Haven't even watched yet but I gotta say this is one of the best recorded convention panel videos ever especially in terms of sound. I'm used to not being able to hear anything when somebody brings back a video from a con.

Demos for modern machines exist.  However, instead of focusing on doing "impossible things", since there really aren't impossible things like that on modern hardware, they focus on making the demo code as small as possible.  People have done things with full 3D ray traced environments in 64k.  The criteria is "challenge" usually.  It's not challenging to do impressive graphics/sound on modern hardware.  But it is challenging to do it in 64k.

The guy who made the Amiga juggler demo offered it as an example of his work when applying for a job. Instant hire.

10:46 Boys, Boys, Boys by Sabrina. A big hit in Europe.

David's opening point about needing to understand the limitations of a machine in order to appreciate a demo really rang true for me.  It's the main reason I loved C= 8-bit demos, but never appreciated the Amiga scene - not for lack of art or talent, but due to my ignorance.

Also how eloquent David is. So many YouTube videos have cuts after every sentence. This live stuff is just as clear and consise  as his edited videos. Great YouTuber!

Demos are so interesting, pushing the older computer's code and graphics to the limit is so cool

I would like to stress the social aspect of demoscene. In Europe we have many demoscene parties, and they are called parties for a reason. People tend to go back to the same parties every year or at least every few years to meet with friends they made on these parties. Of course they tend to bring new demos, intros, music, etc. as well if they can, so they can participate in the compos. Winners usually get actual prices, but I guess the bragging rights are more important.

We used to hold raves in the UK and project PC DOS demos onto a wall as part of the lighting setup. 99% of the attendees had never heard of the demo scene (nor were they into computers).

However, we got lots of great feedback from the ravers who loved the visuals.

I remember one week our projector packed up and lots of people complained about the lack of "visuals".

These demos were our secret weapon, nobody knew what they was but everybody loved them. They certainly wasn't aware the demos had their own music. As a computer geek, I was very impressed by the way these demos did seemingly impossible things on limited hardware.

We ran the demos live from 2 x 486 PC's and the lighting guy would do crazy transition effects along with controlling all the lasers in time with the music the DJ was playing. Wish we had videos of it. Seeing 500 people all raving with 2nd reality or some farbraush projected onto a mega wall is something else.

Demos changed my life as they got me into music production and trackers. I got all my friends into trackers and we all used to produce remixes of songs which we'd play at our raves.

Great times!

14:50  good to see Jim Butterfield's name. He helped us get CUGOR going ( commodore user group of Rochester) in those days Late 70's people still wrote letters. If you wrote Jim a letter with a tech question, he would write you back.  RIP Jim Butterfield

LGR, Computer Clan and The 8bit Guy... ALL THE LEGENDS

21:26 I'm still amazed that at this moment, David's most famous video on Youtube is still that one video where he shoot the wasp's nest with guns.

The demoscene is still alive and that's amazing, but on modern hardware the main restriction people put in place is filesize. Like Conspiracy's "Clean Slate" and FMSCat's "Condition", which are a 64KB binary and WebGL demo respectively.

A moment of silence for Clive Sinclair's passing, the grandfather of all low  budget 8 bits systems.

#1 reason why people make Demos (that I'm aware of): contributing to a subculture they love that only keeps existing as long as people make demos.

Very enjoyable watch - I like the magic trick comparison!

I used to be a well known coder in the C+4 demoscene, it was some of the best period of my life. So much fun!
9:30 we called this Amiga balls and it was a legend :D

Me: "So how does this demo work?"
My computer: "That's the neat part. It won't."

holy shit the border optimization trick is 3000 IQ level, instead of using up the cycles with the jump you just... do the less cycle consuming command over and over again and then jump

"to enjoy a demo you gotta know the system's limitation" NAILED IT, that's what I always thought from the 1st time I watched a demo in my Amiga 500

Most of the demos I remember is legit from the cracking scene... some of the keygens (like what C.O.R.E. made) had some of the most amazing music and I would sometimes download software JUST to watch the animation of the cracks/keygens.