For reasons I can't adequately explain to myself, I just bought the Xbox Exhibition Disk number 4. Playing these old demo releases is a lot like watching old VHS recordings of TV shows I forgot about. I see ads for things I can't buy, and the demos (like promos for canceled shows) promise things that sometimes I know weren't actually delivered. I regret not having kept more of the Xbox and Playstation magazine demo disks. I have a handful of each, and what few I have are very interesting from a historical perspective some ten years later. Early version of the Final Fantasy XI client? Ehrgeiz demo that looks nothing like the final game? FMV with pre-release music and placeholder dialogue? All fascinating to me. Probably the most interesting one I have here is the Xbox Exhibition Disk 2, which has the full release of SNK vs Capcom EO and lacks only a save function. But who cares when all the characters are already unlocked? Anybody with fond memories of a favorite demo disk or other public pre-release software to share? In case it's not clear, these things are starting to pop up in the wild now and I'm looking for some guidance as to what's worth hunting down.
I still have a PC Gamer Demo disk from september 2000 kicking around somewhere. I just refuse to let it die. Has the old pre-xbox halo video on it and a few other classic bits and pieces. The early PS1 disks were like gold to me and my brother. Unable to afford many games it was a glimpse into the system really taking off and we must have played every demo over and over. Infact, I think I spent more time playing demos than actual games. My paper round could afford me to buy an official playstation mag every week and they were a constant source of fresh entertainment. Happy days.
I used to have a ton of demo discs, but I think I threw a lot of them away. I agree, they are cool. It was cool when you could get a physical product for free or for a small amount of money, and they you could play demos off of said physical product. People care less and less about physical media when it comes to software and games. It's a shame, to be sure.
I missed out on the demo era. Got started with disk systems too late. Might've played a later PS1 one that likely came with my system once or twice, really don't remember. Still never figured out where that disc went.
Exactly this. I was reminiscing with a friend a while back about how important demos were when we were younger, how much play we'd get out of them. I know the demo of Ignition kept me going for months, improving my best lap time, playing it racing backwards, jumping off ledges to different parts of the level and still winning, basically testing the engine to its limits. When I finally got the full game it was almost a disappointment. I was basically done with the game, even though I'd only played one level. I imagine kids on Xbox Live are the same today. Download every demo they can get their hands on and play them to death, in lieu of having the money to buy the full thing. I hope game developers realise the value of this, if not in the short term, certainly in the long term - those same kids are going to buy a fuckton of games when they grow up.
This was one thing that pissed me more about Nintendo going with carts for the N64. Imagine all the demos of things we might have otherwise :/ I remember my favorite demo discs, one being the Bootleg Sampler vol. something that had Clockwork Knight 2 on it, it came packed with the system. I used to play that first level demo constantly, and always watch the the samba-ish cinema over and over too. Another one was a PSM demo for Tomba. Shame everything's going digital these days. It just isn't the same
I collect Saturn sample discs and japanese magazine cover discs. It's great to be able to see early versions of games. Sometimes the early version is better than the final. Capcom sample discs are fantastic because they always contain early code and even arcade code.
Did you know the demo of Sega Rally on that same disc - which is called Bootleg Sampler Vol. 1, by the way - features some beta elements? From what I can tell, a few road textures are different (and slightly smoother than in the final version), plus the Celica model is closer to the Model 2 arcade original. Also, there are some minor changes to roadside crowd sprites and the scaled mountain on the hairpin right turn is missing entirely, although I seem to recall this was added quite late into the PAL conversion process. I'm guessing the CS Team behind the Saturn conversion were forced to change most of these details when optimising the game, even though I don't notice any frame rate problems. Is there anything else I've missed? EDIT: This early preview code boasts an alternate mix of the "Game Over" track... no, really!
I always liked PC Gamer's discs with coconut monkey when you could kinda explore his lil headquarters
For me Gran Turismo 2000 is the ultimate demo disc. Something like a holy grail. It's basicly a revamped GT2 with more polygons. It's a very early build, specially if you compare to the final product GT3 was. Anyway, i have a CD-R copy of GT2000, but someday i'll have the complete original disc.
Yay, demo discs that have unused content in them. I've got some too. Rockman Neo This is a video I've made about Rockman Neo, the Japanese pre-release/demo version of Mega Man Legends that was included in the Japanese Resident Evil 2 Trial disc that was packaged with the Japanese first edition copies of Resident Evil: Director's Cut in 1997. This particular pre-release demo is quite interesting as there are several major differences in this pre-release that the annotations in the video demonstrate. Crash Bandicoot 3: Pre-Release demo I made this video in spring 2007 about about those Crash Bandicoot 3 demos that were included in first edition copies of Spyro The Dragon. Anyone remember those? This video was to illustrate the differentiations of the level "Tell no Tales", between the final version and this pre-release demo. This video was actual live footage taken from the game played on an emulator, and was actually seven videos combined into one. These were the best quality videos that I could record at the time. Now I can record in much, much higher quality than before. Just check out my latest vids. :thumbsup:
This. And this. Damn right guys, same happened to me with PC and PS1, back in the day didn't have much to spare for games (being a Nintendo kid mostly) so PC demos and snatching PS1 demos every once in a while kept my gaming going when I could not afford an N64 game I still have some demo discs, I do recall having one from Eidos which came with a Tomb Raider game I bought for PC, and the disc had tons of demos, which included: Thief 2, Tomb Raider 1 & 2, Soul Reaver, Rayman, Omikron and some other games and videos. I remember playing the Thief 2 demo over and over again, it was awesome as it included 2 complete levels, and also the Omikron demo which was very extensive as well. Good times :nod:
Can you tell me more about the Ehrgeiz demo? I've been searching for info on this game and your post REALLY interests me. All the demos I've found are all close to the final version. I had no idea there was such a varied demo in existence. Where did you get the demo? Would you mind uploading the files so that I can take a look?
I've always been fond of demo discs. I especially had a massive collection on PS1. Having said that, I can understand why they have no place in today's gaming scene. Even though I wish I could get physical copies of game demos for collection purposes, ultimately everybody just wants to download them, and very few people are concerned with the "value" of an earlier, incomplete version of a game. Ultimately, it makes more sense to provide them digitally. I'm not a fan of it, but it makes somewhat less waste in the world, too. Anyway, I have no intentions of getting the current consoles, so it doesn't really concern me either way.
Lol nostalgia trip, I remember asking my parents for a PS1 "jampack" demo disc for Christmas because I knew it had demos of 3 or so games that I really wanted to play and I knew I wouldn't be able to get them to give me $150 worth of games. Before I had a PS1, I was at a friend's house and he had one of the first demo discs for the system, the one with Battle Arena Toshinden and Jumping Flash 1 and ESPN Extreme Games. I remember thinking to myself that if I had the PS1 and just this demo disc, I would never get bored of it because of how amazing, fluid, and next gen the games looked (compared to 16 bit titles). About a year later I managed to get a PS1 and I was extremely disappointed to find that my system came with a different demo disc that from my point of view had crap games/demos on it (non-playable video of aquanauts holiday, nonplayable demo of Street Fighter Alpha, etc.) Battle Arena Toshinden 1 and Jumping Flash 1 were some of the first console games I ever bought and they were really refreshing!
I have every US XBOX OXM demo disc covering the XBOX Classic and 360. I have MOST of the Dreamcast demo discs as well. I may once I get back to collecting for XBOX pick up the XBOX Exhibition discs as well.
I actually picked up the Dreamcast Generator Volume 2 at a garage sale (for a quarter) before getting a Dreamcast. I played the bejeesus out of that one. MDK 2 was probably my favorite.
