- Hey y'all, Scott here. E3 2018, you say? Never heard of them. I'm more so interested in demonstrating the potential of hardware. Let's see if this iron
passes the durability test. (metal clang) Gonna put that down as a TBA. Tech demos: demonstrations
of hardware potential that most of the time have
no business being real games. Whenever new hardware is revealed saying it has four gallons
of teraflops lodged in it, means nothing if we can't see
it getting put to good use. Developers have to
cobble together something that people can look at
and instantly understand just how good games can look,
sound, feel, play, all that. These are some of the
most interesting parts of a new console generation.
And these are what could be rather than what is most of the time. I think it's fair to say the vast majority of tech demos never amount to anything and don't become full fledged video games. They're just here to visualize
a hardware's tech specs. That's not to say they
can't become full games, or elements from them can't
be used on other games. However, developers just
have a hankering to tease and decide to make tech demos that look like games people have been begging for, which can be just absolutely cruel if that game isn't
actually in development. Take for example, a Zelda tech demo for the GameCube, showcasing a sword fight between Link and Ganondorf.
Who's going to win? A Zelda game for babies, that's who. We know now that The Wind Waker
is a fantastic Zelda game. But back then, people were expecting Zelda on the GameCube to look
mature, epic, a bit dark, and they got this. People were upset because Nintendo showed them
this thing they really wanted and didn't give it to them, at first. Tech demos can be pretty cool but sometimes they end up
just disappointing fans. So I will pose the question,
what makes a good tech demo? Well, let's take a look at
various tech demos from the past and see if we can figure
that out for ourselves. Now, we can't just talk
tech demos and end it there. Today, I am introducing the
tech demometer, patent pending. Each tech demo we look at
will be ranked on a scale of 1 to 3, based on completely
inconsistent judgment. Don't overthink the
ratings, let's just do it. Oh my God. Are they remaking
Final Fantasy VII in HD? I think they're remaking
Final Fantasy VII in HD. They're remaking Final Fantasy VII in HD! (bleep) This tech demo was shown off at E3 2005 as a showcase for the
PlayStation 3 hardware and as a remake of the opening
section of Final Fantasy VII. It's just a short clip, and honestly, it doesn't seem much better than something from the PlayStation 2
or X-Box at the time. Actually, let me rephrase that. Stuff like character
models and overall detail in the world is definitely
early PS3 quality. But nothing here screams, "Oh yeah. This shows the power
of the PlayStation 3." It felt like a PS2 era cut
scene running in real time, impressive but not jaw-dropping. All this did was make fans sit there and asks, "When's the Final
Fantasy VII remake coming out?" Tech demos don't have to become a game that actually releases commercially, but look at this and tell me, "Oh yeah. Just a tech demo, has no
business being a real game." After you see the rest of the tech demos we'll be looking at, you can't look at this one and say, "That just looks like a tech demo." The fact that this wasn't linked to any potential remake, kind
of makes me ask the question; what was the point in making this if all it did was end
up disappointing fans? The director of the
original Final Fantasy VII defended the decision on making the tech demo 9 years later, in 2014, by saying that it was the
right thing to do at the time. Sure. It makes sense to take something people are familiar with
and enhance it this much to show the leap in
graphical capabilities, but the way this looks
and the way it's presented heavily implies this can be and should be more than a tech demo. Well, 10 years after the tech demo, a Final Fantasy VII remake
was officially announced for the PlayStation 4 and
just like the tech demo, nothing has happened since. It just seems like this thing has been crab
walking in development hell. This tech demo did its
job to excite people, but for all the wrong reasons. I don't think it got people excited for the power of the PlayStation 3. It got people excited over
a game that didn't exist. (bell dings) Hey! Mario Kart XXL. I
see this was in the era where they were naming tech
demos after TV dinners. This wasn't a demo created by Nintendo, instead by Denaris Entertainment Software, somebody's favorite developer. This was an unauthorized
prototype showing how the GBA could render two
background layers at once. Plus, also utilizing fully
rendered 3D characters. I gotta be honest, this
looks pretty impressive for the Game Boy Advance. I don't think anybody
knows if this was actually pitched to Nintendo at any point, but regardless, never became a game. Still cool though, and
really seems to utilize the GBA hardware well. (bells dings) This is an interesting one. When the PS4 was initially
revealed, this demo of an old man's face was shown, but it was at E3 2013, that
a full tech demo showcasing the old man was revealed,
entitled The Dark Sorcerer. Developed by Quantic Dream
who developed this downer of an experience, so it's surprising to see them make this tech demo that is completely self-aware
and is more of a comedy. I gotta be honest. This is one of the most
fun tech demos ever made. It has fun with itself
and doesn't come off as teasing fans or unimpressive. It's interesting on its
own, but doesn't need to be a full game. It's both a short film and a tech demo. I'll give this one the full points it deserves. (bell dings) Back when the Kinect was
introduced as Project Natal, an infamous tech demo
was shown alongside it, presented by Peter Molyneux himself. Project Milo, a demo that
involved artificial intelligence so intelligent, it was artificial. - Hi there, Milo. How you doing? - Hi, Claire. You okay? - Actually, I'm a bit nervous. - You? Nervous? I don't believe it. - [Scott] Basically, you could talk to a video game character and he'd talk right back, effortlessly. Maybe a little too effortlessly. - You've got to put these goggles on. - Goggles?
(hands clap) - Put them on like this.
- Notice what she did, This wasn't acted, she felt
the need to reach down. - That's because it's acted. I always had a feeling
this was a bit faked. Like, have you ever used a Kinect on the Xbox 360 before?
