Hacker News Reader

Comment by fernly | Hacker News Reader

TIL: about the Demoscene[1], "an international computer art subculture focused on producing demos: self-contained, sometimes extremely small, computer programs that produce audio-visual presentations. The purpose of a demo is to show off programming, visual art, and musical skills. Demos and other demoscene productions are shared at festivals known as demoparties, voted on by those who attend, and released online."

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demoscene

View on HN

I'm surprised someone on HN since 2012 would learn about the demoscene today! Then again, it's true that the demoscene "keeps to itself", it's always been quite the bubble. I'm not sure how that community could do some outreach, but I believe a lot more people would find it interesting.

Something something lucky 10,000

For those not in the know, this is an xkcd reference: https://xkcd.com/1053/

It's a citation I want to give out surprisingly often.

Important to keep in mind the 10000 is in relation to the population of USA. On the scale of the whole world it's more like lucky 200000.

I wish HN had a top nav link and a mechanism like it has for “Show HN” posts, but for demoscene stuff. The prefix one would use could be “Demoscene HN” or something, and the rule would be the same as for the “Show HN” prefix – that using it is “allowed” only when the submitted of the link was involved in making the thing :D

There is also an active demoscene for microcomputers of the 80s, such as the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spectrum. And also people coding new games for them.

I'm glad these venerable computers live on.

I never get tired of watching these things. Such a cool art form.

Sometimes they can be a lot of filler though. Yes you managed to create a 40 minute video but its 90% the same thing moving very slowly.

> TIL: about the Demoscene

In that case, definitely have a look at this amazing write up (http://www.sizecoding.org/wiki/Memories).

Recently, Virtuaverse used Demoscene as part of a cyberpunk story.

https://www.gog.com/game/virtuaverse

Oh yeah, the Cracktro.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com