Introduction
What kind of programs does Demosceners make, how do they make them, and for what purpose? These questions can be answered by looking at various kinds of productions that has been released and how the different parts, in form of code, graphics, music and design, are glued together. Regarding the purpose of the work, a plausible answer can probably be found by studying the demoscene audience.
What do demosceners produce?
Usually, when confronted with what demosceners and demogroups produce, one is likely to refer to the term demos. The term is short for demonstration, which means that the people behind it have done their best (in some cases the worst) to demonstrate their abilities to the audience. How do they achieve this? As mentioned in the introduction chapter of this article, one has to look at the different pieces which the demos consists of, to get a full understanding of this.
Demos consists of programming, graphics, and music. A coder does the programming, usually in the low-level language known as assembler, which is the backbone of the production. Effects in various forms and 3D engines are examples of the work a person with this job do.A graphician on the other hand paints the pictures, the cliparts, the fonts, and the textures, while the musician has responsibility for creating the earcandy. On the Amiga a program called Protracker has been the standard tool for Amigascene musicians, although applications like Digibooster have become more common during the last 7-8 years. When it comes to the graphics, it is worth noting that there are people who does raytracing as well. Tracers does for example make 3D objects for the demos.
When all the different parts are ready, they are glued together into a standalone production which is called a demo, and this job is done by the coder. It is a heavy-duty job, and one can often see exhausted coders collapsing in front their computers at demoparties, battling against the deadline for delivering their work to the competition.
Anything else than demos?
The scene is not only restricted to the production of demos. There are other types of software being produced. Here is a list of the most common categories with explanations:
Diskmagazines: Diskmagazines was originally spread on
floppydisks, since few people had harddrives, and therefore they got
this name. The diskmag is generally a forum for sceners, where they can
discuss various topics through articles. Through the years it has also
included trading advertisments, charts over the most popular sceners,
non-scene forums, news, and rumours. There are still being
diskmagazines being released for the Amiga, but not as much as it used
to.
The diskmag is not spread as a textfile, but is a standalone program with graphics and music incorporated. Here is a picture from a diskmag to illustrate this:
Defy 6 by Cydonia
Intros: Intros can be looked at as small demos. They come in different sizes, but the most common ones are 4KB, 40KB and 64KB. You can also find 256B intros, but they are not common. During the last decade, coders have worked really hard with intros, and they manage to cram music and stunning effects into only 4KB. If you would like to see examples of such kind of work, productions from groups like Ephidrena, Spaceballs and Push Entertainment is recommended.
Musicdisks: The work of the musician. It is simply a
collection of songs made by one or more musicians, glued together with
a user interface, made by the coder.
Packs: Packs has disappeared more and more the last
decade due to the Internet getting widespread across the world. Packs
is simply a collection of stuff, mostly small executable files, that
traders (both modem- and mailtraders) have collected. It can also
contain articles, charts, advertisments, and other bonus stuff. In most
cases they were made for a single floppy disk and consists of a coded
general user interface.
Packs contains mostly intros, which can be characterized as small demos, but here are other kinds too. Musicpacks, which is based around songs, and ascii-packs, where textfile logos are provided, can be seen as examples of this.
Slideshows: This kind of production is the pride of
demoscene graphician. The aim of the program is to provide a selection
of pictures from one or more artists. An interactive interface is
usually provided in newer productions, where the user can browse
through the contents.
These are the most usual kinds of programs that demosceners make. If you decide to go hunting for some demoscene stuff, you may encounted productions labelled dentros, funtros, and lametros. The only thing that needs explanation here is the first one mentioned, which can be described as a hybrid between an intro and a demo.
Purpose and audience
Regarding the purpose of producing a demo or diskmag, it varies from group to group, person to person. Despite the differences, one can say, generally, that demos are made to show other people what one can get out of a computer. Also, it is about competing with others and to show what you or a group can do with your computers. Last but not least, it is about fun and friendship and belonging to a community. It can for example be compared with the musicscene.
The audience, the spectators, those who consume the productions, who
are they? They are everything, or was everything, from ordinary
computer users to demosceners. Many people are fascinated by the sight
of a demo and they think it is exciting to see what sceners can get out
of their computer. If the effects are not in focus, funny demos like
Budbrain 1 & 2 can be popular.
In short, the audience consists of people all around the world, from the newbie computer user to the hardcore programmer. This can be connected to the purpose of the demos. They are not made for the people who created them, they are made for all people who would like to take a look at the productions. The sceners has not always been sceners, and most of them came into the community by watching demos, gaining interest, and finally, beginning to create (or trade) themselves.
End words
I hope that this has given you a short and general introduction to the different kinds of productions that demosceners make, how they make them, who the audience is, and the purpose of the work. If you are interested in checking out some stuff from the Amiga or PC scenes, then you can check out the links I've provided for you below. Thank YOU for taking the time reading this, and good demo hunting!!
Bonus links to demoscene sites:
A general demoscene site with productions for various platforms
On Aminet you can find all kinds of Amiga demoscene productions
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