Vintage magazine demos

Merlin5 · 21 Mar 2021 at 15:37

Hi guys. I've been doing some clearing out at home and found 25 old pc game magazine demos from the 1990s and possibly early 2000s. Was going to bin them but looking on eBay, people are selling them for a few quid. Some are asking £5 or more for a single demo. Got any idea what sort of price I could ask? Buy now or auction?

PC777 · 21 Mar 2021 at 15:43

Nice bit of history there, maybe some would sell well individually like the Aliens vs Predator one to a big Aliens collector.

Merlin5 · 21 Mar 2021 at 16:05

PC777 said:
Nice bit of history there, maybe some would sell well individually like the Aliens vs Predator one to a big Aliens collector.

Yeah. I'd prefer to sell the lot in one go. Unless you think I'd make more money selling them separately like the Aliens Predator.

PC777 · 21 Mar 2021 at 16:15

Not sure of money value but as for content value, not just Aliens, you've got demos for Half Life, Unreal, Quake 2 ect. Genuine PC gaming history, someone like Clint from LGR on Youtube could get a year's worth of content out of that collection.

I'd probably Google each one and see what they go for, some old demos even have rare stuff on them like one that mistakenly had scenes from Tetsuo the Iron Man - a horrific Japanese film that could play randomly as the PS1 magazine's demo disc somehow got mixed up with files from it.

Journey · 21 Mar 2021 at 16:17

I'd also check archive.org or similar to see if you can upload the ISO's so they can be stored forever.

Guest2 · 21 Mar 2021 at 16:22

Damn, I had piles of them maybe 15-20 years ago along with the magazines too. Probably 50 odd magazines and 50 CDs, binned the lot as they were worthless and taking up a lot of room

molinari · 21 Mar 2021 at 16:38

I have a CD Case which I haven't opened for years which has almost every PC Zone demo CD/DVD from June 2000 to 2007. Having just counted, that's about 144 CDs/DVD in total. People are actually buying these???
The rest of the case is taken up by games including Crimson Skies, Little Big Adventure, B17 Flying Fortress, Start Trek Voyager Elite Force, Kingpin, AcP, Half Life, 5 versions of Championship Manger from 96/97, Monster Truck Madness 2, Sensible World of Soccer, Need for Speed II Hot Pursuit, Actua Soccer, GP2, Fifa 96, 1944 Across the Rhine, GP Manager 2, Midtown Madness, and Start Trek Birth of the Federation amongst others. The good old gaming days!

Merlin5 · 21 Mar 2021 at 16:39

PC777 said:
Not sure of money value but as for content value, not just Aliens, you've got demos for Half Life, Unreal, Quake 2 ect. Genuine PC gaming history, someone like Clint from LGR on Youtube could get a year's worth of content out of that collection.

I'd probably Google each one and see what they go for, some old demos even have rare stuff on them like one that mistakenly had scenes from Tetsuo the Iron Man - a horrific Japanese film that could play randomly as the PS1 magazine's demo disc somehow got mixed up with files from it.

I just looked up the guy you mentioned on LGR. Pity he's in the US, shouldn't think it would be worth shipping to there. Good point though about googling each one. I think I'd better make a list of what's on each demo and what year they were produced. I've still got some pc gamer magazines somewhere as well. Don't know if I still have it but there was one from the early 90s with a small article and just a tiny thumbnail photo mentioning a little known game in development called Tomb Raider. You might have heard of it

Journey said:
I'd also check archive.org or similar to see if you can upload the ISO's so they can be stored forever.

I'll check that out, thanks.

Guest2 said:
Damn, I had piles of them maybe 15-20 years ago along with the magazines too. Probably 50 odd magazines and 50 CDs, binned the lot as they were worthless and taking up a lot of room

Bummer. Yeah, that's a pity, could have made a few bob from those.

Journey · 21 Mar 2021 at 16:40

molinari said:
I have a CD Case which I haven't opened for years which has almost every PC Zone demo CD/DVD from June 2000 to 2007. Having just counted, that's about 144 CDs/DVD in total.

As I said above, these things need to be preserved, you should catalogue then and upload to Archive.org they have a dedicated CD/DVD ROM section for demo discs etc.

