Ah, the internet. You're so wonderful, especially to us gamers. It's just a shame that to get you we had to give up so many of the things we so do love; gaming magazines, no true sense of animosity, that great feeling of playing on a couch next to your buddy... but of all the things we lost, the one I'll miss the most are demo discs.





If there's a game we want to try nowadays, we either rent said game or in an absence of money, we download a demo. Easy peazy, everyone's happy, but there's a key word there-- games we WANT to try. If you're downloading a demo, chances are its not out of curiosity, but only to help ease that long wait for that new game you really want. It's probably worth noting that the Brutal Legend demo is available early to people who have already bought the game. So what is the demo doing? Absolutely nothing, just satisfying our natural impatient gamer hungers. But what about those games you would've never played? The games you saw on the shelf that had stupid box art and dismissed as a piece of crap? Who will speak up for them? Well, let me tell you...





I used to be a subscriber of the once popular PlayStation Magazine. Of course, I was a youngling then, and as such, I didn't care about the articles, and I barely read the reviews. It was much more mature than the colorful magazines that appealed to kids like Nintendo Power or GamePro. But I didn't care. As far as I was concerned, I didn't pay $24 for a subscription to a classy magazine, but for the privilege to play a handful of games for free once a month. And that's exactly what I got. I still remember sitting at home that summer vacation waiting for my first issue. My first subscription apparently got "lost in processing" and we had to call the publisher to get them to send me the first issue. I still have a bulk of these discs, including this first disc. In fact I believe that WAS the first day of summer vacation. But on that disc was a pantheon of games that made my 7 year old brain explode with anticipation:

Issue 33, June 2000 (what a good year THAT was)

- X-men Mutant Academy (a 3D fighter cash-in for the new movie. Me and my sister played the multiplayer on this demo once or twice, but nothing special.)

- Deception III: Dark Delusion (This game was rated M, so I was too scare to play the demo. Watched my dad play it once. It was basically Mouse Trap in a spooky mansion)

- WWF Smackdown (Never played this either, just didn't care about wrestling)

- Gauntlet Legends (Played this when I was bored on Saturdays, cuz it was a pretty damn long demo with 4P multiplayer. Sweet!)

- Grind Session (A Tony Hawk rip-off, but a pretty good one at that. Me and my sister spent hours playing the HORSE game that could be found in the demo.)





There was one more game that was on the disc, and this is where things get good and I learn the importance of demo discs. The final demo on this magical black ring was a demo of the often forgotten, but phenominal Square action-RPG, Threads of Fate (think Kingdom Hearts meets Ocarina of Time... yeah, it was bad ASS). I couldn't believe my eyes. Now THIS was a demo! The demo let you play as one of the two main characters starting from the opening Forest stage to the first boss of the game (and yes, this was a demo that closed AFTER the boss fight for once), a giant blue demon horse named Nightmare. So my first playthrough of this demo was a little over an hour, but I was definitely hooked. I played it almost every day, getting better each time. Then finally, after begging my parents for weeks to let me buy it, we went to the local Toys R Us after church one Sunday and bought it. I'm pretty sure at first I played it so much that it actually wrecked my school grades just a bit and they had to limit how much I played it. Unfortunately, warp to today and most of my PS1 games (over 30!) disappeared when we moved to our last house, including Threads of Fate. And I come to find that the game is actually incredibly rare nowadays as well! But the lesson here is I found a game that I would've never played or never seen if it weren't for that demo disc. And it goes to show that a lot of people missed out on it too since it sold so poorly. If this game were on XBLA, do you honestly think you'd be someone who'd have downloaded this demo without ANY prior knowledge? That means anything you could possibly know about a game before you play it. Well, THAT'S what demo discs did for the PS1.

That's how I found out about many games I eventually came to purchase such as the addictive Mr Driller and got to play extremely Japanese games that are very rare nowadays such as Incredible Crisis (think Wario Ware meets Mr Bean) and one of the best rhythm games I ever played, but never owned, Bust-A-Groove 2. And some of you might remember PlayStation Underground, a PSM sans the M. They had a regular "imports" section where you could play pretty complete demos of games that would never ever see the American light of day. Not gonna find that on XBLA without getting your account banned, are ya?





To this day, I will still pick up my old demo discs and play each of the games on them just to make sure I haven't missed anything. I even have walked into my many local Play N Trades and picked up inexpensive PS1 games merely on the fact that I loved the demo but never bought the game back in the day when it was full price. And let's not forget the nostalgic lore that hid behind some of these discs too. It's how we got to play games before anyone else. I seem to recall legends of one or two publishers accidently releasing full games on PSM discs instead of demos. Even Reverend Anthony has admitted that the Metal Gear Solid demo had taken on a life of its own based on how much we all played what was a pretty long demo.

Many other systems had demo discs such as the PS2 and Dreamcast, and there were many other ways to get the discs as well (Pizza Hut, anyone?). Some were good, some were bad, and others were just loaded with hidden treasures you almost missed. But in my opinion, they truly shined on the PS1 where there was a true hodgepodge of all kinds on a single disc. And if you're ever in the game store and you see a PS1 demo disc for about 99 cents, it's worth checking out. You might be surprised how much fun you'll have with it. And those of you who still have a trove of discs from your subscription to PSM or Underground, dig them back up! They're a great piece of nostalgia, gamer history, the 90's, and of course, fun.

Do you guys have any amazing memories about your demo discs?