Demo Derby: PlayStation Underground: Volume 3 Issue 2

How do you not know it's the Russian Flag right away? I find that baffling :S

Time to powchickapowpowpow

Oh shit, Star Ocean 2. I loved that game!

Fall 1999. You can find out more on the Underground wiki page.

It makes me happy to see a whole bunch of new people be exposed to this weird ass Japanese puzzle game. My first exposure to it was this issue back in 1999. Then, a couple years ago, I finally imported a copy. It's pretty great.

Even though I miss having Dan and Drew around for these videos... they still continue to be good, OK?

Jeff singing electronica will forever be my favorite part this series.

@thepickle: This. Lot of people give Jeff guff for being negative but I could listen to that man shoot the shit about old arcades for hours.

It's time for another... PlayStation Format Disc.

The song from 3Xtreme rips off "Jessie" by Paw. The only time anyone has ripped off Paw.

Jason's back!

It's strange... Drinking 15 year old stupidly expensive bourbon. Watching this, which I played when I was a little older than 15. That worm hole BS was BS back then. At least some things never change.

Ben was really good in this episode, cheered me up a lot today

I am 100% saving my quarters for a Switch.

This video is pretty fish. :/

@sa_drone: DnB?

Alright, Demo Derby!

Wish we'd get these more often.

@perlegrus: That FF music almost has 0 resemblance to what actually plays during that mission in the final product. Bizarre.

Ballaaaaaaaas!

I live for the DD.

In the words of a broken heart

It's just emotion that's taken me over

Tied up in sorrow, lost in my soul

I got the Karate Guy reference Jeff. Don't worry.

I was so happy to have Demo Disk back

...Then @benpack asked if the Russian flag was French.

God bless the Demo Derby.

This is the bomb

My favorite code is y b b a a a b b y

I accidentally bought tobal no1 a few months back thinking it was ehrgeiz...I was dissapointed to find out I find tobal no 1 to be insanely slow and barely playable....but you guys are telling me ehrgeiz is even worse? Ehrgeiz at least looks to have somewhat of a flow to the combat. Did tobal no2 significantly improve stuff?

edit: Oh im also on a pal ps1 ofcourse, I keep forgetting that 50hz pal coversions often completely fucked up games.

FF8's music wasn't so MIDI-ish in the final version, was it?

I wish more of the demo discs had the music videos tucked away on them. Jeff ragging on late-90s music videos gives me life.

I also hope this series one day goes on to stuff like the PC Gamer discs. Would need more prep work to make sure the demos run, but it'd be worth it.

Saru さる means monkey/ape in Japanese

It was entirely composed on a Roland synthesizer, the first time the series featured no MIDI-based music. Compression for this disc likely did a number on the music there.

edit: just for clarification for younger duders, all MIDI music is performed in synthesizers, but a MIDI specifically refers to multiple formats of synthesizer feeding into a single unit to form a cohesive sound from disparate parts. Not using a MIDI rack for FF8 gave it a very specific sound and feel as Uematsu was restricted to the one keyboard he chose and whatever sounds it could output. MIDI is usually associated with the low-bit sound of the SNES but that's strictly an understanding through video game culture. One reason FF8's music sounds so different from previous FF soundtracks other than the use of a single instrument is that Uematsu rejected CD-quality audio for FFVII, while FF8 was recorded and output at then-modern standards, primarily so that the soundtrack music wouldn't sound out of place next to the two themes, which were recorded with a full orchestra and studio musicians.

Star Ocean 2 is very "C" RPG actually, as the refreshingly descriptive video shows. It's took since the last few years that we've gotten RPGs on consoles that have allowed us to do so much wierd CRPG-type SHIT like training familiars to do shopping in dungeons, customizing gear, pickpocketing everyone (even party members), forging checks, counterfeiting, learning musical instruments that effect the environment when played, and etc, etc.

It's really boggles how tri-Ace never got actually ON a PC despite their games clearly being made in lock-step with CRPG design. You know them guys making them were playing Might & Magic, Fallout, etc while designing SO2.

For my money, Thrasher: Skate and Destroy is a way better skating game than Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 was, but THPS2 was where the series hit enough of a stride to make it a foregone conclusion.

Great stuff. That music track in the FFVIII demo was killing me... the one in the actual game is way better.

Oh my goodness. Tsumu is everything I've ever wanted in a video game. CUTE LIL HAMSTER!!!!

I spent many hours with PS2 over the internet with Timesplitters Future Perfect. I also spent a couple of hours with SOCOM online.

So there, PS2 was a very internet integrated system.

Wow, that was really a 128-bit CPU? That's incredible, and so incredibly useless. There might not ever be a use for 128-bit CPUs given how the standard structure of PCs are likely to go away from the standard 0 and 1 based CPU/GPU/Ram/Motherboard setup before 128 bits are actually needed for consumer CPUs.

Funny that they were still in a bit race for marketing purposes back then.

Star Ocean 2 and Final Fantasy VIII. Some of my favorite PS1 games.

Jet's back? Nah, Jet's dead, baby. Jet's dead.

At some point in the early 2010's I was going to change my gamertag to Isis (in accordance with the Egyptian god). In the end, I was too lazy to change all my accounts and am pretty glad for it.

I still have a friend who's nickname has always been Isis and continues to be Isis. We won't let those damn terrorists change her nickname.

Oh, and Tsumu would make for a killer Switch game. Just speed up the movement a tad.

Tenchu was awesome. Especially the 2nd one, which had level editor.

The hamster forklift game looks cool. But I think I would remove the actual play mechanism so that you were not driving in 6-axis 3D space. I think a 2.5 D game would be better. Puzzle games need to be fast, so that when you decided on a move, something happens or can move that block immediate, not you drive a cart around. Making the mechanism of moving 2D would be better.

What worries me is who is making the next generation of Game Tapes and Demos Derby content?

I just wish there was more "roadie run interviews" where Giant Bomb captures as many interviews was possible. Send Ben and Abby out onto the e3 show floor with a camera, two microphones, and a bag of batteries and hard drives. Interview everyone and anyone! Interview the media, interview game producers on the floor, interview that cosplayer who just might be a crazy person. Interview teh guy who sells terrible hot-dogs at the convention hall AND interview their Uber driver that morning.

GOD DAMN THE RING

@brad There was a mini-game in MGS 3: Subsistence called "Snake Vs. Monkey" and it was Ape Escape, except you were Solid Snake. It was hilarious and weird.

Cripes, I don't know how well Coconut Monkey holds up these days with his weird vaguely-racist voice but I sure did love that stuff at the time. At least the little mini-adventure game stuff they had in each of those was greaaaat.

Goddammit that entire 3Xtreme segment is just the best. "What'dya think of that?" "I thought you did it... poorly." "Alright, cool."

Man this was great.

Nice trip down memory lane. PSU seemed like a ready decent service to have, This, the demo disc you'd get being signed up to PlayStation magazine and PC World were some good times. Too bad there don't seem to be this type of stuff anymore. I know that its easy to get demos and stuff nowadays, but there was something more meaningful about how this stuff was done back in the day.

Just fyi Brad, it was actually Seamus Blackley of MS that said the famous "Toy Story graphics" quote.

Rival Schools sciencing soon?!