briskbc

OK, so here's another small group of demos to add to the collection. This was a great find for me because I love collecting PS1 demos. The first demo I owned that would be part of a focused collection was for the Playstation. I believe it was OPM #2. I could go back even further and attribute my obsession..... er hobby, to my PC Gamer magazine collection. I wasn't focused strictly on the demos for that mag. In fact if there was nothing good on the disc (which was rare) I would just chuck it. More often then not my PC didn't have the juice to run the demo anyway. Then Boot magazine came out and it focused just as much on utilities and performance tools as it did games. Ultimately I did end up throwing all of the discs away except for a Star Wars discs and a Quake-a-rama disc. Back to this lot. Again this replaces some of the stuff I sold off over the Spring and Summer of this year. The new additions are the Unholy Wars and the Syphon Filter demos. The disc only cds are a smattering of OPM demos. I love it when a company releases a demo with some sort of insert or extra content. The Syphon Filter demos came with instruction sheets. Syphon Filter 2 has a single sided sheet with a large 989 Logo on the reverse and the Syphon Filter instruction sheet was double sided. After going through my collection again and sorting out a small pile of dupes for a trade box I realized I had an embarassingly small amount of XBox 360 demos. Well, none to be exact. I never see a lot on eBay that's big enough to make worth my while to buy. My PSP demos have been neglected as well. I'll have to do something about this. I try to make a singe purchase (a single demo or a lot) each month and I just paid for December's. It was a trade demo that was a fair price but I was gouged on the shipping. Moving forward I am going to compile a list of DVD movies that have game demos as part of their special features. Sure its outside of what collectors normally focus on but it should be intersting none the less. See ya soon. Shawn

I got another small lot of demos from eBay mid October. It was a great deal. I received the pictured demos and about 12 PC games for $12 shipped. Adding the Far Cry demo to my collection was the highlight. It also allowed me to replace more sold items and added a bonus DVD for 187 Ride or Die. These preorder discs are starting to add up and they compliment the demo collection nicely. I have also been messing around with Windows Movie Maker and made a brief video of my XBox demo collection. I added it to Youtube just to try it out. The music I had attached was subject to their copyright infringement rules so I had to change it. Apparently Youtube has a selection of songs that are allowed to be used in videos so I picked a Ray Charles tune. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTxOZt6r8nQ Maybe one of these days I'll make a vlog and post it here. In the mean time this seems like a good way to show people what some of these demos looks like.

I am slowly returning to collecting demos. Things were rough over the last 6 months. We (wife and kids) had to move because the land lords bought a new house and are selling the house we were in. Luckily the house they bought was in the same town so we were able move into that house but our rent is higher. I was also laid off from work. I have a new job in a completely different field which just temporary. I will be in something permanent in early 09. On to the fun stuff. I picked up a small lot of demos on eBay recently. This will reflect how I move forward with the collection for the time being. Small cheap lots. I was glad to get the Hulk and Sonic Riders demos. The kiosk disk is still brand new and which was a surprise I was worried it would be scratched up. The variant NBA ShootOut 04 "Settle It Online" fills a hole in my collection. The two God of War demos replace what I sold off earlier in the year. I have another small lot coming soon. I'll post then.

