Demoscene

The demo scene ( insiders " The Scene" ) developed among followers of the computer scene in the 1980s, during the heyday of 8- bit systems. Its members, who are often called demosceners or just sceners, create with computer programs on computers called Demos - Digital Art, usually in the form of musical -backed real-time animation.

Meanwhile, the demo scene has become an established circle inside the computer scene; at various events they present their works on large screens. Slowly but surely, the demo scene also finds its way into the museums and to the progressive film and video festivals. Today is programmed primarily on conventional PCs, but also dozens of other platforms - from the Xbox to the Game Boy - hold for the programming arts forth. In German-speaking countries the demo and the demo equally be used for the products of this art form.

The demo scene is essentially limited to Europe; in the U.S. and in Asia, there are only relatively small offshoot.

• 2.1 Hardware
• 2.2 Software

• 3.1 groups
• 3.2 parties

History

Apart from crack intros the cracker scene itself, such as today, the group SKIDROW produces these mostly for higher-order PC games, today's demo scene puts more emphasis on are more for crackers or warez scene unrelated. Even in the days of C -64 and Amiga, this was not to be separated, as the first pure demos have only ever developed from the simple intro Greeting tickers crackers, especially with the Chiptunes the acoustic side.

While the cracker scene, however, preoccupied with the distribution of illegal copies, the demo scene today devotes more the art aspect of the computer. Not everyone today demosceners was inevitably a former crackers or even just part of such a group, but many members of earlier cracker groups are now active in the demoscene. This is partly because a good crack an ornately decorated Intro heard. These works of former cracker groups represent the most important artistic influence is on the demo scene and also establish the origin of today's demoscene.

Precursor

Early precursors, which have similarities to the later demonstration effects and the motivation of " playing " with technical possibilities are called display hacks ( English-language articles ) which date back to the early 1950s. Direct precursors are simple, consisting exclusively of text signatures ( "crack " screens ) with which immortalized Cracker II software for the first time in the late 1970s in Apple. Gradually transformed these into ever more elaborate works consisting of graphics, music and animation.

Origins in the home computers of the 1980s

As the actual birth of the demos is usually the boom phase of the 8 -bit computers, especially the Commodore 64, C64 abbreviated ( launch 1982), Atari 800 and Schneider / Amstrad CPC seen. During this period, mass computer games appeared on the market, most of which were provided with a copy on the software level to prevent illegal copying. Then came the so-called cracker groups that specialized in it to remove the copy protection by manipulating the program. This scene grew relatively quickly, and individual groups started a competition to see who was the first at the games removed the copy protection or they crackte and copyable version ( cracked ) then within their own scene spread ( released ).

Traditionally, cracked games were provided with an intro that also cracktro was called to the scene. Initially, it was this is a small program that automatically launched before the game and mostly with computer music and the name of the cracker group using computer animations to the user vorführte. In addition, most Scroll texts were used to greet befriended scene members and other groups ( Greetings ) and also ran advertisements for their own group by publishing details in the form of BBS phone numbers. Due to the competition between the groups played in addition to the quality of the game and the intro of a role for the reputation of the group. There is always more complex intros were programmed, some of which reached the limits of the available hardware.

Change of scene: from Cracktros to separate demos

At this time, more and more specialized sceners on the actual programming of intros - the cracking and the games themselves were for them a minor matter. Although the software companies invented ever new copy protection method, but the levering this software -related restrictions was relatively simple compared to the programming art that was spent on intros. The reputation ( fame ) by renowned cracker groups was based often only on their spectacular Intros. There now arose the first demo ( demo discs) without cracked game.

The priorities have been updated also within the groups. With the appearance of the 16 -bit systems, most notably the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST, also grew the possibilities of intro / demo programmers. Within the individual groups emerged fixed Responsibilities: Graphic ensure the visual presentation, by creating images, animations and logos ( ASCII art, etc.). Musicians compose the music and sound effects, which were often produced with the help of trackers. Programmer (Coder) make the main programming work and add together the individual elements into a finished demo. Diskmags - electronic journals, which were passed on disk - promoted the exchange of information within the scene.

The late 1980s and early 1990s were black copies an increasing problem of the software industry. She introduced because of insufficient profits in part, the development of games for certain platforms complete one. Some accuse the cracking scene even to have been largely responsible for the demise of the Amiga because there to mushroom the illegal copying of games; Black copies of many games were already in circulation before they ever appeared on the market.

