The Demoscene Demo-Scene Related Events
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Barmer Straße 26 50679 Köln fon 0221 - 46 96 220 fax 0221 - 510756143 [email protected] Digitale Kultur was founded in 2003 as a friendly society in Cologne, Germany. The association presents the computer as a means of expressing artistic creativity and aims to support the communica- tion between creative people. To achieve this, the association orga- nizes demoparties and other The Demoscene demo-scene related events. Computers new realm http://www.digitalekultur.org http://www.demoscene.info In cooperation with http://www.scene.org Whoever mistakes computers for Parties: Fun and Competion being boring or non-creative will be The groups and their members meet at the legen- proven wrong by the demoscene. Here dary demoscene-parties. They meet, they party programmers, graphicians and musici- and vote for the best new releases. New techni- ans show off their real skills. ques are exchanged, new friends and contacts They direct music videos without dancers, set made. Some sceners travel thousands of kilo- and camera. Their special effects do not need any meters to attend. A party can last 3 or 4 days and stunt-coordinators or fog machines. What they need no one is gettting much sleep. The competitors is just a computer and their creativity. All directing show their skills in a dozen different categories, and effects, all shades and the whole soundtrack from the best 4 kb intro, the best music to thro- are created on the machine. wing a harddisk the farthest. And in addition to the recognition for being the producer of an asto- nishing demo the winners can also receive valu- able prices. Digital Artwork The scene created new digital artforms. Demos are computer animated short movies featuring mind- blowing soundtracks and breathtaking effects. From piracy to the museum demo They got their name Today the scene and its productions are in the because the involved spotlight. But its history trails back into the early scenegroups used 80's. At a time when there were no gigahertz cpus them to demonstrate nor accelerator cards and the Commodore 64 their skills. Demos, other had been newly released just a short time ago it than normal animation all started with software piracy. Crackers who le petit prince by kolor movies, are calculated live removed the copy protection from a game put a at the time they run on a computer instead of being small intro before it so anyone knew they had just a pure playback of pre-rendered scenes. This been the first to do it. And it was the high art way even high-end pc hard- 64k intro of programming: available diskspace was limi- ware is pushed to its limits. ted as were the abilities of the old computers. Their productions are a But to leave a lasting impression the intro had to result of teamwork. For each look good. And it did - sometimes even better part specialists contribute than the pirated game itself. their creation to the final pro- duct. Often the group mem- orbitalism by haujobb But the wild days are gone: today you do not need bers are from different countries. It is anything but to own any illegal copies to watch intros or demos. unusual if the demos graphics are, for example, Room for the creative You can download them for free from the inter- 4k intro done in Germany, the music The demoscene is not limited to a few supertalen- net, you can find them at exhibitions and even in Sweden and the 3D ted programmers: anyone who is creative and wants in a museum. The scene evolved as computers effects in Canada. Intros are to contribute to the demoscene is welcome. Curious developed. Demos are running on game conso- in many ways similar to and interested people are always accepted. Many les, gameboys and even cellphones. demos - they just have to fit demosceners work for game companys, some star- additional limitations as they ted their own small businesses. Their know-how is It is the technological challenge that makes hi freaks by black maiden may not exceed 64, in anot- widely requested on the market: sceners for exam- demos what they are today: her category only 4 kilobyte. This is less diskspace ple help with the development of new graphic acce- than an empty Word document would use. lerator cards. Art that makes your computer live..