The demoscene thread

[Rococo Modem Basilisk]

We don't a thread about demoscene, and I know a couple people here are involved in/interested in it...

For the uninformed:

The demoscene is a computer art subculture that specializes in producing demos, which are non-interactive audio-visual presentations that run in real-time on a computer. The main goal of a demo is to show off programming, artistic, and musical skills.
The demoscene first appeared during the 8-bit era on computers such as the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Atari 800 and Amstrad CPC, and came to prominence during the rise of the 16/32-bit home computers (Mainly the Amiga or Atari ST). In the early years, demos had a strong connection with software cracking[citation needed]. When a cracked program was started, the cracker or his team would take credit with a graphical introduction called a "crack intro" (shortened cracktro). Within a year or two[1], the making of intros and standalone demos evolved into a new subculture independent of the software (piracy) scene.[2]

Source

Here's a (strangely jingoistic and pro-Hungarian) documentary on the scene.

I don't know enough about the scene to say much more (it barely exists in the united states).

[Triple Zero]

My releases:
http://pouet.net/prod.php?which=343
http://pouet.net/prod.php?which=291
http://pouet.net/prod.php?which=332
http://pouet.net/prod.php?which=333
(You might need one of those DOSbox tools to get sound or to run at all though. They were targeted at Win98/2k, Meuk completely stopped working with XP)

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

We don't a thread about demoscene,

This keeps amusing me.

We totally don't.

[Triple Zero]

"have".

I spent about a decade in that scene, of which ~5 years active/releasing stuff, even winning some 4k compos (see those links), I wouldn't mind having a thread for it. The scene's still quite alive and kicking, especially the size-optimized 4k and 64k competitions (it's harder to impress with real-time graphics in a no-limit category because there's hardly anything that makes people go "Wow I didn't know computers could DO that in real-time!", unlike 10-20 years back).
Not to say that the 4k/64k stuff doesn't look absolutely jaw-dropping, btw. 4k's are full of gorgeous fractal generated geometry, while 64ks are generally up to speed with modern day gaming engines (actually it's the gaming industry that caught up) but with a lot more "artistic" feel and fun and beauty. It's like, what if Indie-games had decent engines.

Anyway, on the other hand I'm not entirely sure what it's to do with Discordia Well, the demoscene is a sort of counterculture, very close ties with the BBS and cracking scenes in the 80s and 90s, though for some reason it never really got big in the US. I have no idea why that is, btw, and I'd like to find out. Maybe it's the entrepreneurial culture in the US, kids coding gfx went to code games and such, while the EU kids didn't mind simply creating mindblowing shit for the sake of awesome? I mean that's basically it, digital graffiti, in the sense that it's not meant to be sold or put up in a museum.

Cool thing nowadays is that a lot of the oldskool demos (that you would find yourself hard pressed to get to run on modern PCs) are available on YouTube now. It's not the same, but then, it's better than nothing, or no sound.

[Triple Zero]

xref

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRkZcTg1JWU

On the birth of computer sound and graphics, and the Demo.

Math heads will very much enjoy this.

It's long.  Hour and a half, so set aside some time.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

"have".

I spent about a decade in that scene, of which ~5 years active/releasing stuff, even winning some 4k compos (see those links), I wouldn't mind having a thread for it. The scene's still quite alive and kicking, especially the size-optimized 4k and 64k competitions (it's harder to impress with real-time graphics in a no-limit category because there's hardly anything that makes people go "Wow I didn't know computers could DO that in real-time!", unlike 10-20 years back).
Not to say that the 4k/64k stuff doesn't look absolutely jaw-dropping, btw. 4k's are full of gorgeous fractal generated geometry, while 64ks are generally up to speed with modern day gaming engines (actually it's the gaming industry that caught up) but with a lot more "artistic" feel and fun and beauty. It's like, what if Indie-games had decent engines.

Anyway, on the other hand I'm not entirely sure what it's to do with Discordia Well, the demoscene is a sort of counterculture, very close ties with the BBS and cracking scenes in the 80s and 90s, though for some reason it never really got big in the US. I have no idea why that is, btw, and I'd like to find out. Maybe it's the entrepreneurial culture in the US, kids coding gfx went to code games and such, while the EU kids didn't mind simply creating mindblowing shit for the sake of awesome? I mean that's basically it, digital graffiti, in the sense that it's not meant to be sold or put up in a museum.

Cool thing nowadays is that a lot of the oldskool demos (that you would find yourself hard pressed to get to run on modern PCs) are available on YouTube now. It's not the same, but then, it's better than nothing, or no sound.

We do a thread about demoscene now.

!

Part of what amused me about it is that my brain filled in "need" instead of "have". And then I started reading it with other words, like "want" and "like" and pretty soon I was giggling.

In my office by myself at 6 am on a Sunday morning.

[Elder Iptuous]

we don't verbs.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

we don't verbs.

I can't any reason we would to.

[Rococo Modem Basilisk]

Anyway, on the other hand I'm not entirely sure what it's to do with Discordia Well, the demoscene is a sort of counterculture, very close ties with the BBS and cracking scenes in the 80s and 90s, though for some reason it never really got big in the US. I have no idea why that is, btw, and I'd like to find out. Maybe it's the entrepreneurial culture in the US, kids coding gfx went to code games and such, while the EU kids didn't mind simply creating mindblowing shit for the sake of awesome? I mean that's basically it, digital graffiti, in the sense that it's not meant to be sold or put up in a museum.

I was thinking that it belonged here on account of the discordian connections to culture jamming, pre-90s hacker/phreak culture, and graffiti culture. The idea of demos being a kind of graffiti is an apt one.

I'd be interested in what PDers think of the classic instances of TV hijacking, as well, but that's much more obscure than the demoscene. (Specifically, the Max Headroom incident was, just even as a barebones story, incredibly surreal; many people today don't even know what Max Headroom is, and few people realize that many broadcast television networks would broadcast a weak signal from the studio to the tower and then amplify it at the tower, making hijacking fairly easy if you could get close enough)