I grew up learning to code based on what I've experienced with the demoscene. It seems to be a pretty sparse subculture in the US. How many developers watch or participate in the scene?
Teaser: If you haven't checked out the scene before, take a look at one of my favorites: Debris by Farbrausch. Watch on demoscene.tv or download the app (179k) and run it yourself. No video, all realtime rendering and audio. Think, a small group of guys wrote this for a competition on their free time.
I try to keep an eye on http://pouet.net, myself. I can't say I've participated in the scene, but I wrote some little demo effects in x86 asm when I was younger. Mode 13h, fire effects, particles, rotozooming, that sort of thing.
I'd say the demoscene definitely influenced my coding interests.
Edit: does anyone else remember the PC-GPE? Ah, memories.
I remember the PC-GPE! I used to chat with Mark on IRC... nice guy.
And yeah, I grew up with the demoscene and visit pouet (and nectarine) from time to time.
I am going to date myself here. I remember the demo scene from the days of of the 386/486 VGA mode 13h and .mod files, when demos were downloaded from bulletin boards. Looking at Debris, things have sure come a long way.
I think nowadays developers are kind of "dropping out of the demo scene". In the good old days demos were all about "what could you technically squeeze out of the machine". You needed to be a good developer/coder/hacker to achieve the best. Today the development seems to be more like basic technical stuff. Most effects are already provided by the graphics adapter. It's not so much about the code, so as a coder "you can't show off". It's more about design, graphics, more design, music and even more design. That's in most cases not the developers' domain :)
However my guess would be that most good and experienced developers today have an history in demo scene, even if it's just a small one (just being interested and astonished).
Wow... PC-GPE still exists? :D
Awesome! I was truly expecting this question to remain unanswered. I will relate with Tony in that I got my start in the scene back in the late 80's/early 90's when calling around BBS's on my Atari 8-bit. It's amazing what people can do with assembly and serious know-how on a 1.79MHz 8-bit machine. I got hooked up with some local sceners who were also into the PC scene.
One of the most influential people I've met was White Shadow / Renaissance. I met him right at the time he released DoWackaDo, which was a production that astounded me. It ran full framerate on his 286 12MHz with MOD music, animation, and hardware tricks to extract more colors than normally possible. Unfortunately, those hardware tricks keep it from being recorded to video, so I can't find it online. Though, it is on the Mind Candy Vol 1 DVD.
Will anyone here be planning to visit Block Party in 2009?
BlaM: I have to agree with you to a point. Nothing is basic. Compare the latest party winning demos with those of around 1993. Second Reality was hailed as one of the demoscene's greatest productions, but now it looks like poo compared to Debris. Phong shaders and polygon intersection are child's play compared to now. Moreover, it's all about design, but unfortunately demos that focus primarily on that are not as exciting to most coders.
My friends and I watched tons of them in college; watching Second Reality just after it was released was amazing. These days, I pop around online and watch a few once or twice a year. It just doesn't seem the same when you have high end 3D graphics cards and parallel processors...
BTW, I do have a Gravis Ultrasound Max sitting in my closet. Anyone want it?
Proud owner of Mind Candy Vol 1 as well!
@BlaM
If it's code-porn demos you're after, you might be more interested in the 64k intro scene then. Or intros/demos for other more limited platforms.
For example, Farbrausch's Fr08 is pretty recent (relative to my time spent in the scene) and was really well done for the time I thought: http://www.theproduct.de
I do agree it's a different time now though, and the magic of those old DOS and Amiga days won't be coming back.. for me at least.
@org 0100h: fr-08: The Product isn't really all that visually pleasing to me, but I can certainly appreciate the fact the demo goes on for over 15 minutes of continuous scene rendering and non-looping soundtrack in a tiny package and the soundtrack is really good, IMHO. And they did this 8 years ago.
Btw, nice user id
It's pretty common in the european software engineering communities to cross path with people who grew up along or inside the demoscene. There's a certain work ethic, a pragmatic view of "getting stuff done" that sceners have and which is definitely valuable in a work setting.
Yup, those were the days. After the demoscene I went into gamedevelopment, and now I'm working on automated trading systems (trading options/futures 24/7). Hm, something went wrong there :) Twice or three times a year I still check pouet, grab all releases from Breakpoint, Assembly etc. and have a demo-freak-out-evening :)
When I started working in the game-industry I found out (after 6 months ! :)) my employer was actually in Ultraforce, who created the first Vector-demo on PC.
Lots of other people at our company also had a demoscene background - actually a lot of people in the game industry have.
I for one gave the scene up pretty quick (as an active member), 'cause I just couldn't commit to it to make anything worthwile. When I look at the demo's some people create I wonder how mucht time went into it, and if these people actually have a life besides the demoscene ;) That's why I appreciate the 'good' demo's even more - because I know I could never get myself to actually invest that much time into a product that'll be shown once in a competition and then end up in a database to be forgotten ;)
As an afterthought, I think most developers that started in the demoscene become inactive when they get a 'real' life - job, wife, kids, obligations etc. :) Only the best might keep doing what they were doing, only this time for money - and on the side keep enough time to develop more interesting stuff for their demoscene productions. It's easier to write a demo with tech you're developing during the day anyway (as a job) than with tech you're writing for a financial institution or something alike ;)
I was lucky to have a friend who showed me second reality while I was in gymnasium. It motivated me to start coding like an idiot. I learned Pascal, C, assembler, C++, MMX Assembler... you name it! That was about 15 years ago. Today I have my own company (www.anema.ch) and I employ my own coders and visual artists. We still do all kind of multimedia projects (C++, DirectX and C#), preferably interactive realtime stuff... :-). Somehow, the goal is still the same: doing challenging and unusual projects, have fun while doing. The main difference to my ancient activities in the demoscene is to keep an eye on finances, to make sure the fun can go on and on forever! ;-)
There are plenty of demosceners working in the "real world", myself included. There are companies centered around demo coders and associated skills (generally 3D graphics/gaming) and work ethic (no nonsense, "get things done" approach that does not necessarily sacrifice quality).
Some have reached significant prominence, e.g. the Remedy guys (the company's first game was Death Rally, with I believe several demoscene coders as well as music by Purple Motion. Other examples include CryTek (which I know employs several demosceners), Starbreeze and good old Bullfrog. Also Thomas Pytel (Tran/Renaissance) was reportedly one of the original employees of PayPal.