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>>1984
20 Years in the Evolution of Proudly
Presenting
>>2002
Old-School DEMOs :: Early History ::
A
Hacker ::
Art Form is Born ::
To start our journey into the land of the
DEMO we have to go back, way back. Just close your eyes and
imagine that it is 1981. Personal computers are just starting
to emerge from the computer hobbyist underground; cheap
multi-GIGA-size hard-drives and RAM are about 15 years away
into the future. Software is packaged and delivered to users in
one or more floppy disks. In the Apple II system, the operating
system was also crammed on the floppy, alongside a software
title, and was loaded to RAM as you booted up your machine.
Most software titles and specifically games normally spanned
one to three floppies. The title's splash screen would appear
after the initial OS boot and before the user could interact
with it. In the U.S. most titles were sold and distributed via
computer hobby stores, hobbyist groups meetings and mail orders
directly from the publisher. Outside the U.S. it was very hard
to get software at all.
Enter the crackers. [1] A Cracker would
obtain a legitimate title, remove any copying protection
measures applied to it by the publisher and distribute it for
free to their local friends, computer user groups. Some would
also set up BBSs (Bulletin Board Systems) in the basements of
their homes and post the broken title for downloading over
dial-up. [2] Sure, piracy hurts software sales to some extent
but I'm convinced that it caused more good than harm to the
software industry by infecting otherwise perfectly 'normal'
people with the PC Germ and thus breaking computing into the
mainstream. Did you become hooked to software by a CD
'borrowed' from a friend? Piracy certainly didn't hurt game
publisher Electronic Arts, which became a multi-billion company
hailed as the next Disney. People also tend to forget that in
many countries outside the U.S., one often could not even buy a
given software title at all since there were no local computer
stores and there was no easy way to shop internationally. At
least that was the case in my small birth-place country,
Israel. Without the bootlegs and the BBSs, millions of people
around the world would have never gotten into this geek-thing
at all. I personally know about five software industry people
who got attracted to computers at an early age by games I would
let them copy for free. Today, all software titles are readily
available for purchase online or at your favorite office
supplies store, so there's little excuse left for bootlegging.
[3]
The mostly teenage crackers had gone
through the trouble of doing all this to impress kids like me
around the globe with their technical wizardry and coolness.
So, how would all these kids, booting up the newest, just
released cracked game, be able to attribute its availability to
the Apple Rebel and Hot Rod and the infamous MotherBoard BBS?
[4] Enter the DEMO. The old-school DEMO was a piece of custom
software code [5] and content that crackers would write and
attach to the boot sector of a pirated software title floppy.
The software would execute as soon as the floppy booted on a
computer and would display a page attributing the cracker
crew's alias names. Short, cute, and catchy aliases akin to the
ones used in Hip Hop culture. Names like The Intern, First
Class, MPG, Desert Storm, DJ Clue and The 2-live Crew. After a
few seconds delay, the DEMO and the 'legitimate' original title
would start up. Performing this neat feat required at times a
fairly sophisticated understanding of the underlying disk
operating system, assembly language, and the hardware platform
involved. In the early 80s, DEMOs were fairly modest and
consisted of a text information page -- appropriately named
'title page' -- containing credits, shout-outs and dial-up
numbers to free software BBSs. Title pages rapidly evolved to
include graphics, animation, and music as crackers began to
compete with each other for reputation and credibility in the
computer underworld scene. The challenge being: who would be
the first to create and distribute the most impressive
audio-visual DEMO for the hottest new game just out?
This new, unprecedented form of expression
had almost absolute artistic and creative freedom; the only
constraint being the available space on the floppy and the
multimedia capabilities of the target computing platform.
Remember, the complete bastard DEMO software needs to fit
side-by-side with the legitimate host software on the cracked
floppy, and floppies had total storage space in the range of
4KB to 64KB (compared to about 1.2MB in today's standard floppy
disk and about 760MB in a single CD-ROM). From the cracker's
perspective, it all boiled down to getting the greatest and
latest game for your favorite computer platform, cracking it
quickly, designing and writing your DEMO in days, patching it
in, testing that the original software still worked, and
uploading the final disk image quickly to a few leading BBSs
across the US so it could be downloaded by anyone with a
computer and a modem. If everything worked smoothly, and nobody
else had beaten you to it, you would get the satisfaction of
having your A.K.A name in front of thousands of computer
enthusiasts like you all over the world. It seems that these
numerous challenges only contributed to the creativity and
ingenuity of the DEMO makers: In the mid 80s, the cutting edge
in personal computer sound, graphics, compression, text effects
and animation was to be found in DEMOs. In addition, a new
breed of title page writers would specialize in the art of DEMO
creation and let others in their crew focus on cracking.
