I think the playable demo discs that they started putting out (in 1997?), especially the Official U.S. Playstation Magazine and Playstation Underground Magazine discs also did a lot to help make people interested in the games. Once you tried a couple levels of an upcoming game, you couldn't wait till the full game came out so you could play the rest. It's something I started to miss that I don't think they had anymore in the PS3 generation.