Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
| Domain | Definition |
Computing | Demoscene /dem'oh-seen/ [also `demo scene'] A culture of multimedia hackers located primarily in Scandinavia and northern Europe. Demoscene folklore recounts that when old-time warez d00dz cracked some piece of software they often added an advertisement in the beginning, usually containing colorful display hacks with greetings to other cracking groups. The demoscene was born among people who decided building these display hacks is more interesting than hacking - or anyway safer. Around 1990 there began to be very serious police pressure on cracking groups, including raids with SWAT teams crashing into bedrooms to confiscate computers. Whether in response to this or for esthetic reasons, crackers of that period began to build self-contained display hacks of considerable elaboration and beauty (within the culture such a hack is called a demo). As more of these demogroups emerged, they started to have compos at copying parties (see copyparty), which later evolved to standalone events (see demoparty). The demoscene has retained some traits from the warez d00dz, including their style of handles and group names and some of their jargon. Traditionally demos were written in assembly language, with lots of smart tricks, self-modifying code, undocumented op-codes and the like. Some time around 1995, people started coding demos in C, and a couple of years after that, they also started using Java. Ten years on (in 1998-1999), the demoscene is changing as its original platforms (C64, Amiga, Spectrum, Atari ST, IBM PC under DOS) die out and activity shifts towards Windows, Linux, and the Internet. While deeply underground in the past, demoscene is trying to get into the mainstream as accepted art form, and one symptom of this is the commercialization of bigger demoparties. Older demosceners frown at this, but the majority think it's a good direction. Many demosceners end up working in the computer game industry.Demoscene resource pages are available at `http://www.oldskool.org/demos/explained/' and `http://www.scene.org/'. Source: Jargon File. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The Demoscene is a interesting computer sub-culture that came to prominence during the rise of the 16 bit micros (the Atari ST and the Amiga), but demos first appeared during the 8-bit era on computers such as C64 and ZX Spectrum.
Demos began as software cracker's 'signatures'. When a cracked program was started, the cracker or his team would take credit via an impressive-looking graphical introduction or intro. The first time this appeared was on the Apple II computers in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Later, these intros became so involved that they evolved into their own subculture independent of cracking software. These were not initially called demos but rather letter, message etc.
The main aim of demos was to show off the abilities of the writer's machines
and were often deployed in the "Platform Wars."
Demo writers went to great lengths to get every last ounce of performance out of their target machine. Where games/application writers were concerned with stability/functionality of their software, the demo writer was typically interested in how many CPU cycles a routine would consume and how best to squeeze as much effects and activity onto the screen or into as short a program as possible.
Nowadays, as the computers have got faster and usually have some kind of hardware 3D acceleration, the bias in making demos has moved from squeezing as much out of the computer as possible to making stylish, beautiful and well-designed real time artwork - a fact that lots of so-called "oldschool demosceners" seem to disapprove of. The old tradition still lives though - old computers and mobile devices like handheld phones with their limits are a real challenge for talented coders, musicians and graphicians.
Most demos were written by groups with interesting names, usually including at least a coder, a graphics artist, and a musician. Some demoscene groups include:
For a list of demos, see ZX Spectrum Demos, Commodore 64 Demos, Amiga Demos and Atari Demos. The demoscene still exists on the PC, C64, ZX Spectrum and Amiga, although the large variety of hardware makes it harder to compare demos. Several of the 3D benchmark programs also have a demo or showcase mode, which also derives its roots from the days of the 16 bit platforms.
Concept
Partys
Groups
Demos
External links
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Demoscene."
Crosswords: DEMOSCENE |
| Specialty definitions using "DEMOSCENE": copyparty ♦ demoeffect. (references) |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
demoscene | 5 |
demoscene radio | 3 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "c-d-e-e-e-m-n-o-s" | |
-2 letters: demesne, encodes, seconde, seedmen. | |
-3 letters: censed, codens, demons, donees, emceed, emcees, emends, encode, mensed, mondes, omened, secede, second, seemed, socmen. | |
-4 letters: cedes, cense, coden, codes, coeds, comes, coned, cones, decos, deems, demes, demon, demos, denes, dense, domes, donee, emcee, emend, meeds, mends, mense, mesne, meson, modes, monde, needs, neems, nodes, nomes, nosed, omens. | |
| Words containing the letters "c-d-e-e-e-m-n-o-s" | |
+2 letters: comediennes, recompensed. | |
+3 letters: decompensate, deforcements. | |
+4 letters: aeromedicines, decompensated, decompensates, denouncements. | |
+5 letters: appendectomies, composednesses, splenectomized. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)44 45 4D 4F 53 43 45 4E 45 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)-.. . -- --- ... -.-. . -. . |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000100 01000101 01001101 01001111 01010011 01000011 01000101 01001110 01000101 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)D E M O S C E N E |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0044 0045 004D 004F 0053 0043 0045 004E 0045 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)383947495337394839 |
| 1. Crosswords 2. Expressions: Internet 3. Anagrams 4. Orthography | 5. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
