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[BiggNife]

My first ever eBay purchase. Sent the seller a god damn check in the mail for it! Twice!

Yeah, this was the one I had. There was also a Wario Ware demo and a surprisingly full featured version of Dr. Mario if you used the GBA link cable. I remember playing both quite a bit.

 

[FuriousOne]

OXM with Ninja Gaiden, full first level. Holy F***.

 

[JeffZero]

1998 Pizza Hut demo discs. Got my friends and I into Metal Gear Solid and Xenogears.

The best.

 

[holygeesus]

Not a demo disc per se, but the Amiga Power (I think) issue with the Cannon Fodder/Sensible Soccer game, where the football was replaced by a grenade, was genius.

 

[tesqui]

I don't remember its name, but there was one on PS1 that featured Crash Bandicoot, Twisted Metal, and some weird puzzle game that was a box environment with tiny people inside that you could shift 90 degrees in any direction. I would play that disc constantly as a kid.

 

[Mathieran]

I don't know about the greatest ever, but the PSVR one is really great.

 

[What did he mean by this?]

Stealing demo discs from Barnes and Nobles will always be a good memory of childhood danger to me

I could have asked my mom for $10 sure

 

[Quonny]

Stealing demo discs from Barnes and Nobles will always be a good memory of childhood danger to me

I could have asked my mom for $10 sure

Same, but the grocery store.

Good times.

 

[Samanosuke Akechi]

 

[jb1234]

DQVIII came with a pretty cool FFXII demo.

 

[JeffZero]

Stealing demo discs from Barnes and Nobles will always be a good memory of childhood danger to me

I could have asked my mom for $10 sure

I stole several strategy guides out of my local Babbage's when I was 12. My friend, disappointed with me, shook his head and said I'd learn my lesson when I inevitably got caught. I didn't get caught.

Plot twist, though: said friend is serving like 15-20 for armed burglary.

 

[Samanosuke Akechi]

Me and my older brother saved up dollars and coins for MONTHS to buy Brave Fencer Musashi. The #1 reason we did it was for the FF8 demo included. Turned into a happy surprise when the demo included Xenogears and Musashi ended up being amazing. Hard, but amazing.

Same here. I was so excited for the ffviii demo after all the magazine coverage back then.

 

[RPS37]

This thread makes me so sad that I got rid of my OXM discs.

Edit: Dreamcast magazine discs too!

 

[Octavia]

I had the xenogears demo, and it was amazing. You basically got cheat mode, had 999 of everything and could use every single skill in the game at the very start. I just spammed the final crazy skills that were like FF7 summons repeatedly and found it rather amusing as a kid to watch them. The script was also different and unique. Someone has a video of it:

https://youtu.be/iNI0QbNFYCU

I must have played the demo 20-30 times.

 

[captainmoonlight]

Tony Hawk 1 pizza hut.

This. Nothing else compares.

 

[Samanosuke Akechi]

 

[MikeE21286]

Wasn’t there a FFVII demo with a Brave Fencer Musashi back isn the day?

If so that’s my vote if my memory is right.

 

[VariantX]

I remember there was a demo disc with AC1 and RayStorm on it. I literally played nothing but that disc for weeks just trying out tons of combinations of the few AC parts I had available compared to the full game.

 

[Samanosuke Akechi]

Very good game and awesome demo too

 

[Jake.]

final fantasy 8 (came with a playstation magazine i forget the name of).
metal gear solid 2 (came with Z.O.E.)

 

[The Bookerman]

My friend bought this game just for the demo.

And it was soooooo worth it.

 

[xXJonoXx]

I remember carrying this disc around with me everywhere I went as a kid. It was my most prized possession.

 

[Syriel]

Christmas Nights was already mentioned, but here are some others:

When Capcom screwed up and included the entire Japanese version of Capcom vs SNK 2 on an Xbox demo disc.

The Lunar demo which allowed you to save your game, and then continue from that point once you bought the full version.

 

[fritolay]

a

 

[Spring-Loaded]

There was an OPM demo disc that had Burnout Tres on that bish, and some other good games but I can't remember which

 

[impirius]

Christmas Nights because it’s so unique

GameCube Resident Evil 4 demo disc because that level was sublime and held up to tons of replays

 

[PeakPointMatrix]

It was all about the PlayStation Interactive Sampler 5. I played this single demo disk so many times in my childhood and ended up liking most of the franchises on the disk just from playing the demos. Listening to the music for it again just makes me want to dig up the disc and pop it back in my Playstation.

Playstation Interactive Sampler CD Volume 5 Menu

God I played everything on here to death. Never could beat that Tomb Raider Demo

This single disc set me on a path to be a fan of most of those franchises too.

 

[Ceallach]

http://www.sega-mega-cd-library.co....-cd-library.co.uk/Demo Pages/Keio SP Demo.htm

The Sega CD keio demo that had the whole game on it is notable.

