I'm going a little tangential to games in this one, but with good reason. This is about the demoscene, a computer-based form of artistic expression that pushes hardware and software to their limits. Whether it's to show off how much functionality can be packed into a few thousand measly bytes, discovering and exploiting video card hacks to create new visual effects, or producing complex musical compositions using a tracker and a handful of samples, the demoscene is a subculture that borrows from gaming and repays with interest.
The start of the demoscene, in fact, is strongly rooted in the copying of commercial video games and software. After stripping the copy protection, or "cracking" the software as it came to be known, the individual responsible would often toss in a brag screen that would show up when the software was loaded from then on. This screen was called an "intro" or "cracktro". Over time it because a custom to create very elaborate but lightweight programs to show off, list phone numbers of bulletin board systems the person or cracking group was affiliated with, and so on.
Although intros were still occasionally produced for cracking groups, over the 1990s the challenge of expressing oneself under severe limits was gradually discovered to be worth it for its own sake. Thus, intros grew into a hobby largely separate from the copying of commercial software.
"Planet Potion", by Potion, is an intro for the Amiga from 2003 that was written in 65,288 bytes
Music also became an area of interest for computer hobbyists around this time. This, too, has its origins in gaming. A program called "Ultimate Soundtracker" was released for the Commodore Amiga in 1987; designed for creating sounds and music for games, it did not achieve commercial success and was released to the public domain. From there, enthusiasts improved on the techniques and quality of the program, and this contributed to the release of other freeware trackers such as "NoiseTracker" in 1989 and "Protracker" in 1990.
The idea behind creating tracked music is basically this: instruments or other sounds are saved to files, software "instruments" are created from these files (perhaps including additional effects such as reverb or fadeout), and music is written by assembling tracks of these instruments that can typically be played at different frequencies (by using different notes) and given additional effects within a track (such as causing an instrument played at one note to slide down to a different one over an interval.)
Once the composition software and playback software became free, this encouraged another facet of the demoscene to emerge. The resulting files, called MODs, were widely traded and often built into demos from then on. The trackers also became widely used by game programmers to design music scores for their games.
"Too Fast", a MOD being played back in Protracker
The disk copying parties of the 1980s, where filesharers of the day would get together to swap software and demos, begat demoparties, where demo programmers and composers would gather together in competition. The largest, Assembly, is a demoscene and gaming event that takes place in Finland and has been held every year since 1992. It encompasses the traditional demoscene elements as well as newer competitions in vocal music, short film, and video game development.
"Spin", by ASD, a demo that won its category
in Assembly Summer 2011
"anglerfish", by cubicle, a 4k intro that won
its category in Assembly Summer 2011
Many of the entries made to Assembly over the years can be watched online through video streaming. This isn't the greatest format for presentation, but as demos often rely on particular hardware specs and installed components Youtube is definitely the easiest way to enjoy them.