what happened to the "old" FF7 demo?

[BloodShot]

I remember way back in 98, i got an issue of PC gamer in the mail, and in the demo disc was the PC demo of Final Fantasy VII. I can't find it now, but i remember the demo took you through the whole part of the game at mt. corel, from the entrance all the way past the train tracks, with changes from the real game, such as aeris or red XIII not being there.

I look online though, and i can NEVER find that demo. All i ever see is the battle arena demo.

I mean, it doesn't really matter much since i own both the pc and psx versions, but I'd like to know just what the hell happened to that demo and if anyone else remembers it?

[ultima espio]

Oh i've got that demo, its got the psx music playing the in background too. Why didnt they keep it like that for the final?

[Kudistos Megistos]

Oh i've got that demo, its got the psx music playing the in background too. Why didnt they keep it like that for the final?

Were the music files mp3s?

I remember hearing somewhere that the reason FF7 used synthesised music was that the makers couldn't fit the game with mp3 files on three discs. This isn't so much of a problem with the PSX version, but it means that the PC version had the awful sounding MIDIs. Presumably, Square didn't want to go to the trouble of making orchestral versions of everything and putting the game on four discs (not including the install disc), just to make the PC version sound good (@#&%ers!).

There's a significant chance that everything I've just said is a load of crap 

[BloodShot]

Oh i've got that demo, its got the psx music playing the in background too. Why didnt they keep it like that for the final?

Yeah i think i remember having the psx music playing, because i was playing the ps1 version at the time and comparing them, and thought the pc one looked better because of the direct 3d rendering.
Do you have that PC gamer demo disc? or did you get it from somewhere else?

[obesebear]

There were two demos released.  I managed to find:COUGH:and download:COUGH: both maybe 2 years ago.  The only significance I remember from one of them was the characters had huge eyes lol

[Covarr]

First person to find it with any sort of technical skill gets to reverse engineer the music code and render FF7Music outdated.

[Hellbringer616]

found it. surprisingly completely legal (to my knowledge)

http://games.softpedia.com/get/Games-Demo/Final-Fantasy-Demo.shtml

only 9MB though, so i'm not sure if it's safe or not.

Just thought i'd post it. found it also on cnet.

I sadly lack all skill though, Might ask Aali to do it though (once he's finished with his other two projects i'm sure) he has a lot of skill in coding from what i gather.

[Yuffie_Lover]

the demo is still a midi tho
This isn't the demo... that they were referring to i don't think..
Cause that is the battle square.. not the corel mountains
they were talking about.

[Vehek]

I heard the Corel area demo (at least the 3Dfx / Glide demo) used Wave files, not mp3s.

Edit: ONLY the 3Dfx demo it seems has the Wave music.

[Xelane]

strange..i had a demo of ff7 awhile back but it was a demo for the very first reactor. I remember it fairly well.

started out with a lvl 25ish team of cloud barret and i think arieth with some decently powerful spells like leviathan (i spammed this move so much)

then the demo ended with the first reactor exploding....ahhh memories

[ultima espio]

This it?



Or this one?

[Hellbringer616]

Well i found every CD for $150 on ebay haha..

I'm sure one of them is right, I'm looking for the other demo. only lead is that i's 120mb

[Kudistos Megistos]

I heard the Corel area demo (at least the 3Dfx / Glide demo) used Wave files, not mp3s.

Edit: ONLY the 3Dfx demo it seems has the Wave music.

Wave?  Wow, no wonder they changed the music for the final game 

First person to find it with any sort of technical skill gets to reverse engineer the music code and render FF7Music outdated.

I approve of this post. Even if it means we need over a gigabyte of space for the soundtrack, it'll be worth it.

[ultima espio]

I'm gonna install and test them, see which one it is. I'm sure its the 2nd one lol.

However when you install it, it screws with the final....

[Jari]

Well i found every CD for $150 on ebay haha..

I'm sure one of them is right, I'm looking for the other demo. only lead is that i's 120mb

Are you sure?

I seem to recall - not sure, though - that the 3Dfx demo was around 50 to 90 MBs. I've had it. I might still have it somewhere. I think I even once offered it for a download, but that was a looooong time ago.

[Aali]

Oh and if you think reverse engineering this is going to magically replace FF7Music, you're wrong

I already know how FF7 plays music and how I could replace it with my own music player, I just haven't taken the time to do so (because FF7Music just works)
Infact, I have already implemented a "fake midi" mode for the OpenGL driver that completely bypasses FF7s Midi player and does just the bare minimum to make FF7Music work. (You don't have to touch a single midi file or midi device for that)

[Hellbringer616]

Oh, well guess then there is really no point in finding the demo now. Since i believe the point was to get the music code.

[obesebear]

If anyone still wants it, let me know and I'll upload it.

[Hellbringer616]

If anyone still wants it, let me know and I'll upload it.

I'd love to say i want to so i could implement the use of wave in FF7. But i have no technical skill what-so-ever.

@Aali, i know FF7Music works, But for us 64 bit users we have to jump through hoops to get it to work (run in compatibility mode, as admin, use different dll's) plus open it from the FF7Music.exe instead of just FF7.exe (which i don't know about everyone else but there is lag opening up FF7 music for me) Although thankfully coverr has a great guide on getting it working.

Still would be nice to just have FF7 load it (how it should have been i think). But, i've rambled enough

You have enough on your plate with Palmer and your graphics driver (both work amazing i might add, Keep up the good work)

[Covarr]

(because FF7Music just barely works)

fixed.

Of course, that's not to say I'm not completely grateful to ficedula for making FF7Music, it's certainly beyond anything I'm capable of.

[obesebear]

Contributing to the community  

[ultima espio]

Be careful obesebear, take it down after a few hours

[obesebear]

Since it's a demo cd (of a VERY early FFVII) released with magazines... I figure it should be safe to upload.  Right?

I don't think it had even been released in Japan yet judging by the models

[ultima espio]

Well alright, i dont think square will remember a little demo...

I think it was a Europe exclusive tbh.

[Aali]

Covarr:

From what I've gathered from your tutorial thread, these are the worst/most common issues;

1. FF7Music does not support newer winamp plugins (would be fixed, at least temporarily, by a replacement)
2. Virtual Store/insufficient privilegies is screwing people over (this is already an issue for my driver aswell)
3. Original MIDI won't shut up (already fixed with my driver, just hasn't been released yet)

I don't see how a replacement could make this situation much better.
That said, I have plans of making a plugin system for the OpenGL driver, separating movies, music and maybe even graphics from the "core" FF7 interoperability. This would allow me to setup (public) development environments for parts of it and perhaps even lure some sucker in to do my bidding, err I mean help me.