- Hey all, Scott here. Try before you buy, that's my motto. You can give a product test run, and if you decide you don't want it, you shouldn't have to pay for it. (lighthearted music) You know, I don't actually know if I actually want this,
where's my receipt? I would be the smartest homeless guy ever. I would locate all stores
with free food samples and feed off of that. I would hide in Ikea and
sleep there overnight. I would ask for money with flair and for my video game entertainment, I'd only buy demo disks. Go ahead, try to not see the
value in this, I dare you. $7.99 for 12 great games. Demos of 12 great games, but $7.99 for 12 of anything is a steal. Maybe except cholesterol. Video games are a big commitment
in terms of time and money. So you really want to make sure the game you're thinking about buying is truly up your alley. Nobody wants to be the guy with only $60 who spends it all on
Ninjabread and cigarettes. You want to make sure what
you're buying is right for you, which is why demos of
games are such a big deal. You get to test drive the
game before you buy it. Who wouldn't want to do that? Me. I bought these, do I
look like a demo player? Demos are usually downloadable for free. But what about back when
the term downloading meant something completely different? The nineties was home to two things. The sheep clone and video
game consoles shifting from cartridges to disks. Disks were way less expensive to produce compared to cartridges. So companies decided to
take advantage of that. They started producing more
disks to sell other disks. The demo disc was normally
a promotional item given away for free,
and they were amazing. Just the fact you would
get a tangible game to pop into your console to play a sampling of a
bunch of different games, it was such a cool feeling. Like, you not only got a free game, but multiple free games
on your one free game. Demo disks truly got their
start on the PlayStation 1. Sure, PC sent demo disks, but what the (beep) is that? With the PS1 you can't
talk about demo discs without bringing up the
menace Italy, Pizza Hut. You know Pizza Hut, eat fresh. They held this big promotion where if you bought this pizza,
you'd get a demo disc. And the disc will tell us
if we won the big cash prize of 500 grand, (beep). For everybody involved
it was a win-win-win. Pizza Hut, you know, Pizza
Hut, think outside the bun. They got a ton of PlayStation
fans buying their pizza to grab a free game and
actually try Pizza Hut. PlayStation got the Pizza Hut
fandom to try a bunch of demos for popular PlayStation games and that definitely led
to more games being sold. And sodium intake reigned
supreme across the board. We have three Pizza Hut demo disks. The first one was given out during the Pizza-Powered Giveaway. When Pizza Hut and PlayStation team up, it'll detonate your senses. To some extent I still haven't recovered. They did another promotion later on, this time with two different
demo disks available. We have the CTR Diagnosed disk one, and then the best disc,
a demo of the next Tetris that automatically makes disc two just as good as the next Tetris, because a demo of Tetris
is pretty much the same as full Tetris. Sled Storm. You can't have a demo
disc without Sled Storm. The games included on these
things are pretty much some of the most defining
games on the PS1. Some of the greatest
games of that generation. Sure, these were just mere demos of them, and while some of them
are the Crash Warped demo, (water gurgling) I don't want to buy this game. Under the mindset of a
kid with limited funds, getting a disc with five
highlight reels, if you will, of some of the best
PlayStation games ever made, that's not bad at all. Some of these demos were so
good at showcasing the games that I know a lot of people would just keep replaying the
demos over and over again. Not only that, but it's just cool to see all the effort put into these things. And they put a lot of work into
these simple giveaway items, and that's just really cool. But when I think demo disks I immediately think of the ones that came a part of your
magazine subscriptions. PlayStation Underground. While a lot of print magazines came bundled with free demo disks, PlayStation Underground demo
disks were the magazine. You subscribed to get demo disks. Some of these disks could
be picked up at stores for five bucks a pop, which was till a fair price
to pay for all these demos, but not only would these
demo disks come with demos, but they included my favorite
things ever, doodads. Imports, games that didn't leave Japan, you could play demos of them here. Codes to put into other games, videos, trailers, behind the scenes. These disks were like a big cheap-to-free pile of pure content. Even if I couldn't give two left pisses about Syphon Filter 2, there's like nine other
demos on this disc, there's bound to be something
that catches my interest. And if there's not, there's
tons of other things to do. Some of these demo disks have more content than some real life games. The jam packed disks were made for the PlayStation 1 and 2, and I remember seeing
my cousins have a few of these lying around. Back then, I'd see the disks
and everything included and say, damn, that's a deal. And then I'd say, oh (beep),
I'm six and said, damn, I'll make my way to the corner. Besides, I was more of a
GameCube player anyways. Nintendo didn't go that crazy with demo disks for the public, especially now with
magazine subscriptions, Nintendo at the mere idea of giving away free demo disks with Nintendo Power. No. They were more into sending out promotional DVDs or VHS tapes. but with the GameCube, they
dabbled in the demo disc genre. The Nintendo GameCube Preview Disc. This was available as a part
of certain console bundles. You got a couple of demos, including a bonus Soul Caliber 2 demo. Why not just put it on the cover? Some trailers, and if we
connect the Game Boy Advance, we can download a WarioWare
demo and Dr. Mario. Listen, this is great, good for them. But what about the demo disks Nintendo didn't want you to have? The Interactive Multi-Game Demo Disks or IMG two D's for short. These were sent out to major retailers to be played on their
GameCube display units. You know the classic game
console kiosks in stores where you could play games
with buttery controllers. Well, many were playing demo disks and the GameCube ones were made specifically for stores
at that point in time. Popping one of these in
is like traveling in time to whenever that specific
disc was distributed. Like, wow, Muscle's coming out. A bunch of demos and
trailers are included. I really love that these
demo disks help preserve high quality versions of
