Diary of a Demo Disc

Ah, the PS2 era. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Truly a golden gen of gaming. So why the hyperbole? I jest of course. But for one, I was in competition with a seemingly infinite amount of gamers for a very finite amount of…magazines?

[IamTylerDurden1]

Demo discs were the days. Anyone remember black bottom discs? Hopefully PlayStation Plus premium trials start rolling because it'll be very advantageous.

[P_Bomb]

I do remember! I might even have a couple. I can see them in my minds eye. Off to the basement…

[VersusDMC]

Official playstation magazine had some banger demos back in the day. FFX and Silent Hill 2 come to mind.

And the 2 demos that i played more than the games they came with. MGS2 demo with Zone of the enders and the DMC1 demo that came with Code Veronica X.

[P_Bomb]

I just found an old Shadow of Rome demo in a huge sleeve! I thought I’d lost it! 😎

[VersusDMC]

Nice. I just looked through a stack of old probably unreadable CDs that i have and i got a Dreamcast Seganet CD, PSM DVD # 75(MGS3 in there but probably only video) and OPM issue 66 demo disk with Zone of the Enders 2 on the disk art.

Maybe I'll connect the PS2 tomorrow to see if the disks work...probably not though.

[P_Bomb]

Very nice! I still have two working PS2’s, or at least they were working the last time I checked! Nice big CRT for the retro stuff that I need to check up on. Kid kicked the ball into it a few times. I’ll save that sitrep for tomorrow though.

[Aloymetal]

Metal Gear Solid had one, got hooked immediately.

[P_Bomb]

I have the MGS2 demo, played it so much. Never tried the MGS1 demo unfortunately.

[franwex]

I think that Tony Hawk owes a lot of its success to that Pizza Hut demo. Haha.

[XxINFERNUSxX]

Used to love them in PC Gamer magazine, and also in Maximum PC magazine. I still sub. to both to this day😊

[MADGameR]

I miss those Jampack demos. Heck I'd love to get my hands on fresh physical copies.

[Knightofelemia]

I miss the days when OPM would drop a demo disc for PS1 I still have a few.

[P_Bomb]

That’s going way back! Best freebie I ever got was a copy of Dragon Warrior with a one year subscription to Nintendo Power. Now that’s a demo, lol!

[darthv72]

Loved getting magazines with demo discs. Had em for all sorts of platforms like dreamcast, Amiga CD32, xbox, playstation... Even the 3do and gamecube had demo discs (but no magazines). Some games never made it past the demo stage on certain platforms. one in particular is The Red Star for xbox. I have the full game on PS2 but sadly the game was canceled right before release. You can unofficially get the full game on a modded xbox or you can track down demo disc #35 and officially play the demo.

[P_Bomb]

I feel like I have a Wind Waker demo disc down in my Metroid Echoes clam shell. Your haul makes me wanna go check!