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Just in case you're wondering...

The first demo ever made was programmed on a "WhirlWind" computer (a huge military machine) at the MIT in 1949/1950, it was the first computer able to display "real time" graphics (on an oscilloscope screen) the demo was called "Bouncing Ball".

linky
linky

Sadly no binaries are available :(

techdemos != demos

To me, it qualifies as a demo (or at least a proto-demo):

1. It was not interactive and display moving graphics.
2. It was calculated in realtime.
3. Coding trickery was used to make it fit in the memory of the computer.
4. It was made to show it could be done.

There's usually few steps in a demo platform evolution:

1. Make demos show something done "by the rules" of the machine (using the basic things the hardware is made for like displaying a scrolling picture, showing some text or displaying a raster bar), what you call techdemos.
2. Push the hardware to make it show what it wasn't "supposedly" able to do or that nobody thought could be done or had the idea to do (like making a demo for a 1541 disk drive).
3. Add some more evolved "purpose" to the demos on that platform, like design, plot, message, some artistic values (usually using references coming from outside the demoscene world), you name it.
4. Profit.

By purpose i mean "externally" recognizable purpose.

Thank you for the links to the papers! Very interesting indeed.

I think the definition of a demo is too narrow. A demo coded to only output on a teletype or printer type device is a demo too according to me. I have no examples but I bet you can find something that has no moving graphics that still is a demo from earlier than 1950.

Did they send fuckings to Stalin/KPSS?

Y'all just wait for Photon to clarify.

I sort of remember this thread from a while ago where we all try to define the undefinable.

Re: Which was the first demoscene demo?
https://www.pouet.net/topic.php?which=11445

Checkout this 1947 greetz for super oldskool group called C.R.T



you can totes make a sine scroller on this

how about PDP1 display hacks?
1:13, Snowflake:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoqA6fCyIpk

Awesome!

I don't know about demos, but here is some "ASCII" art from 1893:

https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/05/23/typewriter-art-laurence-king/

Very nice things all of these but personally i would go to Photon's thread and look what *I* said initially in first one.

Dazzler, 1976:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tDbn1N8EWI

"Die Geschichte der Demonstration ist eine Geschichte voller Missverständnisse."

playing the devil's advocate I would state:

- anything before 198x cracktros on 8-bit machines does not count as demoscene related
- the demoscene was born from the cracking scene
- demoscene begins with raster trickery / racing the beam effects and swaying logos

at least this is the story you guys sold the unesco, i think ;-)

Sounds very much like i was the wizard knowing it all, to put it another way, i still personally think what i answered in those Photon thread(s).

...and mostly what spike said

the story began with the appearance of people who can speak beautifully and eloquently

I'm with spike. The Demoscene is one particular movement among many formed around the creative use of tech. We can't just appropriate any demos ever made or the outputs of other creative coding movements or collectives and claim they are "demoscene" even if they don't or didn't know it.

Or in other words, if you feel the urge to organize All The Things Ever Made in an aristotelian fashion, then why do you feel the Demoscene should be the umbrella concept generalizing it all and not a mere leave somewhere at the bottom of the hierarchy instead.

(okey, I see the title is "The story of demos" and not "The story of the demoscene", so my rant could be easily dismantled if you want to focus on the words and not the sentiment of the post)

Yeah, I did so in my head in 0.002 seconds.

I think we need to distinguish the culture (demoscene) and the product (demos). Can someone make a demo (in our meaning) outside the demoscene?

I think so. To me it's kind of boring to have a group of near genetic clones decide what is a demo and what is not.

Sorry if I come off harsh, I'm in a mood today.