5 ms·

During that era it was interesting to see demos coming mostly from countries at far northern latitudes and wondering why the scene was so focused there. It wasn

During that era it was interesting to see demos coming mostly from countries at far northern latitudes and wondering why the scene was so focused there. It wasn't until visiting family up around Hudson Bay and discussing winter life that the connection between demo coders and dark cold winters stuck. While the long dark winter nights still exist, what's the future for Finnish coders in an age of easy access to an entire internet of distractions combined with fast hardware? Surely there will be more in quantity, as is the case almost everywhere, but what of the quality forged on those long winter nights?

notkaiho 7y ago
It's either that or start a metal band...
- rgomez 7y ago
  Or even write a kernel!
  - raverbashing 7y ago
    Oh come on, it's just a toy project, it will never be something serious as Gnu
    - bitwize 7y ago
      Not big and professional like gnu, anyway.
    - scrame 7y ago
      Hurd is just a couple months away.
  - keyle 7y ago
    Or write a little game about block building and crafting, and little monsters coming out in the night...
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
Trombone12 7y ago
If there is any connection, it will not be as simple as "darkness == demoscene". If there is any connection it will be that winters and bright summers get you used to just staying inside with blinds down all year.
- arexxbifs 7y ago
  I'm very interested in the special conditions that spurred the creation of the demo scene in (northern) Europe. Hacker culture in the US seems to have mainly grown out of academia, often taking a staunch libertarian view on the freedom of information and software. In Europe, and mainly Scandinavia, things were quite boring when the home computer boom came about. In Sweden, for example, there were two TV channels, both controlled by the government, and there was movie censorship also controlled by the government. Things were pretty dreary - Disney cartoons were aired for one hour each year, on Christmas eve. Making movies was about creating high culture à la Bergman. Pure entertainment was scoffed at, if you were able to get funding for it at all. Suddenly being given the ability to create your own content, without such interference, was a great freedom. Paired with economic growth and governmental incentives for small, non-profit organizations and clubs it was fairly easy to find venues for hosting demo parties. There are other factors at play as well, such as major computer magazines regularly covering the scene, which of course meant you could get recognition and fame outside the closely-knit scene. An interesting side note is that the UK, considering its size and the fact that several successful home computers were invented and manufactured there, had a comparatively small demo scene. The scene was always closely tied to software piracy, and most major European software houses were British. This meant not only that programming games was seen as a real career path early on, but also that law enforcement struck down harder and earlier on piracy than in Germany and Scandinavia.
  - burntoutfire 7y ago
    One of key question would be the entrepreneurial nature of Americans and (to lesser degree) Brits, as well as the pressure to "succeed" (i.e. make a lot of money or have large influence via politics, nonprofit etc.) in both societies. In the US, when young bright geeks want to do something cool, starting a company is probably high on their list. In Europe it's not like that at all (now it's lightly changed, but I don't think it was the case in the 80's and 90's), as the markets are much smaller, there's barely any VC, taxes are sky high and, maybe most importantly, being a successful business owner is just not something that majority of people aspires to. Hence, people who would start companies in the US, in Europe do other things, including demoscene.
honestoHeminway 7y ago
The actual strange thing is - that with these conditions, russia is not a similar software superpower.
jailbird_bd 7y ago
Although a lot of demogroups are/were from Scandinavia, still the most active demoscene country is/was Germany where there's nothing out of ordinary regarding the weather. Poland, Netherlands, the UK, Hungary are prominent countries in the demoscene aspect as well. US had an extremely active cracking scene right from the beginning (C64 and later Amiga). Most of the scene releases definitely weren't coming from far northern lands.

notkaiho 7y ago

It's either that or start a metal band...

rgomez 7y ago
Or even write a kernel!
- raverbashing 7y ago
  Oh come on, it's just a toy project, it will never be something serious as Gnu
  - bitwize 7y ago
    Not big and professional like gnu, anyway.
  - scrame 7y ago
    Hurd is just a couple months away.
- keyle 7y ago
  Or write a little game about block building and crafting, and little monsters coming out in the night...
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]

Trombone12 7y ago

If there is any connection, it will not be as simple as "darkness == demoscene". If there is any connection it will be that winters and bright summers get you used to just staying inside with blinds down all year.

arexxbifs 7y ago
I'm very interested in the special conditions that spurred the creation of the demo scene in (northern) Europe. Hacker culture in the US seems to have mainly grown out of academia, often taking a staunch libertarian view on the freedom of information and software. In Europe, and mainly Scandinavia, things were quite boring when the home computer boom came about. In Sweden, for example, there were two TV channels, both controlled by the government, and there was movie censorship also controlled by the government. Things were pretty dreary - Disney cartoons were aired for one hour each year, on Christmas eve. Making movies was about creating high culture à la Bergman. Pure entertainment was scoffed at, if you were able to get funding for it at all. Suddenly being given the ability to create your own content, without such interference, was a great freedom. Paired with economic growth and governmental incentives for small, non-profit organizations and clubs it was fairly easy to find venues for hosting demo parties. There are other factors at play as well, such as major computer magazines regularly covering the scene, which of course meant you could get recognition and fame outside the closely-knit scene. An interesting side note is that the UK, considering its size and the fact that several successful home computers were invented and manufactured there, had a comparatively small demo scene. The scene was always closely tied to software piracy, and most major European software houses were British. This meant not only that programming games was seen as a real career path early on, but also that law enforcement struck down harder and earlier on piracy than in Germany and Scandinavia.
- burntoutfire 7y ago
  One of key question would be the entrepreneurial nature of Americans and (to lesser degree) Brits, as well as the pressure to "succeed" (i.e. make a lot of money or have large influence via politics, nonprofit etc.) in both societies. In the US, when young bright geeks want to do something cool, starting a company is probably high on their list. In Europe it's not like that at all (now it's lightly changed, but I don't think it was the case in the 80's and 90's), as the markets are much smaller, there's barely any VC, taxes are sky high and, maybe most importantly, being a successful business owner is just not something that majority of people aspires to. Hence, people who would start companies in the US, in Europe do other things, including demoscene.

honestoHeminway 7y ago

The actual strange thing is - that with these conditions, russia is not a similar software superpower.

jailbird_bd 7y ago

Although a lot of demogroups are/were from Scandinavia, still the most active demoscene country is/was Germany where there's nothing out of ordinary regarding the weather. Poland, Netherlands, the UK, Hungary are prominent countries in the demoscene aspect as well. US had an extremely active cracking scene right from the beginning (C64 and later Amiga). Most of the scene releases definitely weren't coming from far northern lands.