Demos

Demo discs

by ZombieSkittles on February 13, 2010

When I was a kid, playing the demos contained on magazine discs, or in other games themselves was a thrill I had to have. There was nothing like buying a brand new copy of Playstation Magazine and feasting on the one playable level goodies inside. Hours were spent playing one level of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 with friends, boasting about how we’d accomplished tricks reaching 10,000 points. I remember playing the shareware version of Quake in awe, scared of the scene on the spiral bridge where the lights turn off, but you can still hear the grunts of your concealed enemies. I remember the glee I had when it turned out there was a full demo of Spyro The Dragon 2 concealed on my copy of Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, and played it almost as much as the actual game the disc was marketed as.

53qm2aI treated demos not only like the trailer for the game it was intended, but as actual games. They provided variety when one couldn’t afford to buy lots of games, and when they weren’t readily available at our fingertips. Over time demo discs have stood the test of time, but I have to admit, lack the appeal that they used to. Nowadays they’re packed with full freeware games, mods for games you may already have, reviews, videos, and even more. Despite this, I’m finding I’ve grown less and less interested. I attribute this partly to the cheapness and availability of games online nowadays (I picked up Left 4 Dead on special for $7.50, and I gifted someone the original Aliens Vs Predators for $5), which means it’s not such a hassle if I buy a game and don’t like it. Demos were meant like movie trailers, in that they are meant to give us a taste of the game, to entice us to buy it by seeing how good it is. With prices being so low when purchased through Steam and the like, I’ve stopped looking at them.

This isn’t to say they don’t have a place in today’s world though. I did buy a copy of one of the many Xbox 360 magazines around, and it came with a demo for Ghostbusters, and Splosion Man. The single level of Ghostbusters was quite stunning, and if it weren’t for the fact that the game is a little expensive, I’d probably own it (the fact it’s single player is a bit of a downer too). Splosion Man looks like an addictive side scroller too, and the only thing stopping me getting that is an Xbox Live account.

What’s your standing in the world of demos? Do you play them still? Do you buy magazines with them still? I’m curious.

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Weapons of Vengeance

by ZombieSkittles on July 17, 2009

Out of all of WSJ’s games, I’ve always had a soft spot for Weapons of Vengeance. The game never made it past being a demo and forever sits incomplete with just five levels, due to restrictions in the engine preventing Wolf Skevos-Jones from doing everything he needed with the game.

The plot for the game seems to be a loose variation to part of the story for Return To Castle Wolfenstein; a secret weapons facility has a secret “venom” minigun along with other biological and chemical weapons, and it’s up to BJ to locate it. As happens in a few games (including Trench Warfare), BJ was part of a team that got attacked, and he’s the only survivor.

One of the most entertaining features is also borrowed from Return To Castle Wolfenstein; the game features eleven weapons, which to my knowledge makes it one of the Wolf3D games with the most weapons featured. The weapons are pretty much replicas of those in RTCW, including dual colt pistols, flamethrower, and even a paratrooper rifle. Some of it seems a little excessive, but it’s really fun for changing things up. There’s a range of enemies, including machine gunners, and even a tank, and for the most part, are very prolific.

wovscene1 The landscape is very mazy, with it taking forever to find my way around. The scenery is very much the same in the outer areas, almost turning it into a game of trial and error to find keys and level endings. Luckily, after the first few levels, the gameplay finally takes place indoors…well, underground anyway, making things much easier navigation-wise. So, WSJ puts a little twist on it by including ladders you can climb up and down to extra areas. Definitely a fun little extra, but in the areas where there’s around sixty billion ladders in a room to choose from, it’s downright confusing. Despite all the confusing paths the maps were definitely not boring, with plenty to shoot and find.

It’s a pity that out of all the games Wolf Skevos-Jones made, this had to fail production wise. Of course, that didn’t stop someone else making lower quality sequels to it (we’ll look at those some other time…when I want to cry), but it would still be nice to see this one day finished.

