Playable demos that led to purchase decisions

[PeteProdge]

Being a skinflint (alright, absolutely brassic most of the time), I was grateful for the existence of playable demos on magazine covertapes, as it was simply 'more games'. Well, not quite proper games, obviously, but I appreciated quite a few of them.

It was the playable demo of Bubble Bobble on ACE's covertape (issue 2), giving you the first five levels (apparently there was nearly an accident in tape duplication that meant the magazine came very close to giving away the full game) to play. I think that's the perfect teaser, and it led me to buying the full game. No regrets there, it still remains as brilliant as ever.

One ridiculous playable demo was later on in the Speccy's life when Sinclair User had Virgin Games's licensed Viz game. Now, I absolutely adore Viz, it makes up a lot of my sense of humour and I never missed an issue since I discovered it in 1987 through Your Sinclair (I still buy it to this day). However, that playable demo really opened my eyes up to what an atrocious game it was, an absolutely tedious waste of time.

I'd have bought the full game of Viz on my pure love of the comic, but that playable demo made me avoid that turkey. I have no idea why Virgin Games decided to exhibit how bad it was.

Those are my two most significant memories about playable demos, what about you?

[ianace]

Space Crusade, I think it was on a your Sinclair cover tape, included the first level of the game.

Hunt destroy the dreadnought. Great game, went with £12.95 to the local WHSmith’s to buy it, still playing the original today.

[Turtle_Quality]

Two semi-relevant stories ...

A friend of mine wrote to Bug Byte asking about their forthcoming Styx game (by one Matthew Smith), and to satisfy his curiosity they sent him the full game, no charge. Which kind of made the purchase decision for him.

There was an Amiga game I got from a cover disk that was a 4 player figure of 8 top down dirt track racing game - it was great fun. The full game just didn't compare but the demo was a regular game of choice for years. I've been trying to find that demo lately but can't remember the name of the game.

I had a friend working in a computer shop, we used to try out all the new games on a Saturday night, so I didn't have much use for demos.

[RWAC]

Midnight Resistance.

I must have played through the demo hundreds of times. I couldn't wait to buy the game and I wasn't disappointed.

[Dark]

When I saw the subject for this my first thought was Bubble Bobble. I didn't remember where I got the demo from until I read your post, and it being in Ace magazine, which I got the first few issues of.

I thought the demo was brilliant, as did my friend, I rushed out and bought it for the Spectrum, and he for his Commodore.

As an aside, my return to playing Spectrum games in the last few years, Bubble Bobble has been one I thought was brilliant as a kid, that I haven't been that enamoured with as an adult. Given it a couple of goes and quickly got bored.

Other than that though, I don't remember playing any demos and using them as a guide to purchase games. Probably in part to the fact that I didn't always load up cover tapes, was more interested in the magazine.

[Swainy]

Robocop that came with an issue of Crash. The demo was slightly different to the finished game, it featured the warehouse level and if you shot a bad guy above you, as they fell you could shoot them again and make them bounce upwards.

[GreenCard]

I used to play the Last Ninja 2 Crash covertape demo quite a lot. I saved up my pocket money and bought the game, complete with ninja mask and rubber shuriken. The mask was fine, but I found playing the game with the shuriken a little tricky.

[presh]

Midnight Resistance.

I must have played through the demo hundreds of times. I couldn't wait to buy the game and I wasn't disappointed.

Yup! This immediately sprang to mind for me too.

[blucey]

I loved the demo of R-Type and played it to death. The main game was good but levels 1 and 3 are so much better than the rest of the game.

Similarly I really loved the Chase HQ and Ikari Warriors demos too but again, I didn't really enjoy the full games as much.

[Starquack]

I remember really liking the 3d game on a crash demo tape but it was 8.95 in real life so I just stuck with the demo. Still haven't played the full game! Something about demons,devils...

[Joefish]

I don't recall any demos that persuaded me to buy the game, when I wasn't already eager to get the game anyway.
I remember that Rasputin demo from the Your Sinclair #1 relaunch was so blwdy hard I couldn't get through it, so didn't think there'd be much point in buying the game anyway! Same goes for the Dan Dare 2 demo/minigame from Sinclair User!

[Starquack]

Ah, Rasputin was the the 3d game I was thinking about

[clebin]

I guess the Rasputin demo wasn't the success they were hoping for as you see a gazillion copies of the demo turn up on eBay but I can't remember ever seeing the full game on there.

[Matt_B]

The Bard's Tale would be the one game I bought where I'd previously played the demo on a cover tape.

Mind you, even that was only a £2.99 budget re-release a year or so later.

[bluespikey]

Similarly I really loved the Chase HQ and Ikari Warriors demos too but again, I didn't really enjoy the full games as much.

The thing about the Ikari Warriors demo is that the best thing about it, by far, is that you get to drive the tank for miles. About half the map is driving the tank. Then when you play the full game, tanks are rare and you spend most of the game on foot. Which is alright, but not as much fun as the tank. Or Commando for that matter.

[MarkRJones1970]

I guess the Rasputin demo wasn't the success they were hoping for as you see a gazillion copies of the demo turn up on eBay but I can't remember ever seeing the full game on there.

I was one of the few that bought the full price version (I bought all 4 of those Firebird red square boxed 'Hot' titles). I couldn't get very far on the demo so flip knows why I splashed the cash for the full release. I couldn't get any further on that either!