Demoscene
Concepts
Demo - Demoparty - Effects - Demogroup - Compo
Parties
Current: Alternative Party - Assembly - Breakpoint - Buenzli - Evoke - The Gathering
Past: Mekka & Symposium - The Party - Scene Event
Websites
Hornet Archive - Pouët - Scene.org - demoscene.tv
v • d • e

The demoscene is a computer art subculture that specializes in producing demos, which are non-interactive audio-visual presentations run real-time on a computer. A demo is a non-interactive multimedia presentation made within the computer Subculture known as the Demoscene. A demoparty is an event that gathers Demosceners and other computer enthusiasts to compete in competitions. Demo effects are computer-based real-time Visual effects found in demos created by the Demoscene. Demogroups are teams of demosceners, who make computer-based audio-visual works of art known as demos. Compo is a slang word for competition. It is most commonly used by the Demoscene and related Subcultures when referring to their contests related to The following is a list of demoparties, past and present (Note Year ranges might include years when the party wasn't organized but was organized both before and after Alternative Party is a Demoscene and Art event in Finland It was first organized in 1998 in Turku and since 2000 in Helsinki The Assembly demo party is a Demoscene and gaming event in Finland. Breakpoint is a German Demoscene party. Since 2003, it takes place annually on Easter in Bingen. The Buenzli is an annual Swiss Demoparty, which takes place in Winterthur, Switzerland. Evoke is the second largest demoparty held annually in Germany (the largest being Breakpoint) The Gathering (abbreviated as " TG " for short is one of the largest computer parties in the world Mekka & Symposium (MS or M&S was a Demoparty held annually in Fallingbostel, Germany over the Easter days from 1997 to 2002 The Party (or "TP" for short was an annual Demoscene event held from 1991 to 2002 in Denmark. Scene Event ( SE or SE2k for short formerly Summer Encounter 1996 - 2000) is an annually held computer art festival (or Demoparty The Hornet Archive was a file repository for releases and resources from the worldwide PC Demoscene. Pouët, or pouetnet, is one of the largest comprehensive on-line directories for the Demoscene today Sceneorg (also known as The International Scene Organization) is a Non-profit organization, providing the currently largest Demoscene file repository demoscenetv ( DTV for short is a free Internet television service dedicated to broadcast demos to the Demoscene. Computer art is any Art For the term in biology see Subculture (biology. For the song by New Order see Sub-culture (song. A demo is a non-interactive multimedia presentation made within the computer Subculture known as the Demoscene. In Computer science, real-time computing (RTC is the study of hardware and software systems that are subject to a "real-time constraint"—i 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 and ZX Spectrum, and came to prominence during the rise of the 16/32-bit home computers (the Atari ST and the Amiga). In the History of computer and video games, the third generation (the latter half of which is sometimes known as the 8 bit era) began in 1983 with the Japanese The Sinclair ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal Home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd The Motorola 68000 is a 16/32-bit CISC Microprocessor core designed and marketed by Freescale Semiconductor (formerly Motorola Semiconductor A home computer was a class of Personal computer entering the market in 1977 and becoming common during the 1980s The Atari ST is a home / Personal computer that was commercially available from 1985 to the early 1990s The Amiga is a family of Personal computers originally developed by Amiga Corporation. In the early years, demos had a strong connection with software cracking. Software cracking is the modification of Software to remove protection methods Copy prevention, trial/demo version serial number hardware key CD check When a cracked program was started, the cracker or his team would take credit with a graphical introduction called a "crack intro" (shortened cracktro). A crack intro, also known as a cracktro, loader, or just intro, is a small introduction sequence added to cracked software, designed to Later, the making of intros and standalone demos evolved into a new subculture independent of the software piracy scene. The scene (often capitalised is a term used by people belonging to various communities ( social groups) dealing with software to describe the more extensive community ^[1]

Concept

A screenshot of the 64-kilobyte demo Heaven Seven by Exceed.

