Over here at Import Gaming FTW, it's a given that I love Japanese games,
but another gaming passion of mine is discovering and collecting the video game demos of yesteryear,
and that's why I'm starting up a new series where I sample these old samplers, calling it Demo'ing
Demos. And what better topic for the pilot to a video series about demos than the pilot
disc to Sony's most prolific demo line on the PS1 in Japan, PlayPlay PlayStation. Before we
take a look at the insides of this demo, however, here's some background and history on PlayPlay.
A total of 19 volumes were published starting from the November of 1995 to August of 1999,
which was followed by 7 volumes of a successor series called PlayPlay Plus
that ran from October 1999 to December 2000. These were all for the original PlayStation,
but the PlayPlay name would carry on through the PS2 era as well.
For roughly 60 U.S. dollars in yearly dues, members of Sony's official PlayStation Club would
receive one volume in the mail every two or three months, which was the key benefit of membership,
however booklets and other printed materials as well as access to public gaming exhibitions
such as PlayStation E.X.P.O. were among some of the other perks the club provided.
PlayPlay PlayStation can be considered the Japanese equivalent to the PlayStation Underground
brand that was popular in North America, as they both contain more than just playable demos and
trailers. The first 19 volumes were a joint production by Sony and a company called GTV,
and as mentioned earlier, the one we're looking at in this video is the pilot demo, “Volume Zero,” if
you will. It was published in the August of '95, a couple of months before the release of Vol. 1,
sent out to those who applied to receive it through advertisements found in magazines and
perhaps even game retailers. The main purpose of this particular demo was to inform Japanese PS1
owners about the upcoming PlayPlay demo service and to entice them to join the PlayStation Club.
Like many other PlayPlay entries, this volume includes two CD ROMs,
one being an 8 centimeter mini disc, but we'll take a look at the regular sized disc first.
While the official name of this 2-disc sampler is “PlayPlay PlayStation: Soukan Junbi-Gou,” meaning
something like the preparation edition, this first disc is entitled “DemoDemo PlayStation Special.”
Hey, I like that logo design. DemoDemo was the name of a series of discs that were
playable exclusively at PlayStation kiosks placed in video game and electronics stores,
also Sony and GTV productions...but we'll probably take a look at those in future episodes of
Demo'ing Demos. I guess you can look at this disc as kind of a bridge between DemoDemo and PlayPlay,
as it shares the same visual and audible style of the former. Captain Rock from the popular
PS1 racing game Motor Toon Grand Prix plays the role of host here, as he also does in the
DemoDemo retail counterpart. He'll help the player navigate the demo and explain pretty
much any screen and selectable option through text and voice with the press of the triangle button.
There are four portals to explore on the main menu, the first of which is Demo PlayStation,
home to seven playable titles. Fittingly, the first of these is Motor Toon Grand Prix from Sony
Computer Entertainment, where you can compete as Rock in one of three courses in time trial mode.
This colorful, zany racer features great characters and cars designed by pop artist
Susumu Matsushita and was developed by the team that would go on to create Sony's flagship racing
series, Gran Turismo. Motor Toon Grand Prix was also a Japanese exclusive, as the game that was
released under the same name in the west was actually a modified version of the sequel.
The next demo here is another Sony published Japan-exclusive,
Victory Zone: Real Pachinko Simulator, and well, the name kind of explains it all.
It provides four machines to gamble on and try to find that sweet spot to win all the balls.
You can zoom in and out and pan all around, and even switch the camera to follow a single steel
ball on its journey. As far as a PS1 pachinko game goes, this looks and feels pretty great,
with believable physics, attractive lights and noises, and one machine that features a sexy
anime babe, so it's not all bad. But at the end of the day, it's a pretty standard pachinko game,
and will probably only appeal to the most niche of niche audiences.
The third demo is Konami's excellent horizontal scrolling shooter Gokujou Parodius Da! DELUXE
PACK, a collection of two arcade ports which was a PS1 launch title in Japan,
though it also saw a localization in PAL regions as well as Sega Saturn release.
This trial edition gives one or two players the opportunity to blast through an entire level with
any character they like—but for me it's hard not to choose the bunny girl Hikaru. It's a poppy game
and a fine experience for fans of shooting games, particularly the Gradius-style ones it parodies.
Next up is Aquanaut's Holiday from Art Dink, an underwater exploration simulator that was
surprisingly published in North America and Europe. This demo version let's the
player navigate the deep sea, discover underwater formations and structures,
admire and attempt to communicate with various aquatic life forms, and...well,
that's about it, much like the full game.
Zero Divide from Zoom is another game that saw widespread international release
and is a robot-themed brawler that was pretty well-received during it's time,
though it hasn't aged all that gracefully. You can smash metal on metal against a friend
or the computer with two selectable combatants.
