I remember the demo scene from back when I was a kid. Cracked versions of software would circulate for Apple II and Commodore computers, and the pirates would insert a short animated tag with their cheesy hackerhandles before the game began. These demos grew more and more elaborate as time went on, especially on the Amiga, which was the undisputed champ of multimedia back in the day. I remember seeing some Amiga demos at a friend’s house and actually thinking, “Whoa, this looks better than Tron even!”
More geekiness after the jump.
But I had no idea that the demo scene continued to grow and thrive after the technological obsolescence of the Amiga. Teams of geeks continued to push past the theoretical limits of what the hardware was capable of, making colorful imaginative audiovisual clips that weren’t just better than Tron–they were even better than Lawnmower Man II!!!
I’m really happy that a collective of crackers and geeks have transferred some of the most amazing Amiga demos to DVD. The Mindcandy disc features 30 great examples of chiptune techno and lo-res 3D grafx that transport me back to the olden days when I first watched demos with my nerdbuddies, all of us hudded around the monitor gaping in awe. This disc also has a documentary about a demo festival in Germany from as recently as 2003, plus commentary tracks on each demo from geek luminaries like GameSetWatch guru and pal of the WiredGamblog Simon Carless.