5 ms·

Literally (literally literally, not figuratively literally) every time I see the word "demoscene" after not seeing it for a few days, I think it's the name of a

Literally (literally literally, not figuratively literally) every time I see the word "demoscene" after not seeing it for a few days, I think it's the name of a geologic age, like pleistocene.

joemi 3y ago
Happens to me too sometimes, and I was even involved in the scene back in the 90s.
vikingerik 3y ago
How did those two words get mushed together for this, anyway? Nobody talks about the hackingscene, or javascene, or gamescene, or magicscene (the trading card game), or baseballscene, or anything else like that.
- datameta 3y ago
  Maybe because demo ends with a vowel and it would be hard to come up with a smooth transition to a second word?
- thibaut_barrere 3y ago
  I don't have a definite answer. It might be a mixture of analogies to other creative "scenes" (music / cinema), it might have been improved by the fact most competitions were later projected on large screens etc!
- ben0x539 3y ago
  Might be my bias showing, but I just assumed that demo scene stuff mainly developed in Europe, and at least in German, referring to a hackingscene[1], or javascene[2], or gamescene[3], or magicscene[4] wouldn't feel out of place at all either. [1] https://www.google.com/search?q=%22hackerszene%22 https://www.google.com/search?q=%22hackerszene%22 [2] https://www.google.com/search?q=%22java-szene%22 https://www.google.com/search?q=%22java-szene%22 [3] https://www.google.com/search?q=%22game-szene%22 https://www.google.com/search?q=%22game-szene%22 but https://www.google.com/search?q=%22gaming-szene%22 https://www.google.com/search?q=%22gaming-szene%22 probably hits better [4] ok this one is a bit of a miss but still https://www.google.com/search?q=%22magic-szene%22 https://www.google.com/search?q=%22magic-szene%22
- GuB-42 3y ago
  It came from the warez or cracking scene, often just called "the scene" [1]. I don't know where the name came from, but the demoscene is definitely a (legal) spinoff of the (illegal) warez scene. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demoscene https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demoscene > Demos in the demoscene sense began as software crackers' "signatures", that is, crack screens and crack intros attached to software whose copy protection was removed. You may notice that many demoscene groups have the same name as warez groups, this is not a coincidence as they were originally the same people. All part of "the scene". [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warez_scene https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warez_scene
thibaut_barrere 3y ago
You are so close from the truth :-) I wrote demos some while back (~ 1990 -> 1998 roughly). They were running on the hardware of that time (including specific soundcards like the Gravis UltraSound), using modified DOS modes etc. As years passed, it became difficult to run them, because the hardware was harder to find. Ultimately I wasn't able to watch my own creations anymore! At some point though, I discovered DOSBox (the emulator). But running it on the available hardware in say 2005 would not give anything good! So I had to wait more years until technology improved (good enough to ensure the emulation would run fast & without too many glitches, but also fast enough so that video can be captured decently), until 2019 roughly, when some friend from back then captured my own work on their brand new PC (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVwesW3PSwg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVwesW3PSwg). So yes, it feels like archeology to me!
- sedatk 3y ago
  Great work! Good use of Mode-X blending effects to achieve "true color" :). I missed this one when it got out, but I'd have loved it.
  - thibaut_barrere 3y ago
    Thank you :-) Yes, well it looked much better on CRT screens, which provide a good blending!

Literally (literally literally, not figuratively literally) every time I see the word "demoscene" after not seeing it for a few days, I think it's the name of a geologic age, like pleistocene.

joemi 3y ago

Happens to me too sometimes, and I was even involved in the scene back in the 90s.

vikingerik 3y ago

How did those two words get mushed together for this, anyway? Nobody talks about the hackingscene, or javascene, or gamescene, or magicscene (the trading card game), or baseballscene, or anything else like that.

datameta 3y ago
Maybe because demo ends with a vowel and it would be hard to come up with a smooth transition to a second word?
thibaut_barrere 3y ago
I don't have a definite answer. It might be a mixture of analogies to other creative "scenes" (music / cinema), it might have been improved by the fact most competitions were later projected on large screens etc!
ben0x539 3y ago
Might be my bias showing, but I just assumed that demo scene stuff mainly developed in Europe, and at least in German, referring to a hackingscene[1], or javascene[2], or gamescene[3], or magicscene[4] wouldn't feel out of place at all either. [1] https://www.google.com/search?q=%22hackerszene%22 https://www.google.com/search?q=%22hackerszene%22 [2] https://www.google.com/search?q=%22java-szene%22 https://www.google.com/search?q=%22java-szene%22 [3] https://www.google.com/search?q=%22game-szene%22 https://www.google.com/search?q=%22game-szene%22 but https://www.google.com/search?q=%22gaming-szene%22 https://www.google.com/search?q=%22gaming-szene%22 probably hits better [4] ok this one is a bit of a miss but still https://www.google.com/search?q=%22magic-szene%22 https://www.google.com/search?q=%22magic-szene%22
GuB-42 3y ago
It came from the warez or cracking scene, often just called "the scene" [1]. I don't know where the name came from, but the demoscene is definitely a (legal) spinoff of the (illegal) warez scene. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demoscene https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demoscene > Demos in the demoscene sense began as software crackers' "signatures", that is, crack screens and crack intros attached to software whose copy protection was removed. You may notice that many demoscene groups have the same name as warez groups, this is not a coincidence as they were originally the same people. All part of "the scene". [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warez_scene https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warez_scene

thibaut_barrere 3y ago

You are so close from the truth :-) I wrote demos some while back (~ 1990 -> 1998 roughly). They were running on the hardware of that time (including specific soundcards like the Gravis UltraSound), using modified DOS modes etc. As years passed, it became difficult to run them, because the hardware was harder to find. Ultimately I wasn't able to watch my own creations anymore! At some point though, I discovered DOSBox (the emulator). But running it on the available hardware in say 2005 would not give anything good! So I had to wait more years until technology improved (good enough to ensure the emulation would run fast & without too many glitches, but also fast enough so that video can be captured decently), until 2019 roughly, when some friend from back then captured my own work on their brand new PC (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVwesW3PSwg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVwesW3PSwg). So yes, it feels like archeology to me!

sedatk 3y ago
Great work! Good use of Mode-X blending effects to achieve "true color" :). I missed this one when it got out, but I'd have loved it.
- thibaut_barrere 3y ago
  Thank you :-) Yes, well it looked much better on CRT screens, which provide a good blending!