The Scene is old. Very old. It has been here for many years. So are the things we call demos. They have always, in one way or another, been a part of the Scene. There are even some people from that time, the old days, that still are active. There are even groups that are active these days that was a part of the Scene ten years ago.

Demos have developed from simple one-screen productions with long scrolltexts and coppereffects to the demos of today with advanced 3D routines and stunning graphics.

I have myself seen many different kinds of demos during the years and I have seen different kinds of demos come and go. Most of them are all different. (I guess they should be; what would the point be otherwise?) Different groups developed their own design and image (like Melon Dezign) and made their demos in a certain way. Some tried to do what they did, but Melon Dezign was always Melon Dezign. Design was the thing back then.

After being inactive for nine months, it was fun to once again boot up that Amiga and to download the demos and all other productions from the last nine months to find out what had happened in the Scene during the last year, to see what new things that had surfaced and what old things had disappeared.

The Latest Generation

During the last year, old groups that seemed inactive has started to release demos and other productions again and new groups has also popped up. On the other hands, many other great groups seems to have faded into inactivity. I downloaded demos from here and there, from this party and from that party. Of course all these productions had different quality, different themes, different design (if that is something we have at all these days. It is more like effect after effect without much thought it seems). I enjoyed watching these productions, seeing what the different groups had come up with. I saw new effects that I had never seen before that were really nice looking.

I must admit that for a while it seemed like some things were repeated over and over again. It seemed like everything was just the same. Quikly I started to complain to myself about a lack of originality. Everything seemed the same. "Boring," I thought and made up my mind that all demos released the last year were the same.

Recently, I took another look at the recent demos. I realized that even thought I had seen them, I had not really seen them. I had focused on the details that were the same in demo after demo instead of looking at the innovation, at the new effects that appeared on my screen. I started to realize that maybe I had been wrong, maybe there was more innovation than it seemed. Maybe all those demos I had seen were more original that I first had thought.

There are always people complaining about the lack of originality. All things just seem the same. Effects have been seen before, in almost the same shape and thus, they become boring. Which is quite natural. Of course effects become boring if they are repeated time after another. It is too easy to focus on the negative though. It is true that many demos contain things that have been seen before, but the amount of old material is actually not that big at all. Most demos actually contain effects that have not been seen before. Some effects might be altered and reused, but they still show that coders actually have some fantasy to do something differently.

The question if these demos have nice design is a question that I will leave unanswered in this article, as that is highly relative, depending on demo. There is also enough material to write a separate article on this subject, so I will leave that question without further comments.

Some Critical Insights

After I had spent a few hours watching demos, I realized that I had been wrong, maybe even ignorant. Even thought some things were repeated over and over again, when spending time to think about it, it was quite natural that some things should be there, in one form or another.

So what about originality? It is easy to complain about the lack of it, even though it is there. Despite what people say, demos of today are still quite original. No demo is the same as the other. They are all different concepts, ideas that came to life in some coders mind, and then made reality by a team of Sceners. And for those still complaining about lack of originality, watch the winning demos from the latest parties. You will find that they are all quite different.