They are mostly intended as a sort of teaser to showcase what the experience is like. These Demos load up with a certain game or collection of levels. While mostly outdated in the age of video sharing websites (which are far more convenient and don't require having the original game), demos were a convenient alternative to video files in the 90s, especially since the latter held a much larger file size. Furthermore, modifications do not affect demo files, meaning the experience may differ if custom QC files have been added. While part of the game, it is entirely a recording, meaning the player will have zero interaction with it. DEM files, which can be read by the game that recorded the file by using the 'playdemo' Command. Due to this, this means that only the server itself can record a demo, none of the clients.ĭemos output as. Due to the way this is designed, demos must start recording at the start of a level, it is impossible to start a demo in the middle of a map. The Quake games have built-in functionality to record short clips by using the 'record' Console Command.
In the Quake series, Demos are 'movies' of gameplay recorded by a person.
