Demo scene
The demoscene is a computer sub-culture that came to prominence during the rise of the 16 bit micros (the Atari ST and the Amiga), but demos first appeared during the 8-bit era on computers such as C64 and ZX Spectrum.
Demos began as software cracker's 'signatures'. When a cracked program was started, the cracker or his team would take credit via an increasingly impressive-looking graphical introduction or intro. The first time this appeared was on the Apple II computers in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Later, these intros evolved into their own subculture independent of cracking software. These were not initially called demos but rather letter, message etc. Ironically quite a few of the young talents that spent their time "coding" demos and thus gaining in-depth experience programming computer graphics later ended up working in the games industry, whose products they had initially cracked.
The main aim of a demo is to show off superior programming, artistic and musical skills over other demo-groups.
Concept
Since any given computer platform before the PC age meant every computer of a given line had identical capabilities, a comparison between demos on earlier platforms was directly possible. This created a competitive environment where demo-groups would try to outperform each other creating amazing effects.
Demo writers went to great lengths to get every last ounce of performance out of their target machine. Where games/application writers were concerned with stability/functionality of their software, the demo writer was typically interested in how many CPU cycles a routine would consume and how best to squeeze as much effects and activity onto the screen. This went so far as to exploit known hardware errors to produce effects that the manufacturer of the computer had not intended, giving the demo-groups a feeling of having gone into extremes that nobody else had reached before.
Recently, computer hardware advancements include faster processors, more memory, faster graphics processors, and hardware 3D acceleration. With many of the past's challenges removed, the focus in making demos has moved from squeezing as much out of the computer as possible to making stylish, beautiful, well-designed real time artwork - a fact that lots of so-called "oldschool demosceners" seem to disapprove of. This can be explained by the break introduced by the PC world, where the platform varies and most of the programming work that used to be hand-programmed is now done by the graphics-card. This gives demo-groups a lot more artistic freedom, but can frustrate some of the old-schoolers for lack of a programming challenge. The old tradition still lives on though - either in programmers going back to their old computers or switching to mobile devices like handheld phones with their limits. These are a real challenge for talented coders, musicians and graphics artists and bring back the old motive of making a device do more than it was intended for.
One of the best known demoscene productions outside the demoscene is "FR-08: .the .product", made by the German group Farbrausch. FR-08 is a so-called "64kB intro", that is, a demo with a fixed maximum file size of 64kB. Some of its technical merits were far above most earlier productions -- for instance, it features a full seven-minute sound track (using a full-featured real-time software synthesizer) and lots of 3D environments within the given 64 kilobytes. This is a good example of demoscene mentality: breaking the rules by doing something everyone thought was impossible.
Parties
- ; a party for the fringe and the old geezers who don't like crowds.
- Assembly: One of oldest demoparties in the world. Held in Finland annually.
- : Small demoparty held each year in Barcelona, Spain.
- Breakpoint
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- : Small, but growing demoparty in Hungary.
- The Gathering
- Pilgrimage: North America's annual demoparty; held in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
- : Small scene-only summer party in Norway.
- The Ultimate Meeting
Groups
Most demos were written by groups with interesting names, usually including at least a coder, a graphic artist, and a musician. Some demoscene groups include:
Particular demos
For a list of demos, see Commodore 64 demos, ZX Spectrum demos, Amiga demos, Atari demos and Text mode demos. The demoscene still exists on a lot of platforms, for instance the PC, C64, ZX Spectrum, Amiga and Gameboy Advance, although the large variety of hardware makes it harder to compare demos. Several of the 3D benchmark programs also have a demo or showcase mode, which also derives its roots from the days of the 16 bit platforms.
Compilations of demos are not called "megademos."
See also
