 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 coins, each sold for US $1, $2, $3, $4 and $5 respectively.

baKno develops what the gaming industry calls "Casual Games", for Mac OS X and Windows. The company's games are provided to customers directly from the website as Free-To-Try downloads.

Update: this article has been modified in order to rectify a number of partially incorrect assertions regarding baKno's unique pay-per-play system.