What is the demoscene? An experimental medium with unique constraints... a profusion of electronic poetry... a panopticum of expanding creative and technical boundaries... an ultrageeky-unashamedly-weird-often-misunderstood-spectacular contest/hobby/obsession... an acquired taste... a great way to spend time with friends...

And so it came to be that on one of the last weekends of 2015 about 75 people came to the Bünzli reboot party at the Lichtspiel in Bern. We saw 56 demos (and 2 new releases), admired 31 works of pixel/render art, and were dazzled by 4 vintage shorts reeled in by the Lichtspiel crew. We partied, consumed stacks of pizza / heaps of snacks / litres of beer and soda while listening to Nectarine during breaks. What's left to say? Just this:

Check out the party report on the Starfrosch blog. Hear seism & unlock babble about demos in Swiss German on Radio Bern. Have a look at our Storify list of prods, photos and tweets. Keep sending us your feedback, thoughts, ideas for next time! Until then, we would like to once again mention our sponsors:

You can participate in the demoscene practically all year round, see demoparty.net for a calendar. Nearby deadlines include Revision (April - Saarbrücken, Germany), Evoke (August - Cologne, Germany) & Demodays (stay tuned :).. Until then, there is still time to make more demos!

How to make a demo

A few people asked in the break about getting started with demo coding and music. We had to scrap the workshops at last minute where we planned to give intros to demo tools, but with interest we can organise them again later. Have a look at these links for waypoints on getting started:

• Beach Party intro to Tracking and more
• Renoise tutorials (a popular newschool tracker)
• Basics of Pixel Art by gasara (click image to zoom in)
• getting started (pouet) - a friendly place to noo be
• iq's articles legendary coder shares tips and secrets
• PC Demoscene FAQ by tomaes goes in deep
• hugi coder tutorial #1 - outdated but genuine
• the demoscene sourcecode thread (pouet)
• demoscene-starter-kit (github)
• farbrausch/fr-public (github)
• faemiyah-demoscene (github)

For the dataful among us, @gloom33 has dug into the stats of the scene, creating the chart above and more at State of the demoscene 1991-2014.

Snapshots

This display greeted visitors on arrival at the party, a tribute to the original OverHead Projector (OHP) category at Bünzli/Demodays.

Shown above is the LED panel of an embedded device demo making machine set up by participants of the demo show, and a tiny (796 byte) greeting executable sent in to us from Finland by Yzi.

Dimensions is a previously unreleased demo that was found and restored for its 20th anniversary.

In the breaks, we mingled to the sounds of demoscene music, which you can find at Nectarine, Demovibes and all over the net and BBS archives.

Demos played

The following productions (presented by seism) can all be downloaded via Demozoo, Pouet.net or Scene.org. Extended YouTube playlists are available too:

• Act I - Welcome to the scene
• Act II - Faves of 2015
• Act III - Bünzli+Demodays Selection
• Act IV - Party demomix
• Act Ü - Afterhours demomix

In order of appearance at the Lichtspiel:

Brainstorm - Old's Cool | Buenzli 2006
The Scene Is Dead - RAZOR 1911 | Revision 2012 | 64k
Mrs Escher's Nightmare - ASD  | Euskal 2014
The golden path - United Force & Digital Dynamite | Assembly 2009
Beams of Light - TRSI | @party 2014
recycler - thesuper | Chaos Constructions 2012
Starstruck by The Black Lotus | Assembly 2006 | Amiga/Atari
Paradise by Rgba | Euskal 2004 | 64k
Still - Parnassum | Evoke 2015
on - mercury | Revision 2015 | 64k
UFDD - Rainbow Clash: Way | Function 2015
Function Over Fame by Excess | TRSAC 2015
Offscreen Colonies by Conspiracy | Revision 2015 | 64K
A+ by Inque | TRSAC 2015 | 64K
Hold-And-Modify by CNCD Fairlight | Assembly 2015
Be Kool Fool by Focus Design | Gerp 2015 | Amiga AGA
Photon by Fairlight | NVScene 2015
Monolith by Andromeda Software Development | Assembly 2015
Amour by Orion | Buenzli 2002
Salmiakki by The Planet of Leather Moomins | Buenzli 2002
85 dollars by Mandarine | Buenzli 2003
2600 by Vantage | Buenzli 2004
$21 by Orion | Buenzli 2004
Demoscene Activist by Nuance | Buenzli 2005 invitation
Ultimatum to the World First Days of the Last War by mfx | Buenzli 2007
Lifecycle of a Party Animal by stroboholics & METALVOTZ | Buenzli 2009
Xenocrates by Panasqnic |  Buenzli 2009
fr-069: Booombox by farbrausch & Rebels | Buenzli 2011
My Buenzli - The Demodays 2011 Invitation at Evoke
tensile by Horology | Buenzli 2013
Quietschi Bunti by Nuance | Buenzli 2012
Wheels Within Wheels by Horology | Buenzli 2012
20:13 by LNX | Buenzli 2013
Epilepsigram by Stroboholics | Buenzli 2014
hologram by mercury | Buenzli 2014 invitation
MAR by bon2 | Buenzli 2014
68000 Reasons by The Deadliners | Buenzli 2014
Die Ewigkeit Schmerzt by neuro @paniq | Evoke 2006
fr-041: debris. by farbrausch| Breakpoint 2007
Hurtquake by excess | Kindergarden 2014
A Significant Deformation Near The Cranium by Kewlers | Assembly 2003
Feed Me Lies by Fairlight | NVScene 2014
1995 by Kewlers & mfx | Assembly 2006
Intrinsic Gravity by Still | Ghetto Scene 2014
Only one wish by Fairlight & The Black Lotus | IDC 2008
World Domination by Odd | The Gathering 2003
Jesus Christ Motocross by Nature & Traktor | Breakpoint 2009 | Amiga
Glon 243 by cocoon | Takeover 2001
pb05: ZipHorse by Poo-brain | Outline 2015
8088 MPH by Hornet & CRTC & Desire | Revision 2015
VARIFORM by Kewlers | Assembly 2002
Optical Circuit by 0x4015 | TokyoDemoFest 2015
Ziphead by Fairlight & Carillon & Cyberiad | Revision 2015
Rupture by Andromeda Software Development | The Gathering 2009
please the cookie thing by Aardbei | Ambiance 2000
Mental Hangover by Scoopex | SEEC 1990 | Amiga

