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The Greatest Demo Disc Demos?

Metal Gear Solid, I think it was with Official PlayStation Magazine. Everything about it was cool, the packaging, the disc and then actually trying it out, I was blown away at the time. Trying pre release games and one of high quality too. I lent the disc to many at school and I think most bought the game day one.
 
I have only had the winter 2001 ps2 jampack, and I played the shit out of a few of the demos namely FFX, Dynasty Warriors, and Drakan (underrated gem). I eventually bought Baldurs Gate Dark Alliance, Drakan, FFX, and SSX tricky which were on there.

Jampack.jpg


Drakan The Ancients Gates had a fantastic demo. It let you fly around the first main area, plus you could do one of the bigger side quests which had a few really cool moments like fighting a giant monster. Great game, though the combat has aged poorly. I would love a remake of this IP.
 
The first Armored Core. Had a few pretty good demos on the disc it was on besides that too.

Oh shit. The disc had PaRappa the Rapper, Tomb Raider 2, Cool Borders 2, Armored Core, Crash Bandicoot 2 and Jet Moto 2.
 
Piers said:
Didn't Nintendo literally charge for that? Like, not even as a pack-in for a magazine. You had to outright buy it.
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Iirc it was supposed to only be bundled with new Gamecube systems but Gamestop didn't give a fuck and sold it for $10 if you asked.
 
Official PlayStation Magazine used to be awesome for demos. Sold me on half my PS2 library. Some of my favorite demos included Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven, SotC, Z.O.E. 2, Lifeline, and Ratchet. So many others too.
 
Has to be Metal Gear Solid or MGS2 for me. I remember buying Zone of the Enders purely for the MGS2 demo and it was totally worth it. Probably played both those demos more than a lot of full games. Oh and Zone of the Enders turned out to be pretty damn good, so overall that was a good memory.
 
The Windows 95 demo disk is by far far the ultimate demo to shows the majors features the next generation of PC would have been. Music player, video player, Games, screensavers and much more. I still remember playing that maze game against AI in an arena of some sort like a memorable experience.
 
Hands down for me is the PSX Winter releases 98:
Bust-A-Grove, Ghost in the Shell, Gran Turismo, Kula World, Medievil, Spyro The Dragon, Tekken 3, Tombi, Treasures of the Deep.

Pretty much summed up my childhood.
 
I was super bummed that there were no n64 demo carts during that generation. Also disappointed I couldn't get any "Bali" games like all my friends with PS1s.

By the time I had a console that had demo discs I had a disposable income so could just buy games outright or rent them from a video store.
Chris_IWS said:
The classic!



Honestly, I never considered this a demo disc, but I guess it was. :/

This is one I got from Game back in the day. One of the only GC demo discs I ever saw, aside from the aforementioned.

5i0CnYj.jpg

9zetw4C.jpg
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Man I wanted to like PN03 but it kinda sucked from memory.

Should try it again one of these days.
 
May 2001 PlayStation Magazine

Most notable on that disc


Ape Escape
The Legend of Dragoon
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
MediEvil II
Syphon Filter 2
Metal Gear Solid
Tekken 3
 
James Pond 2: Robocod had a free demo that was on the cover of all the Amiga and PC gaming magazines, which included the hub world and the first level. If you entered the "open all levels" cheat code, you could play the whole game. Hell of a "demo" disk :)
 
The best demo disc for us back then was from a Polish videogame magazine called 'CyberMycha': there was the Marseille stage from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 on it. We've spent countless of hours in it, figuring out the special moves, trying to beat our highscores, before we got the full version later on. It was pretty much the best thing we have played up to that point in our young videogame lifes! :D
 
Probably Ico. Sold me on a game I was slightly intrigued by, but was a no doubter for me after.

Followed closely by the MGS1 demo, then RE2 and MGS2 that were just the perfect taste of highly anticipated titles.
 
kimifan141 said:

This demo disc what got me into the playstation series i still have it and it still works fine.




I was mostly playing nes and snes/sega games at the time along with the lucasarts adventures and age of empires on pc, i was stunned by metal gear solid demo.
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Oh wow, I actually took that picture some years back! Funny that it shows up again. So many memories in this thread. :)
 
soxinthebox said:
Man I wanted to like PN03 but it kinda sucked from memory.

