Morkin wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2024 10:12 am
I already know which one of these I'm going to vote for...
Putting up a selection of playable demos for a vote is mostly going to mean fans of a game will vote for it, unsurprisingly. I mean, if such a thing as a Chaos playable demo existed, of course I will go for it immediately over anything else!
Ideally, I'd like the playable demo - literally a cutback version of the full game - taken properly into consideration. Of course, my usual method of depicting games in polls is to link to their ZXDB entry and show an in-game screenshot. This will mean some playable demos won't be depicted correctly (the Altered Beast playable demo is literally level 2, for example, and the in-game screenshot is taken from level 1), but I can't really spend much more time in getting a true depiction, creating these polls is already a time-consuming process!
Plus, there are times when an AWFUL playable demo has genuinely helped. Like Pac Land and Viz being utterly horrific - that meant I never wasted money on them! In a way I'd like to vote for them, but, um... I try to think of the positives. Like the awesomeness of Cybernoid II, Hero Quest, Rex, Hammerfist, Lemmings and TMHT Coin-Op. Maybe an 'inverse' poll ("What playable demo helped you avoid wasting money on the actual game?") is needed for the future? Oh and there are a few efforts here where the actual game is MIA, so the playable demo is literally the only way you can sample (SOME OF) the game!
Also, I noticed mistakes in my shortlist above, with a few budget games accidentally included, and the accidental exclusion of Cybernoid II! I've fixed that now.
All being well, on Sunday we'll use this list of 102 playable demos of full price games:
19 Part 1: Boot Camp (playable demo) by Cascade Games
Addams Family, The (playable demo) by Ocean
Adidas Championship Football (playable demo) by Ocean
Altered Beast (playable demo) by Activision
Armalyte (playable demo) by Thalamus
Astroball (playable demo) by Revelation Software
Athena (playable demo) by Imagine
Atomic Robo-Kid (playable demo) by Activision
Avalanche (playable demo) by CCS
Back To The Future Part II (playable demo) by Image Works
Back To The Future Part III (playable demo) by Image Works
Bard's Tale, The (playable demo) by Electronic Arts
Basil The Great Mouse Detective (playable demo) by Gremlin Graphics
Batman: The Movie (playable demo) by Ocean
Battle Command (playable demo) by Ocean
Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show (playable demo) by Tynesoft
Cabal (playable demo) by Ocean
Captain Blood (playable demo) by Exxos
Chase HQ (playable demo) by Ocean
Chip's Challenge (playable demo) by US Gold
Circus Circus (playable demo) by Martech
Cisco Heat (playable demo) by Image Works
Conman The Barbaric (playable demo) by Elven Adventurers
Cromwell At War 1642-1645 (playable demo) by CCS
Cybernoid II: The Revenge (playable demo) by Hewson
Daley Thompson's Olympic Challenge (playable demo) by Ocean
Dark Side (playable demo) by Incentive
Destiny Mission (playable demo) by Williams Technology
Dominator (playable demo) by System 3
Dominion (playable demo) by Pandora
Double Dragon III: Rosetta Stone, The (playable demo) by Storm Software
Duel, The: Test Drive II (playable demo) by Accolade Inc
Football Manager 3 (playable demo) by Addictive Games
Gazza II (playable demo) by Empire
Gazza's Super Soccer (playable demo) by Empire Software
Hammerfist (playable demo) by Activision
Hero Quest (playable demo) by Gremlin
Hotshot (playable demo) by Addictive Games
Hunt For Red October, The (based on the movie) (playable demo) by Grandslam
Ikari Warriors (playable demo) by Elite
Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade (playable demo) by US Gold
Ivan 'Ironman' Stewart's Super Off Road (playable demo) by Virgin Games
LED Storm (playable demo) by Go!
Last Duel (playable demo) by Go!
Last Ninja 2 (playable demo) by System 3
Lemmings (playable demo) by Psygnosis
Mad Mix Game (playable demo) by Topo Soft
Match Of The Day (playable demo) by Zeppelin Premier
Maze Mania (playable demo) by Hewson
Megaphoenix (playable demo) by Dinamic Software
Midnight Resistance (playable demo) by Ocean
Mystical (playable demo) by Infogrames
NARC (playable demo) by Ocean
Navy Moves (playable demo - part 1) by Dinamic
Night Breed (playable demo) by Ocean
Night Shift (playable demo) by US Gold
Operation Thunderbolt (playable demo) by Ocean
Operation Wolf (playable demo) by Ocean
Pac-Land (playable demo) by Grandslam/Quicksilva
Pang (playable demo) by Ocean
Passing Shot (playable demo) by Image Works
Pipe Mania (playable demo) by Empire Software
Pit-Fighter (playable demo) by Domark
Playdays (playable demo) by Friendly Learning
Power Drift (playable demo) by Activision
Predator 2 (playable demo) by Image Works
Puzznic (playable demo) by Ocean
Rambo III (playable demo) by Ocean
Rasputin (playable demo) by Firebird
Real Ghostbusters, The (playable demo) by Activision
Rex (playable demo) by Martech
Robocop (playable demo) by Ocean
Robocop 2 (playable demo) by Ocean
Robozone (playable demo) by Image Works
Rod-Land (playable demo) by Storm Software
SWIV (playable demo) by Storm Software
Sanxion (playable demo) by Thalamus
Savage (playable demo) by Firebird
Scramble Spirits (playable demo) by Grandslam Entertainments
Shadow Of The Beast (playable demo) by Gremlin
Skate Crazy (playable demo) by Gremlin
Skate Or Die (playable demo) by Electronic Arts
Space Crusade (playable demo) by Gremlin
Space Harrier II (playable demo) by Grandslam Entertainments
St Dragon (playable demo) by Storm
Stormlord (playable demo) by Hewson
Street Fighter (playable demo) by US Gold
Switchblade (playable demo) by Gremlin
Techno Cop (playable demo) by Gremlin
Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles (NES game conversion) (playable demo) by Image Works
Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles - The Coin-Op (playable demo) by Image Works
Thunder Blade (playable demo) by US Gold
Thunderjaws (playable demo) by Domark
Total Eclipse (playable demo) by Incentive
Toyota Celica GT Rally (playable demo) by Gremlin
Turrican II (playable demo) by Rainbow Arts
Typhoon (playable demo) by Imagine
Untouchables, The (playable demo) by Ocean
Viz - The Soft Floppy Demo (playable demo) by Virgin Games
War Of The Roses (playable demo) by CCS
World Class Rugby (playable demo) by Audiogenic Software
Xenon (playable demo) by Melbourne House
Playable demos of budget games will be the second poll in this series (substantially smaller, as you'd expect).