Demo Discs - Game Sack

The demo disco I remember fondly is that one that had Parappa The Rapper, Jet Motto 2, Armored Core, Tomb Raider 2. Colony Wars and Fighting Force were also on there but hidden. I used to have a subscription to The Official PlayStation Magazine and I used to look forward to getting those demos every month.

Gladius is a huge hidden gem it's not as boring as you guys would think from the trailer it's actually really one of the best games from that era

I swear to god I used to spend more time on the free magazine demo discs than half of the games I had!  Classic example is Virtual On for the Saturn!  I spent so much time playing the demo back in the day but a few months ago I finally bought my own copy of the full game......... I haven't played it yet .__. Another is Tekken 3.  Played the hell out of it to the point where when I finally got the chance to play it in the arcade for the first time ever, I flew through it on a single credit. Clearly I had no life back then.... Oh, sorry correction - I have no life.

Only Game Sack can take a topic like demo disc and make it entertaining  but the best part is my favourite youtube show is now WEEKLY! What an incredible time to be alive!!

I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for the original Xbox demo disk that had the first level of Ninja Gaiden on it. I must have beat it a thousand times!

I loved the demo disc era-- especially from 1996 on. PlayStation Underground (eventually Official PlayStation Magazine) demo discs were often packed with content, much like Joe showed off with the Jampack disc. Cheats, memory card downloads, and behind-the-scenes features complemented the playable demos well. Demo discs really took off during Gen6, though. All of the consoles had them, and three of the four had steady releases of demo discs thanks to Official Magazines. I still have quite a few of the Official PlayStation Magazine demo discs for the PS2, and the DVD format allowed for even more stuff to be packed in. In addition, demos for individual games were much more common; God of War, Shadow of the Colossus, Rogue Galaxy, Burnout Revenge, Total Overdose, and a few others remain in my possession. Demo discs are relics of a long-since-passed age. Internet connectivity has made demo discs all but pointless, which is unfortunate since directly downloading demos means that the creation of extra features that used to come on demo discs is no longer necessary. Heck, even demos themselves are becoming more uncommon. Finally-- and I know it's been mentioned in the comments, but the import demo that Joe played here wound up being Irritating Stick here in the US. I bought that game back in 1999 and still own & play it today. No need to pay for an import on this one; it's cheap to own and the quirkiness will be off-putting to many. Guilty pleasure game for me. Congrats on the expansion to weekly episodes. I understand that it requires more work, but it's really nice to know that I can look forward to seeing new Game Sack episodes more often.

Aw man Small Soldier is a great movie by Gremlins'director Joe Dante ! Come On ! Also, when will we see an AMIGA episode ?

This was a great idea for an episode guys! My earliest experience with demo discs were with 3.5" floppies and CDs for DOS. You could call a lot of publishers up and ask for a free demo disk, and they'd send them to you. Didn't even have to pay shipping! And yes, Joe. You DO need to talk about those Dreamcast games some more. The world will be a better place for it. :)

The 5 demo discs from the Dreamcast Magazine I got before they went under were the most played discs in that system. Got more time and fun out of those things than any other game!

The import game is known as "Irritating Stick" here in the USA.

As a kid, I played Tomba over and over and over on my demo disc, but I never found a copy of the game until about a year ago. Its funny how as kids we got such enjoyment out of game demos since we only got new games to play every once in a great while. Now I have hundreds of games and am well on my way to owning every game I would ever want to play.

This might be my favorite episode of Game Sack yet.  Hardly anyone talks about demo discs, but man, they were a huge part of my childhood.  It was like, get a full-price game and maybe hate it and not get another one for months and months, or get a demo disc every couple of weeks and have a huge variety of games to try out.  Plus it was really fun seeing how much you could push out of a demo!

OMG, just seeing the Saturn guy in the thumbnail has me excited! I actually had the VHS back in the day... weird-ass marketing, but it sure worked! I sold every system and game I had (except my Game Gear) just so I could buy a Saturn!

Dude, Small Soldiers is a FUCKING AMAZING movie. Seek that shit out, ASAP.

Here's a few I think are worth noting: GamePro Action Disc 1 - I've used this disc for years to play PS1 imports on my PS2. Works like a charm. There's no other reason to really have it, but that's enough for me. Titan AE - It's a demo disc for a cancelled game. That's pretty interesting. Official PlayStation Magazine 13 - Play Metal Gear Solid in Japanese with English subtitles. The English dub was incredible, no doubt, but this is still pretty cool. I still go through my OPSM demo discs every now and then and find games I've long forgotten about and then purchase them years after the fact - most recent example being playing OPSM 10 and then remembering that I needed to pick up Granstream Saga.

Great episode! One of my favorite channels at the moment. You always have topics that barely anybody else talks about. I hope there will be a part two about demo discs because I think there are a lot more demo discs out there worthy to be talked about.

The best demo disc to date is still Christmas NiGHTS, a gameplay demo which has its own holiday themed plotline and plenty of unlockable extras (including the ability to play Sonic the Hedgehog who fights Eggman as the stage boss) and different modes for other holidays in addition to Christmas.

I didn't even know there was demos on the GameCube

Those Jampacks by themselves deserve a full episode, I collect them all and they kick ass! Loved them as a kid as well.

Been saving my viewing of this episode and today I woke up mildly hungover, made myself another drink, and sat down to watch it. And did I just hear you guys are weekly?! All things flow according to the will of the great spirit.