Updated Xbox list below May 9, 2008. A collection moves through stages as time progresses. There are periods of rapid growth and times when it completely stalls. The most unfortunate stage is the thinning. Collections are great because they're a lot of fun but in times of need, easily liquidated. I am in this stage at the moment. My collection is being converted into cash and held in an emergency fund until it is needed either for an emergency or an opportunity. The issue becomes where do I draw the line. Most of the demos are being put on eBay and much of the really hard to find stuff is already in the hands of other collectors as we speak. Once the rare items are gone I have to decide what to do with the commons. The most logical is to list them in small lots which is what will probably happen. Because I don't really want to sell this stuff I decided to keep my XBox demos. What I own are pretty hard to find and may not fetch much on eBay. I will also keep my 3DO demos and GBA kioks carts. I just added the Mario and Luigi SuperStar Saga cart to my collection before I realized things would have to go. All in all I am still going to collect demos just not as aggressively, the blog is alive and well and the 2008 goals list is out the window. I like to collect in conjunction with a project so I decided to compile a list of XBox demos. I don't know of a list I can work off other then the one I started with help of a DP forum user, The_1_2_P. If you read this and know of anything not listed please let me know so I can add it. All items in blue are owned by me and I will buy anything I don't have if the price is right. XBox Demos (non magazine) Battlefield 2: Modern Combat BloodRayne 2 Breakdown Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood Burnout Revenge Cold War Conker Live and Reloaded Dead to Rights Dead to Rights II Def Jam: Fight for NY Exhibition Vol. 1 Exhibition Vol. 2 Exhibition Vol. 3 Exhibition Vol. 4 Exhibition Vol. 5 Exhibition Vol. 6 Exhibition Vol. 7 Far Cry Ghost Recon 2 Halo 2 Preview Disc Incredible Hulk Ultimate Collection Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers Lucas Arts Xbox Experience Magic the Gathering: Battlegrounds (Long Sleeve Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects Mech Assault 2: Lonewolf Mechassault 2 Lonewolf/Outrun 2 Metal Arms: Glitch in the System NASCAR Chase for the Cup 2005 NBA Ballers Phenom The $100K Tournament disc New Legends Panzer Dragoon Orta Hollywood Video Demo Rainbow Six Companion Disc Psychonauts Rocky Soul Calibur II Spartan Total Warrior Tecmo Demo Disc (plain paper sleeve) Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Xbox Live Arcade Kiosk Disks (Not including ESRB variants) 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Mech Assault 2: Lonewolf Kiosk Preview Discs (Green and White. Sent to reviewers??) Amped Halo Fuzion Frenzy Oddworld

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So Happy New Year to everyone. I hope we all had a relaxing Christmas / New Year. There was a thread on another board (DP) asking for everyone's collecting goals for 2008. I never really gave it much thought until that moment. I pounded out a quick list and I'll be updating my progress in the blog throughout the year. So without further ado... the list. 1 ) 5 CDi white demo discs 2 ) 2 N64 "Not For Resale" carts 3 ) 2 SNES "Not For Resale" carts 4 ) 3 GBA "Not For Resale" carts 5 ) 2 GB "Not For Resale" carts 6 ) 2 PS2 trade demos 7 ) 2 PS1 trade demos 8 ) 50 standard demo discs 9 ) Xbox 360 or a PS3 So that's it. It should be pretty easy to accomplish. I am cutting my spending back a bit this year. The only issue I may have is the Game Boy NFR carts. I really wish I hadn't sold the 2 I had last year. If anyone has anything on the list they can feel free to shot me a message. Maybe we can work out a fair price. I do have an addition to the collection to report. It is a new and sealed Dance Factory for the PS2 I bought towards the end of 07. It won't count toward the above list. Actually I bought 2 with the intention of using one as trade bait.

My demo collecting has slowed considerably and will stay that way until the spring. I did come across a seller with a couple of trade demos so I picked up a duplicate for trade bait. For trade Dance Factory Trade Demo - new and sealed Wanted (must be complete in excellent shape) PS1 Trade Demo PS2 Trade Demo N64, GBA, GB, SNES, DS Not For Resale Cart (these are usually cart only) Dreamcast Kiosk Demo (these are usually disc only)

I added a Perfect Dark "Not For Resale" cart to my collection from a seller at DP. This is the only such N64 cart in my collection. I used to have a Mario Party 3 but I had to let it go when I needed the cash. I'll get another one later. My digital camera is still not working properly so heres a pic from a recent auction just to give you an idea of what it looks like. The cool thing is I haven't played Perfect Dark yet. This basically kills two birds. As per the title of this entry I would like to offer another collector the opportunity to show off their collection of game demos. I know several demo collectors thanks to Atari Age, Digital Press and Lockshaw13's page. If any of them want a collection featured or someone I may not have met yet wants submit some photos, just contact me through this blog or, for those of you who have it, my email.

