Do you remember the days of demo disks that came with the gaming and PC magazines? Remember excitedly installing and trying out all the demos? Things have changed greatly since the, but for those of us old enough we remember the glory days of the demo disk
Taking inspiration from this PC Gamer article I thought I’d ask you all - what Demo did you replay over and over again?
There are 2 that come to mind for me:
Age of Wonders 2 which I got off of a PC Format Demo disk. Even though my PC could barely run it at the time, I replayed the scenario over and over again. I was enthralled by the turn based combat.
Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast - I remember watching my friend play this game on his PC and I was absolutely amazed by it. The graphics were amazing, (there were even reflections!) and the gameplay gave you the rush of being a full-fledge Jedi Knight - blocking laser fire with you saber, force jumping and pushing. When I got a PC that could run it I played this demo over and over until I got my hands on the full game.
I played the Diablo demo to pieces. It was great! I can’t remember how many times I played thru those first 3 levels, then restart and do it again to eek out every last bit of xp.
Also played the Age of Empires demo so many times.
Oh wow, there are so many demos I played, I can’t really think of the one that I played the most. So many demos have stuck with me, however, or made me want to get the game.
I played the Age of Empires demo several years ago. I remember the first mission started with the monk walking on the map, and my mind was just blown by the music and the fact that the impala jumped out of your way as you moved your unit closer. That was the day I played my very first RTS game, and I was an instant fan from that day. Wow that was way back in the 90’s!!
Freelancer was also a demo I played that I absolutely loved. I wanted that game so badly but never got to play it. I replayed it a fair bit.
Then there was this one game, I cannot remember its name and I wish I could. You had this platform in space and you bought stuff to add to your satelite/spacestation that was launched up from earth and added to your ship. Then with the additions, you could influence what was happening on earth as you battle other people trying to build their own stations. I really liked it but for the life of me I cannot remember the name.
with my ps1 came a demo disc that had grind session on it which i played 24/7 reason was my parents didnt want to buy me tony hawk as it was too expensive back then. i also have a demo one with porsche challenge on which i also played non stop and i think rage racer (ridge racer 2) was also on there
on the 360 i only downloaded demo’s and i think a demo i played the forza 2 demo the most before my pre order came thats why i know the mugello track like the back of my hand now.
and on pc a demo disc (well technically i had internet starter kit discs that had demo’s on them like mweb 30 days free etc) i played Jane’s flight simulator, that literally took my pentium 1 to its knees and need for speed high stakes which i played a helluva lot before i got my hands on the need for speed porsche unleashed demo.
I played the crap out of countless demo’s but two that really stick out are:
Mortal Kombat on the Amiga 500: The arcades in my house!??? it was unbelievable that I didnt have to dump tokens to play but it was only Sonya vs Lui Kang.
Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction on PS2: Massive Hulk fan i am I could not believe they were making an open world Hulk game. I got a PS2 demo disc with it on but it only allowed 15 minutes play time. It would extend the play time if you had a killstreak though and Im sure I would get up to 20minutes just keeping my smash combos maxed.
I hunted for 5-6 years for the full game, it was so hard to find here in SA but I eventually got it.
I remember playing these demos a LOT. I think most of them I probably played way more than I eventually ever played the full games, if I even played the full games at all:
I’ve been looking for the name of this game for so long! I remember playing it as well, and I’ve searched for it before but couldn’t find it. Thank you!
thats the one it came in a bundle with the sidewinder controller along with cart precision racing, motorcross madness and midtown madness and a weird football game ms published cant remember the name
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