Prior to the popularity of IBM PC compatibles, most home computers of a given line had relatively little variance in their basic hardware, which made their capabilities practically identical. IBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. Therefore, the variations among demos created for one computer line were attributed to programming alone, rather than one computer having better hardware. A demo is a non-interactive multimedia presentation made within the computer Subculture known as the Demoscene. This created a competitive environment in which demoscene groups would try to outperform each other in creating amazing effects, and often to demonstrate why they felt one machine was better than another (for example Commodore 64 or Amiga versus Atari 800 or ST). Demogroups are teams of demosceners, who make computer-based audio-visual works of art known as demos. Demo effects are computer-based real-time Visual effects found in demos created by the Demoscene. The Amiga is a family of Personal computers originally developed by Amiga Corporation. The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit Home computers manufactured from 1979 to 1992 The Atari ST is a home / Personal computer that was commercially available from 1985 to the early 1990s

Demo writers went to great lengths to get every last ounce of performance out of their target machine. Where games and application writers were concerned with the stability and functionality of their software, the demo writer was typically interested in how many CPU cycles a routine would consume and, more generally, how best to squeeze great activity onto the screen. Writers went so far as to exploit known hardware errors to produce effects that the manufacturer of the computer had not intended. The perception that the demo scene was going to extremes and charting new territory added to its draw.

Recent computer hardware advancements include faster processors, more memory, faster video graphics processors, and hardware 3D acceleration. Typical PC hardware A typical Personal computer consists of a case or chassis in a tower shape (desktop and the following parts Motherboard In Psychology, memory is an organism's ability to store retain and subsequently retrieve information 3D computer graphics (in contrast to 2D computer graphics) are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer 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 directional shift that many "old school demosceners" seem to disapprove of. A school (in the sense of old school) is a grouping of people who share common characteristics of opinion or outlooks of philosophy craft or belief 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. Demo parties have competitions with varying limitations in program size or platform (different series are called compos). On a modern computer the executable size may be limited to 64 kB or 4 kB. Programs of limited size are usually called intros. A demo is a non-interactive multimedia presentation made within the computer Subculture known as the Demoscene. In other compos the choice of platform is restricted; only old computers, like Commodore 64 or Atari ST, or mobile devices like handheld phones or PDAs are allowed. The Atari ST is a home / Personal computer that was commercially available from 1985 to the early 1990s Such restrictions provide a challenge for coders, musicians and graphics artists and bring back the old motive of making a device do more than it was intended for.

History

Game Music IV on the Commodore 64 by Charles Deenen (also known as "The Mercenary Cracker" (TMC)) was perhaps one of the very first demos ever produced. Charles Deenen (born 15 January 1970, Holthees) is a Dutch computer/video game music composer Though TMC dated all his productions to 1991, this demo is known to have been produced in 1985. Year 1985 ( MCMLXXXV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link displays 1985 Gregorian calendar)

The earliest computer programs that have some resemblance to demos and demo effects can be found among the so-called display hacks. Demo effects are computer-based real-time Visual effects found in demos created by the Demoscene. A display hack is a Computer program with similar purpose to a Kaleidoscope: to make pretty pictures ( Symmetrical or otherwise Display hacks predate the demoscene for several decades, with the earliest examples dating back to the early 1950s. There are numerous debates over who created the first video game, with the answer depending largely on how Video games are defined The 1950s Decade refers to the years of 1950 to 1959 inclusive

Demos in the demoscene sense began as software crackers' "signatures", that is, crack screens and crack intros attached to software whose copy protection was removed. Software cracking is the modification of Software to remove protection methods Copy prevention, trial/demo version serial number hardware key CD check A signature (from Latin signare, " Sign " is a handwritten (and sometimes stylized depiction of someone's name nickname or even a simple A crack intro, also known as a cracktro, loader, or just intro, is a small introduction sequence added to cracked software, designed to Copy protection, also known as content protection, copy prevention, or copy restriction, is a technology for preventing the unauthorised reproduction The first crack screens appeared on the Apple II computers in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and they were often nothing but plain text screens crediting the cracker or his group. This article is about the Decade 1970-1979 For the Year 1970 see 1970. The 1980s was the decade spanning from January 1 1980 to December 31 1989. Gradually, these static screens evolved into increasingly impressive-looking introductions containing animated effects and music. Eventually, many cracker groups started to release intro-like programs separately, without being attached to pirated software. These programs were initially known by various names, such as letters or messages, but they later came to be known as demos. ^[1]

