In 1997, when I was an avid reader of PC Gamer magazine every month and not its editor, I picked up the month issue, checked the CD Gamer demo disc that came with it, and immediately discovered the name "Fallout" on the cover. It sounded super cool to my teenage ears, so I installed the demo and saw the now iconic key art of the power Armor helmet for the first time, and the rest is history.

For the strength of the Fallout demo, I bought the full game, Fallout 2, Fallout Tactics, and all the 3D Fallout games (Fallout New Vegas is my favorite among them). As Fallout's lead designer Chris Taylor pointed out, he "didn't think the demo did a very good job of portraying the actual game," and for him "the most memorable part about the demo was that when Brian Fargo played it for the first time, he was in the first area trying to open the manhole cover in the sewer." It was that she was killed by a hernia (a serious failure of the strength check).

But for me, the Fallout demo was an important part of why I chose the game. The demo is never long and a bit unfinished/awkward here and there, like the original main Fallout release, but it's also heavily combat-oriented about how the original game was sold, and even allows you to get your mitt to the Minigun. Sure, I would recommend it to PC gamers who are fans of Fallout to play at least 1 time, but the really cool thing about the Fallout demo is that it's really easy to easily download in 2024 and

launch and run the Fallout demo on the latest system.This is detailed on Fallout Fandom Wiki, one of the few online resources that still records information about the demo.1

Stage 1: Download the demo from the Internet archive. It's just 20mb, so you'll have it in seconds.

Stage 2: Extract the contents of the zip archive anywhere (even on the desktop alone). You are left with a folder called 'falldemo'.

Stage 3: You can find Falldemo in the falldemo folder.exe, but do not click right away. First, you need to sort the compatibility. So, right click on Falldemo.Go to the exe and Compatibility tab. In that tab, in the Compatibility Mode section, select the option you want to run.The exe runs in Windows95 mode.

Stage 4: Finally, in the same compatibility tab under the "Display Settings" section, check the box to run.exe with 256 colors and 640x480 screen resolution. You are now set to double-click Falldemo.Play the exe and fallout demo.

The Fallout demo differs from most video game demos that offer a small segment of the entire main game, this demo is technically not a full Fallout game, which is a bit of a waste of time, despite the fact that the entire game's junk town location and some characters are at least partially reused. This is not the case.

The demonstration drops Vault dwellers out of Junktown and rapidly introduces them to a situation where the place is now controlled by two rival gangs, crypts and fools who are fighting over control of the town's generators. There are a few other things in the demo, but it mainly involves players siding with 1 of these gangs and then besting the others in combat. And when you play the demo, it's very obvious that it's combat that Interplay wanted to promote it, rather than more RPG elements in Fallout.

Veteran Fallout 1 and 2 players will notice some differences in how the demo is played compared to the main game, including changes in camera activity in combat and lack of AP spending to reload weapons, armor and weapon stats. The demo also features unique weapon sounds that were not used in the main game, too. And you know what, I think some of them sound better than the ones they replaced. The gun sounds more like a proper hand cannon. 

There are also very strict restrictions on the demo. For example, technically you can create and specify a custom character in the Character Selection menu, but it won't be available in the demo and you'll be forced to play as a pre-built "Max Stone" instead (which is not the ideal build for a demo mainly about gun battles). You can't even go to the options menu to tweak the display settings, and saving and loading the game is also out of the question. Fortunately, 1 playthrough of the demo is like a maximum of 10-15 minutes, so being able to save progress isn't really a problem.

However, the 2 to 3 playthroughs in this demo act together as interesting antiques and, to me, depressing, give me a glimpse of a very distant PC gaming past. As we all wait for Fallout 5 news is worth a small diversion I would say.