I'll see what I can do. Sorry for the delay.

If the demo installers behave similarly to the one for the released game, they might only work reliably on Windows XP / earlier.

I asked Moritz, the administrator of the Kult Cover Disks and he not only answered, but to my amazment - attached not one but three (!) versions of the demo! :D

"I happen to have a few copies of PC Games 05/99 on my shelf. I quickly checked and found that is particular demo is also featured on PC Player 06/99 B and GameStar 06/99 Bonus CD. Its cab file is dated to 1999-02-23. A more common demo dated to 1999-01-14 can be found on the following CDs:
PC Fun CD 49_2
PC Action 04/99
CDA (35) 04/99
Gambler (28) 04/99A
Generation 4 CD 121
Generation 4 CD 139_1
The Games Machine #060
Reset #24 04/99
Excalibur 69
GameStar CZ 04/99 CD1
Level 03/99
Online Today 07/99
Computer Games Strategy Plus #102

Additionally, there's a very rare version from 1999-02-19 that can be found on PC Gamer (Italian) CD #041 B.

Moritz"

For download go to Demo versions (contains early / beta stuff) topic.

:D

The good news is I haven't forgot about this thing. ;)
The bad news is - I haven't found (yed) the disc I was talking about.

Buuut, I stumbled upon other disc from the same issue of this gaming "magaine":

I think (and hope!) that the disc with the demo is still somewhere at my parent's house. I'm gonna keep looking. :)

According to the PCGames website Machines demo was present on the disc of the 05/1999 issue:
http://www.pcgamesdatabase.de/pcgames.php?mag=pcgames&vol=05/1999#pcgames

http://www.kultcds.com/index.php?id=pcgames&lang=en

BTW. I think this topic should be renamed to "Early Alpha/Beta/demo versions" ^^

Done!

We currently have no information about this material, except @Aquarillis who said that still has some promotional material that was scanned a long time ago. The rest is scattered in this forum.

The forum is not dead, but its activity is irregular.

I don`t have the knowledge to manipulate the data from your disk, but some of us might be able to (@Judas @bilal @M123 @Hayden).

I came here looking for a game from my childhood

I believe that:
a) It was an early demo I was playing as a child
b) I still have that disc at my parent's house

I'm not really sure why the f- it was even a thing but I came into possession of it sometime around 2003 by buing a brand-new copy of a niche Polish gaming magazine, or so I thought...

After I removed the foil I noticed some things:

1. The thick "magazine" was two-pages long with a cardboard inside
2. Inside of the cardboard there were 8 (!) CDs
3. All of them were from some german gaming magazine dated back to '97-'99
4. None of them, including those metioned on the cover were full versions

Other than the Machines i remember playing Half Life 1 (also a demo of a beta version, I think).

I'm worried that ~20-year old disc can be hard if not impossible to read but even if so - I'm gonna keep you updated.
And of course I won't be able to - I can send it by post to anyone willing to perform data recovery on their own.

EDIT: I've just found the post Pisarz was talking about:
https://www.gry-online.pl/S043.asp?ID=11665448
Yeah, it is the same demo, the person who wrote it also had it from this shady "gaming magazine". :'D

BTW. I think this topic should be renamed to "Early Alpha/Beta/demo versions" ^^

Yes I still have it; I can dig it up next time I'm in town. It's part of a pamphlet that has other games advertised in it.

Thank you! It would be nice to recover a piece of this game's history. We could even make a Wiki!

@Encrypted said:

I know! It's an earlier demo version of Machines! It looks a bit... weird, I know. But, it certainly IS that game!

Hmm, the wheels in the release version of the game might have looked a bit like that if they'd used the WL_RM.bmp texture for the tread - I wonder why they went with solid black instead?

The texture for the treads looked a bit odd. Sometimes it's better to hide those details if they don't look realistic enough. Just like mechanical joints in videogames and movies in general.
Maybe this will help (I know, it's not the same thing, but... you know...):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ggyg6zlxwN8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2yoTMUzBLY

The production process is quite interesting. I would like to implement an organizational structure similar to real companies here. That might help us for setting goals and getting things done :)

So, the last unique demo is destroyed?...

Maybe not. But we need to suppose the "worst case" scenario...

But... wow, that's impressive! You've got a lot of things referring to Machines!

I did my best. We should try to contact both the game producer (Howard Perlman) and the original animator (Stuart Hogton).

And, also, you can use this application (Bink 2) to play every animated sequence in Machines (but I think everyone knew that already).

Actually, I didn't. What do you mean by sequence? The cutscenes or the "unit" animations?

I know! It's an earlier demo version of Machines! It looks a bit... weird, I know. But, it certainly IS that game!

Hmm, the wheels in the release version of the game might have looked a bit like that if they'd used the WL_RM.bmp texture for the tread - I wonder why they went with solid black instead?

Well...

Oh yeah, saw that image too.
But... wow, that's impressive! You've got a lot of things referring to Machines!

Also, that game, The Quivering, it was made by Charybdis too (but I think you know that).

And, also, you can use this application (Bink 2) to play every animated sequence in Machines (but I think everyone knew that already).

And, also (yes, I repeat myself lol), here: the ultimate Machines: Wired for War soundtracks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoepO0vbX8o Never heard any in-game, but... well!

We found something rare. I tried using tineye.com and google image search (using the file itself) and there's nothing. The guy in the forum that appears at the top of the image said that the disc that had the demo is broken.
During war times, people used to draw sketches of their homes, and neighborhoods, so that after they were destroyed, they could come back and rebuild them from their memories. They made them better, keeping only their favourite details and designs.
This is what we must do with Open Machines.

Notice that the demo resembles the original concept art, especially the design of their weapons, tracked wheels, and antennae.

Bonus:

All the links that I have related to MACHINES:

http://www.machinesthegame.co.uk/

http://eden4.8m.com/index.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20021013193250/www.acclaim.com/games/machines/

http://www.hogton.com/animation/ (look at the titles of the quicktime videos...)

http://www.ign.com/images/games/machines-pc-9948

And the image I've found is from another forum, dedicated to gaming.