Simple demo-like music collections were put together on the C64 in 1985 by Charles Deenen, inspired by crack intros, using music taken from games and adding some homemade color graphics. Year 1985 ( MCMLXXXV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link displays 1985 Gregorian calendar) Charles Deenen (born 15 January 1970, Holthees) is a Dutch computer/video game music composer In the following year the movement now known as the demoscene was born. The Dutch groups 1001 Crew and The Judges, both Commodore 64-based, are often mentioned as the earliest demo groups. The Judges was a Dutch Commodore 64 group known as one of the earliest dedicated Demogroups The Judges released several demos for the Commodore Whilst competing with each other in 1986, they both produced pure demos with original graphics and music involving more than just casual work, and used extensive hardware trickery. Year 1986 ( MCMLXXXVI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link displays 1986 Gregorian calendar) At the same time demos from others, such as Antony Crowther (Ratt), had started circulating on Compunet in the United Kingdom. Antony 'Ratt' Crowther was a designer programmer and musician of Commodore 64 games during the 1980s working for Alligata, Gremlin Graphics and later Compunet was a United Kingdom based interactive service provider catering primarily for the Commodore 64 but later for the Commodore Amiga and On the ZX Spectrum Castor Cracking Group released their first demo called Castor Intro in 1986. The Sinclair ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal Home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd Castor Cracking Group ( CCG) was a demo The Speccy demo scene was slow to start, but it started to rise in the late 1980s, most noticeably in Eastern Europe. ZX Spectrum demos are demos made for the ZX Spectrum and compatible computers The 1980s was the decade spanning from January 1 1980 to December 31 1989. Eastern Europe is a general term that refers to the Geopolitical region encompassing the easternmost part of the European continent.

Competition

PC text mode demo: Bolognese by Alpha Design. Text Mode demos are real-time calculated Computer animations which make use of the native text graphic mode(s common on the IBM PC compatibles The Text Mode Demo Scene Alpha Design is an IBM PC Demoscene group from Finland which was originally formed in 1994 under the name Nightmare Productions or

The demoscene is a largely competition-oriented subculture, with groups and individual artists competing against each other in technical and artistic excellence. In the early days, this competition came in the form of setting records, like the number of "bobs" (blitter objects) on the screen per frame, or the number of DYCP (different Y Character position) scrollers on a C64. A Bob (contraction of B litter ob ject) was a graphical element (GEL first used by the Amiga computer The Commodore 64 demos for the Commodore 64 (C64 were the first products of the Demoscene produced on any Home computer, which led to a similar culture These days, there are organized competitions, or "compos", held at demoparties, although there have been some online competitions as well. A demoparty is an event that gathers Demosceners and other computer enthusiasts to compete in competitions. It has also been common for diskmags to have voting-based charts which provide ranking lists for the best coders, graphicians, musicians, demos and other things. A disk magazine, colloquially known as a diskmag, and also known by the Portmanteau magazette (from "magazine on diskette" is a Magazine However, the respect for charts has diminished since the 1990s. The 1990s collectively refers to the years between and including 1990 and 1999

Party-based competitions usually require the artist or a group member to be present at the event. The winners are selected by a public voting amongst the visitors and awarded at a prizegiving ceremony at the end of the party. Competitions at a typical demo event include a demo compo, an intro compo (usually 64K), a graphics compo and a music compo. Most parties also split some categories by platform, format or style.

There are no criteria or rules the voters should be bound by, and a visitor typically just votes for those entries that made the biggest impression on him or her. In the old demos, the impression was often attempted with programming techniques introducing new effects and breaking performance records in old effects. Over the years, the emphasis has moved from technical excellence to more artistic values such as overall design, audiovisual impact and mood.

The demoscene constitutes the most part of its own audience, with the opinions of the community itself considered the most valid. For example, it is often considered lame to win large events with works that appeal to the non-demomaking masses but do not adhere to good demoscene aesthetics. However, most of the demos regarded as the best of all time have appealed both to the demomaking community itself and a larger audience.

In the recent years, an initiative to award demos in an alternative way arose by the name of the Scene.org Awards. The Sceneorg Awards are the Demoscene awards established by Scene The essential concept of the awards was to avoid the subjectivity of mass-voting at parties, and select a well-renowned jury to handle the task of selecting the given year's best productions on several aspects, such as Best Graphics or Best 64k Intro.

