Although not part of BBSes per se, a lot of the demoscene started from distributing software that showed off the capabilities of what a computer could do. The demoscene is still going strong today. This documentary charts back the history right through to the current day, introducing where demos came from, what the demoscene is all about, speaking to the legendary Jim ‘Trixter’ Leonard (@The Oldskool PC ) of 8088 MPH and Mobygames fame, as well as Vegard ‘Shady’ Skefstad of the Crusaders, founder of The Gathering demoparty in Norway, as well as Bill ‘Retrotech’ Hart (of @PCRetroTech ) and Rowan ‘Cthulu’ Lipkovits. This action packed episode takes you on the road from where it all began, with simple cracktros on the 8-bits, to the crazy parties and the professional side of it all. Some wonderful footage of some great demos too!

A great day out here in the Lower North Island of New Zealand where owners of vintage computers got to show off their machines, talk about them and have fun.

On display was the following computers:

  • Atari: Atari 800, XEGS, 130XE and the 800XL
  • Apple Computers:The Apple Lisa, Apple IIGS
  • Oric:The Oric Atmos 48K, Oric One
  • IBM:The IBM PC Jx, 5155 PC Portable
  • Sinclair: Cambridge Z88, Sinclair ZX Spectrum, ZX Spectrum Plus, ZX Spectrum 128K, ZX Spectrum +2 and +3 (in box), Sinclair ZX80, another home-made ZX80 (in a calculator case!), a Sinclair ZX81, the new ZX Spectrum Next.
  • Commodore: PET 8096-SK, PET 8032, PET 4016, Commodore Amiga A1200HD
  • S100/Kit computers: The ‘Dream 6800’ S-100 kit computer, The MSI 6800 University Trainer machine, the SWTPC 6809
  • The rest: Tandy Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 4, Memotech MTX 512, MB Vectrex, Panasonic MSX CF2700, The Backplane Pro (s100 style modern machine).

Bonus content!

If you become a member of my channel by pressing Join, or by becoming a Patron, there is a full length version of this video with bonus content showing how great the Apple Lisa was to service, as well as the Lisa Operating System. All of the Sinclair stuff, including a UHF broadcast from a Raspberry Pi, as well as more detail on the MTX, Oric’s and more!