Checking Out Some Scene Demos For Playstation 1 & 2 With The Dell Lattitude E5250 Running Linux Mint

#demoscene #playstation #demo

The DEMOSCENE is an international computer art subculture that focuses on creating demos: self-contained, sometimes extremely small (1kb, 4Kb, slightly larger, bootsector) computer programs that produce audiovisual presentations. These demos are designed to showcase programming, visual art, and musical skills as well as seemingly and sometimes even exeeding the capabilities of a specific computer or console platform.

The demoscene began in the 1980s with the software cracking scene, where individuals would add “crack intros” to software that got cracked (pirated). These intros evolved into complex displays of technical and artistic skill, eventually becoming standalone pieces of digital art.

Demos are typically shared at festivals known as DEMOPARTIES, where creators gather to compete in various categories based on demo size, platform, type and format. Basically they’ve turned into multidisciplinary art-exhibits. The demoscene is known for its emphasis on creativity and technical skill, pushing the limits of computer hardware through optimized coding and artistic innovation. With precaculation tables the old machines seeimingly managed to perform complex computations like you’d only find on higher end hardware.

The PLAYSTATION & PS2 involvement in the demoscene is much smaller compared to platforms like the Commodore 64 or Amiga which were more openly embraced by the community due to their more accessible and modifiable nature. Running your own programs on computers has been easier than running self made code on game consoles.
The Sony consoles while not a common platform for demoscene productions due to its closed nature and the complexity of its architecture, still saw some activity, even from those without a Net Yaroze (PS1) or Linux-OS (PS2). Some managed to explore its capabilities and created demos for it, although these were less common and not as central to the demoscene as other platforms. Some recent examples can be found in this video.

The demoscene’s influence has been large as many of the first gen developers working in today’s videogame industry have experienced demos either passive or actively creating them. A good example is the Finnish game studio HOUSEMARQUE, which became part of the PlayStation Studios family. Its developers have their roots in the demoscene. The studio’s founders were involved in the demoscene, which influenced their game development approach and the technical prowess of their games for PlayStation platforms. And I must say I am quite the fan of their games!

So even though the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 were not primary platforms within the demoscene, the culture and skills developed within the demoscene have significantly influenced game development for these consoles. The technical and creative challenges of demoscene activities have undoubtedly contributed to the skills of game developers.

Hardware in this video:
Dell Lattitude E5250
Screen 12,5″ 1366×768 (WXGA Wide)
RAM 16Gb, DDR3
CPU Intel Core i5-5300U (2 cores, 4 threads)
HD/SSD 250 Gb

MiSTer FPGA HEBER 2nd gen low profile
– OA486 PC 486SX-Core running MS-DOS 6.22, Freedos, Windows 3.x, Windows 9.x
PentiumM Windows XP Centrino Laptop
Pentium III, Voodoo3 A-Bit PC

Software in this video:
OS Linux Mint
PCSX2 Nighly Build (Linux) – Playstation 2
DuckStation Nightly Build (Linux) – Playstation 1
FS-UAE (Linux) – Amiga
PCEm v17 (Linux – built from source) – MS-DOS & Windows9x
Wine – 32 and 64 bit Windows
Shapeshifter (Amiga) 68k – MacOS 7.5, 8.1
DOSBox-x (Linux) – MS-DOS
Virtualbox (Linux) 6.1.50_Ubuntu r161033 – Windows9x, MS-DOS
SoftGPU (Applications, Driver) for use with Windows9x on VMWare, Virtualbox, Q-Emu
OBS (Linux) – Video capture
Shortcut Open Source Video Editor (Linux) – Video Editing
KDEnlive video editor (Linux) – Video Editing
Audacity (Linux) – Audio editing
Handbrake (Linux) – Video transcoding

Enjoy & thanks for watching
– LactobacillusPrime

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