Instead they had a VHS showing it off. https://youtu.be/5DqJwmzG6Fk?t=1133

it was dead long before people started doing that

there was a demo cd that had an offline example demo though (msn classic not 2.0)

What was dead ? Comic Chat still worked in xp last time I tried.

I remember using it on Windows 98 SE. It looked fun but it didn't take me a lot to figure out the thing was filled to the brim with crackers (it wasn't very secure) and creepy people posting weird custom cartoon porn. I've quickly noped the hell out of it.

I think that comes down to which IRC servers you were joining.