Demo Scene

The Demo Scene is a curious sub-culture that came to prominence during the rise of the 16 bit micros (The Atari ST and the Amiga). The main aim of demo's were to show off the abilities of the writers machines and where 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 routines would consume and how best to squeeze as much activity on the screen as possible.

Most demo's were written by "crews" with interesting names (e.g."The Care Bears", "The Lost Boys) usually devised of at least a coder and a graphics man and a musician.

Some famous Atari Demos

• The Union Demo (by assorted groups under the Union banner)
• The Cuddly Demos (by The Care Bears)

Some famous Amiga Demos

• Jesus on E's (well it’s the only one I've seen!)