Gaming magazines were a thing of the 90s. In the 90s, before the internet took off, there were print publications like GamePro, Nintendo Power, and PC Gamer to keep the public informed about the gaming industry. Hardcore gamers subscribed to all the major magazines, and there was no better feeling than getting an issue in the mail with a free demo.
Trying out demos of new games without having to spend money was amazing, since rental stores didn't have the new releases.
In a collaboration between PC Gamer and The Internet Archive, you can relive the era of demos.
PC Gamer's collection currently consists of 758 entries, including many demo discs from the 90s and 2000s. A quick look revealed Soldier of Fortune, Left 4 Dead, Need for Speed: High Stakes, Worms, Kingpin: Life of Crime, Resident Evil, and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six. If you go back further, you'll find even older titles on floppy disks, like Theme Park and The Incredible Machine 2.
Several entries simply have their release month label and do not mention which demo files are on the disc.
Most disks seem to be around 650MB in size, easy to download with a decent connection. Floppy disks are a few megabytes in size and can download in seconds.
https://archive.org/details/pcgamer-cdroms
Although the press releases will range from very select to rare, I said I'd pass...because sometimes the editors hide.
