ZX Spectrum demos

ZX Spectrum demos are demos made for the ZX Spectrum and compatible computers. The demo scene on the Spectrum can probably be traced back to Castor Cracking Group, The Lords and a few other groups and individuals back in 1986. The ZX Spectrum demo scene was slow to start, but it started to rise in the late 1980s, most noticeably in Eastern Europe.

Hardware

Although there are some demos made for the 48K Spectrums, most current Spectrum demos require the additional features found in the Spectrum 128K, that is, 128 KiB of RAM and the AY-3-8912 sound chip. Also, many demos have been designed to run from a floppy disk rather than a cassette tape.

In many eastern European countries, the various Spectrum clones used to be more common than the original models, a fact that also reflects in the choices of hardware among the demoscene. For example, on most Russian demoscene events, the standard "compo Spectrum" is the Pentagon 128 with a floppy disk drive. Since there are considerable technical differences between the Pentagon and the original Spectrum, particularly in the video timing, there are also many demos that require a Pentagon to run properly.

Status

In the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, the ZX Spectrum often has a cult status similar to the Commodore 64 in the Western Europe: it was the most popular 8-bit homecomputer and also the first computer for many computer and demoscene enthusiasts. Therefore, whereas many major Western European demo parties organize demo, music and graphics competitions for the Commodore 64, the parties in the east often have the corresponding ZX Spectrum competitions instead.

Design

The earliest demos were simple music players with music ripped from games and perhaps simple effects or text scrollers. Many later demos feature so-called 'multicolor' effects (changing attributes in the middle of character blocks), which have to be fixed to a specific ZX Spectrum model. Megademos, demos with more content, usually split into several parts, appeared in the beginning of 90's, with the advent of the The Lyra II by ESI. Most of the demos since 1997 have been "trackmos" (effects fixed to music), sometimes featuring 3D objects, mostly in low resolutions.

Demoparties

ZX Spectrum have been shown in multi-platform parties, such as Assembly and there used to be a lot of ZX Spectrum only parties, such as Funtop in Moscow. The largest party today featuring ZX Spectrum regularly is Chaos Constructions in Saint Petersburg. Outside of Russia is very famous Forever demoparty.

Groups

• 4th Dimension
• Code Busters
• CoolguysLimited
• Cyberpunks Unity
• Digital Reality
• Excess Team
• Eternity Industry
• Extreme
• HOOY-PROGRAM
• Phantasy
• Zero
• The Mad Guys

External links

• ZX Spectrum demos at Curlie
• Demotopia
• ZX Spectrum demoscene news
• ZX Spectrum Demo&Gift Base (2800 Demos, 455 Gift's!)
• Forever 8bit demoparty