Should try it again one of these days.
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The potential was there, but I think the biggest disappointment for most people was that the music and rhythm didn't tie more into the gameplay. Vanessa felt quite clunky in her movements, while everything else about the game suggested a flow that just wasn't there.

Honestly,it was a poor post by me to put it up. The only reason I posted the demo was because I hadn't seen any other one before. It basically just had the first level of the regular game. :/
 
The only Demo Discs I remember was the one that came with the PS2 and had a SSX Demo on it and the curious demo disc I payed full price for that came with a full copy of Zone of the Enders. That MGS2 demo though.
 
Keio flying squadron had the best demo disc, because if you entered a cheat code, you could play the entire rest of the game. Oops!
 
This will never be beaten. They gave away the entire first disc of an incredible RPG called Panzer Dragoon Saga in Sega Saturn Magazine.

UaMnrJW.jpg
 
The Half-Life demo was unique and didn't feature any parts of the real game. It was created to show off differnt types of gameplay in a custom level. However there was a preview disc which contained the first hour or so of gameplay called Half-Life: Day One

Half-Life_Day_One_Sierra_and_Valve_1998
 
BumblebeeCody said:
Demo Disc 1 that came with the PlayStation. That really set up gaming for what's to come. Still have it to this day.
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Yep, that one immediately came to mind. Had a kickass opening track too. Really brings me back

When it comes to specific demo disc demos... I guess Gruntz from some PC Demo Disc? Played that demo over and over and over and over and... damnit eventually I had to have the full game.

(ended up paying a vague acquaintance of my brother's to get an illigal copy :x)
 
Whichever PSN Magazine demo disc that had the demo for No One Can Stop Mr. Domino. I don't know why, but I played that demo relentlessly... until I beat it. Thus, effectively stopping Mr. Domino.
 
HotHamBoy said:
dreamcast-haul-9-magazine-discs.jpg
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I was all about these. Played the Ready 2 Rumble and Virtua Striker demos with my brothers as if they were full games.

Then they released Sega Swirl and it all went downhill. Didn't need to buy any full games for the first year, the demo discs provided so much entertainment.
 
I only really remember ps1 and dc demo discs, one of the ps1 discs I had one time featured a ton of playables and I remember it treating me well over one summer.
 
I still literally have a CD wallet full of demo discs from OPM. Some of my fav demos included FFVIII, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2, PaRapa The Rapper, Fisherman's Bait which is silly but when it first came out it was ridiculously fun. The demo I played most though was a game most people probably never even heard of "Shaun Murray's Pro Wake Boarder", I don't even like Wake Boarding but this game was Tony Hawk's Pro Skater being dragged behind a boat with a southern rock soundtrack. I eventually did find it and buy it years later and its still fun to play.
 
Octavia said:
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

nitggpjmhvdwybgolyrm.jpg



I must have played the demo 20-30 times.
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I think if you play that demo on the ps2 and take the disc out and put the actual xenogears disc in you can watch all the movies in the game from the demo menu.
 
My favorite demo disc was a PS1 disc came from, I think, Toys R Us. It's my favorite because it had a demo for Legend of Legaia on it, and I can guarantee I never would've heard of the game otherwise. I played that demo so freaking much. The other demos were pretty meh on it, I think it had a Xena demo, and some Elmo thing.

Found it, it was called Attack of the Killer Demos! and featured:
Contender
Legend of Legaia
R4 Ridge Racer
Xena Warrior Princess
Cool Boarders 3
Ehrgerz
Elmo's Letter Adventure

But I really only ever played Legaia.


Special shoutout to the demo disc that had Intelligent Qube, I think that was Pizza Hut, never would've heard of that game otherwise either.
 
The PS2 Jampack with the Soul Reaver 2 demo, I loved SR1 so I was all over that, I couldn't put it into my PS2 fast enough. The Ico demo was also included and I remember thinking "Ico... the GIA had a little preview of that game last E3. Sounded kinda lame from what I recall." Ended up completely eclipsing SR2 in my eyes.
 
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