Parties

Assembly 2004 - a combination of a demoparty and a LAN party

Main article: Demoparty

A demoparty is an event which gathers demomakers and provides them competitions to compete in. The Assembly demo party is a Demoscene and gaming event in Finland. A LAN party is a temporary sometimes spontaneous gathering of people together with their computers which they network together primarily for the purpose of playing multiplayer A demoparty is an event that gathers Demosceners and other computer enthusiasts to compete in competitions. Compo is a slang word for competition. It is most commonly used by the Demoscene and related Subcultures when referring to their contests related to A typical demoparty is a non-stop event lasting over a weekend, providing the visitors a lot of time for socializing. The competing works, at least those in the most important competitions, are usually shown at night, using a video projector and big loudspeakers. A video projector takes a Video signal and projects the corresponding image on a Projection screen using a lens system For the Marty Friedman album see Loudspeaker (album A loudspeaker, speaker, or speaker system is an electroacoustical

Demoparties started to appear in the 1980s in the form of copyparties where software pirates and demomakers gathered to meet each other and share their software. The 1980s was the decade spanning from January 1 1980 to December 31 1989. A demoparty is an event that gathers Demosceners and other computer enthusiasts to compete in competitions. Competitions did not become a major aspect of the events until the beginning of the 1990s. The 1990s collectively refers to the years between and including 1990 and 1999

Demoscene events are most frequent in continental Europe, with maybe fifty parties every year. For comparison, there have only been a dozen or so demoparties in the United States in total. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Most events are local, gathering demomakers mostly from a single country, while the largest international parties (such as Breakpoint and Assembly) attract visitors from all over the globe. Breakpoint is a German Demoscene party. Since 2003, it takes place annually on Easter in Bingen. The Assembly demo party is a Demoscene and gaming event in Finland.

Demo types

Main article: Demo (computer programming)

Screenshot from Gift by Potion, winner of the Mekka & Symposium 2000 Amiga 64k intro competition (Youtube)

The demoscene still exists on many platforms, including the PC, C64, MSX, ZX Spectrum, Atari, Amiga, Dreamcast and Game Boy Advance. A demo is a non-interactive multimedia presentation made within the computer Subculture known as the Demoscene. Mekka & Symposium (MS or M&S was a Demoparty held annually in Fallingbostel, Germany over the Easter days from 1997 to 2002 The Amiga is a family of Personal computers originally developed by Amiga Corporation. MSX was the name of a standardized Home computer architecture in the 1980s The Sinclair ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal Home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. The Amiga is a family of Personal computers originally developed by Amiga Corporation. The is Sega 's most recent Video game console and the successor to the Sega Saturn. The Game Boy Advance (often shortened to GBA) is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed manufactured and marketed by Nintendo. The large variety of platforms makes their respective demos hard to compare. Some 3D benchmark programs also have a demo or showcase mode, which derives its roots from the days of the 16-bit platforms.

There are several categories demos are informally classified into, the most important being the division between the "full-size" demos and the size-restricted intros, a difference visible in the competitions of nearly any demo party. The most typical competition categories for intros are the 64K intro and the 4K intro, where the size of the executable file is restricted to 65536 and 4096 bytes, respectively. A 64k intro is a demo where the size of the executable file is limited to 65536 bytes

Groups

PC-Demo: Interceptor by Black Maiden. Black Maiden is a group of people &mdash mainly from Europe &mdash participating in various art disciplines like demos, music textmode art graphics

Main article: Demogroup

A typical demo is created by a demogroup, which is a team of demosceners. Demogroups are teams of demosceners, who make computer-based audio-visual works of art known as demos. Although some demogroups boast dozens of members, the number of individuals involved in a single production rarely exceeds ten. Since the demogroup is also a major way of self-identification for demosceners, even individual creations are usually associated with a group.

A demoscener is typically specialized in a certain area of creativity. The traditional division is in coders, graphicians and musicians, who are specialized in programming (often including overall design), still graphics (including 2D art and 3D modelling) and music, respectively. There are also demosceners who have little involvement in the actual demomaking but that do considerable work in areas such as party organizing.

Impact

A demo running on a TI-86 calculator

Although demos are still a more or less obscure form of art even in the traditionally active demoscene countries, the scene has had an impact on areas such as computer games industry and new media art. The TI-86 is a programmable Graphing calculator introduced in 1997 and produced by Texas Instruments. A video game is a Game that involves interaction with a User interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. New media art is an Art genre that encompasses artworks created with New media technologies, including Digital art, Computer graphics

A great deal of European game programmers, artists and musicians have come from the demoscene, often cultivating the learned techniques, practices and philosophies in their work. For example, the Finnish company Remedy Entertainment, known for the Max Payne series of games, was founded by the PC group Future Crew, and most of its employees are former or active Finnish demosceners. Remedy Entertainment is a Finnish Computer game developer founded in 1995 and based in Espoo Finland. Max Payne is a Third-person shooter Video game developed by the Finnish company Remedy Entertainment, produced by 3D Realms Future Crew is a now-defunct group of Finnish computer coders and artists who created PC demos and Software, active mostly between 1992 and 1994 ^[2] Sometimes demos even provide direct influence even to game developers that have no demoscene affiliation: for instance, Will Wright names demoscene as a major influence on the new Maxis game Spore, which is largely based on procedural content generation. William Wright (born January 20 1960 in Atlanta Georgia) is an American computer Game designer and co-founder of Maxis Software is an American company that was founded as a Video game developer and is now a brand name of Electronic Arts (EA Procedural generation is a widely used term in the production of media indicating the possibility to create content On the fly rather than prior to distribution ^[3]

