I used to play demos all the time. When I had my PS1, I had a subscription to OPSM, and each issue came with a demo disc. I used to have a big box full of discs, a lot of them demo discs, that I ultimately threw away. Most of them were in pretty bad condition anyway. I also had some Playstation Underground discs. I played demos for PS1, DC, Xbox, GC, GBA, DS, PC, and newer systems. I still have a couple GC demo discs - one that has Sonic Adventure DX, Soul Calibur II, and some other stuff, and one for Rogue Squadron III. I also still have an old PS1 demo disc that came with my first PlayStation. What's Shenmue is a pretty interesting "demo". Some games either include demo discs (Square and Konami did this a lot) or have demos on the game disc, accessible by a menu in the game.
MGS2......nuff said Love the fact that you can use the FAMAS (with gameshark and albeit abit glitchy). Should have kept it as an unlockable in the final version
Battlefield Bad company on Xbox 360. That multiplayer demo, was so much fun. Even the servers couldn't handle all the traffic from the users. As the game was lagging very bad at a lot of different times, we kept playing this demo till they finally shut it down. Then we continued with the full game But it was a fun time. Sometimes it comes up in a conversation, and me and my friends still laugh about the sick amount of lag there was.
I just realized I have that demo disc. Unfortunately it's in a box, in a storage unit (we're moving very slowly). I bookmarked the page to unlock it for when I get that disc back out. It's actually a really good demo disc. I played a ton of NHL 2k5 (I think) and Conker on it.
I can think of 3 off the top of my head. Magic the Gathering for Windows 95 demo. I played that to the point where I was able to beat every deck with every deck. I never did get the full game. Grand Theft Auto on PC. This lets you play up to 7 minutes of the first episode. I remember having friends over playing for hours, taking turns for each 7 minutes. Then laying in bed still hearing the sirens from the game even when I wasn't playing anymore. World Series Baseball on Saturn. The local department store had a Saturn demo using and the Saturn Bootleg Sampler in it. My friend and I would go there every after noon to play the Home Run derby mode. We would build the worst possible lineups. I think we did this for that entire summer. We never got kicked out or anything.
Yeah, it was this one: http://www.ign.com/games/official-xbox-magazine-demo-disc-39/xbox-729343 The Conker demo is I think all the Normandy level.
I can't recall which demo number it is but I played the hell out of the Dreamcast demo that had Jet Grind Radio and PaRappa the Rappa. I also recall paying the PS1 demo of Resident Evil 2 and Tomb Raider.
The Bootleg sampler that came with the Sega Saturn. I'm sure a lot of 90s kids remember that one. I'd play the Clockwork Knight 2 demo constantly. It was only one level but never got old. It was like Christmas finally buying the game and seeing what it is like past that one stage. I remember also always playing this sample disc that came with the PSX. Had no games I cared for on it but somehow I always went back to it.
Had an E3 preview build of Driver for PS1 and my friends and I shit our collective pants. At the time the graphics were amazing and an open world driving game was something unheard of. Throw in the Gameshark codes for an unlimited timer (I think it was originally 2-3 minutes), unlimited life, and the ability to flip your car back over and we were hooked on that thing for hours and hours over many evenings. It's funny to think how excited or amazed we were about features that are far beyond banal now like traffic that observed stoplights, an open-ended exploratory map, little bits of debris that would fly when you ran over shit.... Even that one tiny hump that you could catch a little air on in the middle of the map was mind blowing. I remember taking this to the video store I worked at and playing it a bit during downtime. I'd leave it running when waiting on customers and I couldn't count the number of guys that would see it and ask "What's that? Can I rent it?" That was usually followed up with asking why the Playstation was upside down because the shitty laser was failing in the banged up rental unit, making it work only when upside down.
If you ever find that disc again hold onto it, because no part of the Parappa series was ever released on a non-Sony console. (Um Jammer Lammy was in the arcades though.) ...and if you remember the actual title of that game, let us know, if it's good enough to be confused with Parappa I'd like to give it a try.
All of those. Played the Doom 1 demo from release until Doom 2 came out, which was the first retail game I ever purchased with my own money. Would just play Jazz to hear the music on my new at the time AWE32. Also Interstate 76, and Carmageddon as well played the demos until the point I had memorized every nook/cranny/bug. I also remember buying OMF: 2097 awhile later via mail after we had played the demo through a few hundred times. Took forever (Weeks) to get those floppies, man those days sucked.
I was lucky enough to live close to stores that frequently changed games in their kiosks and never spent much time on just one . That changed when I subscribed to PlayStation Underground and OPM. And odd as it sounds, I've spent the most time with a Ms. Pac-Man: Maze Madness demo. To this day, I still use it to test PlayStation consoles that I buy.
I haven't had that demo since I sold my original Dreamcast many years ago. I remember it very well though cause I would play that along with Jet Grind Radio while listening to a 80's hair metal mix tape. Can't recall for sure but I would assume it was just a demo from one of the Dreamcast magazines.
DreamOn vol. 1, the demo disc that came with the Dreamcast here in Europe. I played all the demos in it like there was nothing else to do in life
for me it would be the demo of wipeout 2097 for ps1 (only had a demo disk when i got the console) x.x
We never bought PaRappa The Rapper (I got a NTSC-J copy recently) but I remember playing the demo on a PlayStation Underground disc like it was eating food practically. That demo disc is one thing out of my childhood I wish I had today.
Carmageddon on the PC, the pre-release demo. I liked the map in the demo more than any that were in the final game, even. Yeah I used a crack to get around the time limit.
The Official Playstation 1 demo discs were amazing Metal gear solid, Medievil and final fantasy (8 I think) were my top 3 that got played repetitively. I also had a weird fascination with playing a Leftfield video over and over on one of the discs......
