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Comment by wiz21c | Hacker News Reader

In case you wonder, the scene is not dead. It certainly is not what it was anymore, but there are still many people trying to push the limits on old computers.

Some demomakers are also active in the emulation scene.

But in the end, I guess all of that will die with "our" generation. We were born in that golden age and kids today can't live in our past (and that's fortunate!). So our art, emulators, scene will eventually pass away with us.

So don't wait, write that demo while you're still young enough to compete :-) (I did my last production at 49 :-) )

Greetz to Imphobia/ImpactStudios/Cascada/FrenchTouch !

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The Pico-8 scene has a number of demoscene artists.

Here's some examples picked randomly from the "featured" category.

- https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?pid=66745#p

- https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?pid=99910#p

- https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?pid=115136#p

- https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?pid=108652#p

If by "all of that" you mean people caring about Commodore vs Amiga pissing matches, maybe. But the Demoscene is much more, and that's not tied to your generation. There's demos targeting platforms that have only now existed for a few years.

> Commodore vs Amiga

I assume you mean Atari? Commodore owned Amiga

they might mean C64/C128 vs. Amiga

I initially thought parent commenter was being witty... thanks to this comment, I realised that the parent commenter might not have known that.

I would say it is "transformed"

https://www.shadertoy.com/

I suspect you're aware, but leaving this for the hackernews crowd that might not be: Shadertoy was in fact made by sceners for sceners. Inigo Quilez is iq/Rgba[1] who released it as a tool for the scene to use[2] back in 2009

1. https://www.pouet.net/user.php?who=4063

2. https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=54180

It’s definitely not dead. Some great demos have been released in recent years in JavaScript / WebGL, e.g. using visual tools like cables. https://cables.gl/

Those are great demos, but does it belong to the demoscene category?

The Wikipedia entry on demoscene seems to specify that it's about impressive demos on old computers.

> The Wikipedia entry on demoscene seems to specify that it's about impressive demos on old computers.

Where does it specify that? (and if it did, it would be wrong)

Then wikipedia is wrong. The demoscene is in part about pushing the limits of whatever platform you're on. But another way of looking at the scene is as an art movement based around real-time audiovisuals. The latter is of course a much more ambiguous definition, but there's a certain shared spirit and a defined aesthetic that holds across a lot of different hardware, rendering techniques and formats.

After reading more about it, I think that describes it well. At one point it seems it was very focused on working on limited hardware but that doesn't appear to be a general overall focus anymore. The old hardware demos still exist but most of the modern demos are about making something cool and fun and the fact that it doesn't push modern hardware at all is irrelevant.

Without the hardware limitations, is that different from just making videos?

From what I saw, a lot of the demos have some type of interactivity or other dynamic or generative element to them.

The hardware limitations are what makes the demos what they are. If it were not for them, we'd all make pre-rendered animations.

There's a reason why you've got the 4Kb, 64Kb competitions. We want limitations because overcoming them is part of the art.

Lastly I made an Apple ][ demo. I could have learned the shader stuff, load tons of geometry, etc. But I much prefer limitations because I know my peers will check my code and hopefully will be astonished by what I do. (yeah, gratification !!!)

I would even call JS13K [1] demoscene-esque in that its all about getting the most out of work within constraints and limitations. Maybe not a Wikipedia textbook definition but its got that vibe.

https://js13kgames.com/

Maybe it will live on with the advent of fantasy consoles/computers. PICO-8 and similar systems provide the same kind of time and space limitations as the old systems, which still encourages a certain amount of creativity and ingenuity.

Not just fantasy consoles -- there are modern retro-specced computers out there like the ZX Spectrum Next, the Commander X16, and the Agon Light that are worth messing around with. Also, there is a demoscene for modern machines; it's just that the challenges are different: produce the most dazzling effects with the least amount of code.

For what it's worth, I'm on the younger side of things and the demo scene is something I still greatly admire. It's an integral part of so many technologies we use today, and although I may not be good enough to participate, it's one of the first things I mention when talking about how pirating ended up producing some positive things for society. :)

> I may not be good enough to participate

That's what we all felt when it started. Just try and try again, you'll learn, you'll meet great people and in the end, you'll shine :-)

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