I have thought of what it is like to start coding now and I think one pretty important difference is that nowadays it’s easier to make something that is practical, as opposed to doing something only for fun. For example, in 2008, you would create a simple blog with PHP but back in 1991 you would try to make some sprites fly around the screen. There were confusing libraries out there back then. So, you can still sort of jump in easily, but it’s a different train.

But then again there is no example source code in the instruction manuals for a modern computer. Nor are there any programming languages out of the box. I do agree that the bar is quite high so it’s easy to give up, especially if you want to create a game that doesn’t look amateurish. Hell, even creating a good looking demo takes a lot of effort.

PS. Purple Motion did a 2-channel module, too. :)

True about the inspiring stuff. But in a way, I’m worried that these days, with all the advances, it’s getting harder to just ‘jump in’. In the old days (just listen to me, I’m only 24 years old :)), all you needed was a copy of RBIL and Turbo C++/TASM/gcc, and you could mess around to your hearts content.

YOU wrote the 3D engine, you programmed the sound-blaster. It was your framework.

Now, ironically, with all the libraries and abstraction and techniques out there, it’s hard. A toddler geek just starting off will find it harder to understand code when it talks about resource and contexts, shaders and pipelines, than if it just talks about calling interrupt 13h to set video mode.

Or maybe I’ve just not programmed in long enough. When you get into that zen state of mind, maybe it doesn’t really matter. The closest I’ve gotten in two years is bits of perl, PHP and (ech) SQL.

An aside: The demo called Inside actually reminded me of an old module called inside.s3m by Purple Motion of Future Crew. I used to love that track. Just downloaded it again, it’s still amazing the stuff he’s done with 8 channels.

Also downloaded viewer2, will check it out soon. The video looks extremely interesting. Think it can replace IrfanView? :)

Sorry for this EXTREMELY long comment, but this post took me back to simpler times.

I tried to pick demos that would appeal to the masses. I wanted to include so many old demos I had on the Atari ST but they are even more about the code than the art. I think the very modern demos like Track One are so close to music videos that people can find them serious art rather than a curiosity for nerds. But I still hope nerds too find this kind of stuff inspiring and learn programming (like you and me did!).

I had a interest in the demo scene about 7-10 years back (not sure), when I started tracking using ScreamTracker, and then moved on to ImpulseTracker. There was some great music around then.

In a way, the demoscene is what drew me in to programming, and tied in my interest in music, design and programming. I used to spend hours downloading stuff from x2ftp (I had a dial-up back then), and going through them.

Of course, the most I’ve done is a Jetpak clone (the ZX Spectrum game) in Allegro, and a 3D spectrum visualization for Sonique, both lost now. But I had a great time.