We've been making some enhancements to GameFront recently, and although game developers seldom publish demos of their games anymore, we figured we would take the opportunity to restore our Demo's section, if for no other reason than to take a stroll down memory lane and look at the 10 best demo's of yesteryear. So without further ado, here are the ten best classic game demos available to download from GameFront. Most of these demos still work, although some may require the use of a virtual machine to run on an older operating system, your milage may vary.

10. Half-Life 2 Official Demo

You can't deny the popularity of Half-Life 2, and although pretty much everyone has the game by now (if you don't, it's super-cheap to get on Steam), it's interesting to take a look back at the Demo version, to see what the game was like before all the major Source Engine updates to the game that have happened over the years. If you're interested in looking at the history of the game, our look at the old Beta version on YouTube is also worth a shout.

Download Half-Life 2 Official Demo - GameFront

9. Call Of Duty 2 Demo

Ah, there was so much excitement for this when it was made available on FileFront 13 years ago. The follow up to the hugely successful Call of Duty, this game took us into the depths of World War II, as told from the perspectives of four soliders from three allied states, with fantatic graphics, audio and gameplay.

Download Call of Duty 2 Demo - GameFront

8. Star Trek: Armada II Demo

One of the most successful FileFront Network sites we ever hosted, Armada II is a fantastic RTS strategy game from Activision set in the Star Trek Universe. It takes the success of the original and makes it the definitive experience, with even more races, compelling scenarios and fantastic visuals. To this day fans long for a squel, with mods for modern space-set RTS games often aiming to create the 'Armada III' experience. So if you never got a chance to dive into the action, you can check out this retro demo and experience what all the fuss was about for yourself.

Download Star Trek: Armada II Demo - GameFront

7. Alien vs. Predator 2 Single Player Demo

AvP2 has recently enjoyed a re-release on GOG.com, but if you're still looking to try before your buy, the original demo still works fine. We reccomend taking some caution though, the multiplayer demo is both broken and may have some serious security problems, but the single player demo should still run.

Download Aliens vs. Predator 2 Single Player Demo (All Species) - GameFront

6. Serious Sam: The First Encounter Demo

This was the demo version made available shortly before the game's release, and it's a good nostalgic look at The First Encounter, which took place after the events of Serious Sam 3: BFE.

Download Serious Sam: The First Encounter Final Demo - GameFront

5. Call of Duty Singleplayer Demo

The original Call of Duty demo was released a whopping 15 years ago, half this author's entire lifetime to date, and required a stonking Pentium III 700 processor, 200MB of disk space, and a massive 32MB of graphics memory. This may be one that struggles to run on a modern OS, but in an emulator such as PCEm, it's well worth a re-visit.

Download Call of Duty Singleplayer Demo - GameFront

4. Soldier of Fortune 2 Single Player Demo

The sequel to Soldier of Fortune, built in the id Tech 3 engine addressed a lot of the problems with the original game, and aimed to be more realistic than the previous entry, helping propel it to huge popularity.

Download SOF2 Single Player Demo - GameFront

3. Unreal Tournament 2003 Demo

There was a few demos released for UT2003, and while none of them will work online given the demo servers have long since ceased to exist, you can still get some local play action going on over the internet, or set up your own. There's no need for me to tell you how hugely popular UT2003 was, and still is, but should you fancy a few nostalgic rounds of fragging your friends, this demo should do you just fine, with this version containing CTF-Orbital2 as well as other demo maps.

Download Unreal Tournament 2003 Windows Demo - GameFront

2. Return To Castle Wolfenstein Singleplayer Demo

An absaloute classic game and very deserving of the number two spot, RTCW's singleplayer demo is well worth checking out if you've never played the game before, coming complete with two full levels from the full game to get you started, Escape from the Castle and Surviving the Catacombs. It really shows off what this game is all about, should you want to pick the full version up.

Download Return to Castle Wolfenstein Singleplayer Windows Demo - English - GameFront

1. Battlefield 1942 Singleplayer Demo

And in our number one spot, Battlefield 1942. An absaloute classic game set during the second world war, which sees the Axis and Allies clash in the greatest conflict in the history of mankind. There's a few demos for this game, this is the singleplayer version, featuring the Tobruk map, and it's great fun to play and a real nostagic look at games of the time. The game's physics, models and graphics are really impressive for a title of the time, being released way back in 2002.

Download Battlefield 1942 Single player Demo (Tobruk map) - GameFront

And that's our choices of some of the best demos available to download now from our archives. Do you agree with our choices? Let us know your favourite demos in the comments!