I took my own advice and slowed my collecting down. I've only picked up a couple of demos in the last month or so. My digital camera is a little messed right now so I'll have to use the photo from the auction. I picked up one of the PSP Kiosk Disc #3 UMD's that were all over eBay in October. Most of them were from a single seller. The second purchase was a PC demos for Lego Software from the local thrift store. Not too exciting. Demos are being released fast and furious for the Xbox 360 at the moment. In recent months the following have made it to retailers as either pre-order bonuses or just freebies. Packaging variants exist for some of these where it was released in a standard demo sleeve or in a DVD case. So collectors, be on the lookout for: MX VS ATV Untamed Mass Effect Bonus Disc Front Lines Fuel of War Conan Turok Tony Hawk's Proving Ground WWE Smackdown VS Raw There have been a couple of demos for the PSP in recent months but the most notable would be the God of War Chains of Olympus demo that has caused collectors to lose all common sense. Last month this thing was (occasionally) ending for $50 + on eBay. Some people just don't seem to understand that demo + time = cheap. Unless it's something uber rare, you're going to regret this $50 purchase. Granted, there are people out there that have some bank to throw around so good on them I guess. I'll get mine for $3 - $5 in April. That was probably more of a peeve than a rant.

http://playstationdemos.vgrebirth.org/ Demos are a challenge to collect because the available resources a limited. There are not a lot of sites dedicated to helping collectors find their way within the little niche in which we have settled. Luckily there are a few that make the process less of a mystery. The best of those is Lockshaw’s site (link above). It’s worth the time to look around even if you don’t collect demos (it’s that good). It’s dedicated to demos, beta’s, kiosk discs, magazine inserts, Jampack & PS Underground discs and trade demos for all of the Sony consoles. Say what you want about Sony but the demos on their systems are fun to collect. So here are some finds from the last couple of months. The first picture is from several small auctions I have won recently. The summer of 2007 will go down as the “Summer of the Trade Demos” for my personal collection. I added about 12 to 15 over the season. Granted, they’re not that interesting to look at but I love to own things not intended for the general public. In the pic we have: Guilty Gear Isuka – PS2 Trade Demo Steambot Chronicles – PS2 Trade Demo (for 80 cents) Metal Saga – PS2 Trade Demo (for 80 cents… wahooo!!) Test Drive Eve of Destruction – PS2 Trade Demo ( some guy on eBay has a ton of these) Monster Kingdom Jewel Summoner – PSP Trade Demo The next set of pics are just a series of demo discs inserted into Computer Gaming World Magazine. The main reason I bought these was to add the Final Fantasy 7 disc to my collection. One of my goals is to collect all incarnations of this demo. The last pic is another big lot I picked up on eBay. I got a great price for them even though about 90 of them are doubles for me. I was really pleased to get 2 betas, one for Test Drive Unlimited and the other was an Everquest beta. The first pic were the demos from the lot that are new to my collection. The second (uninteresting pic) is just a stack of doubles. The update on my site is that it’s in a state of limbo. My wife has lost some hours at work that has really hit us in the pocket book. Paying for the webhosting is not a priority right now but I am still in the info gathering stage anyway. Maybe by the end of Q1 2008. I have a pretty big list of doubles. If there are any demo collectors looking to fill some holes in their collection, feel free to give me a shout

Shipping from the US has been a little faster than usual over the summer. It's pretty standard for an item to take about 2.5 weeks to get to my mail box. Lately it has been taking 1.5 weeks. Maybe its just a coincidence but I hope not. A couple of days ago I got that big package I mentioned in my last entry. I'll be easing off a bit over the coming months thanks to a comment from the wife. I believe it was something like "How many demos does a guy need". With that I'l probably be keeping the size of my purchases down (unless something great comes along ). The blog will continue on with smaller additions and other types of entries. Now on to the goodness. I'll break the addition down into sections. The first section is for Xbox demos. Not the magazine demos but individual game demos. These are very hard to find in my area and hardly ever appear on eBay. I'm not going to call them rare but simply stating an observation based on 2 years of demo collecting. I was very please to add these. The next section is made up of demos for the PS, PS2 and PSP. These show the first demos I have for the PSP and 3 PS kiosk demos that I have been looking for. The last section is a small set of Dreamcast demos. This is the best of the lot. I filled in some of the missing magazine demos and added a hard to find Demolition Racer No Exit demo. The best part of the lot are the kiosk discs for Ready to Rumble and Airforce Delta. I wouldn't hesitate to call them rare.