The Plan:

I plan to first construct a machine that allows me to turn movies into reality, and enter them. From there, I’ll enter Back To The Future, and steal the plans for the flux capacitor. Making that, I’ll work it into a guitar hero controller, and use that to go back in time. Finding my way to WSJ’s house, I’ll walk in, and give him a copy of Wolf4SDL, and explain what happens. He makes the full game with no restrictions, the game is done, and eureka! I win at life.
This of course, has the consequences of disrupting the rift in time and space, but it’d be worth it to see a full version of this game.

Great Scott!

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The Castles Secrets Phase 1 Demo

by ZombieSkittles on July 3, 2009

The Castles Secrets by TheSaiyanHog was released a little over a week ago, on the 22nd. I downloaded it because I hadn’t played a Wolfenstein game that featured almost all the original graphics in a while, so I decided to give it a go.
The game has no hint of a new storyline, so we can assume it’s the traditional “run ‘n gun the Nazi’s” we’re all too familiar with. The first level starts us off in a jail cell much like in the original game, and you have to break out. Exploring the cells in the prison, it seems as though the enemies in this game are psychologically crueller to their captives than the last game; food has been purposely placed out of reach to the prisoners, who are handcuffed to the ceiling. The last thing they see before falling unconscious from starvation is the sight of a steaming serve of fresh cooked chicken. Torture.

castlesecrets1scene1

The first level is surprisingly small, and exceptionally easy to get through as a result. I can see that they were going for the realism of the prison itself being fairly small, as there wouldn’t be a need for one hundred cells or something. After all, they aren’t trying to capture the entire world.
The second floor isn’t much bigger, and the layout is very similar with a couple of rooms looking the same, but is definitely more difficult; there are lots more enemies. The level calls for the player to lure enemies through the door and kill them one by one, because taking them all on at once pretty much ensures you’re going to die.

The game has a few extra tweaks in it like gun bobbing, and the new status bar (which just uses the wall graphics as a background) doesn’t look too bad. My only complaints in that department is the alignment of the key slots and ammo counter, and the classic “more than 100% health” thing. Being that the levels were short, there wasn’t any chance to get bored with it, and it’s simplicity means you don’t have to think too much while playing. The demo isn’t really worth it for two levels, but hopefully when the full version of Castle Secrets is released, there’ll be something to look forward to.

Download the demo of Castle Secrets and see for yourself (via The Wolf3D Dome).

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The Lost World Part 8 (Demo)

by ZombieSkittles on November 7, 2008

Oh god. Richter Belmont. I remember when he went by the name of Kyo Kusanagi, and all the Wolfenstein mods he pumped out faster than Nine Inch Nails pumps out albums*. Resident Evil, The Rise Of Jason (and the next subsequent 69 versions of it), and all the Spear Of Dreams series.
The maps were ripped off, the coding sloppily done, and the sprites taken from other games without permission. It was terrible.

As Richter Belmont, he has released a number of games under the heading of the “Lost World Saga”. The games seem a lot better. Much higher quality, though still not the best.

The modder has released his first effort on the Wolf4SDL engine; a test version of The Lost World Part 8.

The game is two levels which sees you walking through a forest with relative ease; walk a fair bit, shoot the one enemy, then repeat. Collect souls which seem to make up sets, but which I never really worked out the purpose of (mainly because I finished the level by accident before collecting them all >_>).
Also it seems Richter has BJ talking to himself. First step on the way to madness if you ask me.

Well, next to fighting weird gun wielding monsters who aren’t nearly as graphically refined as the weapons that have been borrowed for the game.

So I wander through a snowy maze and there are monsters everywher- WHY IS THERE AN OFFICER WANDERING AROUND WITH THE MONSTERS?!?

This is the only human character in the two level demo. What the? Well, he WAS the only human character in there…I didn’t have the chance to take a screen shot before killing him. It was all so sudden. Just, “BAM LOOK AT ME IM A BAD GUY WHO ISN’T A MONS-” *BLAM*.

I really, truly, wished these two levels were a bit more entertaining. They were very un-thrilling and didn’t give me anything to look forward to, except for maybe a manual so I can find out what the hell the game is meant to be about.

As a final note, I laughed when I was able to start playing Episode 2 of the original Wolfenstein. Richter, it helps to disable the other episodes when making a demo :-P

*Three albums in 6 months. Wow.

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