The thing had a hard time figuring out if I had a body. You're expecting me to think it could have a realistic conversation with me? Also, look how fast the Kinect
scans in this piece of paper. Like no, no, no, that can't be. Listen, this was, and still
is conceptually really cool. And the fact is there,
that the original concept of Kinect was much more
technologically advanced than the retail product. But, this is the only instance where we saw Project Milo in action, so it's hard to believe that it was really that immersive and expansive. Really, the developers
could have only programmed the amount of interactivity
we saw in the video. Like, Milo would only be able to respond to the specific thing said by that woman, and we wouldn't know any better. But I'll give it two points
for being pretty cool in the grand scheme of things and being some pretty
cool use of the hardware. (bells dings) Back when the Game Boy
Advance was coming out, Nintendo created this
demo that is a remake of Yoshi's Story on the Nintendo 64. A Nintendo 64 game running
on a Game Boy Advance? Eh, not really. Like I said,
it's obviously a remake of the game that runs
on the Game Boy Advance. The presentation has been
downgraded a fair amount, but I gotta be honest, this
is still pretty impressive. It's like how Nintendo
remade Super Mario 64 on the Nintendo DS, just to
prove that the system can do 3D. The problem is that game is tart, while this one never
came out and is just as, if not more impressive than 64 DS. Just because, hey, it's basically playing a Nintendo 64 game on the
hardware that proceeded the DS. That's pretty cool. This
never became a real life thing but unlike the Final Fantasy
VII tech demo, this demo wasn't this big extravaganza
that was a complete overhaul of how the original game was. This was just proving
that the Game Boy Advance was more powerful than
many may have assumed, and I think it did it's job fairly well. (bell dings) Back when Nintendo was desperately trying to prove the Wii U game has worth, E3 2014 brought with it two
Wii U tech demos focusing on the two screen dynamic. One was Project Guard,
a tower defense game where you had to swap
between certain camera angles to stop enemies from harming your base. The other was Project Giant Robot where you're a Project Giant Robot and you're doing specific
missions in a city. Guard was turned into
the game StarFox Guard, where it was basically the same, but with a StarFox theme. And Giant Robot was
never officially turned into a full game. However, it's speculated that the Nintendo Labo Robot Kit is what became of the project. I thought Guard was kind of a cute use of the game pad. But Giant Robot always
looked like a clunk fest. They worked pretty well as tech demos but here's the problem:
they came out two years after the console released.
That definitely takes away a lot of the oomph out of a tech demo. (bell dings) (laughs) Oh, Conker the Squirrel. Definitely at the top of everybody's top 10 alcoholic video
games squirrel's list, is of course, the star of the cult classic Nintendo 64 game, Conker's Bad Fur Day. After Microsoft purchased
the developer, Rare, the Conker franchise hasn't
been touched all too much. A remake of Bad Fur Day was
thrown onto the original X-Box. But other than that,
the series has remained relatively dormant. And then- yeah. Young
Conker was a tech demo created to demonstrate the
tech behind Microsoft HoloLens. Using augmented reality, the thing is actually quite impressive. Other than that, it's a
bit of a spit in the face to Conker fans. It's one
of the few representations the series has had in the past decade, and it's not at all how fans
want to see this character or play something he's in. They could have built this demo around any other character or series. A series that has had more releases or support as of late. But, no. Make it a cult classic
the fans desperately want to see return and make it an
augmented reality demo. Neat. And while we're on the
topic of Rare IP tech demos; what the hell was this? Taking Banjo-Kazooie and making it a motion controlled experience? I don't know what you would call this. (bell dings) Mario tech demos, let's take
a look at these bad boys. Well, Mario 128 seems to
be the most well-known. Made to show the power of the GameCube, the title alludes to this
being a sequel to Mario 64 but after further inspection, yeah, no. It was constantly stated to
be more than just a tech demo, and it would eventually
become a full game. But I can't look at 128
Mario's running around and immediately state,
"Yeah, that's a game." Cool tech for back in the day, though. Peach's Castle was a demo,
again for the GameCube, and was just a large tour
of the castle. Neat (bleep). Luigi's Mansion was once
used for tech demo purposes before initially being revealed as a game. You could play with Mario and Wario's face on the DS when it was initially shown. New Super Mario Brothers me- gosh. I thought these tech
demos were going to be way more interesting than they turned out. (bell dings) Holy (bleep), look at
all the ping pong balls! Now I gotta get an original X-Box. (bell dings) What better hardware to
try to prove the worth of then the Sega 32X, the 32 bit
add on for the Sega Genesis. Here's some rad 90's graphics
that Sega threw out there to show just how powerful the 32X is, and whoa, this is literally just a bunch of primitive 3D junk flying at us. This demo knows how to (bleep) rivet. (bell dings) Now, you may have noticed
that most of these never reached a solid 3
in the tech demometer. Probably because tech demos
are never meant to be perfect. They're interesting parts of history and when new hardware is unveiled, it's cool to see what it's capable of. But it's all about the games that are, you know, actually real. After all this, what does
make a good tech demo? And I think the simple answer is, something that showcases
the hardware's potential without toying with fans' hearts. Most of the time, tech
demos aren't representative of any final product, so
they can mainly be seen as harmless. They aren't like a yearbook quote which is stuck with you for life. Of course, when I was in the room with the yearbook committee,
they took the last thing that I said as my yearbook quote. And when you're in a room
full of (bleep) weirdos, that's how you get a quote that becomes, "Stop licking my neck." (upbeat digital music)
