It might surprise you to learn that some of the most cutting edge graphics, sound and programming created on computers doesn’t appear in off-the-shelf videogames, but rather in the form of computer demos – non-interactive programs coded by gifted artists, who do so for no other reason than to show the world what they (and the machines they love) are capable of.

Computer demos actually got their start in the form of cracking/intro loader screens. In the early days of computing, when programs were “cracked” (had their copy protection removed), crackers would often add an intro (a multimedia page of credits) that displayed each time the program was run. Many early intros were simply comprised of plain text and no graphics; later, intros became more technically advanced, adding graphical logos, music, and scrolling text in which cracking groups boasted about their skills and greeted (and/or taunted) their friends and fellow groups. (more…)