pouët.net

Demos?

category: general [glöplog]
 
I had enough time since the last time I opened a thread. So..

Many times, I ask some friends "do you know the demos" and he tells me "Oh yeah, you mean a demo from Quake 3 or Tomb Raider?"

I was wondering. Who was the first to use the term 'demo' in the computer society? The commercial/shareware or the demoscene community? If the commercial community was the first, then did the demoscene thought that they should better use another term to avoid confusion? If so, then I guess the first people would have surelly heard of the commercial demos before making demos and calling them so. But if demoscene was the first to use the term, then the commercial community perhaps didn't ever knew the term 'demo' was already reserved. That would explain..

Also. When was the term 'demo' first mentioned inside the demoscene? I mean: I think that if the demoscene came from the cracking scene, then the first "logo, scroller, rasters, music"-type demos would have been called intros. The term demos came later. But when? Also,. after or before the term megademos (from Amiga, like many separate onescreeners connected together)? And when was the first megademo released? Who are the one in the scene that made the first ones and used these terms before everyone in the world? Historically perhaps Tomcat could say us..

One more again historical question: In the commercial computer industry, when was the first demo (trial version or limited, of a programm) released? Did commercial demos came from the shareware community? When did it started? If you don't know exactly, do you remember when you were smaller, when was the first time you had got a commercial demo of a game/programm?

Perhaps I want to figure out if 'demos' of the demoscene was first to use the term, or not.. Perhaps I am just curious. Or I don't have anything to spend my time with (that's a lie though, cause I am running and have to run and I am also having fun with Erasmus student I met,. I have to go find them again :)

But it would be interesting..
added on the 2003-10-09 17:08:05 by Optimus Optimus
I remember demos being called demos in the early amiga days. But magazines with disks also had game demos too. From what i remember, the cracktros were first called intros, and when people first released standalone demos, they called it a 'demonstration' which was of course shortened to demo pretty fast. That was c64 days. But whether c64 magazines had cover tapes with game demos too then I can't remember.
added on the 2003-10-09 17:12:21 by psonice psonice
Related to this question... why are 64k-demos called "intros"? That always buggers me, because they are little standalone demos and don't introduce anything at all. Who started that?
added on the 2003-10-09 17:43:17 by twy twy
The first demos were really cracktros, as I said. They were called 'intros' cause they were the cracker's introduction to the game...

Later demos (stand-alone intros) appeared, and later compos started happening, and I think the difference came about because there were compos for general demos, with the demo taking maybe a whole disk (or more), and intros, which like cracktros had to take only a small space on the disk (40kb i think for the amiga intros, 4 blocks is it?)
added on the 2003-10-09 17:46:37 by psonice psonice
why are 64k-demos called "intros"?

Because crack-intros were linked before the actual games and in that sense "introduced" them. And secondly, the space for such an intro was limited, the cracked/trained game still had to fit on one floppy disc.
added on the 2003-10-09 17:55:40 by tomaes tomaes
Tomaes: link to your faq required I think :)
added on the 2003-10-09 17:57:22 by psonice psonice
what's a pantro?
added on the 2003-10-09 17:59:26 by Pete Pete
Mhmm, I really have to update the damn thing. :)
added on the 2003-10-09 17:59:36 by tomaes tomaes
Pete: it's a chinese dish. it's aim is to be an introduction to the main course, and must be cooked entirely in one pan.
added on the 2003-10-09 18:01:24 by psonice psonice
Panwhat? I haven't heard of this before..
added on the 2003-10-09 18:02:04 by Optimus Optimus
I should introduce Optytro.
added on the 2003-10-09 18:02:23 by Optimus Optimus
Optytro: a cracktro consiting of a small chiptune, small logo, a starfield, and a sinus scroller. Often takes 2-3 full disks.
added on the 2003-10-09 18:03:16 by psonice psonice
Wow! That would introduce sea-sick effects to the demoscene, for someone who would manage to read 1% of it!!!
added on the 2003-10-09 18:07:32 by Optimus Optimus
Some of the C64 Compunet stuff like the first Mighty Bogg music demos were released in 1985 and they weren't the first. Some of the first "display hacks" that date back as far as the PDP-10 hackers at MIT were also referred to demos and, since that was well before the commercial video game was even a possibility (indeed prior to even Spacewar) so the demo guys got there first... =-)

Just for reference; the first C64 magazine i can remember with a covermount was the first Zzap! Sampler which previewed (amongst others) The Last Ninja and Return Of The Mutant Camels. The HVSC credits for both these games (working from the Anthony Lees preview tune for TLN rather than the final set by Lees and Ben Daglish) says 1987 so that must be after. i believe that there were covermounts prior to that, although if the term "demo" was used is a different matter.
added on the 2003-10-09 20:29:06 by TMR{C0S} TMR{C0S}
Hey I remember that issue :) I went out and bought last ninja after that. I still love that loading tune now :) (final that is) Has there ever been a demo with a remix?
added on the 2003-10-10 10:37:37 by psonice psonice

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