This demo contains yet another title that got released in territories outside of Japan,
and it's a good one—Raiden Project from Seibu Kaihatsu. Like Parodius, this is a fantastic
arcade port that provides thrills and enjoyment for fans of 2D shooters. Players can sample one
stage here in normal mode or take advantage of the game's vertical scrolling in arcade mode,
so long as they can tilt their widescreen TVs to the side...or lie down while playing.
The last of the playable demos is another shooter, but it's not like the other two—it's
Namco's classic 3D flight combat sim, Ace Combat. This game is so well-known that I really don't
have to say anything about it—here you get to fly around in your fighter jet in either novice
or expert control modes, take down any hostiles with guns or missiles, and have fun doing so.
The Movie PlayStation section features promotional videos for five games—trailers
for cult CGI adventure hit Kowloon's Gate, multi-perspective scroll shooter Philosoma,
corridor shooter Kileak: The Blood and the infamous Camelot developed role-playing game
Beyond the Beyond, as well as the animated intro from Wild ARMs developer Media.Vision's
RPG/FPS hybrid and PS1 launch title, Crime Crackers. All of these games were published
by Sony and are short but sweet watches. Arguably the most interesting content in
the disc is found in the section labeled “Original PlayStation,” which would be
known as “Original Station” in later volumes of PlayPlay. There are four features here,
three that can be best described as tech demos showing off the power of the PlayStation,
one featuring a Tyrannosaurus that might be the most graphically impressive thing I've ever seen
on the system The others portray a manta ray peacefully swimming in the ocean with some fish
and a collection of macho, macho men shuffling on the dance floor. These all include some level
of interactivity, allowing the player to control the camera and change animations.
The last piece of content in this part of DemoDemo Special is an original game called
“Controller-kun's Journey,” where the hero is a PS1 controller as the title alludes to.
At first glance, it's just a bare bones 3D shooter that provides a short but nice diversion, but it's
actually something quite special. This unfinished game marks the start of an ongoing project that
relied on input from the PlayPlay PlayStation playerbase to guide its development—when
you're done playing, an address is shown where you can send in your ideas for the game,
with presents promised to those whose ideas are used in the next iteration.
It's a fun and neat concept...maybe we'll see how it went in future Demo'ing Demo episodes.
The last portal in this disc is News PlayStation, containing three sub portals.
One is a simple video called “Ridge Racer Super Technic,” demonstrating a flawless
lap in one of Ridge Racer's courses performed by a player going by the handle “Gum-O.” The
next feature is a collection of 10 early Japanese PlayStation commercials that are certainly...well,
they're certainly something. Let's take a look at a few of them.
The last part of the news portal is a short and humorous digital comic starring Rock
and one of the MuuMuu aliens from Jumping Flash, promoting the upcoming PlayPlay
PlayStation demo service and PlayStation Club. I've taken the time to translate it, so enjoy!
The smaller, second disc in this package has less content, obviously, but has some neat stuff packed
into it regardless. Funny enough, PlayPlay PlayStation 0 is technically this mini CD,
as it is labeled such on the title screen, and it seems the original plan was to release all
PlayPlay volumes on 8 centimeter discs. The content area is set up like the stage select
screen from Jumping Flash, and a MuuMuu alien plays host much like Rock did in the
DemoDemo Special disc. There are three portals here, the main one being the Demo Play Room.
This disc contains only one playable demo, and it's something a little bit different
for Japanese players—the international version of Jumping Flash. It features stage 1-1 and the stage
1 boss fight using English text and voices, and while the host MuuMuu says the maps are remade,
the only difference I noticed was the placement of an item or two.
The Play Pre Times, a clever pun on PlayPlay using “preview,” pronounced purebyuu in Japanese,
has trailers for Namco's immensely popular fighter Tekken 2, the second chapter in Sony's tactical
RPG series Arc the Lad, Konami's legendary dating sim Tokimeki Memorial: Forever With You,
and the FMV adventure game Tokyo Insect Zoo from General Entertainment. The last area in the disc
is the Memory Bank, which has save files for the Namco arcade racing game Ridge Racer and Artdink's
railroad management and urban development simulation A.IV Evolution, both PS1 launch titles.
Players can unlock the extremely high-spec “Devil Car” for the former and for the latter, data from
three of the winners in an A.IV competition held in Sony's official publication Hyper PlayStation.
Well, that's a look at the inaugural entry in the PlayPlay PlayStation line of demos in
the inaugural episode of a video series all about demos. This edition, in addition to volumes 1-19,
has a lot of personality in its design and presentation, and is representative of a unique
era in the PlayStation brand. While Volume 0 is a little harder to find than the others,
it is still extremely cheap, just like most demos you'll come across for the
PS1. If you're interested in collecting trial versions of games, the PlayStation
or game history and obscurities, this is one set of discs I recommend tracking down and obtaining.
Anyway, in the future I plan on talking more about PlayPlay, DemoDemo, and any of the many
samplers out there in all their forms. I hope you enjoyed Demo'ing Demos #1 and maybe I'll see you
around by the time the next episode is out. This is Jimmy Hapa from Import Gaming FTW—take care.