Were there any Archimedes game demos that had things in that were different to the full version?

[wmd]

E.g. a level that wasn't in the full release, or different music, or anything that was just basically different? I'm guessing this will be a short thread, but am interested if any such examples exist.

[davidb]

Lander was a demo for Zarch.
Warlocks had at least one demo that may have been different to the finished game. It might have just been the time limit that was different.
Scorpius had playable and non-playable demos, but was never released, so perhaps that doesn't count.

[VectorEyes]

Scorpius had playable and non-playable demos, but was never released, so perhaps that doesn't count.

… to teenage me’s eternal disappointment. *Finally* there was going to be a game I could proudly show off to my Amiga-owning friends! … and then it never came out.

[flibble]

The Starfighter 3000 demo had a different level on it to the released game, I believe. (Admittedly there's about 90 levels in the full game and I'm not sure I've played them all).

[Sophira]

The Chocks Away Extra Missions demo (available on this disc image) had a special mission designed specially for BBC Acorn User and wasn't in the full game, too.

[IanJeffray]

I think we created special demo levels of Inferno - the one on the AU coverdisc has AcornUser logos in game, IIRC.

[wmd]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions so far. The Chocks Away Special Mission is a particularly nice find.

I think we created special demo levels of Inferno - the one on the AU coverdisc has AcornUser logos in game, IIRC.

Any idea what year / month that was?

[IanJeffray]

I think we created special demo levels of Inferno - the one on the AU coverdisc has AcornUser logos in game, IIRC.

Any idea what year / month that was?

Yep:

[wmd]

Thanks!

[Rich Talbot-Watkins]

I remember the Hamsters demo having an in-game tune which wasn't present in the final game - no idea why, because the tune is half of the fun.

[wmd]

I remember the Hamsters demo having an in-game tune which wasn't present in the final game - no idea why, because the tune is half of the fun.

Any idea where I can download that? It doesn't seem to be listed on the arcarc.nl archive.

[Rich Talbot-Watkins]

I just typed "Archimedes Hamsters demo" into Google and a bunch of "ROMs" downloads came up, so take your pick!

[wmd]

Thanks. Most Archimedes stuff is so well hidden away that it never crossed my mind to use Google!

[Rich Talbot-Watkins]

Looking at a video of the demo, here, we can guess why the music might have been removed in the final release. A bit of a nuclear option perhaps, but on an ARM 2 machine it doesn't look like there was the processor capacity for the music given how the tempo is all over the place (it's also weird that the music update is apparently happening in the game main loop instead of on a regular timer interrupt, but that's a different issue). Fairly sure there were options to turn the music off anyway, but something clearly went wrong in the final release because I could never get any music to play!

[sirbod]

Any idea where I can download that? It doesn't seem to be listed on the arcarc.nl archive.

Looking at a video of the demo, here, we can guess why the music might have been removed in the final release.

I think the in game music exists in the Acorn Arcade release. Its certainly in the JASPP release along with several bug fixes.

If you don't have a RiscPC/newer machine available to use PackMan, download the JASPP package directly and manually extract using SparkFS. You'll need ADFFS running to use the JASPP release.

[wmd]

Found a new one - K.V. demo on the Acorn Computing December 1993 cover disk (disk 1). According to the !Help file: "This version of 'K.V.' contains five specially designed levels to give you a taster of the full version".

[wmd]

The Arcturus demo has something in it that the full game does not - on the title screen you can select a demonstration mode where the computer plays through all 4 levels in the demo. Not sure if the levels in the demo are from the full game though as I haven't got far in the main game yet and the start level in the demo is not the start level in the full game. If they are from later levels in the full game, they are quite interesting, with deforming landscapes and enemies that you have to trick into falling off the map or into water.

[wmd]

Scorpius had playable and non-playable demos, but was never released, so perhaps that doesn't count.

… to teenage me’s eternal disappointment. *Finally* there was going to be a game I could proudly show off to my Amiga-owning friends! … and then it never came out.

Judging by the playable demos that appeared, it wasn't really all the great. It doesn't run at 50fps and has horrendous inertia on the player ship.

[wmd]

Warlocks had at least one demo that may have been different to the finished game. It might have just been the time limit that was different.

I just checked this (from this page) and the demo does indeed consist of a unique stage not found in the full game. You don't get to see much of it though due to the strict time limit!

[joachim]

The demo level in !AsylumDem is a miniature level — only 1 neuron instead of 8 — that uses the same graphics as level 2 (Psyche) of the full game, but I believe the level design is completely distinct from anything that appears in the full game.

[wmd]

Interesting, will check that out.

I also came across another one - in the Quark demo there is just one music track, and it isn't in the full game (confirmed by listening to the Digital Symphony tracks that the composer uploaded to his website). Also, on the ship select screen the scans of the developers faces are in colour, whereas in the full game they are greyscale.

Incidentally, the Quark demo doesn't run properly, graphics are corrupt and you can't start the game. Anyone have any ideas why that might be? I'm running on an A5000 with RISC OS 3.1.

[wmd]

I think we created special demo levels of Inferno - the one on the AU coverdisc has AcornUser logos in game, IIRC.

I just spotted this in the full version of Inferno:



Is that just a mock-up or was meant to be an upcoming (at the time) release?

[IanJeffray]

I just spotted this in the full version of Inferno:

Is that just a mock-up or was meant to be an upcoming (at the time) release?

Ha! Good spot. Yeah, I think there's an ad in there for Burn 'Out and Overload too, maybe.
Yoyo Twins was/is a playable game (74 levels made!). Kinda basic. Got half-mangled/confused with Toybox Dreams as a similar platformer with chunky blocks, which is also in a somewhat playable state, but actually a completely different codebase. We rather let the desire for perfection get in the way of getting things released, so neither happened.

yoyo.png (21.86 KiB) Viewed 2788 times

[wmd]

As usual with the Paradise stuff, that looks really nice. Would be awesome to see those released at some point.

[IanJeffray]

Also props to Dave for making a 256colour game ad in a 16colour game

[wmd]

Does anyone happen to have the Provocator demo? If not, does anyone know if it was ever on one of the magazine cover discs? I'm interested to see if it has anything different to the full version.

[Sophira]

The demo was on the May 1992 subscription disc of The Micro User! There's an ADF disc image inside that ZIP file, and on that ADF, go to PD Stuff.Bits and you'll find an app called !ProvDemo.

[wmd]

Thanks for uploading. It seems there isn't anything too significant that's different. The demo has a loading screen with details that it's a demo, and there are only 3 stages. The top score is saved to disc, as per the full game. The 3 stages are very dense with enemies and are likely taken from the later stages in the full game, which has 32 stages. It feels like what shoot-em-up aficionados call a "caravan" mode, where you have to score as much as possible within strict time / level constraints, with lots of opportunities to score high the more risks you take.

[wmd]

Here's something mildly interesting, a screenshot from a possible early version of Zelanites:



The main point of interest here is the player ship, it's completely different to the one in the full game (and the Archimedes World demo). The screenshot is from this old youtube video showing a general demonstration demo called "!A5000demo". This might just be an early screen mock-up, but I guess it could also be a pre-release demo. The background shown is of the final set of stages, so presumably it must have been quite far into development at that stage.

[wmd]

On closer inspection, the old ship design is also present in the screenshots on the actual game box: