[pavlov]

The PC demoscene started out on DOS and Watcom C++, and switched almost exclusively to Windows and Visual C++ around 1999. It was a natural choice at the time, as Linux wasn't ready for primetime and MSVC really was the best compiler around.

The choice of platform had to take the majority into account: most people didn't want to write demos that ordinary people couldn't watch. The opinion of programmers was not the most important factor anyway, simple because most people in the demoscene were not programmers -- there were musicians, graphics artists and all sorts of non-productive members besides.

[newobj]

Really, the demo scene, which started out in the 80's, was using Watcom C++? Watch the behind scenes video of Second Reality (1993). They're coding Pascal and (duh) assembly.

The demoscene was really born out of cracks/intros/loaders which means its origins are C64/Apple/Atari etc and assembly language.

[pjmlp]

In a very distance past, Watcom C++ used to be the best optimizing compiler for MS-DOS.

It was also the first to support extended memory in MS-DOS.

[newobj]

I'm not arguing the existence of Watcom C++ 9.5/386 :) But let's be clear the first version of Watcom C++ was released in 1993. To suggest the demoscene started there is ludicrous.

[pjmlp]

There I agree with you.

[vigo]

yeps. almost correct. scene started with c64. pc scene / first demo came out from future crew : second reality. also in 1996, smash designs created second reality 100% same fx via C64 (:

[pjmlp]

1996?!

I don't understand your comment. There were lots of PC demos in the late 80's.

[_delirium]

Early demos were also frequently attached to warez, so they had to be on the same platform that the game/app being cracked was on.

[novalis]

This is also very true of the Amiga scene back in the day.

[aw3c2]

That origin was really really early and not too relevant here.

[_delirium]

There wasn't ever really a clean break afaik, and the association (some groups more than others) continued through at least the 1990s. Fairlight were active in both scenes for over a decade, for example, though from what I can tell the group did slowly internally divide in terms of who was focusing on warez v. demos. More to the point, though, I think the association with reverse-engineering culture had a significant impact on the technical culture and choice of tools/platforms. Unix culture had more of a C ethos, and less of a patch-asm-into-a-running-program type ethos.

[jonbro]

in fact, razor 1911 is still releasing both demos and warez. I don't know that they have any in the running for the scene awards, but they are getting ranked.

[Impossible]

Linux is still not ready for prime time as far as graphics is concerned. Window is still the strongest platform for graphically intense applications that push the GPU due to the quality of Windows drivers being better than Linux and Mac OS.