Scene for just an Observer
I'm zZz of KCNgroup. I think I'm not really a scener. Yes, I'm a coder, I make some graphics and music, but... Let's assume I'm just an observer.
I look at pessimistic attitudes on the scene and don't even know what to think of them. On the one hand I agree that modern demos are not more a piece of "code-music-graphics" art. Coding was greatly simplified by new technologies. Music doesn't need to be 4 channel or like that anymore. Yes, the art of demomaking (including creation of music, graphics) was killed by technological development. But HEY!!! Don't you see that new demos don't need it anymore! They need a great design. And creating this design is not a bit easier than coding hundreds of lines of code in asm.
The whole philosophy of demos has changed. I still remember I was shocked at a burning logo in a Drift intro. Now show me one who will be interested in it today... Today we hold our breath looking at FR08's castles. And how can we compare these two great intros? I see no way to do it. And what will the scene bring up tommorow?
It seems to me the lots of old sceners are confused with the changes on the scene. The oldskool ones used to overcome limits of their hardware. And newcomers prefer not to bother with it - just to create an "eye-candy" demo without looking at limits. Just as Skandor said in Hugi#22.
So the newcomers go on and use everything the system can give them. And old sceners choise a limited system for themselves. For example a C64 or Amiga.
As for me, the optimal variant for scene development today would be a bankrupcy of Intel and other Intel-clone makers. ;) So the newcomers will not lose their new systems, and the old ones will get another limited system to code. Isn't it a fresh point of view (fresh for some flame ;)?
I've seen demos for some years (I've taken over some part of an oldskool). But only now I have enough knowledge to create my own "something". And each time I get to my PC I ask myself, what can I write? I'm not a designer, so I think about new coding tricks. But then I realize - these tricks won't be noticed by anyone. I need an "eye-candy" design. So I'm dependent on a designer. And so - I'm limited in art-of-code creation. And I hate this! So I look at some of my sources, sources of our group members, then close them (with a great wish of deleting them all) and start a text editor. And I code a new 128-256 byte intro - where I'm not limited in the fly of ideas. I don't even release those intros, coz most of them really look shitty. But I don't care. I just need to free myself for some moments, I just like coding 128b intros. It doesn't take too much time, but it brings me back to life and work ;)
Maybe this is a cure for the present scene, a life potion for oldskoolers? When pessimism gets into your mind - just sit down and make something you like the best. For example coders can turn on their C64's, musicians can run ProTracker... Not necessarily for a compo or a release.
I think we must understand the newcomers. If you start on a pentium, you can hardly get yourself used to (even) 486. Similar, the oldskoolers, who had started on C64 wouldn't like to work on thomething, that was before C64. Certainly, there are exceptions of each rule. But this is imho the main principle.
PS: I started in 1992 on a 8088 "POISK 1.03" with no disk drives at all ;) Great machine I must say!