Demoscene
Demos and other demoscene productions (graphics, music, videos, games) are shared, voted on and released online at festivals known as demoparties.
[1] Crackers altered the code of computer games to remove copy protection, claiming credit by adding introduction screens of their own ("cracktros").
While competing with each other in 1986, they both produced pure demos with original graphics and music involving more than just casual work, and used extensive hardware trickery.
In 2021, Germany and Poland also added its demoscene to its national UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage,[13][14] followed by Netherlands in 2023.
[15] Demosceners typically organize in small groups, centered around a coder (programmer), a musician, a graphician (graphics designer) and a swapper (who spreads their own and others' creations by mail).
To this end, most parties provide a large hall with tables, electricity and usually a local area network connected to the Internet.
In this respect, many demoparties resemble LAN parties, and many of the largest events also gather gamers and other computer enthusiasts in addition to demosceners.
[40] [41] fr-08, a 64k PC demo by Farbrausch released at The Party 2000 in Aars has since been claimed[42] to mark a watershed moment in the popularity of the category.
[47][48][49] Many European game programmers, artists, and musicians have come from the demoscene, often cultivating the learned techniques, practices and philosophies in their work.
[52] Similarly, at QuakeCon in 2011, John Carmack noted that he "thinks highly" of people who do 64k intros, as an example of artificial limitations encouraging creative programming.
[53] Jerry Holkins from Penny Arcade claimed to have an "abiding love" for the demoscene, and noted that it is "stuff worth knowing".
Tracker music, for example, originated in the Amiga game industry but was soon heavily dominated by demoscene musicians; producer Adam Fielding[55] claims to have tracker/demoscene roots.
A form of static computer graphics where demosceners have traditionally excelled is pixel art; see artscene for more information on the related subculture.
Since handheld consoles and cellular phones have comparable processing power or capabilities to the desktop platforms of old (such as low resolution screens which require pixel art, or very limited storage and memory for music replay), many demosceners have been able to apply their niche skills to develop games for these platforms, and earn a living doing so.
[citation needed] One particular example is Angry Birds, whose lead designer Jaakko Iisalo was an active and well-known demoscener in the 1990s.
[57] Unity Technologies is another notable example; its technical leads on iPhone, Android and Nintendo Switch platforms Renaldas Zioma and Erik Hemming[58][59] are authors of Suicide Barbie[60] demo for the Playstation Portable console, which was released in 2007.
[65] The tracker music which is part of demoscene culture could be found in many video games of the late 1980s to early 2000s, such as Lemmings, Jazz Jackrabbit, One Must Fall: 2097, Crusader: No Remorse, the Unreal series, Deus Ex, Bejeweled, and Uplink.
