PickVidsBest Demoscene & retrocomputing Videos
The 136 Demoscene & retrocomputing videos here were recommended by different people across different months. Choose by who it is for: 6 introductory, 30 intermediate, 98 for a general viewer, and 2 for someone who wants the harder derivation. Most of them are a demo. What they share is that you see the result first and only then decide whether to follow the detail. Channels you will keep seeing include RetroDemoScene, The 8-Bit Guy, LGR.
elevated by Rgba & TBC | 4k intro (FullHD 1080p demoscene demo)
Elevated by Rgba and TBC, the winner of the 4k intro compo at Breakpoint 2009.
The Ultimate Game Boy Talk (33c3)
Michael Steil's 33c3 talk explains essentially everything about the Game Boy: CPU, video hardware, peripherals, and the tricks used by games and demos.
A Mind Is Born (256 bytes)
A Commodore 64 demo by Linus Akesson that fits video and music into 256 bytes, winning the Oldskool 4K Intro compo at Revision 2017.
CppCon 2016: Jason Turner “Rich Code for Tiny Computers: A Simple Commodore 64 Game in C++17”
Jason Turner's CppCon 2016 talk builds a simple Commodore 64 game using C++17, showing how constexpr and const let a modern compiler produce tight 6502 code.
Compiling C to printable x86, to make an executable research paper
Tom7 explains how he built a SIGBOVIK 2017 paper made only of printable ASCII bytes that is also a valid DOS executable.
Trackers: The Sound of 16-Bit
Ahoy's documentary traces tracker music from early Amiga software like SoundMonitor and Soundtracker through the demoscene, Protracker, and PC trackers such as Screamtracker and FastTracker.
I painted a Landscape with Mathematics
Inigo Quilez live-paints a mountain landscape using only math in a shader, building up from a basic polynomial noise surface through fractal terrain, lighting and atmosphere.
Elevated by RGBA and TBC
Elevated is a 4 kilobyte PC demo by RGBA and TBC from Breakpoint 2009.
Apollo Guidance Computer Part 1: Restoring the computer that put man on the Moon
The first episode of CuriousMarc's series restoring a real Apollo Guidance Computer, led by AGC expert Mike Stewart.
How we fit an NES game into 40 Kilobytes
Morphcat Games explains how they fit Micro Mages, a full-featured NES game, into 40 kilobytes.
Moleman 2 - Demoscene - The Art of the Algorithms (2012)
Moleman 2 is a feature-length documentary about the demoscene, tracing its rise from 1980s Commodore 64 culture to modern real-time art.
CGA Graphics - Not as bad as you thought!
The 8-Bit Guy covers IBM's 1981 CGA graphics system, including how composite output and artifacting produced extra colors beyond the nominal palette.
Amiga Hardware Programming 1 - Use the Assembler and wait for left click
The first video in Photon of Scoopex's Amiga hardware programming series.
Using a 1930 Teletype as a Linux Terminal
CuriousMarc connects a restored 1930 Model 15 Teletype to a Linux machine and uses it as a terminal, after commenters requested it.
The Black Lotus - Eon - Amiga Demo (50 FPS)
Eon is a demoscene production by The Black Lotus, released at Revision 2019 and designed for an Amiga with OCS chipset, 512 kB chip and 512 kB fast memory.
I made a NES emulator in 15 minutes
Bisqwit writes a NES emulator in C++ in about 15 minutes of tool-assisted, sped-up coding, narrated with captions.
Doomed: The Embers of Amiga FPS
A documentary by Stuart Brown (XboxAhoy) on the history of first-person shooters on the Amiga and how Doom's arrival affected the platform.
fr-08: .the .product by farbrausch | 64k intro (2000) (720p HQ demoscene demo)
A recording of .the .product by Farbrausch, the first-place 64k intro at The Party 2000.
How Prince of Persia Defeated Apple II's Memory Limitations | War Stories | Ars Technica
In an Ars Technica War Stories episode, Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner describes how he made the game on the Apple II, fighting hardware memory limits and the platform's decline.
Intrinsic Gravity by Still
Intrinsic Gravity is a real-time demoscene production by Still, made with the Tooll tool for Under Construction 2014.
.kkrieger - The FPS Game in 96KB (Full Gameplay)
Full gameplay of .kkrieger, a first-person shooter by Farbrausch that fits into a 96KB executable by generating its textures, models and sounds procedurally.
The Making of: ROM City Rampage (Retro City Rampage)
Making-of video about ROM City Rampage, the NES version of Retro City Rampage, covering how the game's core was crunched to run on real 8-bit hardware and how NES games are made.
"Memories" - 256 byte MSDOS intro
Memories is a 256-byte MS-DOS demo that packs eight effects and MIDI soundscapes into a tiny program.
TiTAN - Overdrive 2 (RGB 50fps) - SEGA Mega Drive - Revision 2017 (1st Place)
Overdrive 2 by TiTAN, a Sega Mega Drive demo that won first place in the Oldskool competition at Revision 2017.