Certain forms of computer art have a strong affiliation with the demoscene. Tracker music, for example, originated in the Amiga games industry but was soon heavily dominated by demoscene musicians. Tracker is the generic term for a class of software Music sequencers which in their purest form allow the user to arrange sound samples stepwise on a timeline across . Currently, there is a major tracking scene separate from the actual demoscene. A form of static computer graphics where demosceners have traditionally excelled is pixel art; see artscene for more information on the related subculture. Pixel art is a form of Digital art, created through the use of Raster graphics Software, where images are edited on the Pixel level The phrase computer art scene, or artscene for short refers to a community of individuals and groups that are both interested and active in the creation of Computer

Over the years, desktop computer hardware capabilities have improved by orders of magnitude, and so for most programmers, tight hardware restrictions are no longer a common issue. Nevertheless, demosceners continue to study and experiment with creating impressive effects on limited hardware. Since handheld consoles and cellular phones have comparable processing power or capabilities to the destktop platforms of old (such as low resolution screens which require pixel-art, or very limited storage and memory for music replay), many demosceners have been able to apply their niche skills to develop games for these platforms, and earn a living doing so. A handheld game console is a lightweight portable electronic machine for playing Video games Unlike Video game consoles the controls screen and speakers

Some attempts have been made to increase the familiarity of demos as an art form. For example, there have been demo shows, demo galleries and demoscene-related books, sometimes even TV programs introducing the subculture and its works. ^[4]

Sometimes a demoscene-based production may become very famous in technical contexts. For example, the 96-kilobyte FPS game .kkrieger by Farbrausch uses procedural content generation algorithms that are quite common on today's 64K intros but largely unknown to the computer games enthusiasts and the US-based game development community. A first-person shooter ( FPS) is an action Video game from the Shooter game The initial development of Maze War Farbrausch, or Farb-rausch, is a German group of demomakers who made themselves particularly famous in the Demoscene in December 2000

See also

• Artscene
• Demo
• Demogroup
• Demoparty
• List of demos by year
• Netlabel

Specific platforms

• Amiga demos
• Apple IIgs demos
• Atari demos (Atari ST)
• Commodore 64 demos
• Commodore VIC-20 demos
• Text mode demos
• ZX Spectrum demos

Websites and products

• Demoscene.tv
• Hornet Archive
• MindCandy
• Pouët
• Scene.org

References

Further reading

• Polgár, Tamás ("Tomcat") (2005). FREAX: Volume 1. CSW-Verlag. ISBN 3-9810494-0-3.  
• Vigh, David and Polgár, Tamás ("Tomcat"): FREAX Art Album. CSW-Verlag 2006
• Tasajärvi, Lassi (2004). DEMOSCENE: the art of real-time. even lake studios. ISBN 952-91-7022-X.  
• DEMOing: Art or Craft? 1984-2002 (PDF), Write-up by Shirley Shor about the demoscene
• Green, Dave (July 1995). Demo or Die!. Wired magazine. Wired is a full-color monthly American Magazine and on-line periodical published in San Francisco, California since March 1993 Retrieved on 2007-12-31. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 406 – Vandals, Alans and Suebians cross the Rhine, beginning an invasion of Gallia.
• Demo Scene Research - bibliography of scientific publications about the demoscene.
• The Demoscene (PDF), Flyer by Digitale Kultur e. V. about the demoscene
• Vigh, David: Pixelstorm (PDF), - selected artworks of demoscene graphicians 2003, bugfixed 2007

External links

• demoscene.info, A webportal providing information on the demoscene
• slengpung.com, Pictures from parties and demoscene related events
• demoparty.net, Database of past and future demoparties, location and travel info
• bitfellas.org, Demoscene community and information portal
• What is the Demoscene?, What is the Demoscene? by Rich Thompson
• Scenery Home of the Scenery demoscene history research project.
• 256b.com, The 256bytes demos archive. Demoscene productions under 256-bytes in size for various platforms