Merlin5 · 21 Mar 2021 at 16:41

molinari said:
I have a CD Case which I haven't opened for years which has almost every PC Zone demo CD/DVD from June 2000 to 2007. Having just counted, that's about 144 CDs/DVD in total. People are actually buying these???
The rest of the case is taken up by games including Crimson Skies, Little Big Adventure, B17 Flying Fortress, Start Trek Voyager Elite Force, Kingpin, AcP, Half Life, 5 versions of Championship Manger from 96/97, Monster Truck Madness 2, Sensible World of Soccer, Need for Speed II Hot Pursuit, Actua Soccer, GP2, Fifa 96, 1944 Across the Rhine, GP Manager 2, Midtown Madness, and Start Trek Birth of the Federation amongst others. The good old gaming days!

Yep, check ebay, people are buying them it seems.

Rroff · 21 Mar 2021 at 16:54

Whelp - I have like 200 of those in a box I keep meaning to dispose of. Didn't know anyone would pay money for them though most are in poor condition after 3-4 house moves.

Definitely the good old days of PC gaming.

EDIT: The Grim Fandango one makes me laugh it is the first one I see when I open the box up.

PC777 · 21 Mar 2021 at 16:57

They could be worth something to a UK Youtuber as well, that collection could get someone started on a really nice retro PC gaming channel. They look in great condition with all the covers as well.

That Nomad Soul demo could also be considered a harder to find piece of David Bowie media as well, should be way less of those demos going around than the full games.

Rroff · 21 Mar 2021 at 16:59

PC777 said:
They could be worth something to a UK Youtuber as well, that collection could get someone started on a really nice retro PC gaming channel. They look in great condition with all the covers as well.

That Nomad Soul demo could also be considered a harder to find piece of David Bowie media as well, should be way less of those demos going around than the full games.

I really wish they'd remake Omikron but with the benefit of today's tech - I guess Cyberpunk is close.

PC777 · 21 Mar 2021 at 17:04

Yeah I loved Omikron overall when it came out, even for all its faults, even playing it on Dreamcast.

Just thought for a UK Youtuber Nostalgia Nerd also does really good retro style videos a bit like LGR.

d_brennen · 21 Mar 2021 at 17:09

Rroff said:
I really wish they'd remake Omikron but with the benefit of today's tech - I guess Cyberpunk is close.

Was actually thinking that. I really wish the developers of Cyberpunk would go and create the game they promised!

Seeing those demo disks reminds me how sterile the PC game scene is now

AWPC · 21 Mar 2021 at 17:17

Used to have the lot in pristine condition from about 1992 to 2000 then threw them all out as landfill back in the early 2000s when moving house :eek:

Merlin5 · 21 Mar 2021 at 18:47

Rroff said:
Whelp - I have like 200 of those in a box I keep meaning to dispose of. Didn't know anyone would pay money for them though most are in poor condition after 3-4 house moves.

Definitely the good old days of PC gaming.

EDIT: The Grim Fandango one makes me laugh it is the first one I see when I open the box up.

Grim Fandago is awesome and was such a revered game when it came out. Much as I enjoy first person shooters, I've always been more drawn to point and click adventures

PC777 said:
They could be worth something to a UK Youtuber as well, that collection could get someone started on a really nice retro PC gaming channel. They look in great condition with all the covers as well.

That Nomad Soul demo could also be considered a harder to find piece of David Bowie media as well, should be way less of those demos going around than the full games.

The discs seem to be in very good condition. I probably didn't play a lot of them or for any length of time. Some of the cases need a clean and have cracks on the front lid but I can replace those easily enough.

I've still got the full version of Nomad Soul, excellent game.

Maybe I could try and send a message to a uk youtuber or leave a comment on his channel asking if he'd be interested in the demos. Is there any paeticular uk gaming channel you could suggest that might snap my hand off for them? Maybe they're worth a couple of hundred quid, but I really don't know.

PC777 · 21 Mar 2021 at 19:42

I think most Youtubers just get given stuff, LGR gets sent a ton of stuff for free by viewers, but it could be worth asking Nostalgia Nerd, that's the only UK one I know of prominence in that style, but there's likely more out there.

Just going through the menus with their 90's UI and music and trying each demo with comments is likely an easy 10-20 minute Youtube video per demo disc for a lot of those retro tech channels, so I think they do have value in that regard, LGR has a lot of high view videos doing that style.