Fractals in modern demos can still be interesting, as proven by Complex.
ASD is a greek demogroup, founded in 1992. We produce realtime, non-interactive applications (demos), along with graphics and music.
Our current memberlist is:
For more information about ASD and the demoscene, visit the corrensponding wikipedia entry
Portals
Groups
Scene interest
Other
I feel I need to say a few words about this site. Those familiar with Wordpress will have already noticed that it’s just that. A wordpress blog. But it’s actually just a bit more than that. We made a custom theme that allows us to group Categories into synonymous Pages, thus skipping past the static nature of those Pages, while retaining the dynamic and multivalued semantic content that categories were meant to represent in the first place.
Two initial benefits arise from this conditioning. The first one being, that we retain the ability to keep in touch with visitors on a per-post basis, each page being its own blog. The other, the allowance for an extremely simple, yet flexible content management system, which actually displays views of the knowledge stored on the site, rather than attempting to organize this knowledge in some fixed hierarchy. Additionaly, we hope to benefit from what Wordpress might have to offer in the future, which does indeed look bright.
So what you are browsing through is largely an experiment on web development, blogging, or whatever one might want to call it. What we do not want to experiment with though, is your ability to access the content that our demogroup, ASD, has to offer. In the time to come, as this develops and content is added, we will be able to see what side the scale is tipping towards. Thanks for your patience.
singed,
amv/asd
written by navis, translated to english by amv
‘It’s really quite hard to sum up the history of ASD in a short text. Maybe it’s because even the smallest details remain etched in my memory, six years now since the first scroller (didn’t everyone start out in a similar way?). Or maybe it’s because all the feelings experienced successes and failures were so intense, that
gettng them across as words on paper (or on this monitor) seems impossible. However, if I were to describe all this time I’ve spent in the company of colours, polygons and sprites, in a few simple words, I’d say that those were years that could never go away. Just like artists can’t forsake the joy of creation they get from practising their art.
The concept of building a demogroup started out after a demo, which I’d seen on my humble 286, around ‘94. That demo has been made by a spanish demogroup called Cascada. It’s name was Cronologia. Such was my amazement at it, that I decided to immerse myself in the subjects of graphics/motion/music, and accomplish something similar. ASD had already been formed, in it’s classic scheme of Navis-Incus-Amoivikos, but nothing notable had been achieved until then. It was mostly about experimenting with dos utilities and simple games with simple graphics.
The word ‘graphics’ in particular, had an almost mystical meaning. To me, it was the reason why computers existed.
I had become interested in them since I was a young boy, on a commodore 64! Demos were a platform for me to apply all my knowledge at that time, and learn even more. In time, taking small steps, and with the help of other “colleagues” (mainly through amateur networks of that period - fidonet) the first routines that could support a stand-alone production were created. Besides my personal interest, there had been no other motivation. That is, there had not been some sort of relevant culture, or scene, at least to our knowledge. But then came the time when we found started communicated with the people from Patras, and dialing into Megaverse BBS. Back then, Megaverse had been the center of the demoscene in our small country. That fact provided us with the motivation to work even harder, since there was finally an audience to judge and enjoy our work.
It was at that time when I saw the single demo that was to alter the way I would go about coding, Second Reality by Future Crew. I would watch it again again, my jaw dropping every single time. I was then convinced that it would take a lot more effort to reach the state of the art. Things seemed to be beyond my own reach, as my own routines seemed so poor in contrast. Of course, I would have to be insane to compare the number one group in the world with 3 kids, but if I was missing one thing at the time, it would have definately been sanity. And in turn, that fact had translated itself to endless hours in front of borland pascal’s blue-screen IDE, huge phone-bills, and a diminishing personal life. But just as a poet feeds on his own words, such was the feeling deep inside that drove me to pursue things even more. Years later, I did realize the vanity that has been prevalent in all this endeavour, although I almost never regret it.
So time would go by, and Amoivikos would move from paintbrush to deluxe paint, and Incus did code one very useful filing system. Some small demos/intros had been completed, mainly for advertising the local BBS, called “Cosmos BBS” (many ansi graphics towards that as well -amv). On one of those days, in the spring of ‘95, we were informed of the then soon to take place, first ever greek demoparty, The Gardening ‘95. We were thrilled of course, but only had 6 days to do something of note, starting from zero. An extremely small time-frame indeed. Luckily, school was out so I was able to code 24/7, going without sleep for almost 4 days. On the night before departure, I remember compiling for the last time. For some reason, either the music would not play, or the machine would just freeze. Such was my desperation been, that I just wanted to throw the computer out of the window and never come across another pixel for the rest of my life!! Then logic prevailed.
We arrived in Patras the next day, Incus and I. We came upon a very friendly atmosphere, and people that I knew through the net had already arrived, mainly from Athens and Patras. I was relieved to be provided with a computer so I could finish the demo, meaning I had to spend another night without sleep. The democompo kicked-off the next night and I was astounded to find that the demo had played from start to finish without a single glitch. It was the first and last time I had watched as is was meant to be. As a result, we won the first prize (a zoom modem) and a great deal of memories. The tiredness from a week of no proper sleep had simply vanished.
The next date had been set in a year after that, the summer of 96. In Patras again, with more contestants and much higher level of competition. Sadly, my lucky star did not shine upon me and despite my efforts, the demo crashed around 2-3 times, thus being voted into the 4th place. It was then when I decided to never do a demo again, but the “bug” did not leave me. Almost a week after that, I once again sat in front of the monitor and coded a small routine.
After that summer, our ways seemed to part, mainly because of studies. Of course, that’s no excuse to dismantle a demogroup. That’s what the internet is for, anyway. But the world had changed, and demos,as we had known them, had no reason to exist. Nowadays, we’ve all gotten used to huge resolutions, thousands of polygons, huge textures, and all that in real time, in a sense that software-based demos could never approach. Even the simplest game seems to be nowadays a demo of its own, able to convince anyone that technology has evolved. Gone are the days when a 320×200 screen was good enough, 2d graphics were cutting-edge and 4-channel music made the cut. We’re all starting to make our seperate ways through life as well.
But maybe, just maybe, someone, sometime, might remember, looking upon a 486 computer, that around the turn of the century, some guys in Greece were building their dreams with gouraud shading and copper bars…’