Calling on the computer geeks..... Have you ever heard of Assembly?

[altoncustomtech 773]

Alright, I gotta admit I've always been a computer geek, always.  I got started learning and playing on them when I was fairly young and haven't stopped.  Back in 1992 there was a computer graphics competition started in Finland called Assembly.  It's been going on now for 21 years and is one of the biggest such competitions and shows in the world requiring the use of the largest sports arena in the small country to contain the event.  Anyway, for those who love computers, gaming and awesome graphics its about the coolest damn thing to watch and see the entries every year.  In years past a person could download the entries and play them on their own computer.  That is IF your computer was powerful enough to play them and you were running the same platform the demo's were written for.  You can still download most of the stuff on ftp.scene.org, but the people who organize and run Assembly has been putting all the demos into videos and posting them on YouTube with a list of each entry, in each category, for every year going all the way back to 1992.  They've posted embedded links and information to all of them on the Assembly Archive.  So if you're into this kinda stuff or are just curious as to what I'm even talking about I would suggest checking it out.  Of course a bit of the fun has been taken out of it since now a person doesn't need to worry about the speed of his/her machine to be able to run the demo at an optimum frame rate but they're still amazing to watch.  I used to download them all the time years ago to show off my computers and benchmark them.  Even with the power of my current computer there's a few from the 2004, 2005, 2006 era even that can drop the frame rate pretty good.  The last time I was able to download any of the demos (2010ish) my machine at that time couldn't even run them without issues which goes to show just how powerful and advanced these can be.

 

Of course the big demo's are the best to watch.  They last the longest and have some of the best graphics but don't count out the 1k, 4k, and 64k intro demos.  Those are some of the most amazing since they are required to be no larger than that category in size with no supporting files (entire executable can't be larger than 1kb, 4kb, or 64kb).  The ability to have such amazing graphics in such a small file size complete with music and last up to 4 minutes long is unbelievable.  

 

So, anyway, if you want to see some amazing stuff go check it out.  They also have a game development competition as well and the game entries ARE still downloadable and playable on the Assembly.org website.

 

I ran across some of the old files I had while messing around and waiting for someone to come into the chat room and talk.  So I thought I'd post up some information for those who've never messed with it and see what kind of discussions come from it.  The FTP.SCENE.ORG site still has pretty much everything available to download if you want to try running some of them!  Not just from Assembly either, but from gatherings, and competitions all over the world.

[altoncustomtech 773]

Just for kicks, heres the winner for 2013's 4K intro competition.  It lasts just a little shy of 3 minutes and reminds me quite a bit of the TRON world and light cycles.

 

 

http://archive.assembly.org/2013/4k-intro/highway-4k-by-hbc

[altoncustomtech 773]

This is Second Reality, one of my all time favorites and the demo winner from the competition in 1993.  Keep in mind the VERY first 60 to 66Mhz Pentium processors were released in March of '93.  Most people were running 386 and 486 machines with 1 to 4Mb of RAM clocking in at 25, 33, and 50Mhz with no REAL graphics card power.

 

 

http://archive.assembly.org/1993/pc-demo/second-reality-by-future-crew

[altoncustomtech 773]

Wow, I'm kinda surprised there's not been any comments yet.  I figured the geeks among us would find this stuff pretty kewl.

 

 

 

Ah well, here's another one of my favorites and if you love Lego's you'll love this one as well.  It's amazing just how accurate they stay to the art of Lego building with this demo.  The way the characters move, the way all the vehicles, buildings, hell even the landscaping are made are true to the Lego form.  That and a little Matrix scene mimicking make it a fun one to watch.

 

 

http://archive.assembly.org/2003/combined-demo/legomania-by-doomsday

[altoncustomtech 773]

Still surprised there's been no comments at all on this....   I guess not everyone finds it as cool as I do...

[Adrian_D 520]

I thought you meant Assembly as in programming "language"  

[altoncustomtech 773]

Well, it is kind of a play on the word considering the programming ability it takes to create these.  I've always wanted to be good enough at programming to do stuff like this.