About the Demoscene
We are just beginning to compile this website as central resource for the campaign, and for a full description what the demoscene is and does we´d like to point for demoscene-resources and articles in the link section further below for this.
To give a very brief description:
What is the demoscene?
The demoscene is a worldwide non-commercial network of creative minds involved in the making of so called ‘demos’. Demos are computer generated music clips that show what kind of graphic and sound effects can really be done by using high-end computer hardware to its full potential.
Demo-making is teamwork. As demos are rather complex any helping hand is welcome. Each scener provides the team with different skills. Graphicians and musicians create suitable pieces of art, the programmers fit all the parts together in an extensive amount of detail work to finally make it an executable program: the demo.
The sceners don’t necessarily have to physically meet each other at all during the whole process. Usually they meet in chatrooms and share their latest work over the internet. Most sceners live in Europe but you can find them almost everywhere in the world.
Source: http://www.demoscene.info/(17.05.2019)
In addition it´s also extremely important to mention, that the demoscene is not only creating an humongous output of demos, but is also producing heaps of music, graphics, fotos, text-art (ANSI/ASCII-Art), videos, interactive-installations and many more kinds of cultural artefacts on all kinds of hardware-platforms for many decades.
In other words:
“Basically, the classic media artist asks himself “What kind of technology would I need to realize my concept”, while the demoscener asks “What can I achieve with the hardware in my hands” […] Their aesthetic values are not based on infinite digital flexibility, but on the physical restrictions of computer platforms. That’s why demoscene is not about an idealistic projection of future technology, but about the creative appropriation of present hardware.”
[Dr. Daniel Botz at chipflip 2009]
Some demo-examples
We can show only a small fraction of demos produced during the four decades of demoscene, but here are some more modern examples to give an impression on what kind of artefacts the demoscene produces:
A 2019 demo released on a 32 years old platform: Eon by The Black Lotus running on Amiga 500 combines a short film like design and visuals to unique audiovisual lo-fi experience which won the Amiga demo competition and everyone’s hearts and minds in Revision 2019.
More information: http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=81094
CNCD Fairlight collective is well known for their visual style and skill in design. They certainly did not disappoint with the demo Number One/Another One which won the demo competition in Assembly 2018. This is running on a modern PC/Windows.
More information: http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=77399
The Greek group Andromeda Software Development (ASD) has won numerous demo competitions with their stunning demonstrations. Metamorpohosis published in 2008 is a refreshing demo which dares to step away from the always-popular 3D. This is running on a modern PC/Windows.
More information: http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=50127
The demoscene activists produce plenty of realtime demos, videos, music, visuals and other forms of art and it is impossible to showcase them all in short. But you will find some more examples of realtime demos and videos from our YouTube playlist here, take a look:
Awesome demoscene resources
General information about the demoscene, its concepts and influences at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demoscene.
The main community place for the demoscene: http://pouet.net
The main archive with all demos and artefacts in downloadable form: https://files.scene.org/
An overview of demoscene parties: https://www.demoparty.net/
Demoscene Research: http://www.kameli.net/demoresearch2/
Bibliography
Here you find a list of scientific papers on the Demoscene: http://www.kameli.net/demoresearch2/?page_id=4