With the dominance of the PC platform and the Internet cracks were readily available and because of the large number of new programs and games, mass-produced goods. Unlike in the 1980s, the programs had to be no longer mailed or exchanged in person - you could just download from the Internet, including the cracks. These had less and less an intro, usually the information to crack and the Greetings were housed only in a simple text file. The authorities concerned themselves increasingly with the fight against Black Copies: house searches and seizures of the hardware and software and in addition to individual Sceners entire groups were arrested. Among other interests, this was another important reason for the removal of the demo scene of the cracker groups. It emerged strengthened pure demos, so the publication of computer art without dissemination of a ( pirated ) game, and a clearer differentiation / emancipation of the demo scene of the cracking scene.

1990: Emancipation of the demo scene on the PC platform

The actual demo scene continued to evolve, especially in northern Europe and Scandinavia, the scene grew rapidly. Mid-1990s, she established herself with events such as the Finnish Assembly, the Norwegian Gathering and German Mekka & Symposium, on which the best demos were presented and voted, each with many thousands of visitors. It emerged online publications dedicated to the demoscene and their technology, such as Hugi or TraxWeekly a Tracker magazine.

Mid-90s was the demo scene to one of the driving forces for the development of the PC platform towards multimedia, which was also recognized by the hardware manufacture and support of demo events (eg the Assembly) by companies such as AMD or Gravis led. The sound card from Gravis, the Ultrasound, was discovered by the demo scene and thus only wider known. The meaning is, for example, in 1999 initiated by the online magazine Slashdot retrospective selection of the published 1993 Future Crew demo Second Reality of the "Top 10 Hacks of All Time".

At the end of 1990s and early 2000s, many new companies have been established by or under demosceners, who contributed their concepts and technologies. An example is the Finnish company Remedy Entertainment, known for the Max Payne game series, which was founded by Future Crew members, and by the most of the staff are former demosceners.

2000s: self-limitation and Mobile Devices

In the 2000s, the demo scene discovered the mobile devices with limited computing power as a new playing field for real-time demos. In parallel, self-limiting categories for demos on the PC have been introduced progressively since natural hardware boundaries no longer exist ( eg, disk size) with increasing computing power and storage. A popular category here are the eg 64k demos, demos do not exceed what with sound and graphics a memory size of 64 Kbytes. For this newly developed technologies are the procedural generation. Kkrieger as an exemplary, award-winning demo purpose of color noise.

Also, the scene began to organize professional: in Germany since 2003 promotes the registered non-profit association " Digital Culture " demoscene, in particular by organizing Evoke and procurement of sponsors and funding. A specially developed CMS called party master is used by the demo scene for the organization of some demo parties, for example, the tUM or Buenzli.

Since 2003, gives Scene.org, a further global organization of the demo scene, the Scene.org Awards, including sponsored by Pixar. The Scene.org Awards are presented annually to the creators of the best intros and demos of the previous year. The winners are ( with the exception of the Audience Award ) selected by a jury of respected demosceners from around the world. The award ceremony took place until 2010 at the breakpoint, the world's largest pure Demo Party, held since 2011 at The Gathering, coinciding with the revision in Saarbrücken.

Technology

Hardware

The requirements for a good demo largely depend on the available hardware. This is a major difference between the standard PC system and older platforms such as the Commodore 64, as well as consoles such as the Sony Playstation or Nintendo Game Boy.

The performance of a system is mainly by the main processor, RAM, and graphics and sound processors dependent. For non - PC systems, these components are usually fixed and not interchangeable. A programmed, for example, for the Commodore 64 demo was running on all computers at the same speed. In a demo for the PC it looks different, many current PC demos run only on high-end systems.

Many scener from the early days of the demoscene disapprove of today's PC demos, in particular those from the "Unlimited " category, that is, without a restriction on the memory or the program size. Your complaint is that you can completely read through the advanced technical framework complex graphics as textures or rendered 3D models into memory, while one was earlier forced due to the very small memory, such details during the course (duration ) of the demo in real time Calculate allow.

For these critics, one of the main challenges of demo programming is to exhaust through programming tricks and more sophisticated algorithms more and more the limit of the hardware limitations. For PC demos is due to the elimination of these restrictions is no longer a challenge. This is also one of the main reasons for the strong increase in the in recent years attention to intros with a maximum of 64 KB, 32 KB, 4 KB or even 256 bytes.

The PC demo scene, however, looks quite different challenges faced, such as the optimization of new techniques, such as the pixel shading. Due to the rapid development of technology a shift from Ausreizen art ( " Pushing the Limits " ) towards the artistic design ( " ArtCreation " ) has taken place especially in the younger members of the demoscene. While the hardware limitations of the past to lead that theoretically formulated limitations of hardware are getting pushed out further ( eg in the form of 3D environments in real-time calculation on the C64 ), was laid on the PC to focus rather on the aesthetic media design and here uses the newly available each PC extensions.