all these old game trailers. If it weren't for the demo disks we'd have to rely on whatever IGN put up on
their website 15 years ago. These all come in their own cases, which really make them feel like a substantial part of
the GameCube library. They were originally released with the time of year
labeled on the cover, but they shifted over
to just numbering them. Though, this is really a
fun little thing to collect. Each copy is like $50 a piece and you can get through everything on the disc in like an hour, plus some demo disks are
pretty much the same as others. Don't spend $50 on these
thinking in your week is set. Demo disks were at their height during the PS2, Xbox, and GameCube era. Pretty much everybody was making them. Sometimes single games got demo disks, like Resident Evil 4, or third-party studios released their own, like the Lucas Arts experience. Yep, it's truly a different experience when you're playing Lucas Arts. This Xbox Exhibition demo
disk is another one I have, and this thing is incredible. Not only does it include Whacked, but we have extra content for Dead or Alive 3 we can install, clips from G4 and other trailers, music videos and songs we
can download to our consoles. This is a demo disc. It's absolutely incredible. Things were looking great for demo disks, but then this happened. This bar ruined everything. Demos became downloadable
on most systems for free. You don't have to depend on whatever demos are available
on this disc you got for free, You can just download demos for just the games you're
interested in whenever you want. This didn't like immediately
killed the demo disk. I mean, I have this one demo disk for the Xbox 360 and I checked it out, it's pretty cool, but
it's sort of worthless. If you had an internet connection you can download all of these for free. Yeah, with the disc,
you're not clogging up a ton of room on the 360's hard drive, but the fact I can download these demos for free makes this less neat. There's this demo disk that came with a version of Kinect Star Wars, and most recently the PlayStation
VR got bundled with a few, but it's just not the same. It all has to do with the
era these were released in. Like, yeah, I could pop this in but I don't give a (beep). Demo discs were like a handpicked platter of goodies just for you. We live in a time where we can pick whatever we want to
play, watch, or listen. Pretty much at any content
we could possibly want is available on demand. It's beyond convenient and nice to be able to download
whatever demos you want only for the games you're
personally interested in. But back when that wasn't the case, and you didn't have an unlimited supply of demos available to you, having a demo disk with
a good handful of them made it more likely you were going to play through each and every one and be exposed to games you may not have considered
playing originally. They were awesome variety
packs of gaming experiences. Sure, they weren't the full games, but a lot of these demos
were fairly in depth. You could get a lot of game
time out of some of these. And then there was Crash Warped
on the Pizza Hut demo disk. You know, Pizza Hut, just do it. But why play demo disks today? Well, if your schedule is wide open and you're into fun
retro gaming novelties, these things are a ton
of fun to look back on. It's so charming to check
these demos out today. They're almost like
alternate reality versions of these beloved games. Like, everybody knows Mario
Party 5, it's Mario Party 5. But seeing this edited down version with specific mini games available is really engrossing to me. Just seeing these screens
that are rarely seen today. Like, how at the end of some
demos it'll say, coming soon. Or just seeing demo on the title screen and options grayed out for
games over a decade old, it's kind of cool. These are versions of
games that have not really seen the light of day
in quite a few years. And it's really fun to go through them. Demo disks are like magazines
and instruction manuals, they're fun to go through and I wish the magic of
them would come back, but we have much more convenient methods of delivering this type of content now. Demo disks just aren't necessary anymore, but they're way cooler than this. Video game demos will never leave us. But demo discs are becoming
rarer and rarer with each day. I can't say I don't understand why, but they had a certain
magic and charm to them that I don't think will
ever be replicated, as demos are just downloadable now. But you can't make egg
demos, downloadable. Believe me, I checked. (upbeat music)
Man I remember back in the day playing those Pizza Hut demos over and over as a kid. I definitely got most of my PS1 titles because of demo discs. If it wasn't for a demo I would have never discovered my all time favorite RPG Legend of Legaia.
[removed]
The amount of crappy games I played over and over on those discs and never bought because I was a poor kid. I remember playing a demo for some action man game like 100 times
I remember getting an issue of PSM one time that had a MGS3: Snake Eater demo included. At the time I had never played any of the games but after playing that demo I became addicted to it. The demo included the entire Virtuous Mission which featured a lot of cool stuff to do. I played it over and over again, just experimenting with everything in it. Stuff like shooting the roped bridge so the guards fall off, throwing grenades into the mouths of crocodiles. I like to interrogate all the guards because they would give out hints or tell you where equipment was. Seriously I never had more fun playing a demo than I did with that one.
And then there was the 90s PC shareware scene, which was like "Demos? Fuck that! We'll just give away our game for free! Then if you like it, you can pay us forty bucks for a whole lot more of the same that's never as good as the first set of levels."
Amazingly, this worked for years.
The first year or so of the PS1 they used to give them away at EB. I'd just ask if they had any new ones and they'd hand it to me. It worked because I bought several games based on their demos... And I bought them from EB.
I'm sorry but did he say the Pizza Hut disc with the super banging FF8, CTR, THPS, and Ape Escape demos was the bad disc. WTF.
Official Xbox Magazine (OXM) had demo discs with each of their monthly issues. I was able to make a lot of informed decisions on my purchase choices back in the day. Some of their discs even included downloadable content like the "Bungie Favorite Gametypes" for Halo 2, or the Magicians Tower from Oblivion.
They used to be my primary source of entertainment when I was little and couldn't afford paying for full priced games often.