Exclusive CD demos

[MrFlibble]

The Shareware CD Archive at archive.org seems to have been updated several times recently. There's a LucasArts Demo Disk from 1996 among other things.

[leilei]

Dark Forces 1.0L Demo can be found here, by the way


The only big notable difference i've seen is that it includes a windows icon! (Dated July 1996)

[MrFlibble]

Dark Forces 1.0L Demo can be found here, by the way


The only big notable difference i've seen is that it includes a windows icon! (Dated July 1996)

Wow, cool find! ^_^ (I didn't have the time to check those out yet)

I assume the v1.0L demo has the updated graphics, like in the retail version? (the pistol/blaster ammo looks noticeably different in v0.163D)

[MrFlibble]

System Shock CD Enhanced Demo
Just found it on FilePlanet. This version includes voice-overs for log entries and SVGA graphics:
http://www.fileplanet.com/43717/40000/f ... anced-Demo

[DOSGuy]

Sweet! I'll try to add that soon.

[MrFlibble]

FilePlanet also has a CD demo of Syndicate Wars. I'm not sure if there's a regular demo of that game though.

[Litude]

[Edit] Hmm, this list mentions a HOMM demo on a CGW disk, but apparently from a later date:

33) COMPUTER GAMING WORLD – MARCH 1996, NO. 140 – Demo’s: Cry.Sys – Space Bucks – Hardball 5 – 11th Hour – Age of Rifles – Full Tilt Pinball – Heroes of Might and Magic – NCAA College Basketball – FPS Football 96

The same disk is also mentioned here:

The March 1996 edition of Computer Gaming World Extra, the free CD that came with issue 140 of the magazine, contains a demo of Hardball 5 as well as CRY.SYS, Space Bucks, 11th Hour, Age of Rifles, Fulltilt! Pinball, Heroes of Might and Magic, NCAA College Basketball and FPS Football 96 packed into a disc with patches, a comic strip and the obligatory AOL installation. It was a very typical magazine CD back then.

Maybe that version was functional after all..?

I managed to get my hands on the CGW June 1996 Cover Disc and surprisingly the Heroes of Might and Magic demo is also included on it and it is fully functional when played off that disc (it has the correct directory structure and all needed sound files are also present). It is version 1.2 though so odds are the March issue has an earlier version.

[MrFlibble]

Awesome! Any chance you could upload the ISO somewhere? ^_^

[MrFlibble]

Turns out the ISO of this CD (Computer Gaming World Extra #143 (June 1996)) can be found at archive.org, so I checked it out. I must say the demo is pretty generous: it includes several standard game scenarios, and all four sides are available for play. The single-player campaign and multiplayer mode are disabled though, and the map editor is not included either (or was it only available in the Win95 release?). The version number says Demo v1.2.

Also, this LucasArts Demo CD(identified as "Chrysler Plymouth LucasArts Sampler") features an exclusive demo of Star Wars: TIE Fighter (Collector's CD-ROM).

[Litude]

Turns out the ISO of this CD (Computer Gaming World Extra #143 (June 1996)) can be found at archive.org, so I checked it out. I must say the demo is pretty generous: it includes several standard game scenarios, and all four sides are available for play. The single-player campaign and multiplayer mode are disabled though, and the map editor is not included either (or was it only available in the Win95 release?). The version number says Demo v1.2.

Sorry it took so long to get back, been stuck in the army the past two weeks due to conscription... Yeah the CD is available at archive.org. It might be quite generous in features, but it is the amount of turns you may play is limited. IIRC the game ends after 10 days or something like that (might have been slightly more but still low enough to prevent any real playing of the game).

[MrFlibble]

It might be quite generous in features, but it is the amount of turns you may play is limited. IIRC the game ends after 10 days or something like that (might have been slightly more but still low enough to prevent any real playing of the game).

It is? I didn't play it that long, so I didn't notice that (and nothing is mentioned in the readme file). I'd rather they included less maps but removed the turn limit, like it is with the HoMM2 demo. (I've got retail releases of both games, but those are Windows versions, and not in English.)

BTW, I think there was no DOS demo of HoMM2 released, was there?

[leilei]

This CGW CD has a 77.1mb sized "MYTHCGW.EXE" dated 1997-11-11. CGW exclusive Myth: The Fallen Lords demo!

[MrFlibble]

Cool!

[Litude]

BTW, I think there was no DOS demo of HoMM2 released, was there?

Don't think so; haven't found one and there's no mention of such a thing on the official website. There are two different distributions of the Windows demo though, one that is the whole thing in one package and another one split so as to make it possible to distribute it on 1440K floppies (also the files differed slightly, some video promoting the full game was different IIRC).

[Litude]

Found an interesting self-playing demo of Heroes I, download it from here (162 MB). It's quite early, being from January 1995 so a few differences are noticeable like the intro being quite different and music pieces are used in different places in the preview. Sadly it isn't playable. Judging by the file names and the time frame, this preview might have been also used at CES 1995.

EDIT: Actually, seems like you can play it simply by deleting the file DEMOFILE.BIN from the game directory. It is quite unstable though (visiting artifacts or locations like mills will crash the game), but a nice early look at the game nonetheless.