For supporters of older platforms, but also brings the advancement of technology, new challenges. They have long since discovered mobile devices such as PDAs, MDAs and mobile phones for their purposes, and also carry out their demos.

Software

Corresponding to the large differences in the hardware requirements for the programming technique for a good removal are fundamentally different. The main problem for programmers to 8- bit systems had to manage with the limited memory. In a Commodore 64 about 64 KB of memory were available. To keep a program as small as possible, they resorted to such computers to back assembler as a programming language. This had the additional advantage that routines such as graphic calculation expired much faster than, for example, with the built- in C64 BASIC interpreter.

To create a rich effect and impressive demo, the challenge primarily is to find fast algorithms and programming space. In addition, resourceful hackers always discover tricks to use as a system reserved memory. One of the first pioneering methods was the raster line, which enabled many effects only.

A more recent example of a power limit this " pushing -the- limits paradigm " is the demo shizzle from the team Pokémé. This programmed for the small handheld console Pokémon Mini Demo won the " Wild Competition" at Breakpoint 2005. The device has only two kilobytes of RAM, 768 bytes of video memory, a 96x64 px large monochrome display and an 8 -bit CPU. The demo was one of the best demos ever celebrated by the visitors anyway.

In the PC sector, the programming skill is more in the application of already existing graphics libraries such as DirectX or OpenGL interface. Special routines for lighting, light and shadow effects and special techniques such as pixel shaders allow the programmers to produce ever more impressive demos.

Original intros initially had a relatively fixed structure: different visual effects were deposited Musically and with effects shown as rotating starry sky, general shenanigans with shapes and colors or virtual flights through imaginary landscapes. In many cases, there were text messages that were often implemented by scrolling texts. In these texts, especially those involved in the intros were listed ( " Credits " ) and greeted friendly sceners and groups ( " Greetings ").

For the first independent works, which were initially not designed as intros without illegal game behind it, quickly sat down by the term screen, even on the division of Cracktros illegal cracker scene. Since no play was a far greater amount of disk space available, several screens were soon connected to a mega demo.

The selection of the components of a mega demo took it usually takes more than a simple ( rarely also more cumbersome ) interactive selection menu. Since the switching back and forth, however, was often perceived as cumbersome and an unnecessary interruption between menus, those menus were quickly frowned upon. It continued with the time abandon the distinction by, and the screens were connected to a fixed order. Gradually, a coherent overall context began to emerge, with a common theme and a coherent sequence. The first demos in the usual form emerged today.

Organization

Groups

Most demo artists organize themselves into groups of like-minded people and work on this basis in project teams.

Important groups on the PC in the 90s were Future Crew ( Second Reality ) or Triton (Fast Tracker ), which was provided also organizational tasks for the entire scene, such as organizing parties. Among the most active in the 2000s groups from Germany include, for example color or noise Haujobb. Within these groupings, the individual members do their part in different areas of responsibility. The group membership of the participants in a project is taken as previously less important today; tough competition, the once up in mostly friendly disputes ( " Wars" ) could degenerate, is now largely given way to a spirit of multiple cooperation. Group names take on the roles of product brands that stand for certain styles and a certain level of quality.

Parties

An important part of the demoscene are Demoparties - events where the scene comes together for several days, the best demos of the groups on large screens shows and awards. In contrast to a LAN party programming techniques and computer art is at a demo party in the foreground. Although the limits of such events mix partially as in the Finnish Assembly or the Norwegian The Gathering, the largest such parties worldwide, the demosceners want to stand on principle of gamers on LAN parties. Gamer apply at many events, such as the largest events breakpoint and Evoke, frowned upon. Although there is occasional games is tolerated, it emphasizes that the creation and demonstration of the demos is in the foreground.

In addition to the Demoparties already mentioned the Buenzli in Switzerland and the Ultimate Meeting in Germany have a greater significance.

It became common to himself that one of the most inviting and organizing demo groups released a digital invitation in the form of a small demo called Invitation, with relevant information on the process, scheduling and competitions a party.

Center of each demoparty are the competitions and demonstrations of the demos, so-called competitions or short Compos. It is ideal for groups and individual artists compete in different categories. Voting shall be by the attending visitors. It is quite common to be finished contributions to the compos at the party. The Party Coding up to date, despite enormous stress viewed as a special experience that fixed part of many sceners to demo creation.

For a comparison to the demos submitted is possible that competitions are divided into different categories. For particularly popular platforms like the Amiga or Commodore 64, there is often a separate competition. PC - systems are divided traditionally into a storage limit of 64, 16 or 4 kilobytes. For all other platforms - the more exotic, the better - there is the " wild " category. Furthermore, there are subcategories such as pure animation, rendering, best piece of music or even best ASCII art.

Browsers demos, Flash demos or Java demos can compete in their own competitions.