Demo vs Final demo looks different and car burn at some older demo if crashed correctly

Need For Speed 3 Demo : Re: ATi RagePro drivers and software
Need For Speed 3 Final: Re: ATi RagePro drivers and software

Descent 3 Demo 1 had a different version of the Piccu Station level with a crashed alien spaceship at the end, instead of the laboratory that was in the final game. I remember downloading the 29.8MB demo on a 28.8k modem.

The full version of Nightmare Creatures had an adrenaline bar that had to be constantly filled by killing enemies or you started to lose health if it ran out. In other words it has a time limit. The original PS1 demo of it had no such thing, you could sniff around the levels entirely at your own pace.

Apparently someone at the publisher side played the game close to release, realized you could just run past the enemies to the exit and forced the developers to do something to prevent that. Even though you could do the same thing in bazillion other games and it wasn't any kind of problem there as it wouldn't been here either.

I played a lot of that demo back in the day, but never got the full release thanks to that.

The demo for Thief II: The Metal Age had a mission called "The Unwelcome Guest". It's basically an older version of the "Life of the Party" level from the retail game.

This wiki page lists the differences between the two.

Rise of the Triad: The HUNT begins shareware episode does not appear in the full game.
Half-Life: Uplink also features unique content, and what is more unique is that it was released after the main game.

I have a vague memory of playing a demo of something called "Half-Life" somewhere in '97. I got it off a cover disc of a magazine and I was unable to play it on my DX4-100, as it was a total slideshow. I remember there was crates and wire fences and I was shot at and killed before progressing too far.

Years and years later when I got the final version of Half-Life, it was an entirely different game from what I remember of the demo.

Perhaps somebody here remembers better (maybe they played it on a p1 or a p2 and could actually get somewhere)

st31276a wrote on Yesterday, 12:00:

I have a vague memory of playing a demo of something called "Half-Life" somewhere in '97. I got it off a cover disc of a magazine and I was unable to play it on my DX4-100, as it was a total slideshow. I remember there was crates and wire fences and I was shot at and killed before progressing too far.

Years and years later when I got the final version of Half-Life, it was an entirely different game from what I remember of the demo.

Perhaps somebody here remembers better (maybe they played it on a p1 or a p2 and could actually get somewhere)

It would have been Half-Life: Uplink as mentioned in the post above yours, but it was in '99. The level in Uplink is not included in the retail version.

NeoG_ wrote on Yesterday, 12:11:

It would have been Half-Life: Uplink as mentioned in the post above yours, but it was in '99. The level in Uplink is not included in the retail version.

If it was '99 then the slideshow would have been on a Klamath-300 with a Virge GX2. Hard to think it would run so bad on that, but maybe it did.

Thank you, I will look into that.

Edit: Indeed, I vaguely recollect something about an antenna that had to be moved, so this is it. Thank you.

(Could never link this memory with the actual Half-Life before)

Yes, HL was VERY different from the demo and test versions. The shipped graphics alone were a huge bump up in quality from the oddly-shaped and rough-looking stuff that was used during play-testing and development. Pull up images from the old Sierra magazine and you can see just how horrible the game looked originally. Thankfully, we can now enjoy Uplink properly, in the HL Anniversary release.

Fatal Racing, known as Whiplash in North America.

The announcer in the demo had a different voice than the one in the full game, and I liked the one in the demo better. He sounded funnier, with an over-the-top enthusiasm that fit the game well.

"It's Fatal Racing!"

"You're going too darn slow!"

"You've gotta try harder. RACE OVER!"

Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri had two demos that had levels not in the final game.

dr_st wrote on Yesterday, 11:23:

Rise of the Triad: The HUNT begins shareware episode does not appear in the full game.

The shareware levels were included in some, but apparently not all, full editions of ROTT. You still had to load them manually prior to launch, just like other downloaded levels:

HUNTBGIN.RTL
HUNTBGIN.RTC (CommBat levels)

Looking at my 90's backups, the file dates (1995) on match all of the other DARKWAR game asset files.

I am surprised they didn't let you choose them as an episode when starting a new game.

liqmat wrote on Yesterday, 14:00:

Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri had two demos that had levels not in the final game.

Two? I have a publisher disc that contains demos of Terra Nova together with Cyberia 2. Is there another unique demo out there?

sndwv wrote on Yesterday, 14:22:

liqmat wrote on Yesterday, 14:00:

Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri had two demos that had levels not in the final game.

Two? I have a publisher disc that contains demos of Terra Nova together with Cyberia 2. Is there another unique demo out there?

Three unique missions demo: http://www.ttlg.com/tnova/archive/tndemo2.zip

One unique mission demo: http://www.fileplanet.com/11063/10000/fileinf … va-Demo-V-D1.01

Some good resources to boot:
- https://www.ttlg.com/tnova/archive/
- https://web.archive.org/web/20110716074346/ht … .com/files.html (thanks to RiptoR from GOG's forums for this one)

The Settlers II. Both the official demo version and the ‘Erste demo v0.15 / v0.16’ had different levels.

Dune II demo also had a different level. Officially it’s not playable although I remember you can control the units if you start the game with a random parameter supplied. (just confirmed it: dune2.exe allyourbasearebelongtous and you can control the units after the intro has played. Interesting note is that you can control the enemy units as well and see their order-options like Ambush and Guard Area)

st31276a wrote on Yesterday, 12:00:

Perhaps somebody here remembers better (maybe they played it on a p1 or a p2 and could actually get somewhere)

I've never encountered any HL test version in 1997, wasn't until 2013 that the public experienced it from someone finding a burned press alpha disc and dumping it on reddit. Maybe you were playing something else and confused it with Half-Life (CGW were teasing a HL demo to be on 'the next cd' that didn't happen at one point then). HL's broader beta testing program began in September 1998, and Day One doesn't look drastically different either.

liqmat wrote on Yesterday, 14:35:

Three unique missions demo: http://www.ttlg.com/tnova/archive/tndemo2.zip […]
Show full quote

Three unique missions demo: http://www.ttlg.com/tnova/archive/tndemo2.zip

One unique mission demo: http://www.fileplanet.com/11063/10000/fileinf … va-Demo-V-D1.01

Some good resources to boot:
- https://www.ttlg.com/tnova/archive/
- https://web.archive.org/web/20110716074346/ht … .com/files.html (thanks to RiptoR from GOG's forums for this one)

Thanks for that! I have to double check which demo I have, but I have at least a new mission to play.

Happen to know if *both* demos were ever released on a disc, publisher promo or magazine cover disc?

sndwv wrote on Yesterday, 20:22:

Thanks for that! I have to double check which demo I have, but I have at least a new mission to play.

Happen to know if *both* demos were ever released on a disc, publisher promo or magazine cover disc?

If you check out that last link, there is an add-on level (Operation Stone Henge) for the first demo in the form of a patch. Haven't tried it out yet myself. As for your question, no idea. I'm still kicking myself for losing the TN t-shirt Looking Glass sent me back in the late 90s.

Corridor 7 demo only has one level. This level does not appear in either the official release or the expanded CD release.