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[a1s]

Sometimes one comes across a great demo, that doesn't just show a context-free piece of gameplay for half an hour, but is actually a decent game in it's own right that provides hours of fun. This is the thread to share those.

[a1s]

This recently came across my desk:

Hero's Hour has a nice, free demo on their website
https://thingonitsown.itch.io/heros-hour

Spiffing Brit playing it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEOyrahKuoE

[Robsoie]

Good demos seems sadly to be a lost art nowadays, probably due to the "buy a game then ask for a refund" policy of most stores that make the need of demo obsolete :/

Anyways, a few months ago i played with the "Men of War : Assault Squad 1 GOTY" demo, it had enough content to keep me busy for some hours :
https://www.gamepressure.com/download.asp?ID=38171

[Frumple]

Song of Syx is doing the sorta' lazy but greatly effective route of just having its demo be the full game, but a few updates behind it. I'm totally on board with that kind of demo design

[scriver]

Sometimes one comes across a great demo, that doesn't just show a context-free piece of gameplay for half an hour, but is actually a decent game in it's own right that provides hours of fun. This is the thread to share those.

Lol, you're a good man a1s

[Robsoie]

Decades ago, i remember i played the Unreal Tournament demo for so many hours in botmatches (and they were damned good), even played a few over the internet with my horrible modem.
Enjoyed it so much i finally bought the retail game.
Oh and the Doom shareware, my long lost youth ... and i still play that game sometime

[JimboM12]

oh i remember getting a demo disk for the og Warcraft 3 from i think it was AMC? or just the mall the amc was attached to.

it had the orc prologue campaign (the extended one where they introduce the trolls as the orcs shipwreck on an island during their exodus) and i think it had a very limited skirmish mode of 2 maps and only the orcs and humans.

i remember playing the shit out of it one summer along side the og sims. oh shit the sims! i need to find that and see if any of the custom content sites for it still exist.

[EuchreJack]

I recall a Tony Hawk skateboarding demo included on the Playstation disk of another game.  Considering my interest in skateboarding games is mostly satisfied by running one or two course for 10-15 minutes, it was satisfying, since you could play a single course.

[nenjin]

I remember the freeware version of Capture the Flag on Windows 3.11 was quite fun.

[E. Albright]

I dearly loved the Warlords 1 demo - it let you play full games as two of the 8 armies.

Dominions 1 demo IMO gave you too much - sure, it removed a few units per faction, and limited research to level 4, but you could play any map (including player-made ones) and any faction, and there was a way to cheese past the research limit since that iteration of Dominions let you burn Pearls to boost RP.

[delphonso]

Halo's demo on PC was actually just the first level. For a youngster like myself, who couldn't afford full games, this was a godsend.

Likewise, Mount and Blade Warband has a demo that is just the entire game but ends after you level up a few times. No better way to tell you what the game is like.

Bravely Default had a unique story and pared down mechanics in its demo. It also resulted in minor benefits that could be brought to the full game.

[Ozyton]

The two I most fondly remember from bygone days are for OFP and Rune.

Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis was just a few skirmish type missions (I forget if it had any multiplayer in the demo). This series would go on to become ARMA after Codemasters (the publisher) took the name from Bohemia Interactive (devs). I fondly remember one mission where if you successfully complete the objectives you're told to retreat because an enemy tank column is approaching the town so you have to haul ass on foot or die. In the same mission if all of your squad members end up dying the mission objective changes to get out of there anyway because you're alone. (Edit: also the engagement ranges in this game were something not really seen in games of the time. Land, sea, and air vehicles were also a big selling point too.)

I don't remember if the demo had any part of the mission editor in it but if it did that would have been a huge selling point back then.

Rune (called Rune Classic on Steam) had two singleplayer levels that were slightly modified from the full game. The thing I remember most though is the multiplayer, you had modified servers that did things like disable melee attacks and only allowed throwing, or where you team up to play through the singleplayer levels, and that was just in the demo. Unfortunately years later by the time I got around to buying the full game the multiplayer scene had died down so I never got to experience its full potential.

[Akura]

I remember playing a demo of Parkan: Iron Strategy. Which actually turned out to to be the full game with everything past the first campaign locked behind a pay-code. I found out you can access the rest of the campaigns by renaming the folders. Heh.

Really though, before I had any money whatsoever, that's what I'd do is play demos of games. And then cry that I had no money to actually buy full games.

I was about to mention the demo of Dragon Throne: Battle of Red Cliffs, a game that I *cough* ...acquired later, and lament that GOG never picked it up. I just looked it up and saw it might be getting a re-release on Steam soon.

Halo's demo on PC was actually just the first level. For a youngster like myself, who couldn't afford full games, this was a godsend.

The demo of Halo I played was the fourth level(Silent Cartographer). Still a hell of a level for a demo.

[delphonso]

Could have been that. It was the island with the Warthog. Hard for me to recall the actual game, as I played that demo to death and then played multiplayer on a friend's Xbox. Decent chance I never finished Halo 1 and 2.

[sambojin]

Shareware version of Stars! was quite good. Pity stuff got really interesting at about tech 11/12, and it cut off at level 10 tech. I also learnt a lot about hex editing, because you couldn't make a custom race unless you edited one into the .exe, so that's what I did.

Dungeon Keeper's demo wasn't great, but about two months later there was a level editor released for the full version on the same magazine's coverdisc. It worked on the demo version too (although I'm pretty sure some of the enemy graphics weren't able to be used, they still had functional abilities). So I made many cool levels for free.

Syndicate: American Revolt demo wasn't too bad. Mostly due to the sound, especially of the air strike. I even learned how to rip .voc files from the .exe from that one, just because I wanted the rocket launcher and shotgun sounds in my game so badly. Never finished the game, but learnt a fair bit about how to play .wav files through a PC speaker in TP6.0 (because I was enthralled by the Space Hulk's demo and it's ability to play voice through a speaker, and MegaLoMania's).

Will second Doom and and UT and CtF. Many hours lost on those ones. Got an idea MoM and MoO2 got demos too at one point, which encouraged me to get a full copy of them.


Does anyone here want me to make up a touchscreen interface for Capture the Flag for Magic Dosbox? Might be a good little hobby project for the day. It's pretty mouse driven anyway, but a few extra hotkeys for map scrolling and next player might help (I've done it for Stars!, SC2000,DoomRL 0.8 and Pyro][, so this one would be pretty easy in comparison). Then you could play it on your phone! Yay