Some DEMOs contained original graphics and
music; some appropriated graphics, animations, and music
elements from the cracked host title and used them in a new and
innovative configuration or mix. Some copied the title's
software publishing company logo and subverted it in a humorous
way. [6] Some would add short prose, similar to the intro text
that opens up a motion picture -- "Somewhere, in a galaxy
far away..." -- and some would politely ask you to support
the software movement by purchasing the title if you enjoyed it
or to use it productively, seeding the shareware software
publishing model. It is a shame that most of the great classic
DEMOs are by now probably forever lost without ever being
systematically researched, cataloged, or archived. [7]
The DEMO scene also drove innovation in
media software tools: one of the first multimedia authoring
software packages for a personal computer -- before
groundbreaking titles such as HyperCard, [8] PaintShop and
VideoWorks were even conceived -- was a DEMO creation kit for
the Apple II. This nameless tool allowed you to start from an
empty bitmap or load a bitmap image drawn in another paint
software package, specify rectangular and non-rectangular
regions on the bitmap's surface, assign an animation loop, and
optionally a sound loop on the region bits, add new text
regions, type text into them, set a font face from one of the
bundled fonts and draw color shapes and lines. A pretty
impressive feat for a model 1982 software running on a text
terminal and having, according to today's standards, pretty
rudimentary raster and vector graphics modes with no real font
support. [9] Finally, you used the tool to install your new
creation and the custom animation software run-time on a target
floppy -- now boot it up, cross your fingers, and hope to see
your DEMO, an unbroken copy of the operating system and the
original software title all loading and running smoothly
together as expected.
:: New School DEMOs Mature to Become a New
Digital Art Form ::
Now close your eyes again and fast forward
back to 2002. Cheap PCs with lots of RAM, hard-disk capacity,
and hi-fi stereo sound capabilities are abound world-wide, and
millions of computer enthusiasts and gamers have very fast
machines with dedicated 3D graphics and high resolution color
monitors. Computer software titles are now readily available in
retail stores and via the almost ubiquitous Internet. (Gaming)
software is a $XX billion a year business. CG animation is
prevalent in many hot kid flicks. Napster is RIP. Organizations
such as RIAA, Disney and MPAA basically dictate the copyright
laws of the U.S., and cracking software is a federal felony
that can get you in jail for the best years of your life
--definitely not a way to impress your friends anymore.
You would imagine that all of the above
would spell the end of the DEMO scene, but in reality the
opposite is happening. A new breed of DEMOs, which I take the
liberty to name New School DEMOs, is quietly becoming a major
artistic form of expression in the computer underground. DEMOs
gave up their original hosts and are now distributed via the
Internet and in special 'DEMO Parties' annually held all over
Europe. [10] New School DEMOs are not attached to software
titles anymore. They exist independently as executable software
packages. The DEMO creators now come from a new generation of
hard-core software hackers [11] who are deep into the C
programming language, esoteric audio formats, computer
graphics, and 3D frameworks such as OpenGL and Microsoft Direct
3D. The motivation remains to gain reputation among friends,
fellow DEMO crews, and the computer underground. However,
there's a new twist: building a great DEMO is a new way for an
aspiring 3D artist to get into The Biz, that is, the computer
games business. Watching a New School DEMO unfolding on your
computer can be a real eye-opening, inspiring experience --
being completely untainted by any direct commercial interests
or by the latest art world fad, a New School DEMO is designed
to create an engaging and highly personal audio-visual
experience that utilizes your computer resources and graphics
card to the max. Conceptually, a good DEMO is designed to suck
you in and it won't let you go until it is over -- don't Press
ESC just yet! Some DEMOs look like electronic music video clips
you've probably seen on TV before -- an ambient psychedelic
four-minute trip through an alien kaleidoscope world, but many
of them have new, raw, and refreshing esthetic qualities that
you probably have not experienced before. A good DEMO needs to
contain something fresh -- a new subject matter, a new
animation technique or, even better, a fresh combination of
known techniques and classic subject matters. [12]
Technically, the DEMO is a short video clip
where the frames are generated in compiled, custom C code
written by the DEMO maker. However, unlike traditional digital
video clips of CG animation, the code renders the clip frame by
frame using a 3D software framework run-time. [13] Each frame
is rendered to the screen using the viewer's Graphics Card 3D
capabilities. The code uses pre-generated raw media materials
such as bump maps, 3D mashes and paths, surfaces, textures, MP3
sound snippets, bitmaps and fonts. In some cases, the code also
generates the clip's soundtrack on the fly. The code also
synchronizes the animation with the soundtrack, in many cases
modifying the 3D camera position and the scene lighting with
each music beat or measure. A great DEMO must use these
elements in a creative way --producing a unique and impressive
artistic expression that is being generated and unfolding for
you, on your personal computer, each time you view it, by the
artist's code and aesthetic vision. It may take up to a few
months for a team of digital graphic artists, computer
musicians, and software hackers to create a great DEMO from
start to finish. Good DEMOs have better graphics than anything
you'll get on the PlayStation 2 gaming platform. Interestingly
enough, unlike the Old School, the New School DEMO scene is
currently mainly happening in Europe with very few significant
works coming out of America. Semi-annual DEMO parties are being
held all over Europe and mainly in Holland, Germany, Denmark
and France. Most DEMO web portals are European-based. The DEMO
party brings a new social aspect to the art form since many
DEMOs are specially designed for such an event. Some parties
contain real-time DEMO creation competitions where
participating artists must create the best DEMO they can, from
scratch, over a limited period of time, say 24 hours.