Well for me it's the challenge which I suppose ties into rarity. Some demos do have exclusive content / levels not included in the full game. I really like the idea that I can find things (demos) I didn't even know existed. Some of which may not have even been intended to reach the hands of the public. All of the retail releases of full games are well known and cataloged across the net on multiple sites. There is a bit of a sense of the unknown with demos. I hope I was able to clarify how it appeals to me. I'm sure others have different reasons. Thanks for reading Shawn

Hello again. It is about time to update the blog again. I received another package in the mail yesterday filled with 30 demos for the collection. Most of which are duplicates of what I already own. This brings up a couple of points worth noting. 1) I live in a small town in the Okanagan (British Columbia) and the chances of finding demos in the wild are quite low. I have only found 2 demos in my home town and about 5 other discs from the surrounding area. All from pawn shops and thrift stores. I have to rely on the net to fill my collection. I prefer it this way though. The game collecting community online is thriving. I don’t feel as isolated as I would if I was trying to do this strictly from local sources. It also saves on gas 2) I have reached that point with my collection where most of what I find for the PS & PS2 are doubles. Not that I'm complaining, it’s nice to pick up trade bait. The harder to find demos are going really going to be expensive as shown in the recent auction for the Metal Gear Solid trade Demo that closed at $72. My attempt to snipe at $64 didn’t even register. Bid too low. Konami Metal Gear Solid Press kit CD ROM! VERY RARE I tend to go through cycles when collecting. I can add 100 discs to my collection over a month or 2 and then completely stall out for the next 3 months. I have spent a lot lately and I am probably at the end of my little spree for awhile. At least the money is coming from selling other gaming related items rather than my pay cheque. There is one more large purchase of about 65 demos that should be mailed soon. I’m pretty jazzed and I’ll post again when it comes in. So here is a pic of what came in yesterday. I really have to work on a trade list. The trade demos are Gun Grave and Haven: Call of the King and the new additions are Twisted Metal Black Online, Amplitude, Alter Echo and some one of the holiday demos.

The last 24 hours were just frustrating. My 4th 360 kicks the bucket and the replacement from EB is dead right out of the box . I was losing faith in my hobby for a bit but then the mail arrived. Inside a well packed box all the way from Kentucky were 6 more PS2 trade demos for my collection. Four of them were still sealed. Things picked up and my day turned around. So heres what arrived today. Sealed Shinobi Skygunner Black and Bruised Kya Dark Lineage Open Gun Grave Haven: Call of the King I also added about 35 more scans to the pending site. About that 360. I took it back to EB and they replaced it again. At least this console works. I am considering selling it until Microsoft can produce a stable console. Don't get me wrong. I really like the 360 and my original Xbox was a work horse but this experience has left a bad taste in my mouth. This is my 6th Xbox 360. Here's the stats for those of you still reading my rant. I've owned 6 XBox 360s over the last 18 months. -5 of those have been in the last 10 months. -5 have lasted less than 24 hours before problems were uncovered. -4 seperate system bundles (ie Holiday Bundle) have been returned. Sigh. Well that's it for now. I have to go list some stuff on eBay to raise money for a deal I have pending. Thanks Shawn

OK, so the idea here is to share my thoughts and finds collecting demos. Sure they don't get much respect from the majority of collectors but interest is growing a bit. At least I hope it is. I have been working on a web site dedicated to demos across all sytems and formats. I have a layout for the site all planned and pages ready to go. Basically I just need to scan my collection and work on some system lists. I have zero experience with creating or running a website so it will be very basic to navigate. I'm also saving up for the webhosting fees right now. I was pretty much ready to go but I have a deal in the works for 60 demos that will eat up what I had saved. The most recent demos in my collection are: Stae of Emergency 2 trade demo - from DP - I traded Burnout Legends (PSP) for it. Myst from eBay for 1 cent but I was gouged on shipping A collection of Demos across all systems. Most notable is the Combat Elite: WWII Paratroopers trade demo 5 sealed Xbox kiosk discs from eBay. That's it for now. I'll try my best to keep this blog running.