 

[Poppy]

the PS1 demo disc that had team buddies on it

i played that for so goddamn long when i was a kid

also the demo disc that had spyro and mgs1 on it

 

[HotHamBoy]

http://www.sega-mega-cd-library.co....-cd-library.co.uk/Demo Pages/Keio SP Demo.htm

The Sega CD keio demo that had the whole game on it is notable.

Oh wow that's amazing!

 

[uceenk]

various games on Windows 98 disc

i played Age of Empires 1 demo countless time, also Monster Truck

 

[Verelios]

How are you going to put a greatest qualifier in the title and not mention the best demo conceived, Metal Gear Solid 2? It was a game changer, especially with the bait and switch after you bought the game and got past act 1 (ha). Lovely all around.

 

[vesp]

That jam pack with blast chamber and puzzle fighter. I played that more than most games.

 

[Drillary Clinton]

The Psi-Ops demo on the OXM disc let you unlock the practice chamber. It just let you play around with all of the powers and weapons from the demo. A physics playground. Sold me on the game.

 

[DieAntwoord]

I swear I had one with 100 Bullets

 

[Rodney McKay]

There was an official Xbox Magazine demo disc that included some Oblivion DLC on the disc, which I thought was really awesome.

 

[tootie923]

I have a resident evil 4 demo disc for the GameCube.

I remember buying a Famitsu issue to get the Japanese RE4 demo from Play-Asia. It was glorious.

I don't remember getting that DVD included though. The one I bought was only the GC demo disc.

 

[Hexer06]

The Capcom vs SNK 2 demo from Xbox Generator is actually just the full game and roster, just without online play

Dam! That's pretty crazy. Seriously miss that game. One of the best fighting games to date for me. I loved the character customization in that.

I sure do miss these good ol' days! So many demo discs I forgot or didn't know about. Playstation Underground was how I played a lot of my demos. Then the Xbox demo discs from OXM I believe. It's sad that demos have mainly faded away lately. I remember I bought a lot of games on Xbox Live Arcade due to every game having to make a playable trial. I'm very glad that's not necessary anymore as I'm sure it helps devs out immensely, but I do really miss them being a frequent thing. :/

 

[galvatron]

The Capcom vs SNK 2 demo from Xbox Generator is actually just the full game and roster, just without online play

Came to post that. Absolutely unreal

 

[Bishop89]

+ Manta Ray one

 

[NESpowerhouse]

Sure it could wipe your memory card, but it had Ace Combat 5 and Jak 3 guys!!!!1111

 

[Soleil rouge]

Look at that lineup holy crap.

I also had this one too, I lost both of these Jampacks when I moved to a new house over 8 years ago. I miss these discs so much. I would buy them again If I could. I think I had most of the later Jampacks for PS1 and they are still with me.

I had this as well and played it more than the full games I owned. It also featured a documentary on the making of Legend of Dragoon; a Syphon Filter hints video; a quirky Japanese restaurant management game that was a ton of fun, and some sort of downloadable content for Metal of Honor. Really wish I still had this.

 

[Aizo]

Jampack was great.

 

[Tyraniboah]

The Final Fantasy VIII demo was probably it for me. Made me want a PlayStation just for that game

 

[Erekiddo]

The demo disc of Shadow of the Colossus had the sideways climbing glitch where you would run out of stamina very slowly. Exploiting this allowed you up top of the shower in a secret garden area that was never finished.

I kept it just for this reason.

 

[RiderKairuu]

Christmas Nights was already mentioned, but here are some others:

When Capcom screwed up and included the entire Japanese version of Capcom vs SNK 2 on an Xbox demo disc.

The Lunar demo which allowed you to save your game, and then continue from that point once you bought the full version.

That's really cool. I didn't think that stuff happened until much later.

 

[Frozenprince]

The demo disc of Shadow of the Colossus had the sideways climbing glitch where you would run out of stamina very slowly. Exploiting this allowed you up top of the shower in a secret garden area that was never finished.

I kept it just for this reason.

Hate to tell you this but that area is totally in the actual game.

 

[EdReedFan20]

I have several, but the one I played the most was the 2001 PS2 demo disc from PlayStation Underground. Some games I recall from it are Snow Boarders 2001, MTV Music Generator 2. Some others I had were the Holiday 2004 disc as shown above. As well as the 2005 one (that included Shadow of the Colossus).

 

[jizzlobber]

disc 1 of panzer dragoon saga free with sega Saturn magazine is pretty cool.

but yeah Christmas nights was my fav.
shoutout to sega ages with panzer zwei, sega rally and virtua fighter... sold me on the Saturn.

 

[VanillaCakeIsBurning]

I remember there was one PS2 demo disc that would wipe all of your saves.

I still have stacks of demo discs in a drawer somewhere from monthly magazines.