If you've read this far into this text,
then you'll probably ask yourself: well, this is all very good
but what's the relationship between the Old School and the New
School? Where's the common thread? One starts to see the
evolutionary pattern by looking carefully into the world of New
School DEMOs. One type of New School DEMOs is called Intros. An
intro is a DEMO that must be packaged into less than 16K or 64K
self-executable code. This is the size of a typical JPEG image
on your favorite website's homepage. When viewed, it must blow
you away both aesthetically and technically. Creating an
engaging and original several-minute video clip with a sound
track and compressing it to a size of a JPEG is definitely a
feat that requires considerable talent, time, and effort. But
how did the DEMO makers ever get the idea to impose such
constraints in the first place? Now that you are empowered with
the knowledge of this text, you can clearly see that the roots
of the Intro DEMO competitions lie in the days of Old School
DEMOs, where DEMO builders had to work within these technical
constraints. Intro DEMOs are therefore Retro Old-School-style
DEMOs. [14]
Another thread linking the old with the new
is the highly creative and non-standard usage of textuality.
Legacy CG video clips use very little to no text. However, both
Old School and New School DEMOs heavily use text in a similar
fashion. Text is highly stylized, uses non-standard, customized
fonts, and text animation is a must for every DEMO. Textual
content typically includes shout-outs to friends, family
members, fellow crackers and DEMO makers, a private joke, a
girlfriend's name, a cool BBS or a website and, most
importantly and a must-have, animated credits for the aliases
of the people who put the DEMO together. After all, that's what
it is all about. The text is not supplemental to the graphics
-- it is not an add-on patched to a 3D CG clip; on the
contrary, it is integral to the DEMO and sets its tone and
aesthetic style, typically having its own dedicated Intro and
Outro scenes.
In addition, almost all New School DEMO
makers use monikers and aliases -- Old School-style -- short,
witty, and completely anonymous. The reason to conceal the real
name has long vanished since New School DEMO makers are not
pirating software anymore and, as we have stated, would like to
build a personal reputation to get into The Biz. What's in play
here are the traces of the Old Masters' style as it continues
to be expressed through this implicit quotation by a new
generation of artists.
Lastly, our final clue lies in the content
of several New School DEMOs -- they intentionally perform
audio-visual quotation of the style and the content of some Old
School classics. In the DEMO scene, copying is not an issue of
law but of creativity and reputation -- you may and should copy
anything you want and use it as raw material for your new
creation, as long as you make the end-result original. DEMOs
today are an emerging art form that is unique and interesting
in the way it combines new kinds of artistic ideas, subject
matters, and techniques. An art form that requires a high level
of technical, digital media craftsmanship and mastery, and in
many cases involves a collaborative team of artists and
software developers.
It is mainly happening in the computer art
underground, beyond the reach of paralyzing mainstream agendas
and interests, created by talented and dedicated young people.
We can all look up to the DEMO Scene, get some inspiration and
perhaps even some ideas about how to keep the digital art
movement evolving, so that it can produce autonomous, vital,
and fresh forms of artistic expression in the 21st century and
beyond.
In this text, we have tried to show that
DEMOs are unique audio-visual, virtual constructs with deep
formalistic and aesthetic roots in the computer underground
movement of the 80s. No words can fully describe them, and you
definitely need to experience them first hand -- all you need
is a PC, Internet connection and a decent 3D video card. The
DEMOs are all free, just download from the Web and check them
out today.
© 2002 Shirley Shor and Aviv Eyal, All
Rights Reserved
[1] Crackers remove software protection,
known today as DRM measures. Phreaks crack the phone system.
Hackers break into computer systems.
[2] (Remember, it is 1981 -- so it is still
legal to write about copy protection circumvention)
[3] OK, I admit it, I've gone soft over the
years
[5] In many cases involving a small, custom
disk-loader
[6] A technique commonly used today by many
artists. For samples see the ADBUSTERS magazine at
http://www.adbusters.org/
[7] Relics do exist in the form of
Emulators, Disk Images, and Web museums. This webpage contains
screen shots of hundreds of Apple II title pages:
http://artscene.textfiles.com/intros/APPLEII/.thumbs.html
[9] Another cool tool used in title-page
authoring was a disk editor that enabled you to scan a floppy
for raster graphics, export them as a file to another floppy
and replace them with another bitmap.
[10] Are the kids in America too busy
playing Playstation 2 and copying Eminem MP3s? Have they gone
too soft, are they too spoiled or are there other reasons for
this geographical imbalance?
If you only want one URL to get started on
the DEMO scene, you need this one: http://www.scene.org/
[11] Read -- a young software developer
without an E degree
[12] CG text book examples, or subject
matter used in classic 80s' DEMOs. In hip-hop culture, the
music doesn't need to be original and is most likely to contain
samples from classic 70s' R&B and Soul -- but it absolutely
has to be fresh.
[13] Typically being OpenGL or Microsoft
Direct3D.
[14] I don't claim to be the first one to
discover this. These two article mention this history:
http://www.mlab.uiah.fi/~eye/demos/
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