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I learned programming on the TRS80, and didn’t know about the demo scene until I was already too busy with other parts of my life; I think I first saw a demo on
by doctor_eval 6y ago
I learned programming on the TRS80, and didn’t know about the demo scene until I was already too busy with other parts of my life; I think I first saw a demo on the Amiga.
I always feel like I missed out on something transcendental. I think I would have leaned a huge amount. Instead I had to settle with hacking NewDOS/80 binaries.
I have a huge amount of technical respect for the people who do this stuff.
- mroche 6y agoI didn't know it existed until ~October(?) last year. My $lastEmployer (animation studio) had a demo day where in-house people would demo some personal projects they were working as well as exhibit entrants' works to the actual demo scene. It was insane, I would never dream of being able to produce most of the things I saw. If I remember correctly we watched demos from the 4K category to the 1 or 4M category. Procedural graphics, audio, emulation, it truly is an art form.
- nkozyra 6y agoI grew up on BBS (started dialing at age ~6) There were only two types of programming that intimidated me so much I wouldn't even try: people writing languages from scratch and the demo scene people. I just sat back and said "nope, I'll never get there."
- doctor_eval 6y agoHaha! I wrote a logo inspired language to do graphics programming. It was an interpreter written in BASIC. You didn’t miss much :) I also wrote a BBS, so go figure...
- bane 6y agoIt's never too late! Demoscene competitions happen all year round, around the globe. Some of the competitions are super focused and aren't a ton of work to do. The competitions (called "parties" in the scene) are a great way to spend a weekend with a bunch of like-minded nerds from many different disciplines: programming, graphics, music, ANSI/ASCII art, retrocomputing, etc.