Art shown

A selection of still images from pixel art, renderings and generated graphics first presented at past Bünzli/Demodays was shown. These and many more can be found at ArtCity. See also the upcoming book Masters of Pixel Art. Presented by Alève Mine:

Real Programmers by Megamars
buenz'is wild by Acet1
Problems In The Hangar by TryingToFly 
Batman aka Who needs a bat instead of a cow by Taggy
Toydoll by Xray 
Lovebuenzli by H2o 
Invasion by Psykon 
Drive by Wodk
Retro Teleporter by CCP 
Oldskool Tv by CCP 
MyA4000 by Jack 
Blacklines by Minas 
Jupiter-2432 by Naz 
Forgiveness by Cupe & Las
Astral Escape by Wodk 
Cowee Digital by Cosmic
Guardian-rendering by Corypho 
Demodays 2k13 by CoyHot
BNZ Wallpaper by Jack
Toy Mustang by Navisto 
Der Wald stirbt by Muhmac
Maybe the background should have been white by Blueberry 
Huhn by T$ 
DuDoedelDi by Prince
Platypus Is Watching You by Ohli
Dott aka Day of the tentacles by Wodk 
music video Stromae ta fête 
Uargs by Psykon 
Walking on a dream by VibE 
One upon a time by Psykon 
SeZquash by Cosmic 
Fairground by Marlitt

Reels threaded

Thanks to Stefan for the inspirational selection and Nick for operating the projection of these vintage animations - collected by muhvie on Lichtspiel DB, where you can look up the background to each:

78 tours Trickfilm, 1985
Kategorie: Trickfilm Jahr: 1985 Land: SZ Regie: Georges
Schwizgebel Dauer: 4

Music inspires alternating images and sequences in the listener, who plays a waltz on a hand organ and through it arises a short story about the passing of time. /// Complete film (YouTube)

Inclinations Experimentalfilm, 1964
Kategorie: Experimentalfilm Jahr: 1964 Land: SZ Regie: Guido Haas
Dauer: 6

The film works in flashes matched to the rhythm, lighting up an image for a few frames, or even just one. From time to time there are also animated passages, always following the rhythm. Music by the Dave Brubeck Quartet/ Graphics by Eva and Guido Haas. /// Complete film (ZHdK Medienarchiv)

Jalousie Experimentalfilm, 1967
Kategorie: Experimentalfilm Jahr: 1967 Land: SZ Regie: Hans-Jakob Siber

Accompanying drum music, or rather vica versa, you see colored circles become a strudel and then completely subversed to the rhythm. "The pictures of Jalousie are scratched by tradition directly into the carrier material of the film. The soundtrack has been 'composed' by the image." (Source: SEF Inhaltsangabe) /// Complete film (ZHdK Medienarchiv)

Zoom Trickfilm, 1987
Kategorie: Trickfilm Jahr: 1987 Land: SZ Regie: Graber Fred
Dauer: 5

Experimental film created with a variety of techniques. The author constructed a precise Parallelogram and took 4,000 pictures of it. The contents were created after discussions with biologists, physicists and chemists.