History of the Polish Demoscene
Part I
The first demos appeared in early 1988 (or 1987). These were, of course, productions for the 48K speaker (beeper). I don't know who started it, but there were things like BIG SHIT and SMURF'S SHIT by someone who signed himself HACKER CHRIS. A little later, in 1989, BILL GILBERT, PHONEX, and RAF WIOSNA joined in, with his two demos MIRAGE (which are, incidentally, the two best beeper demos). Music production for WHAM! 48k also got underway, with M&M probably leading the way. And then the AY chip began its career—which continues to this day.
New people appeared on the scene: SZAFRAN and KICIA (who didn't do anything). The earlier “coders” also switched to AY. The WHAM! 128 program appeared. A demo by the PLAYERS team reached our country; it was called COMPACT DISC (and is still quite an attractive product today). Meanwhile, products such as MEGA SOUND by Bill G. and SKY by Hacker Chris were appearing in Poland.
The first voice meter appeared in KASSOFT 6th, a hit demo for its time. Unlike other demos, its music was written by a musician (ANDY), rather than “ripped” from games. Demos by THE LORDS appeared, and most Polish “demo makers” got to see what a demo should look like. At the time, the demo market was being flooded with productions by Chris and Gilbert. New people kept appearing on the scene. KICIA, together with Bill, released his bedtime stories (there were probably also two 48K beeper editions, but unfortunately I never came across them); KASSOFT released MONEY - 9th and THE LOGIC (1 and 2).
MIKROPOL appeared with a splash, launching SIGNAL; the group THE JOKERS came along with THE CITY.
In Bajtek, BR0MBA and Marcin Przasnycki wrote at length about the marvels of the AY chip, and more and more demos could be seen on the scene. 128 by MAC (and AMST?) came out. SEAN ADAMS released a series of WILD CAT demos and a few others.
The group THE WORMS formed, although it didn't last long. Łódź joined the scene (JACEK MICHALAK, WISE-MAN). By this time, demos were already being put together by several people—a coder, a graphic artist, and sometimes a musician (but there was no good music program). FRANK FRAZETTA, written by JOHN DALTHON, was striking for having just one drawing (probably by MIVY).
And that's all for Part I. Of course, I have forgotten many things, but unfortunately memory can fail. I apologize if I have missed an important moment in history, but this is more or less how it looked from my perspective. To be continued...
CAT-MAN
P.S. The article's author got a little confused about KASSOFT 6th: the music tracks in it come from games. He probably meant POP-CORNs...
Note by Pyza
Share your thoughts about the article