As I'm seriously afraid to grow senile before there would be an exact and transparent definition of a concept demo (see
this and
this for more details), I'll try to create one myself just out of sheer boredom.
A concept demo,
derived from the runs currently residing in that section:
1) a run of a hack;
2) a run aiming for a not serious (or insignificant) goal, ie. to demonstrate something never thought to be possible before, but absolutely irrelevant to any run aiming for pure speed (think SMB sidestroller);
3) a "second quest"/alternative character run beginning from a "dirty" SRAM (think CT new game+);
4) an incomplete run, demonstrating
a concept how would a complete run look like, without taking the effort of actually doing the complete run; possibly in order [not] to get the full game TASed some time later (think F-Zero Mute City);
5) a run that technically beats the game, but does that using an unconventional method not designed by the developers (as in being a programming flaw), and thus not getting the correct ending sequence (Phil's recent SMB run that is to be published as a concept demo).
My own representation of an "ideal" concept demo section:
1), 2) —
same as above;
3) any run that uses an unlockable character or beats the game under "new game+" conditions (that is, when player character doesn't start their quest from scratch, but has either some of the previously earned items, or the previously gained experience, or access to the warps, or a combination of the above);
4), 5) —
same as above;
6) any run that uses a severe glitch allowing the player character to be taken from the beginning of the game right to its end (glitched Zelda 2, glitched ALttP, glitched CotM, glitched HoD — you get the idea) — a subject to further elaboration;
7) any run where speed can't be directly influenced and thus isn't a primary objective (basically, any autoscroller — I think it's rather obvious why I decided to put them here);
8) any run that beats the game solely by luck manipulation (Monopoly, King's Bounty), and thus isn't really made by a human (rather by a bruteforce bot);
9) any run that starts from a dirty SRAM, doesn't have a clean movie to generate that SRAM from, but still has to be published per judge's decision.
That's all I could come up with, I think. Any comments? Bisqwit, any willing to clarify a definition of a concept demo, so that people wouldn't have to guess if a run falls under this category?
